From On the River
|
No one knows who built the burial mounds that line(d) the west bank of the Grand River. They are refered to as the Mound Builders in some sources, or the Hopewell Indians in others because an Ohio farmer named Hopewell came upon the mounds and took an interest in them. What we know of the mound builders is of archeological findings from the mounds themselves. There used to be 30-40 mounds, some of them 50ft high. This would be 12.5 million pounds of earth. 17 (or 11) still remain south of downtown. The rest were leveled to fill in the swampy area of the west side to make way for developement. Some of the Irishmen that worked on the crews instructed to do the dirty work went on strike when they saw the bones. They were just assigned to different tasks and the project went on. Another man, Charles E Belknap brought water to the workers and as he did, he collected all the interesting things that turned up in the dirt and filled his attic. His findings make up some of the rarest archeological objects from that time period, and certainly from west michigan. In the 70's, along with the environmentalist movements and the interest in cleaning up the river, people began to wonder about the mounds. One newspaper article said this of what has become of the remaining mounds: "The Museum wants to fence them in. The Indians want them left alone. The city can't afford to do anything. Meanwhile, this 2,000 year old Indian burial ground is a trash dump."
 |
| 42° 58' 3" N, 85° 40' 47" WLatitude: 42.967477326553 Longitude: -85.679798126221 |
