Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/64

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI tures of the topography of this section for they exist by thousands. Few people have any idea as to the vast numbers of mounds. There are single counties which have within their borders more than three thousand mounds. This is true of Bollinger county and of Scott county. Our knowledge of the vast numbers of mounds has been rendered exact in recent years by the work of Hon. Louis Houck. In the preparation of his ' ' History of Missouri" he had the mounds of the state counted. Even this enumeration, carefully formed the basis of more widely divergent views. An entire theory of the early history of this country has been built up around them. They have been regarded, at times, as the evidence of the existence of a mightj' and civilized race of people who existed here be- fore the coming of the Indians; and who, for some unknown reason, perished completely from the land before the discovery by Colum- bus. A great empire with organized govern- ment, with a mighty capital, with .swarming millions of population, has been pictured as Indian Mound made as it was, does not give all the mounds. He found, however, within the bounds of Southeast Missouri, as defined in this book, more than eighteen thousand mounds, and it is doubtless safe to say that were all of them known we should find the number to exceed twenty thousand. Such vast figures are over- whelming when we consider what an enormous amount of work is represented by them. These mounds have formed a fruitful sub- ject of controversy. Few subjects connected with history have evoked more discussions or the condition of the people who built them. On the other hand other views have been ad- vanced concerning them. An examination of some of the principal facts and theories con- cerning these prehistoric remains cannot fail to be of interest to all those who have a re- gard for the past. In the first place, it is to be said, that these mounds are to be found in every county in this district. There seems to have been no part of Southeast Missouri where the people who constructed mounds did not live and work. It is true that they are more abundant K.