History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              312 HISTOEY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
shore. The land was then overgrown with white and burr oak timber. The mounds were elevated about 12 feet above the lake level, and were about 20 feet in diameter and from 4 to 6 feet high. In 1894, with the assistance of my hired man, I investigated one of the largest of these mounds. This is prob¬ ably the one referred to by Mr. W. C. Mills in his communica¬ tion in the Archeologist of February, 1895. I do not know from what paper his extract was taken. It is in some respects inaccurate. In excavating this mound we found at a depth of about a foot below its base the skeletons of seven persons, lying upon their faces with arms extended above the head, the bodies radiating from the center in a circle like the spokes of a wagon wheel. All of the bones were in a fair state of preservation. No implements other than a couple of arrow points were found. Evidently the burials were made at one time and the mound erected over them." Two of the crania secured were sent to Prof. F. W. Putnam at the Peabody In¬ stitute at Cambridge, Mass., at his request. One of them was retained by Mr. Pickett. At the request of Mr. C. E. Brown, Mr. Pickett again visited this locality in April, 1903, and found that all but five of them had been entirely obliterated. He concluded that a village of considerable proportions must have been at one time located here and in the vicinity, since prob¬ ably but few similar sections of land in the state have pro¬ duced such a large number of stone and copper instruments. All of the mounds have been found to contain human remains. The mounds which were described by Mr. Thomas Arm¬ strong, of Eipon, Wis., in an article entitled "Mounds in Winnebago County," appearing in the United States Smithso¬ nian Eeport of 1879 (pp. 335-35) were located on the property of a Mr. M. Hintz in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 34. The following are extracts from his description: "They are situated about ten rods from the shore of Eush lake, 60 feet back from the edge of a steep bank, which undoubtedly at one time formed the shore of the lake, but the waters have since receded, and is every year becoming more and more shallow, and giving place to marsh. These mounds were originally covered with a heavy growth of oaks, which have been cleared off within the last ten years, and the land cultivated. Some, stumps of trees remained on them until last summer. The mounds are in a group, of which No. 1 is isolated, and Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are in line, the nearest about 100 feet from