History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

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half the breadth of the upper and made to work against the inner side of the upper, leaving the outer edge of the latter overhanging and very sharp, well adapted for cutting and grinding the course marsh and water plants upon which it probably fed. These creatures had four long toes in front and three behind, like the tapir of the present time, and, like them, they probably had a long flexible nose though not a true pro- boscis. Numerous remains of these animals have been found in the bad lands and in the vicinity of Sioux Falls. Prof. Fairfield Osborn calls this animal the titanothere, and describes them graphically : "The titanothere, although the reigning plutocrat of the South Dakota lake, was no feral parvenu or upstart. He boasted a fam- ily tree branching back to a small tribe which lived in a modest way beside the Wasatch lake, some half million years before. These hardy an- cestors had seen the uintatheres (the horrible rhinoceroses of the Utah lake region) swell in size, take horns and disappear. Apparently no record of this fact was preserved, for hardly had the uintatheres gone to earth when the titan- othere family, unmindful of the fate attending horns and bulk, began to develop horns which sprouted like bumps over the eyes, as may be seen in the little calf. For a while the males and females had bumps of the same moderate size, but as the premium on horns rose the old bulls made great capital of them, fighting each other and bunting the females who would not recipro- cate their protestations of affection-a fact at- tested by many broken ribs. Finally these horns attained a prodigious size in the bulls, branching off from the very end of the snout, unlike any- thing in existing nature. In the meantime this 'titanbeast,' as Liedy well named him, acquired a great hump on his back fully ten feet above the ground, while he stretched out to a length of fourteen feet and expanded to a weight of two tons. He increased in numbers also, as may be attested by the scores of petrified bones. This prosperity, however, was fatal, for in the next geologic stratum not a trace of him is found. He appears to have died out at the very climax of his greatness."

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

Prof. Osborn also describes several other South Dakotans of that pioneer period. Among these are the aquatic rhinoceros as well as many of the bona fide rhinoceroses similar to the present day denizen of Africa. Speaking of these, Prof. Osborn says: "Leaving the swimming rhi- noceroses at the lake border and the true rhi- noceroses in the grasses and shrubbery of the lower meadows and climbing up among the lower Black Hills, we might have seen a large herd of hyracodons, or cursorial rhinoceroses, galloping by, frightened by a crouching ancestor of the saber-toothed tiger. These light-limbed animals were horselike to a surprising degree in the shoulders, haunches and limbs. They were in no true sense a horse, for the teeth prove them to be rhinoceroses, small, light and swift- footed, in extreme contrast of structure with the swimming type."

Still further up in the Hills we startle a pair of protecaras, which are beautifully graceful except in the head and snout. They are of the deer family and the buck proudly displays a pro- fusion of bony horns ; a pair between the ears, a much smaller pair between the eyes and two very prominent bony plates behind the nostrils, below which spring two sharp tusks as in the musk deer. The doe lacks the tusks and all the horns. And this brings us to the palmy days of pig culture in South Dakota, for, returning from the mountain climb to the lakes and rivers, we come upon the giant pig, or elothere. He bristles his great shaggy mane, the dewlaps swinging from the great bony knobs under his chin and jaws. There is no doubt that the elothere was a pig of the first rank and thor- oughly cosmopolitan in his range. While the titanotheres were extant he maintained the hum- ble size of the tapir, but when these rivals passed away the reign of the giant hogs began. They acquired skulls nearly four feet long, armed with huge cheek bones and under jaw plates, powerful upper limbs and narrow stilted feet, differing from those of the modern pig in the absence of dew claws. The shoulders rose in a hump, but the chest was narrow and feeble. The open mouth displayed a row of pointed front teeth

used in grubbing and digging. Prof. Osborn concludes : "All these monsters had their day while the sun shone, the birds warbled, the in- sects hummed over thousands of miles of water and luxuriant subtropical bloom. Meanwhile the western continent slowly rose, the Sierra shut off more and more of the sweet influences of the Pacific and before the arrival of man this splen- did assemblage of life was replaced by the hardy animals of the hills, the small and colorless denizens of the desert and the ruminants of the plains."

There was another influence, however, which, more than the shutting off of the Pacific influ- ence, appeared to modify Dakota conditions, al- though it may be that the lift of the western country made the other influence more pro- nounced. I refer to the invasion of the ice field from the northeast. It may be well to, in popu- lar and understandable terms, state how this came about. It must be understood at the outset that ice, brittle as it appears, is really viscous ; that is, it runs under its own weight like a lump of dough. Now through countless ages the ice had been forming and piling up in the remote north until it had attained many thousands of feet of thickness,-miles of depth,-and under the tremendous weight of its own body spread slowly but steadily southward, or rather to the southwest, irresistibly moving along, crushing and grinding everything in its path until finally it reached the great plain of South Dakota. It is probable that had the western country remained level so that the warm Pacific breezes could have brought their tropical influences into the heart of the continent the ice would have melted before it reached our section. It will be recalled that at the period in question South Dakota was a rela- tively level plain, falling gently down from the Black Hills to the James river on the west and from the James up to the top of the coteau on the east. The James then as now had an altitude of about one thousand two hundred feet, while the west line of the state was about five thousand feet and the top of the coteau at the east line of the state about two thousand feet high. Thus it will be seen that the great valley of the old

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

Dakota was broad and shallow and that the then Missouri river running through it was such a magnificent stream as cannot be compared with any other in existence, and it was upon such a country, peopled with such beasts as have before been described, that the great ice sheet de- scended. Slowly it poked its terrible nose out across the Dakotaland. When it reached the great river there was a struggle of the giants. The river rushed at the intruding ice, madly tearing it and breaking its front into fragments. The water foamed and fretted and wore the glistening terror which persistently pushed on until it occupied the bed of the mighty stream and all the valley land to the depth of hundreds of feet, and the vanquished stream was forced to turn back upon itself, sullen and hopeless, a vast dead lake, its feet resting against the ice in about the vicinity of Washburn, North Dakota, and its head crowded far back into the gulches and fastnesses of the mountains. But the life

RIVER

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JAMES

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OLD AND PRESENT COURSE OF MISSOURI RIVER.

had not wholly departed from the sun. A tra- dition lingered of the old tropical Dakota days, and occasionally the spicy south wind returned to visit its oldtime haunts and when the icy terror had reached a point one hundred miles or more west of the bed of the mighty stream which it

had usurped the sun and the south wind met it and there it was, in the heart of South Dakota, that the monster was arrested in its course and finally vanquished. The river, mindful of its former grandeur and prowess, hurried to the aid

3004

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MISSOURI

JAMES RIVER-

. .. No miLes -----------***-

JOGO Fr.

PREGLACIAL PROFILE

of the sun and the wind and while the latter was fighting the ice backward the water carved a deep ditch along the frontier of the ice and flow- ing through it finally reached its old bed in the neighborhood of Yankton. So it was that the glacier crowded the Missouri river from its former course through the James river valley to its present course high up in the western plain and explains why the present Missouri river buttes in the Dakotas are so abrupt, broken and clayey. The little profile printed herewith shows the old surface of South Dakota at a point ap- proximately from Elkton to Belle Fourche, through Huron and Pierre, and with it the new surface as modified by the glacier. It will be noticed that the Sioux valley is also shown as a depression hung up on the eastern slope. It was formed much as was the Missouri valley. When the ice melted, it disappeared from the top of the coteau and the eastern slope first and as the ice receded the imprisoned waters in the upper country trickled around the eastern side of the ice, carving out the Sioux's course.

This, in brief, is the story of South Dakota's early history as revealed to us in the story nature has written in the soil. the rocks and the topog- raphy.

CHAPTER II

THE STORY TOLD BY THE MOUNDS.

From the evidence at hand it cannot be prop- erly said that South Dakota has an archeology, or that the land was ever occupied by human beings prior to the coming of the Indian tribes found here by the early white explorers. There are, however, several important and very inter- esting earthworks in or upon the border of the state, the origin of which is in doubt and the presence of which leads some competent wit- nesses to conclude that the land was peopled by a prehistoric race. While this writer is not pre- pared to endorse this theory, it is not out of place to describe such mounds as have been dis- covered and to leave the origin of them to be determined by future students of archeological and anthropological studies.

When Lewis and Clarke passed up the Mis- souri river, in 1804, they examined and described some embankments upon Bon Homme island and the adjacent shore of the Missouri which for years thereafter were accepted by scientific men as evidences of a prehistoric occupation. Their somewhat elaborate description is worthy of repetition here :

This interesting object is on the south side of the Missouri, opposite the upper extremity of Bon Homme island and in a low level plain, the hills being three miles from the river. It begins by a wall of earth rising immediately from the bank of the river and running in a direct course south, seventy- six degrees west, ninety-six yards. The base of this wall or mound is seventy-five feet and its height

eight feet. It then diverges in a course south, eighty-four degrees west, and continues at the same height and depth fifty-three yards, the angle being formed hy a sloping descent; at the junction of these two is the appearance of a horn work of the same height as the first angle; the same wall then pursues a course north, sixty-nine degrees west, for three hundred yards. Near its western extremity is an opening, or gateway, at right angles to the wall and projecting inward; this gateway is defended by two nearly semi-circular walls 'placed before it, lower than the large wall, and from the gateway there seems to have been a covered way communi- catiug with the interval between these two walls. Westward of the gate the wall becomes much larger, heing about one hundred five feet at its base and twelve feet high. At the end of this high ground the wall extends for fifty-six yards on a course north, thirty-two degrees west. It then runs north, twenty- three degrees west, for seventy-three yards. These walls seem to have had a double or covered way. They are from ten to fifteen feet eight inches in height and from seventy-five to one hundred and five feet in width at the base, the descent inward being steep, while outward it forms a sort of glacis. At the distance of seventy-three yards the wall ends abruptly at a large hollow place much lower than the general level of the plain and from which is some indication of a covered way to the water. The space between them is occupied by several mounds, scattered promiscuously through the gorge, in the center of which is a deep round hole. From the ex- tremity of the last wall, in a course north, thirty-two degrees west, is a distance of ninety-six yards over the low ground where the wall recommences and crosses the plain in a course north, eighteen degrees west, for one thousand eight hundred and thirty yards, to the bank of the Missouri. In this course

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

its height is about eight feet till it enters, at the distance of five hundred and eighty-three yards, a deep circular pond of seventy-three feet in diameter, after which it is gradually lowered toward the river. It touches the river at a muddy bar, which bears every mark of heing an encroachment of the water for a considerable distance, and a little above the junction is a small circular redoubt. Along the bank of the river, and at one thousand one hundred yards distance in a straight line from this wall, is a second wall about six feet high and of a considerable width. It rises abruptly from the bank of the Missouri, at a point where the river hends and goes straight forward, forming an acute angle with the last wall, till it enters the river again not far from the mounds just described, toward which it is ob- viously tending. At the bend the Missouri is five hundred feet wide. The ground on the opposite side highlands, or low hills on the bank, and where the river passes between this fort and Bon Homme island all the distance from the hend it is constantly washing the banks into the stream, a large sandbar being already taken from the shore near the wall. During the whole course of this wall or glacis it is covered with trees, among which are many large cotton trees two or three feet in diameter. Im- mediately opposite the citadel, or the part most strongly fortified, on Bon Homme island is a small work in a circular form, the wall surrounding it about six feet high. The young willows along the water, joined to the general appearance of the two shores, induce a belief that the bank of the island is encroaching and the Missouri indemnifies itself hy washing away the hase of the fortification. The citadel contains about twenty acres, but the part between the long walls must embrace nearly five hundred acres.

It would not seem that observers as careful and usually accurate as were Lewis and Clarke could have been deceived in à matter so impor- tant and in which they give so minute and cir- cumstantial examination, but it is the opinion of so eminent an authority as Prof. T. H. Lewis, who, excited to the examination by the Lewis and Clarke report to go to Bon Homme island and examine the formation, in the interest of American archeology, after most painstaking investigation gives it as his opinion that Lewis and Clarke were wholly in error and that the embankment described in so detailed manner by them was formed by the action of the river and the drifting of sand by the wind. This report prob-

ably disposes of one of the monuments to a forgot- ten race to which for eighty years the antiquarians were wont to point. There are some writers who refuse to accept Prof. Lewis's dictum and still place their faith upon the earlier report. The conditions at Bon Homme island have so changed since the white settlement that it is not probable that earthworks of very great antiquity could have occupied that site, for the frequent over- flows of the river would have certainly destroyed anything weaker than the most massive masonry.

The report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1872 contains an article by "A. Barrandt, Sioux City, Iowa," descriptive of a mound in South Dakota which, if not entirely a work of the imagination, is very interesting. This story is as follows :

This mound, one of the finest specimens of archeological remains in the northwest, is situated in Lincoln county, near the west fork of the Little Sioux of Dakota, or Turkey creek, nearly eighty- five miles northwest of Sioux City. It is situated on a fine bottom, and is three hundred and twenty-seven feet in length at the base on the northwest side, and two hundred and ninety feet on the southeast side and one hundred twenty feet wide. Its sides slope at an angle of fifty degrees; it is from thirty-four to forty-one feet in height, the northeast end being the higher. To the summit, which is from twenty-six -to thirty-three feet wide, there is a well-beaten path. It is composed of calcined clay which by burning has become hard and of a dark red brick color. Toward its base on the northeast side there is a large portion of the side built of sandstone and limestone, which were probably extracted from the large hill lying about three miles and a half in a northwest direction, as I have found a large hole in the side hill partially filled up by the caving in of the bank. At first I thought it was a spur of the main ridge of the hill that had been isolated by the action of the water, which in former ages rushed down that valley, as the cut banks on both sides of the creek clearly indicate, but on close examination I found it was built of the above mentioned materials. What led to the making a part of the mound of stone I am at a loss to conjecture. While examining the mound I discovered on its southeast side a hole which had the appearance of a badger hole; it was about eighteen feet from the base of the mound. I determined to ascertain if it were a badger hole or some inlet which in the course of time might have

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

been filled up by the falling of debris. I accordingly had a hole dug and, after reaching a distance of twenty-three feet horizontally, discovered a cavity which was found to contain the part of the vertebrae of an elk, several bones belonging probably to the same animal and thirty-six broken fragments of pottery, together with a pile of ashes and about a half bushel of charcoal and charred wood. This cavity was about circular and about seven feet in diameter. I conjectured that at one time this cavity must have reached the summit of the mound and consequently ordered that a hole should be dug as nearly as possible above it. After having dug to the depth of nine feet we came within two feet of the cavity. Here we found several large stones and a stick of oak, very well preserved and projecting into

the top of the cavity. This stick was probably used to support pots hung over the fire, for that the culinary art was practiced in this hole is clearly in- dicated by the ashes and bones strewn about, but how this hole got filled up I am at a loss to de- termine. I am sanguine that if the mound was prop- erly explored some valuable relics of this industrious race of mound builders would be found; owing to its being distant from the banks of the Missouri and the generally traveled road it has never been examined by any scientific explorer. From afar it resembles a haystack and hence this name has been given it by the immigrant.

1142443

The point indicated would be in that portion of Turner county which, prior to 1872, was a part of Lincoln county. Turkey creek rises near Idylwilde postoffice in Turner county and flows almost south to the vicnity of Volin, in Yankton county. This writer has diligently searched the locality mentioned and has found no trace of the mound described, nor do any of the settlers or land surveyors residing in that section have knowledge of it, and from present indications Mr. Barrandt's interesting contribution to science has less foundation than the previous contribution of Lewis and Clarke. I am almost convinced that it is purely a figment of the imagination.

There are other earthworks, some of which appear to have better credentials to antiquity than those mentioned and which have in some instances received the careful attention of reliable observers. One of the most interesting of these is in Hughes county and has been investigated with painstaking care by Dr. DeLorme W. Robinson, who has written a monograph upon it :

This interesting fortress is situated on a high terrace, which overlooks a long sweep of the valley, on the north side of the Misouri and seven miles east of Pierre. At this point in the valley a suc- cession of four terraces extended from the present bank of the river to the high, continuous prairie lands above. The first begins at the water's edge, is low and level and has been formed by the current of the river swinging to the south by cutting into the high. bluffs on the opposite shore. This is about one- fourth of a mile wide and in view of the slow process of cutting down the high banks across the stream has been a long time in formation. The second bench is slightly elevated above the first, is level and has also been formed by the shifting of the Missouri. The third blends with the second and makes up the remaining lowlands and extends by a gradually in- creasing elevation to the base of the bluffs. Large cottonwoods grow in this portion of the valley and along the bank of the river as it flowed in the old days are the remains of villages of this unknown people. The fourth terrace is situated about two hun- dred feet above the present banks of the river. From the edge of the bluff it extends by a greatly increasing slope to the north for about a half mile, where by a distinct swell it is lost in the prairie. At this point the terrace is narrowed by the beginning of two gulches, which cut their way from the summit through the glacial drift, becoming deeper as they descend until they reach the valley, thus cutting the plateau into an irregular triangle with its base directed toward the river. Within the boundaries as outlined by these gulches are about two hundred acres of almost level land. On this irregular plateau the prehistoric fortification is plainly visible. The location is a most commanding one. Nature could not have provided a more suitable spot for refuge and defence, nor a spot where the general view of the surrounding country is more perfect. For miles either way may he seen the tortuous Missouri, with its timber-skirted hanks, its islands, and its long ex- panse of smooth and narrow plateau and lowlands. On the opposite side and about two miles away is a line of dark river bluffs, deep and rugged, which follow up and down the river as far as the eye can reach. The earthworks themselves are somewhat irregular, though almost circular in form and enclose about one hundred thirty acres. They occupy the entire base of the triangle and conform largely to its irregularities, but are also extended when necessary to command the most accurate view of the slopes of the steep bluffs and the valley below. Laterally they approach near enough to the two gulches to defend their descents and are pushed out here and there on promontories and encroachments toward the gulches, thus gaining a complete flanking position to any

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

natural ascent to the works. Toward the acute angle of the triangle, which points to the prairie and away from the river, these earthworks extend along the gulches a sufficient distance to form a somewhat elongated circle where, at well fortified angles, they cut the plateau across from gulch to gulch. The main parts of the fortification are a double line of earth- works, consisting of an outer ditch, which is still plainly visible, and an embankment which follows the course of the ditch and internal to it and which was evidently made by throwing the dirt inward to the center of the fortified enclosure. The ditch when dug was probably from three to six feet deep and four to eight feet wide, the widest and deepest places being where it approaches the edge of the bluffs. Some portions of the embankment are scarcely visible, but at stragetic points, where the ditch is wide, it is still three or four feet above the adjacent surface, indicating a provision for a double line of defenders, the front line in the trench and the rear line above them and behind the embankments. To further strengthen the position there are twenty- four pear-shaped loops, which extend outward from the outer line of the works from twenty to forty feet. The distance between these loops along the main line of the works varies from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. Their location is such that they not only overlook the slopes of the bluffs and gulches, but serve as a means of a perfect flank- ing position in either direction along the main line. The earthworks from these loops are from three to six feet wide and many places are still three feet above the surface. Inside of them, about twenty feet from the slope of the bluffs upon which the earth- works are built on the side facing the Missouri, springs burst from a strata of gravel, from which flows an abundance of clear, cool water. Excavations have been made into the hillside and large earthern bowls made by throwing the earth to the outer side. There are three of these excavations down the slope, which would indicate that a succession of pools for- merly existed there. To these springs there is a deep way cut through the hillside, from the main fortification. Where the fortification approaches the valley there is a still further projection of a nar- row neck of land which widens and rises higher as it lengthens toward the river, until its elevation ex- poses the high earthworks and the surrounding hills. From its highest point the immediate surroundings and the entire valley of the Missouri for miles can be seen. This point, though largely a natural for- mation, was evidently increased in height and used as a lookout. It is one of the most interesting features of the work. There is little doubt that on this point stood the watchman of the signal corps, of this

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998