Mention[1]
History of exploration
editEarly on, Meek, F.B. and Hayden, F.V. were the first report this section of the Kansas Permian rock as "Bed 24" in their 1858 survey of the Kansas River, a few years after the founding of Manhattan, Kansas.[2]
| Buffalo Mound | |
|---|---|
  Buffalo Mound Location of Buffalo Mound in Kansas | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 387 m (1,270 ft)[3] |
| Coordinates | 39°3′42.37″N 96°4′25.48″W / 39.0617694°N 96.0737444°W[3] GNIS feature ID: 476615 |
| Geography | |
| Location | Shawnee County, Kansas, United States |
Buffalo Mound is a natural landmark in Wabaunsee County, Kansas, as mentioned in early histories and scientific journals.[4][5] The site also holds significance to some Indian cultures and is a burial location.[6]
The common name of the landmark came from the mound's resemblance to the back of a buffalo.[7]
Today, the mound is a landmark next to Interstate 70 within the incorporated limits of Topeka, recognizable from several miles on the Interstate by the emergence of the buffalo shape above much closer hills; owing to the greater distance, the buffalo shape often has some visual contrast to the nearer ridges. However, in the mid-1800s the Mound was the location of the last villages of the Kaw reservation that were all destroyed by the Great Flood of 1844, causing the tribe to sell out in 1846 and take a new reservation around Council Grove astride the Santa Fe Trail.
Pre-Columbian burial site
editThe first U.S. settlers well knew that prior settlements used prominent natural mounds for burial or cremation of their dead. A succession of cultures, including Archaic, Woodland, Central Plains, and historic (Pawnee, Kanza, and Potawatomi) components, had used the summits along the Kansas River for worship and burials, with a concordant succession of different traditional forms for those burials. By the time of U.S. settlement, the ceremonial locations generally appeared as piles of stones on the summits.[8][9] Originally appearing as human-made "rock pile on its summit,"[10] the burial site is now just discernable from the Interstate as a typical sumac-covered mound.
Geological exploration
editAn early scientific mention of the landmark is Bourgmont's 1724 Journal. Having just crossed the Kansas River and now keeping Mill Creek on their right. Bourgmont's expedition camped for a night at the base of the large hill; but made no mention whether the future location of the three 1830's Kanza villages held any special significance to their Kanza guides in the early 1700s.[11][12][13]
Kansas Glaciation/Mission Lake (proglacial)
editREFLECTIONS.
From these observations I would draw the following conclusions: 1. This Shunganunga creek existed during glacial times very much the same as it is now. 2. When the ice-field reached the creek in its southward progress, it crossed the lower portion of the stream as far up as section 11, half a mile northeast of the mound. 3. From that point, near the creamery, up to and beyond Burnett's cabin, a distance of two miles, the ice never crossed the Shunganunga, except for a very short time. 4. The ice never touched Burnett's mound, though it stood around it on three sides to a height equal to or greater than the top of the mound.
p100 GLACIAL LAKES.
An ancient shore-line is distinctly to be seen surrounding the mound at an ele- vation of about 50 feet below its summit. About 30 feet below this a second shore line is seen. This lower one is nearly 200 feet in breadth on the north side of the mound. This follows along the hillside to the west as far as the
was at Maple Hill, exceeding 200 feet. It overflowed southward into Mission lake. The top of Buffalo mound, like the top of Burnett's mound, stuck up out of w
References
edit- ^ C.A. Prosser (1894). "Kansas River Section of the Permo-Carboniferous and Permian Rocks of Kansas" (PDF). Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. 6: 29–54. Note: A significant theme of this work is the overview, comparison, and correlation of the prior publication on the Permian rocks of Kansas.
- ^ C.A. Prosser (1894). "Kansas River Section of the Permo-Carboniferous and Permian Rocks of Kansas" (PDF). Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. 6: 30-31.
- ^ a b "Feature Detail Report for: Buffalo Mound". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ F.B. Meek and F.V. Hayden (1859). "Geological Explorations in Kansas Territory" (PDF). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. IX (9). Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University: 12. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
Some fifteen or sixteen miles west of the point where the road crosses Mission creek, at a locality six or seven miles south of the Kansas, there is a high elevation known by the name of Buffalo mound, rising as much as four hundred and fifty or sixty feet above the river. At one place a large creek called on the maps. Upper Mill creek, sweeps close along the northern base of this elevation, and has carried away the loose debris so as to leave the lower strata well exposed.
- ^ Erasmus Haworth and assistants. "Chapter VI--A Geologic Section along the Kansas River from Kansas City to McFarland, Including a Section along Mill Creek". The University Geological Survey of Kansas. Volume I (1896). Retrieved 2023-05-07.
Comparison of Buffalo Hill Section with Meek and Hayden's Section
{{cite journal}}:|volume=has extra text (help) - ^ Lines, p. 147. "These mounds by the way are objects of interest to the Indians as they are in the habit of selecting the highest peaks as places of sepulture for their "Chiefs," ...."
- ^ Rex C. Buchanan; James R. McCauley (1987). Roadside Kansas. University Press of Kansas (Kansas Geological Survey). p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7006-0322-0.
339.0 At this point the road passes an exposure of Janesville Shale and crosses Buffalo Mound. At 1,273 feet elevation, this hill is more than 300 feet above Mill creek valley, just to the north. It was reportedly named because its shape resembles a buffalo's back. Geologists consider Buffalo Mound a landmark on the eastern edge of the Flint Hills. It is capped by Grenola Limestone, ....
- ^ Lauren W. Ritterbush (August 2009). "Chapters 1-2". Manhattan Archaeological Survey Phase I and II. City of Manhattan, Kansas. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
Included are Archaic, Woodland, Central Plains tradition, historic Native American, and Historic Euroamerican components ....
- ^ Lauren W. Ritterbush (August 2009). "Chapter 3". Manhattan Archaeological Survey Phase I and II. City of Manhattan, Kansas. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
- ^ O. P. Sutherland. "First-Order Triangulation in Kansas (1927 Datum)" (PDF). Special Publication (179). United States Department of Commerce: 48. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
Buffalo Mound, azimuth mark (Wabaunsee County, F. D. Granger, 1888).-On a prominent rocky butte about 3 miles southwest of the old town of Maple Hill. The butte is well known in the vicinity and has a large rock pile on its summit, said to have been placed there by the Indians. The station is a few feet south of the rock pile and is marked by a bottle of ashes buried 8 inches below the surface of the ground.
Note: The surveyor did not directly disturb the burial. - ^ "1724 Journal Entries for Éttienne de Veniard, sieur de Bourgmont" (PDF). nebraskastudies.org. History Nebraska. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
We made camp about four leagues from the said river. A large hill is on our left ....
- ^ John Harley Gow. Persistent Mirage: How the ‘Great American Desert’ Buries Great Plains Indian Environmental History (PDF). University of Saskatchewan. p. 230. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
[footnote] 85 Bourgmont Journal — October 11, 1724. The large hill was Buffalo Mound, Paxico KS. [Point 80]]
- ^ Isaac McCoy, Maps of the Indian Lands in Kansas 1830-1838, retrieved 2023-05-14 Note the concentration of the new Kansas villages at the mouth of the Wanongehoo River, now called Mill Creek. These are the villages that were destroyed in the Great Flood of 1844, prompting the Kaw's 1846 move to Council Grove.
- ^ B. B. Smyth (1896). "The Buried Moraine of the Shunganunga" (PDF). Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 1895–1896. Kansas Academy of Science: 87–104. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
The ice never touched Burnett's mound, though it stood around it on three sides to a height equal to or greater than the top of the mound.