Serpent Mound and Burial Mounds in Chicago, Illinois

Serpent Mound and Burial Mounds in Chicago, Illinois

The most southerly point on the west shore of Lake Michigan where traces of ancient labor can be found, is about four miles south of the “State line” between Wisconsin and Illinois. These works are doubtless burial-places, and consist of a series of round or conical mounds, nine in number, from three to five feet in height, and about thirty feet in diameter, arranged in a serpentine row along the crest of a ridge of sand, an ancient lake beach, which extends for many miles along the lake shore. (See Fig. 1.)

Also found in Chicago is this Serpent Mound located within a Park in the City. The location of this serpent mound is somewhere in Thatcher Park, but I have yet to investigate it to give an exact location.

We first saw this beach in the road three miles north of Racine, and traced it at intervals into the State of Illinois. It has an elevation estimated at fifty feet above the present level of the lake, and at the mounds affords a good view of the country on both sides. It is here about half a mile distant from the lake. It consists of sand and gravel, and rests upon a bed of hard clay.

There is no doubt that this ridge extends south to the end of the lake, and is connected with the remarkable series of ridges described by Prof. Shepard.1 It is occupied by the main road from Milwaukee to Chicago, and is frequently so broad on the top as to afford room for buildings.

Map shows locations of trails and Indian Burial Mounds in the City of Chicago.