Archaeological atlas of Michigan [by] Wilbert B. Hinsdale...
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTIES in one of the belts that supported a "dense population." See notes upon Ionia, Saginaw, and Kalamazoo counties. SITES IDENTIFIED Villages ----------18 Mounds -----------16 Burying grounds -- 4 Inclosures --------- 5 Garden beds ------- 2 SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY (Map 19) The notes upon Menominee and Delta counties should be consulted in connection with the approach along the Lake Michigan shore to Green Bay. Indian Lake, near Manistique, has considerable Indian lore connected with it. A very interesting mission chapel and a cemetery were situated at the Indian village, Ossawinamakee, upon the shore of the lake. North of Indian Lake there is a "big spring" about three to five hundred feet across and sixty feet deep. Legends attributes mystic powers to this clear, beautiful pool. SITES IDENTIFIED Village ---------- 1 SBurying ground --- 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. TOWNSHIPS Flowerfield 9. Constantine Park 10. Florence Mendon 11. Sherman Leonidas 12. Burr Oak Fabius 13. Mottville Lockport 14. White Pigeon Nottawa 15. Sturgis Colon 16. Fawn River TOWNSHIPS 1. Hiawatha (Pt.) 6. 2. Seney 7. 3. Hiawatha (Pt.) 8. 4. Hiawatha (Pt.) 9. 5. Manistique 10. Doyle Germfask Inwood Thompson Mueller SANILAC COUNTY (Map 10) Mr. Harlan I. Smith, who contributed largely to the archaeological literature of the Saginaw Valley, as well as of other parts of the state, mentions numerous sites in Sanilac and other counties that cannot now be located, thirty-five years later, with sufficient definiteness to warrant charting them. For instance, Beaver Meadow Mound, Cass River mounds, and Hay Creek mounds no doubt existed, but even by using the word "vague" the cartographer cannot include some of them in his drawings. Perhaps the only specimens of rock carvings attributed to the Indians, now to be seen in the state, are in Greenleaf Township, Section 11, along the north branch of Cass River. Here are outlines of men, animals, birds, and "problematical creatures" deeply carved upon the wide exposure of bed-rock. Unfortunately, the depravity of recent individuals has led them to leave to future generations names, dates, and disgraceful figures chiseled among the original carvings. At the mouth of Big Gulley Creek, in the extreme southeast corner of Delaware Township, there was a circular inclosure, and in Speaker Township, immediately south of the village of Peck, a "garden bed." Mr. Smith and Gerard Fowke mention other garden beds in the county. The query is whether the designs of these beds would have identified them with the garden beds so numerous in the southwestern part of the state, or whether they were common cornfields like the one mentioned under Alcona County. In Section 36, Watertown Township, a unique construction consisted of "a square inclosure with interior mound." There was a rectangular inclosure with an opening to the north, and a mound in front of the opening, in the southwest corner of Worth Township, on the west side of Black River. One of the long trails from the head of Lake Erie and beyond followed the Huron shore to the northern limits of the Lower Peninsula. The sites in Sanilac County were numerous and various. They are indicated as adequately as possible upon the map. See Kalamazoo County for comments upon tgarden beds." SITES IDENTIFIED Village -----------1 Burying grounds -------3 Mounds --------------22 Garden bed -----------1 Circular inclosure ------- Rectangular inclosures 2 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY (Map 9) The general remarks that have been made concerning adjacent counties will apply to Shiawassee, and what is given here will apply to them in a general way. Bela Hubbard, describing a trip he took down the Shiawassee River in 1837, when the natives felt little of the fatal spell which falls upon them with the very beginnings of white settlements, gives the following memorandum: "Many of the Indian clearings stretched for several continuous miles, and many acres bordering the river were covered with luxuriant maize-the chief cultivated food of the natives." He refers also to caches for hiding provisions. At the time of this observation Hubbard was somewhere in Shiawassee County, below Byron and above Corunna. A network of trails indicates the amount of travel that passed through the Shiawassee valley. Mr. Cyrus Thomas records an effigy mound in Section 19, Caledonia Township. It is the only mound reported in the state that was built in the shape of some living object. This type of earth construction is very common in Wisconsin and Ohio. In the vicinity of Old Shiawassee Town there were two "garden beds" and two villages. Within the present limits of the city of Owosso were a village, a garden bed, an isolated mound, and one mound group. The interesting features of the county, so far as determined, are indicated upon the map. SITES IDENTIFIED Villages ------------5 Mounds -----------24 Garden beds --------3 Circular inclosure 1-- Effigy ------------- 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Fairfield Rush New Haven Hazelton Middlebury Owosso 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. TOWNSHIPS Caledonia Venice Sciota Bennington Shiawassee Vernon 13. 14. 15. 16. Woodhull Perry Antrim Burns 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Greenleaf Austin Minden Delaware Evergreen Argyle Wheatland Marion Forester 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. TOWNSHIPS Lamotte Moore Custer Bridgehampton Marlette Elmer Watertown Washington Sanilac 19. 20. 21. 21. 23. 24. 25. 26. Flynn Elk Buell Lexington Maple Valley Speaker Fremont Worth TUSCOLA COUNTY (Map 9) If one could have followed the Cass River from its headwaters to the Saginaw before the Indians were disturbed by white intruders, he would have observed that the inhabitants were becoming more numerous and their habitations more frequent as he descended. There were a circular inclosure and a mound upon Saginaw Bay, at the mouth of the Wiscoggin. Mr. Harlan I. Smith speaks of earthworks upon Squaw and Quanicassee creeks, but since those -36 -
About this Item
- Title
- Archaeological atlas of Michigan [by] Wilbert B. Hinsdale...
- Author
- Hinsdale, W. B. (Wilbert B.), 1851-1944.
- Publication
- Ann Arbor,: University of Michigan press,
- 1931.
- Subject terms
- Indians of North America -- Michigan
- Names, Geographical -- Michigan.
- Michigan -- Antiquities
- Michigan -- Description and travel
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"Archaeological atlas of Michigan [by] Wilbert B. Hinsdale..." In the digital collection Digital General Collection. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/1265156.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 21, 2025.