Vast "Prehistoric" City of 11,000,000 In Arkansas?

Los Angeles Herald, May 1899

AMID PREHISTORIC RUINS Discovery of the Metropolis of the Mound Builders in Arkansas

SHATTERED POTTERY BY THE CARLOAD All the Evidences of an Industrious and Powerful Agricultural People Having Lived There in Times of Remotest Antiquity

Lyon, Miss., May 12.—Despite the unfriendly criticisms of certain learned professors, I stand by the brief announcement of my discovery of the remains of a vast prehistoric city in Arkansas, and the statement has attracted so much attention I realize that it is my duty to add further particulars and details of the discovery.

With the experience of fifty years as an explorer to aid me in my researches, I visited the counties of Ashley, Dosha and Drew in the southeastern section of Arkansas, where I found a vast area covered by the "tumuli" of the mound builders. There could be no doubt at all in any ' mind, with the evidence before them, as it was before me, that this was the grand metropolis of that prehistoric race known as the mound builders.

I surveyed an area of thirty-five miles west and twenty-five miles north, embracing a territory of not less than 590 square acres and, be it understood, this did not cover the whole of the ground on which the city had been built, for the tumuli: reached far beyond the region traversed by me. On each acre there were about four mounds, and a close examination of these disclosed, to my great delight, the remains' of fireplaces and the shattered crockery used in cooking.

In some, an even closer examination revealed the charred remains of the bones of deer, bear, turkeys, squirrel and fish. So immense was the prehistoric city through which I traveled, that I am satisfied New York, Chicago, London and Paris could be placed Inside its area. Making an estimate on the basis that each dwelling of the great city contained five inhabitants, I computed that at least 11,000,000 people must have lived in. this prehistoric place.

It was awe-inspiring, thrilling, to reflect, standing there amid the ruins of the dwelling place of the countless millions of the prehistoric race that dwelt in the Yazoo valley, that here lived the mysterious people who antedated any inhabitants known to have lived on our continent.

This valley of the Yazoo was their field. The entire delta was in a high state of cultivation. Every acre was utilized for agricultural purposes. Thousands of canals were dug and used for irrigation and navigation, and the pottery discovered shows that they manufactured superior articles of earthenware for domestic purposes.

I found nothing in the course of my explorations to throw any light on the reason why the prehistoric builders erected their colossal structures' in mound fashion. Perhaps they were .intended for defense and it is certain that the mounds were bulk in military formation and were provided with cisterns for water.

The erections surveyed by me were of the usual height, ranging ' from .five to thirty feet, while the areas enclosed were from twenty-five to forty acres in extern and a few much larger.

It will be interesting in connection with the discovery of the metropolis of the mound builders to review briefly the known facts of the work of these ancient people. To begin from the north; that portion of the United States which lies between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains presents in three groups' at once the oldest and the rudest monuments of by-gone times.

The first group extending from ;the sources of the Allegheny to the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri; the second occupying the Mississippi valley, vaguely so defined: and the third stretching from South Carolina to Texas.
These several groups, apparently with very little difference among themselves, consist of numberless mounds, and circumvallation of earth and stone—fifteen hundred of the latter and 10.000 of the former being said to stud Ohio alone. The erections themselves range from five to thirty feet in height:, while the areas enclosed—generally of some symmetrical figure, such as a circle or ellipse, rectangular parallelogram or regular polygon—vary from twenty to forty acres. The circumvallations moreover, seem generally to contain the mounds: and sometimes a smaller circumvallation is surrounded by a larger one.

Whether these colossal structures were intended for worship or for defense, it is impossible to decide; more probably, however, they were of a military character, provided, as they ordinarily were, with cisterns for water. But, whatever their origin, they derive interest from the analogous fact that, within the same territorial limits, have been dug up vases of earthenware or copper in elegant forms, pipe bowls decorated with human heads of the type of the existing aborigines ,or with those of birds, etc.. domestic utensils, personal ordainments hatchets of stone, and, lastly, weapons of copper or mica, or shell or obsidian.

Further investigation of the ruins of the great city will no doubt bring to light rare antiquities of a prehistoric nature. I made no attempt to dig for treasure. It was enough for me to know that I stood where the most ancient of people had lived and labored, fought and struggled, died and disappeared. leaving behind them only such gigantic monuments as that I have described to mark the spot where they had been.
There could be no doubt at all in any mind, with the evidence before me, that this was the grand metropolis of the prehistoric race known as the Mound Builders. A close examination disclosed the remains of fireplaces and the shattered crockery used in cooking.—

Extract from the story by Lamar Fontaine, written for The Herald, describing his discovery of prehistoric relics in Arkansas.

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