The six burial mounds in Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul, MN are all that remain of the 3 to 4 dozen mounds that once lined the bluffs. The others were destroyed in the development along the bluffs that occurred in the last half of the 1800's. Approximately 2000 years of local history was nearly erased during those five decades.

Fortunately, by the efforts of several citizens of that era, we have fairly detailed surveying and excavation records of what still existed in the 1880's. This webpage is a compilation of those records. Surveying maps have been super- imposed over present day aerial photos to allow identification of the positions of the destroyed mounds relative to present land features. The records of artifacts found in mound excavations have been summarized for each mound (when available).

Some of the decisions made in those days come as a surprise to our 21st century mindset. For example, many of the mounds were deliberately removed in the initial 1896 park landscaping based on the justification that they blocked the view of the river. And while the excavation techniques used by T.H. Lewis were quite sophisticated and detailed for his day, some aspects of it seem "Indiana Jones-ish" by present day archaeology standards. (For example, Lewis excavated seven different mounds on the bluff in the single day of August 18th, 1882!) However, were it not for his efforts we would have no information about what once existed there.

A further unfortunate development happened sometime during the century after T.H. Lewis. Somehow nearly all of the hundreds of artifacts collected by Lewis from the mounds on the St. Paul bluffs have been lost (Woolworth p.54). This was a great loss as far as understanding when and by who the mounds were built. In the 20th century archaeologists learned to use varying styles of Native American pottery to date what era the artifacts were deposited. However Lewis' written records are too vague for modern day archaeologists to discern the pertinent characteristic features. Lacking the actual pottery sherds for examination, archaeologists can only make approximate guesses as to the date of construction and cultural affiliation of the various mounds on Dayton's Bluff and in Indian Mounds Park. Some mounds had features that indicate that they are as old as 1500 to 2000 years, but the excavation records for most mounds are not detailed enough to make an age estimate.

Listed below are the sources of excavation records used to put together this webpage. They are cited in the text by giving the author's last name and page number.

Two articles by T.H. Lewis published in American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, Volume 18, (1896):
"Pre-Historic Remains at St. Paul, Minnesota", p. 207-210 and "Mounds and Stone Cists at St. Paul, Minnesota", p. 314-320

Aborigines of Minnesota, (1911), by N.H. Winchell.

An Historical Study and a Cultural Resources Survey of Indian Mounds Park Ramsey County, Minnesota , (1981), by N.L. Woolworth.

Minnesota's Indian Mounds and Burial Sites, (2003), by C.M Arzigian and K.P. Stevenson.

Some modications have been made to parts of quotes in order to increase the readabilty of the excerpts. Those portions are shown in [square brackets]. Misspellings are left as they appeared (e.g. "muscles" instead of "mussels").