A couple of years ago, I blogged about our day trip to view the Indian mounds in southern Wisconsin. I had completely forgotten, when I wrote that post, that we'd briefly seen an Indian mound in West Virginia earlier that year, when we visited Wendy's grandparents to celebrate her grandma's birthday. We didn't have a chance to investigate it at the time; we just happened to walk by it after dinner one evening. In hindsight, it was that mound that planted the idea of visiting the mounds near us.
This year we visited Wendy's grandparents again, this time to celebrate her grandpa's birthday. It rained for most of our trip, but on our last day there, the rain finally stopped, allowing us to fully investigate the mound.
So, here it is, the Criel Mound. Or, as I like to call it, "the mound that started it all":
The view from the top:
And here's the one picture I took of it two years ago:
The mound was created as a burial tomb. It contained an upper tomb, with 2 skeletons, and a lower, master tomb, with a central body and 10 other bodies arranged around it in a semi-circle. Before the archaeological significance of the mound was fully appreciated, the top was leveled off to build a judge's stand for horse racing!
The mound was just a short walk from our hotel. I'm glad the rain stopped so we could see it.