f
the mounds and lodge sites. Any estimate of age must be only a guess
at the best, but it is a safe guess that no earthwork, mound, lodge
site, or human bone along this part of the Missouri River has been
here as long as 10 centuries.

IV. ABORIGINAL HOUSE MOUNDS

The small, low, flattened mounds of the lower Mississippi Valley are a
problem to archeologists. They have been studied principally near the
Mississippi River, in Arkansas and Missouri, and for many years it was
thought that in the latter State they are confined entirely to the
southeastern portion. Recently they have been found much farther to
the north and the west than they were supposed to exist.

A group, rather limited as to number and to the area covered, is at
the head of a narrow valley trending northward from Granite Mountain
in Iron County.

"Near Iron Mountain, in St. Francois County, more than 500 of these
small mounds, arranged in parallel rows following the direction of the
watercourses, were counted within a radius of 3 miles."[1]

The next group known north of this is on the right bank of Plattin
Creek in Jefferson County, about 12 miles from the Mississippi.

"A group of some 50 similar mounds is situated on the right bank of
the Meramec, about 6 miles above its mouth, in Jefferson County."[2]

The most northern group so far observed is near Ferguson in St. Louis
County, Missouri, where 46 are located on a narrow ridge which has the
same general elevation as the table-land. The ridge extends around the
head of a ravine, and the mounds are placed along its crest or on the
gentle slopes near the top. There are 10 or 12 at the southern edge of
Ferguson, on an overflow bottom bordering a small creek.

Toward the west from the swamp region a small group is in a broad
valley near Alton in Oregon County, which borders on Arkansas. They
are scattered along a gentle slope which has a little stream at the
foot.

In Dent County four groups are known. One is on the infirmary farm
south of the town of Salem. Most of these are but slightly changed
from their natural condition. Another group is 6 miles east of Salem.
These also are largely intact. A third is on the road from Salem to
Short Bend. The fourth is at the edge of Salem, on the Rolla road.

"On the high plateau of Dallas County, north of the Niangua ... within
an area smaller than 10 square miles, 860 were counted."[3]

Three groups are well marked in Phelps County. A mile ea