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<< Other Photo Pages >> Big Mound (St Louis) - Artificial Mound in United States in The Plains

Submitted by bat400 on Friday, 18 August 2023  Page Views: 9842

Pre-ColumbianSite Name: Big Mound (St Louis)
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 2.321 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: The Plains Type: Artificial Mound
Nearest Town: Saint Louis, Missouri
Latitude: 38.642975N  Longitude: 90.186299W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
Destroyed Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
1 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Big Mound (St Louis)
Big Mound (St Louis) submitted by AKFisher : Big Mound in St. Louis Missouri was 318 x 158 feet wide and 34 feet high. Today only a sign remains at the site as the mound was completely obliterated and the soil used for landfill and road construction. It was one of 27 mounds once dominating what is downtown and riverside St. Louis. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Ear... (Vote or comment on this photo)
The largest and northern-most earthen mound of what is now called the Saint Louis Group was 34 feet high and covered more area than a city block. It is assumed to have dated to the same time period as Cahokia, (1100-1300s CE) It was a prominent landmark from the nearby Mississippi River and helped earned the early nickname of European Saint Louis - Mound City.

In the mid 1800s, as the railroads came to the city, almost all of the Saint Louis Group began to be demolished for fill dirt. The Big Mound was finally destroyed in 1869, after slowly being gouged, topped, and scooped away, starting in the 1850s. At some distance below the uppermost level, a burial chamber was found, lined with cedar logs and containing 20 to 30 human burials and a vast number of white seashells. None of these finds were described systematically at the time. No one appears to have published sketches of the burials or artifacts.

The destruction of the mound was documented in early photographs (daguerreotypes,) and at least one photo was taken of a set of copper earpieces found with one set of remains. The ear pieces were in the shape of masks or faces with long, crooked noses (six inches long!) and wide, round eyes. These were two of only about 20 examples of this "theme" found in North America. The rare ornaments are now referred to depict a "Long-Nose God" and are often cited as examples of possible Meso-American influence among the Mississippian Culture. The photo was only re-discovered in 1956 in a compiled list at Harvard's Peabody Museum. The whereabouts of the artifacts themselves has never been clearly recorded; they appear to have been discarded along with other North American artifacts held at St. Louis' Washington University.

All that remains of the Big Mound is a memorial plaque set in a stone at Broadway and 7th Street. The original location of the mound is variously described, but given the description of its size, all the locations mentioned are probably correct.

The only visible remant of the Saint Louis Mound Group is Sugarloaf Mound which lies at the extreme southern edge of the mound complex.

Sources include:

Daguerreotype, T. Easterly, ca. 1852-54. "Big Mound. Fifth and Mound Streets, St. Louis". Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collections. Thomas Easterly Collection. N17076.

Daguerreotype T. Easterly, 1869. "Big Mound during destruction". Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collection. Easterly Daguerreotype Collection. N17088.

T. Pauketat, Cahokia - Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, 2009.

S.Williams and J. Goggin, "The Long Nosed God Mask in Eastern United States," Missouri Archaeologist 18, 1956.
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Big Mound (St Louis)
Big Mound (St Louis) submitted by AKFisher : "Big Mound" in St. Louis, Missouri as it was being completely demolished in the late 1800s. The mound fill was used for fertilizer, road leveling, homes/yards, railroads, and bridge construction. Only a sign is there today. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Big Mound (St Louis)
Big Mound (St Louis) submitted by durhamnature : Old image from "Footprints..." via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

Big Mound (St Louis)
Big Mound (St Louis) submitted by durhamnature : Old drawing from "Prehistoric America" via archive.org Unfortunately, with no indication of scale. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Flickr
Reo Speedwagon
St. Louis City Central Library
90s skyscraper
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 3.0km E 92° East Saint Louis Mound Center* Ancient Village or Settlement
 6.1km E 89° Sam Chucalo Mound* Artificial Mound
 8.4km E 80° Fingerhut tract* Ancient Village or Settlement
 8.5km SSW 207° Sugarloaf Mound, Missouri* Artificial Mound
 8.6km ENE 76° Cahokia - Powell Mound Artificial Mound
 9.8km E 79° Cahokia - Woodhenge* Timber Circle
 10.0km E 79° Cahokia - Mound 44* Artificial Mound
 10.4km E 79° Cahokia - Mound 42* Artificial Mound
 10.6km E 81° Cahokia - Mound 48 Artificial Mound
 10.7km E 83° Cahokia - Mound 59* Artificial Mound
 10.7km E 89° Cahokia - Mound 66 Artificial Mound
 10.7km E 85° Cahokia - Mound 72* Artificial Mound
 10.8km E 83° Cahokia - Mound 60* Artificial Mound
 10.9km E 80° Cahokia - Monk's Mound* Pyramid / Mastaba
 11.1km ENE 74° Cahokia - Kunnemann Group* Ancient Temple
 11.1km E 82° Cahokia - Mound 55* Artificial Mound
 11.1km E 83° Cahokia - Museum* Museum
 11.2km E 80° Cahokia - Mound 36 Artificial Mound
 11.2km E 81° Cahokia* Ancient Village or Settlement
 11.2km ENE 78° Cahokia - Mound 5.* Artificial Mound
 11.3km E 79° Cahokia - Stockade* Misc. Earthwork
 11.4km E 80° Cahokia - Ramey Group* Ancient Village or Settlement
 11.4km E 81° Cahokia - Mounds 30 and 31 Artificial Mound
 12.2km ENE 56° Horseshoe Lake Mound* Artificial Mound
 28.4km N 358° Piasa Bird* Rock Art
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"Big Mound (St Louis)" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Osage Nation, archaeologists want search for Indian mounds before buildin new stadium by bat400 on Tuesday, 20 October 2015
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One thousand years before there was serious talk of a new football stadium north of downtown, a thriving urban civilization built a network of earthen mounds on the same site. It was scraped away in the careless burst of a second city’s growth during the 19th century.

If any evidence survives of that prehistoric Mississippian culture, it’s buried beneath the bumpy streets, scattered businesses, weeded lots and vacant warehouses within the 90-acre site on the riverfront, north of Laclede’s Landing and east of Broadway. Maps and sketches from the early 1800s give locations for at least a dozen mounds within the stadium site, and roughly that many west and north of its fringes.

They were similar in form and origin to what survives at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, near Collinsville.

Local archaeologists and historians want St. Louis to take time for a serious study of the site before construction begins on any $1 billion stadium and network of parking lots.

The Osage Nation, which claims a direct cultural link to the ancient mound builders on both sides of the Mississippi River, strongly opposes disturbing the area anymore than it has been since the 1820s. But if the project can’t be stopped, a spokeswoman said, the Osage at least want thorough archaeological research and protection of any significant finds.

There probably is no legal requirement that a dig be undertaken. Stadium promoters say they don’t intend to use federal money, which would trigger archaeology. Missouri law doesn’t require it. The Army Corps of Engineers can insist upon a dig if river-related permits are required, but a spokesman said it’s far from certain the Corps has jurisdiction.

Andrea Hunter, director of historic preservation for the Osage Nation, said tribal leaders in Pawhuska, Okla., are preparing a formal position they will send soon to stadium leadership. The Osage were the leading Native American tribe in the future state of Missouri during colonial days, and worked closely with St. Louis’ fur-trading founders. The tribe ceded the land to the United States in 1808 in a treaty with William Clark, co-hero of the Pacific Coast expedition and later federal Indian agent in St. Louis.

Hunter said the Osage consider the mound site in St. Louis to be sacred because it was a center of Native American life and was used for rituals and burials. She said the Osage believe they are direct descendants of people who moved into this area from the Ohio valley before the year 1,000, built cities and dispersed mysteriously well before the first European explorers arrived.

“Our strong preference is that it not be disturbed any further,” Hunter said Thursday. “If there is no choice, if (St. Louis leaders) turn their backs on what we consider sensitive, sacred land, then having archaeologists go in there is essential. A major concern for us is protection of burial sites. Archaeology would be extremely helpful to us in protecting and removing them.”

A prepared statement from Gov. Jay Nixon’s St. Louis NFL Stadium Task Force, which is promoting the project, says, “We’ll always be open to listening and learning more so that everyone’s objectives may be successfully met without delay to the project.”

The task force says it would follow the procedures of CityArchRiver for “respecting our cultural and historical heritage” in its $380 million reshaping of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. National Park Service archaeologists are called in whenever construction workers uncover potentially significant items, a CityArchRiver spokesman said. He said workers have uncovered bottles and other 19th century items but nothing from colonial or earlier times.

Old maps of the mound area show 24 of them along or east of Interstate 44 (formerly Interstate 70) from Carr Street north to Cass Avenue. Most were near Broadway, O’Fallon, Second and Biddle. A 25th and mos

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Street View Big Mound Memorial by bat400 on Tuesday, 06 April 2010
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View site of Big Mound
This memorial stone and plaque are the only reminder of the huge "ridgetop" mound that existed on this site in St. Louis, Missouri. The only remaining mound among the large group on the city's Mississippi Riverfront is the Sugarloaf Mound.
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