“My father emigrated with me to the Saginaw Valley in 1832. My associations were mostly with the Indians, whose language I became very familiar with. For several years I was engaged in the fur trade, during which time my business was to go up the several tributaries of the Saginaw to buy furs of the Indians, & on nearly all such occasions I found indications that the Saginaw & its tributaries had been densely populated at some remote period by another race of people prior to the Indians.
“On the bluff just below the city of Flint there were, 48 years ago, when I first saw them, eight large mounds, which I saw opened. They were from 20 to 40 feet in diameter & about five feet high. When opened they were full of human bones, all of which were in a better state of preservation then in any mounds I have examined. We found one shin-bone with a flint arrow embedded in it & broken off, showing that it was part of the leg of an Indian killed in battle. We found no implements but pieces of flint. The bones indicated a large race of people than the present Indians.
“We now proceed down the Flint river until we come to the high bluff one mile above the village of Flushing, on the Bailey farm, & examine the mounds at that point which I shall designate as the Bailey mounds. I first saw these mounds opened in 1833 or 1834. At that time this farm was one dense forest. I think there were about 20 mounds, great & small, some 40 feet or more in diameter & six feet high, with pine trees growing on the top of them as large as those in any part of the forest. We found upon opening the largest one that it was of human bones. The skeleton did not appear to be arranged in any order, but had been thrown promiscuously together before they were covered, leaving hardly a doubt but they had been slain in some battle. The bones were too much decomposed to find any marks of violence upon them. Subsequent events in after years have confirmed my belief that this once populous race of the Saginaw Valley had been exterminated by another race of people.
“From the Bailey mounds we will resume our explorations down the river. At several points, always in the elbow of the river, & also always on the bluff where you could get a view up & down the river, there would be two or three mounds, but of not so large dimensions as those above until you reach a point about 12 miles below. There, contrary to the custom of the Mound-Builders, you find on the east side of the river & on the flat nearly 100 graves, which tradition say are those of Indians, all of whom died in one day & night with some sickness which the Great Spirit in his anger had sent amongst them. This must have been some epidemic, for we know that when the Indians have had the small pox or any other contagious diseases amongst them they have all flocked together. In their tradition of this incident they say it was their own nation, over 100 years before that time, which was then in 1835, & not the Mound-Builders.
“Some 10 miles father down the river, having seen only a few small mounds, we come to the old Indian fields – now the Ross farm, but formerly the residence in an early day, of the old pioneer, . This land was given to him by the Indians – their white brother, as they used to call him – & was on the Indian reservation. Here there were four large mounds together in the elbow of the river on the bluff, like the Flint & Bailey mounds heretofore described, & several more on the flat below. The bones of these mounds were very much decomposed, especially those on the flat which I helped to plow down myself; so that when they were exposed they crumbled to pieces. This was no doubt owing to the difference of soil, the ground being much lower & subject every spring to overflow of the river. But I have no doubt all the mounds a great variety of stone implements, which were carried off by curiosity seekers.
“Proceeding down the river to the mouth of the Tittabawassee, at a place formerly called Green Point, a favorite camping grounds of the Indians in olden time & where they had their own corn fields, quite a distance back from the river on the prairie, contrary to all previous experience, we discovered two very large mounds. I think when I first saw them in 1836 they were 60 feet long & 30 wide by four or five feet high. They are on very low ground & subject every spring to be inundated by the river, & for convenience I shall call them the Green Point mounds. I also saw after it had been opened, & the whole interior appeared to be of a whitish substance, evidently of decompose Indian bones, the decomposition being more rapid than for the same length of time elsewhere, owing to the lowness of the land & the overflow of the river. What the relic hunters found in these mounds I never ascertained.
“We now proceed up the Tittabawassee river some four miles, to the farm on which the late James Fraser first settled when he came to the Saginaw Valley, where there is one very large mound, which I shall call Fraser's mound. This is also situated on the bluff in the elbow of the river. This mound comprises nearly half an acre of ground. No one ever imagined this to be a mound until some years since, when the river had worn away the bank & the ice in the spring had torn away the side so that the bones fell into the river.
“From this point we shall proceed up the Cass river to the farm of A. Lull, now the village of Bridgeport, which is about six miles from East Saginaw. Mr. Lull informs me that there were several mounds there. & I have been informed by the old Indian traders that when they first came to the Saginaw Valley, at the bend of the Cass where the village of Bridgeport now stands, there was also a regular earth-work fortification, comprising several acres. I have never examined these mounds, but have got my information from M. A. Lull, who is an old pioneer, a member of this society, & from other old settlers. The present Indians say this fortification was built by another race of people before the Indians came here, & they were more like white people, as they made kettles & other dishes of clay. I have in my possession several specimens of pottery, which I have taken out of mounds.
“On the Saginaw river, toward its mouth, when we come to what is now the corner of Twenty-fourth & Water streets in Bay City, where the Center House now stands, we find the old McCormick homestead. Here were two large mounds in the garden, which my father plowed & scraped down. They contained a number of skeletons, stone axes, knives, & quite an amount of broken pottery. Some thirty rods below, on Water street, between Twenty-second & Twenty-third streets, is an elevation, the highest on the river, on which is located the Bay City brewery, Barney hotel, the residence of W. R. McCormick & other residences, comprising nearly two acres. I wish to describe this elevation as I saw it, in a state of nature, over forty-five years ago. For many years it was considered to be a natural elevation of the land, but subsequent excavations have proved it to have been constructed by some remote race of people.
“When I first became acquainted with the location it was covered by a dense growth of time, with the exception of the mound & about an acre & a half in the rear of it, where the earth was taken from to build the mound. It was then a duck pond, with water three feet deep, ground up with alder bushes. In grading Twenty-second street through the north end of the mound, some years since, we found at depths of 11 feet three skeletons of very large stature with large earthen pots at the head of each. In excavating for the cellar of the Bay City brewery, we found at the dept of four feet the remains of Indians in a good state of preservation, with high cheek bones & receding forehead, while, below these again, at the depth of four or five feet, the remains of a more ancient race, of an entirely different formation of skull, & with those burned stone implements & pottery were found. I have been unable to preserve any of these skulls, as they crumbled to dust when exposed to air. I found one skeleton in a sitting position, facing west, with a very narrow head, & long, as if it had been compressed. I laid it aside in hopes to preserve it, but in a few hours it had crumbled to pieces. This mound is full of the remains of ancient pottery & small stones that have been through action of fire. A friend of mine found an awl made of copper which was quite soft with the exception of about an inch from the point which was so hard that a file would scarcely make an impression on it. This seems to me to show that the Mounds-Builders had the art of hardening copper. We also find that they had the art of working in metals, as we will show. This comprises the mounds on the east side of the Saginaw River.
“We will now pass over to the west side near the mill of More, Smith & Co. There was here, 45 years ago, a mound just above the mill about 100 feet across in a circular form & about three feet high. Originally it must have been much higher. I have never examined this mound, but have understood from old settlers that there was a great many stone implements found in it. The plow has nearly leveled it, so that is is scarcely noticed any more.
“The mound which was located near the west end of the Detroit & Bay City railroad bridge, for reference I will call the Birney mound, as it is located on the land of that great philanthropist, the late Hon. James G. Birney. This mound was no so large in circumference, but much higher than the one just noticed. In this were also found human bones, in a much better state of preservation than any of the rest. I procured from this mound a skull with a hole in it just above the temple bone, produced by a sharp instrument, which undoubtedly caused death. This skull I presented to J. Morgan Jennison, of Philadelphia. It was of an entirely different formation from the Indian skull of the present day, as it did not have their high cheek bones nor their receding forehead, but a very intellectually developed head, showing that it was of a different race of people> from the Indian. Some years since some boys were digging in the side of the mound, as they had often done before, to get angle-worms for fishing, when they came across a small silver canoe, about five inches long. A gentleman who was fishing with them, offered them 50 cents for it, which they accepted. After cleaning it up, he found it to be of exquisite workmanship, with the projecting end tipped with gold. A rough copper kettle of peculiar shape & make, having been wrought into shape by hammering, without any seam, was also, taken from one of these mounds, & is now in the State capitol amongst Mr. Jennison's collections of antiquities.
“The next mound was about half a mile up the river, & formerly stood in the center of Linn street, West Bay City, but has been graded down many years since. I was not there at the time, but was informed by others that it contained human bones & stone implements. Charles E. Jennison, a pioneer of Bay City, informs me that he dug up two skeletons many years ago, in the side of this mound. He found with the skeletons two copper kettles, which he has still in his possession. I am inclined to think these were not the remains of the original Mound-Builders, but a race of a subsequent period.
“We now proceed a half-mile or more up the river, to the rise of ground in the rear of Frank Fitzhugh's grist-mill. This elevation, 45 years ago, when I first saw it, was the most picturesque spot on the Saginaw river. Here was also a beautiful spring of cold water, & was a favorite camping ground of the Indians. It was also, according to the Indian tradition, the original site of the Sauk village, & where the great battle was fought when the Chippewas exterminated that nation. This I will call the Fitzhugh mound, as it is on the lands of Frank Fitzhugh. This elevation, comprising two or three acres, was always thought to be natural; but I am satisfied from recent excavations, & a low place to the southwest, that the earth has been taken from this point to raise the mound higher than the surrounding land, & that it is, therefore, mostly artificial. Then again, the land adjoining on the north is a yellow sand, while on the south the land fell off abruptly, & is composed of the same kind of soil as the mound, black sand & loam, from where the earth was taken. I am now speaking of this mound as it appeared 45 years ago. Since then the railroad company have excavated a part of it for ballasting up their road, & many other excavations & alterations have taken place, so that it has not the same appearance it had when I first saw it. Some years since Mr. Fitzhugh, or the village authorities of Wenona, now West Bay City, excavated a street through this mound, which brought to light many relics & proved beyond a doubt that this eminence was a mound built in remote ages. A great many skeletons were exhumed, together with a great many ornaments of silver, broken pottery, stone implements, etc., and, like the McCormick mound on the opposite side of the river, was full of broken stone which had been through the action of fire.
“There are also four fortifications on the Rifle river, in township 22 north. They contain from three to six acres each, containing several mounds of large size. They are also situated on the bluffs. The walls can yet be traced, & are from 3 to 4 feet high & from 8 to 10 feet wide, with large trees growing upon them. A friend of mine opened one of these mounds & took from it a skeleton of large size than an ordinary person. He says he also saw several large mounds on the Au Sable river.
“I have thus give the society an idea of how these mounds appeared before the hand of man had destroyed & leveled them down. Many of them can yet be seen, but the plow has helped to level many of them, with the exception of the Fraser, Fitzhugh & McCormick mounds. & to prove that the last three are artificial & not natural is the fact that in the rear of all these are low places, showing where the earth had been taken & finally, the most convincing proof of all is that you can dig down until you come to the original surface & will find various kind of stone implements, broken pottery & great quantities of stone broken by the action of fire. & in no part of the valley will you find those relics except in those mounds. The main objection to my theory is, How could so large an elevation & of such extend be built by so primitive a people as the Fitzhugh, Fraser & McCormick mounds? But more extensive works have been found in Butler county, Ohio. I account for so much small broken stone being in these mounds by the manner in which they cooked their food. As their pottery was not made to stand fire, the stones were heated & then put into vessels to cook their food, which occasioned their breaking to pieces when they came in contact with the water.”
From History of Saginaw County, Michigan by Michael A. Leeson, Damon Clarke - 1881
