I Think It's A Mound, What Do You Think?

[WildmanLivesOn]

This is Pine Mountain Settlement School property, donated by my great-great grandfather Wm. Creech in 1913 when they founded the school. In the shelter directly across the highway there were 4 complete skeletons removed some years ago, one with an elongated head that was thought to be ritually enhanced. On the hill below the shelter was a lithics workshop. When you enter the property the first thing you see is this mound, situated in a field in the valley. A neighbor who is 92 years old says she remembers it standing the same when she attended school there as a child. She also tells of finding what she called a tomahawk on the top of the shelter and it was confiscated by the teacher and she didn't tell her dad about it because she would have gotten whipped for crossing the teacher. On the far west of the property about 1 mile down the valley from the mound was a huge camp, now covered up by the waste from a coal washer. What are the odds of this being a mound. The school is hush hush about anything. They are what we around here call commie activists. The shelter was excavated by the University of Kentucky. I grew up about a mile from here. The cabin was my great-great grandfather's. It used to sit across from my house but was moved and reconstructed on school grounds.

[clovisoid]

It looks like a man made mound, but with all the mining that has gone one there it might be old but not be ancient.

[WildmanLivesOn]

This property was all farmland, never been mined that I know of. The coal seams in the area are miles away and do not run under this property. It has been protected since its introduction as a school and most of it now has been turned over to the state as a wildlife preserve. The coal washer on the west end was only opened in the 80's but not on school property. It's gone now.

[cricket71]

It looks like a man made mound to me... I would be suprised if it is not.

[rmartin]

cricket71 wrote:

It looks like a man made mound to me... I would be suprised if it is not.

  I agree!

[clovisoid]

Here is a map of clusters of mounds from Shetrone's 1930 book the mound builders, looks like it might be an outlier from one of these pockets of mounds.

[gregszybala]

Thanks for sharing both the photos and history. I'm with the others on the odds of that being a mound. Wonder if there are or were more? Don't really know but there are usually more than one, sometimes many.

[frog]

It looks like an Adena mound, especially with the trees growing on it.I see mounds like that with the trees standing . But the third pic of it shows an indentation which from what I have heard may have been escavated . Probably someone dug in to one side. Not looking professional. We have many here in ohio and I have seen this dent . The ones that look original are nice cone shaped. But you know that. The hopewell mounds can be hard to spot. different shape. I will have to take pics of some mounds around here.

[WildmanLivesOn]

Thanks guys! I've always been convinced that it is a Native mound. Unfortunately there are none around to compare it to. There was a group about 10 miles away, spread over what is now the town of Harlan, Ky, but were destroyed many years ago to place a parking lot for a funeral home and about two mile south of that, one destroyed to construct the local shopping mall. Across from the shopping mall, there was  mound on a farm that now serves as a foundation for Papa Johns, CVS, and a subdivision. Way to go Harlan County! The school denies this one is a mound, saying that they have taken core samples and found no conclusive evidence. Guess they thought it was too. I just think it's neat!

[Russell.webb]

It looks just like the ones in Spiro Oklahoma. In my opinion it looks like it could be a mound.