Archeological Investigations Part 15

CAIRNS

At the Gasconade River bridge, on the Rich Fountain road, two creeks on the west side, Brush and Swan, separated only by a narrow ridge which terminates abruptly at either end, come in a fourth of a mile apart. Both rise in the same lake, 6 miles from the river, and flow through parallel valleys, thus draining an abandoned ox-bow curve of the stream.

On the extreme eastern point of this ridge are two cairns. A fourth of a mile from these are two others; and farther back still more of them.

All are now destroyed. They were the usual conical heaps of stone, 18 to 20 feet across.

HOUSE MOUNDS (41)

A group of house mounds extends for half a mile eastward from Rich Fountain, along the valley of Brush Creek. They are fully 100 in number, and it is said there were formerly many more which are now leveled by cultivation. The ground is low, in some places swampy, so that water or mud surrounds many of them after a heavy rain.

"INDIAN FORT" (42)

This structure, also called the "Indian Lookout," is located on a bluff facing the Osage, half a mile below the "Painted Rock," and near the buildings of the Painted Rock Country Club, of Jefferson City.

Except for a slight projection or offset at one side, which contains an opening or doorway, it was practically identical in appearance with the vault graves along the Missouri River bluffs, described in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 37; or else with those on Big Piney River in Pulaski County. It is formed of sandstone slabs, once laid up in a wall but now scattered in confusion as if fallen or thrown down.

Apparently it measured about 32 to 35 feet outside and 12 or 13 feet inside.

COLE COUNTY

NATURAL BRIDGE CAVE

This is at the top of a bluff facing the Osage, one-half mile below the Rock Island bridge. It is only 10 feet wide and the same in height, and extends back 20 feet to a narrow pa.s.sage which is almost closed by stalagmite. The site is difficult to reach, but disclosed a few fragments of pottery and some sh.e.l.l. The earth of the floor ascends rather steeply to the rear and contains many large rocks. It was only a camping place.

MORGAN COUNTY

SPEERS CAVE

On the Brown property, 7 miles southeast of Stover, is a reported cave, which proved to be a natural tunnel 400 feet long. The drainage from several farms pa.s.ses through it from ravines above. The lower entrance is 40 feet wide and 50 feet high, the upper entrance 20 feet wide and 10 feet high.

Natural bridges and tunnels of varying lengths and widths are rather common in this part of the Osage Valley.

HOUSE MOUNDS (43)

Southeast of Stover, beginning at the edge of the town, is a group of house mounds extending over an area having a very irregular outline, but fully half a mile across in any direction. They vary from 20 to 35 feet in diameter and are scattered promiscuously at intervals of 25 to 150 feet. The surface on which they are built reaches over a succession of small knolls and ridges with slopes of 4 or 5 degrees.

Most of them are along the sides of a wide, shallow valley draining northward, and of two or three small tributary depressions coming into it from either side, though a number are also to be found beyond the slight watershed which separates this drainage area from that to the southward. They exist in woods, meadows, and cultivated ground, so that some of them retain their original form, others are flattened and widened, while still others are barely traceable. Probably some have been entirely effaced by plow and harrow.

II. CAVE EXPLORATIONS IN OTHER STATES

INTRODUCTION

Certain conditions are to be taken into account in deciding whether a cave afforded a desirable permanent shelter to primitive man. It should be accessible; the floor should be dry, at least fairly level, and sufficiently free from large rocks to allow the inmates to move about freely; the entrance should be large enough to permit free pa.s.sage and to light the interior to a distance that would insure protection from the elements. Temporary shelters or camping places might be deficient in some of these particulars and still be resorted to frequently; but if there were opportunity for choice, a man with intelligence to select a cave in which to live continually would, it is fair to a.s.sume, look for one possessing such features.

If such conditions, once established, were free from the mutations of time, the explorer would have but little difficulty in deciding upon a suitable site for his labors. But limestone, more than any other solid rock, is subject to constant erosion, crumbling, and falling; while the soil and loose fragments resulting from such action move downward year by year over the slopes and into any cavities where they can find their way. In the course of centuries the entire aspect of a cave may be so altered as to bear no resemblance whatever to its original appearance. Consequently a careful study must be made of the immediate surroundings, in order to determine what topographical changes may have occurred since the earliest time within which it is probable that man may have existed in that locality. Should the floor, at present, be of solid rock; or covered with only a slight layer of earth; or have a stream flowing over it; or show by marks upon the walls that it is subject to inundation either from adjacent streams or by surface water which finds its way in through sink holes; or be in such situation as to make it apparent that the original bottom was thus flooded in comparatively modern times, even though such may not now be the case--in any such event excavation would be labor wasted. On the other hand, all the necessary requirements for a convenient residence may now be present, and yet result from causes which have begun to operate within the historic period. In other words, there are very few cases in which the present appearance of a cave is to be deemed a certain or even an approximate indication of its actual state a few thousand years ago. There is only one way to determine whether extended excavations may possibly result in satisfactory returns, and that is to sink shafts or run trenches in the superficial deposits.

INDIANA

The cave region of this State extends from Owen and Morgan Counties to the Ohio River. The caverns and sink holes gradually increase in number and size toward the south, until they culminate in Wyandotte Cave, second only to Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in extent, and in the so-called "valleys" of Harrison County which are in reality nothing but sink holes several square miles in extent. Some of the caverns are described in detail by W.S. Blatchley, the State geologist, in the Twenty-first Annual Report of the Survey (1896). Very few of those mentioned by him are at all suitable for permanent occupancy, though several would afford excellent shelter except in the rainy season, at which time most of them have the floors muddy or perhaps covered with water for weeks in succession. Such as were visited in these explorations will now be taken up in their order.

LAWRENCE COUNTY

ROCK LEDGE QUARRY.--Early in 1903 periodicals mentioned an interesting discovery made at this place. According to the report, workmen in excavating a cut for a railway found an old cave entirely filled with stalagmite matter. In this, 10 feet below the former top of the cave--the cut did not extend to the bottom of the stalagmite--were discovered some bones which were p.r.o.nounced by "several physicians" to be those of a human being. Among them was a "jaw tooth" (molar) and part of a skull. Correspondence failing to elicit any satisfactory information, a visit was made to the site. The cave could not be traced in either direction from the railway cut; but it had plainly served as an outlet for several large sink holes on the hill above it.

Nothing could be learned here regarding the matter except that the objects had been found and were then in the museum of the State University at Bloomington. This place was next visited and the specimens inspected. There were many fragments still imbedded in the matrix, which was travertine rather than stalagmite. No exact determination of them had been made, but only casual inspection was needed to see that none of them could be human. The "jaw tooth" was from a peccary, the "human skull" was the carapace of a tortoise.

SHILOAH CAVE.--It was reported that, although the entrance to this cavern, 7 miles northwest of Bedford, was in a sink hole, the floor was level and accessible. The opening is almost at the bottom of the sink, whose slope is quite steep. After every rain the water runs in; and while the floor is level, as stated, it has a constant stream of water flowing over it and is in absolute darkness.

DONNEHUE'S CAVE.--Although water flows continuously from the entrance, the amount of discharge was said to be small and the cave floor level and covered with earth, while the cave itself was large and well lighted. The approach, however, is quite difficult; the earth is nowhere more than 2 or 3 feet thick, and after a heavy rain the stream extends from wall to wall.

Between Bedford and Donnehue's cave is one, unnamed, at the head of a ravine which was once an extension of the cavern. The opening is of fair size but the floor is of rock and the outflow of water is steady.

Just outside the corporate limits of Bedford, to the south, is an opening in the cliff at the head of a deep ravine, more in the nature of a rock house than of a cave. It would make an excellent shelter for a few persons, being accessible, protected from winds, and close to water. While it may have been so used formerly, the deposit of earth and stone on the floor is very scanty and anything beneath could well be quite modern.

Two caves were reported 2 miles south of Bedford. One is a small opening from which a stream issues, flows across a meadow, and enters the other cave, which is much larger. They are parts of one pa.s.sage, the roof between these openings having broken down, and the stream is the same which finds its outlet at Donnehue's cave.

Several other caves in the vicinity of Bedford were visited. They are all small and of no importance from an archeological standpoint.

DONNELSON'S CAVE.--"The mouth of the cave is found at the head of a deep gorge worn through the limestone by a good-sized stream which flows from the cave and down the gorge to the broader valley beyond.

Many centuries ago the cave extended the full length of the gorge, and the waters of the stream flowed directly from its mouth into the valley. The roof of the underground channel finally became so thin that it collapsed, the gorge was then started, and as the centuries went by grew in length, the cave becoming ever shorter by the continued falling of the roof.

"Three pa.s.sages open directly into the mouth of the cave. The right hand pa.s.sage has the level of its floor about 5 feet above that of the entrance, while the opening on the left is 12 feet above the level of the stream and very difficult to enter without a ladder. The middle pa.s.sage extends straight back from the common vestibule or main entry.

The latter is 25 feet long, 21 feet high, and 18 feet wide, but at its farther end is reduced to the narrow middle pa.s.sage between great ma.s.ses of limestone. The water in this pa.s.sage is waist deep and explorations must be made by wading or in a light canoe. One hundred feet within is a magnificent cascade, where the stream rushes and leaps down a narrow pa.s.sage with such violence that the noise is plainly heard at the entrance.

"The right-hand pa.s.sage for the first 100 feet is about 10 feet high by 15 wide, with a clay bottom and a roof on a level with that of the vestibule. It then expands into a large room, 230 feet long and 40 feet wide, which lies east and west at right angles to the entering pa.s.sage. This narrows at the west end to 20 feet, and at one point the outer air flows in through a small opening in the roof. From near the small end of the room a narrow pa.s.sage starts off to the southward and can be traveled for 200 feet, when it becomes too small for further advance. Along this pa.s.sage a small stream flows, disappearing through a hole in the floor near the entrance to the larger room. Other than this, both right and left pa.s.sages leaving the main entry are dry.

"The pa.s.sage at the left of the main entrance to the cave is about 150 feet long by 20 broad, and contains no points of especial interest."

[W.S. Blatchley.]

It may be added to the above description that a heavy rain causes a rapid rise of several feet in the stream through the middle pa.s.sage.

The cavern is situated 3 miles east of Mitch.e.l.l. It has been fitted up by the State University as an experiment station for the study of underground fauna and flora.

The branch to the right is never entirely dry. Throughout the year water trickles or seeps over the stones and keeps the mud soft and sloppy, while after extremely heavy rains the water may be 2 or 3 inches deep for a short time--enough to keep all the earth washed from the floor for 50 or 60 feet from the entrance.