A Photographic Tour of Iroquois Indian Mounds in Noble County, Indiana
36 burial mound sites were investigated in Noble County. 7 of these ancient burial mound sites can still be viewed today. Nothing is preserved or even recognized as a historic site.
The mounds could date from 2000 B. C. -1200 A.D. Numerous remains were found, making it the most abundant County in Indiana of prehistoric remains. Discover ancient Indiana with all the photos, directions, and historical documentation. For the giants found in Northern Indiana www.nephilimgiants.net : Mass Graves of Giant Humans Found Across Indiana
The largest Iroquois burial mound in Noble County, Indiana was located on the Otis Grannis farm. Two additional burial mounds were also described at the same location. Three burial mounds in a group are very similar to what you find in southern Ohio associated with the Adena.
History of Noble and Whitley Counties, Indiana 1882
Mr. Denney opened two mounds on the farm of Samuel Myers, Orange Township, both containing nothing but Charcoal; he also opened three more near there, on the farm of Otis Grannis, one of them being eight feet in height and about eighty feet in diameter at the base. Three quite well-preserved skeletons were taken from the mound, one of the skulls being almost in entirety, and having a much better frontal development than the average. On this mound was an oak tree four feet in diameter and probably more than three hundred years old. This mound is probably the largest in the county. Two other mounds near it, of average size, contained a bed of charcoal each.
Indiana Geological Report, 1875
Subsequently, Mr. G.C. Glatte, of Kendallville, took us eight miles north, to the farm of E. Shaddock, on the west side of Cree Lake, where a group of seven mounds is located. on a tract of land of about twenty acres. The largest and central mound of the group is sixty feet in an east-west direction, and twenty-five feet north-south. Six others of smaller dimensions are located about the central mound, at unequal distances from it and each other, arranged without the least reference to any apparent plan or system.
With the assistance of Charles Weingart, a neighboring farmer, two excavations were made in the largest mound, about twenty feet from either end. In each excavation, on the surface level upon which the mound was built, a human skeleton was found; in both instances, they were lying with heads to the north on the right side, facing west. The bones had become so softened by long exposure in the ground that it was impossible to raise any single bone entirely. In the west opening, Caleb Cooke, with patient care, removed the earth from about the cranium and took it up in pieces, which, after drying, were glued together, making the specimen almost complete. In the cranium, just referred to, the temporal bone, left side, had been crushed through, leaving an irregular hole about one and half inches in diameter; within the skull, with sand that filled the cavity, two small balls or cakes of clay was used as a dressing for the wound or to high the ugly scar at the time of burial.
From the opening in the west end, the cranium was removed entirely without disturbing the enclosed, compact, wet sand; it was carefully packed in sawdust and brought to the state museum in good condition. Evidence of fire--ashes, small bits of charcoal and calcined earth - were found in this mound, but no implements or vessels--want of time prevented the examination of other mounds in this group.
This burial mound is located just east of the group of burial mounds described on Cree Lake.
