These Indian Mounds are located in a park which is situated high above the Mississippi River across from the city center of St. Paul. The overlook is awesome, but I think that I need to call the park service with a complaint. The park is overrun with dandelions and marred by ugly grafitti. Since it's a burial ground, it's a sacred place and needs more care! Its history is outlined on the placque below.
Have you ever been to Cherokee, North Carolina? There, in the woods, is a small recreation of a Cherokee village. Nothing has touched my heart more, than seeing what I could not imagine as well before, ever after I looked at the old growth woods behind our house with different eyes, felt I was walking on sacred ground. Those burial mounds have the same effect. At least they have been protected from destruction. Dandelions I wouldn't mind, here in Austria they let them bloom, part of the landscape, and those green meadows with yellow dots and blue mountains in the background look pretty to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteWe also have many Hopewell mounds near where I live, Kate. My family and I have been to many of them over the years when the children all lived at home. Serpent Mound is the most spectactular. I like your attention to detail and do the community a service and notify the Park Board about the problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd I found it almost funny that the one thing you mentioned that looked bad was the site blooming with dandelions.
The people buried in that mound never saw a dandelion. As hard as that might be to believe, they only arrived here when those first settlers brought them from Europe.
Like so many other things, "from Europe," (diseases, language, starlings, sparrows) this nation, then, was not prepared to cope with the many challenges.
Interesting post.
See the latest windpower technology working here in Brookville.
You go, girl! I love those great little pieces of civic action - ringing the council, writing a "stiff note"....
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see these. We have some huge ones across the Mississippi in the Illinois suburbs (Cahokia Mounds). Most St. Louisans don't know they exist. Unfortunately, they are in an industrial area and one of them is right next to the local NASCAR track.
ReplyDeleteI posted the third and probably last of my strange Toynbee tile series today. Time to get back to normal.
Bob
St. Louis Missouri Daily Photo Blog
Lots of burial mounds down here too, but you're right - this one definitely needs more care & respect.
ReplyDeletekate - I did read about joshua bell; the thing that really struck me about that article was whenever children stopped to listen to him play their parents would always pull them away. Ever since reading that we've been stopping & listening to street musicians with our kids for as long as they want to (which is where my photo came from!)
ReplyDeleteDandelions is not so bad but grafitti is not on it's place.
ReplyDeleteI like this place and your post.
At least they're set apart. There were many, many small mounds such as this along rivers in Louisiana, still are in some places, but since it has always been such fertile farm land, many were leveled down to the rest of the ground for farming over the past couple of hundred years. The known ones are now protected, but still, you might see one situated right between two new homes.
ReplyDeleteI took a photo of one mound the last time Lovely Wife and I were in Louisiana, in an area where I used to ride my bicycle, but has long since been developed.
One of my favorite places to visit in St Paul. Especially when a storm is in the distance.
ReplyDeleteIt's a while since I last visited your site Kate, and the photographs are still looking just fine. I agree completely with your sentiments in this post, it really annoys me when places such as these are allowed to be abused and overgrown.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to this location, but have seen some amazing cityscapes from here.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame about the tagging and the weeds.