Illinois -- Antiquities; Indians of North America -- Illinois -- Antiquities
Some years ago, Mr. Milo Custer located a camp-site in section sixteen
Bloomington Township and made a good find. I took up his trail
and frequently visited the field being always rewarded by finding
something of interest, including arrow and spear heads, knives,
scrapers, drills and human teeth. No large implements were found there
by me. This site was located on the south slope of a hill running down
to what had been a pond in early days, the water probably standing
there several feet deep throughout the year.
These sites disclose some very interesting facts and furnish much
food for speculation. The great variety of "finds" not only recalls
many phases of the primitive life of the Indians but also shows that
the "ancient arrow-maker" possessed patience and skill of the highest
degree.
It is all the more wonderful when we consider that these results were
obtained with such crude tools, and again that no artists of modern
civilization can attain the technic or reproduce the work of these
children of savagery.
In the accompanying illustration are some typical small flint or chert
implements found in McLean County.
NOTE----In 1899, I farmed the twenty acre tract in Sec. 16,
Bloomington Township, mentioned by Mr. Brigham and during
the spring and summer of that year at the camp-site he also
mentions I found about 130 arrowheads, one long granite
celt, two granite discoidal hammer-stones, two broken
perforated sand-stone tablets and several potsherds. This
material I donated to the McLean County Historical Society.
It was all destroyed in the fire of June 19, 1900.
MILO CUSTER
_Prehistoric Mounds of Woodford County, Illinois_
_By Stanley M. East._
Acting upon information furnished Mr. Custer by Mr. L. J. Freese,
president of the Woodford County Historical Society. A number of
members of our club made a trip on July 6th of last year to Spring
Bay, Ill., to investigate some mounds on the farm of Mr. W. J.
Eichorn. We were courteously granted permission by Mr. Eichorn to
thoroughly investigate one of the smaller mounds. This was done both
by surface examination and by making a six foot excavation in the
center. Nothing however was found except a few glacial boulders in a
natural deposite about five feet beneath the mound surface and there
were no evidences of prehistoric human remains to be seen. This mound
has a height of about six feet and a diameter of approximately one
hundred feet. Owing to the fact that it was under cultivation no
further excavation could be made without injury to the corn and indeed
no further excavations appeared profitable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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