Pitter's Cherokee Trails - Native Americans in Mississippi County, Missouri
FROM THE WEBSITE
Reavis, in 1878, described his impression of the Mounds. "These Mounds are invariably situated on the banks of some body of water, and are of various sizes, ranging from 3 feet to 20 in height."

There are nearly one thousand of them in Mississippi County. Twenty-five miles south of Charleston, back of Wolf Island. On the Beckwith Farm is situated one of the most remarkable mounds erected by these strange people. It is about 40 feet high, 200 feet square at the base, and 150 square at the top.
On the east is a bayou, supposed to have once been the bed of the Mississippi River, while the other three sides area surrounded by a canal, which was deep enough and wide enough to float an ordinary steamboat. On the top of the mounds are eleven smaller ones, there being one in the center, the other on the edges.

No exploration has been made, except some incidental digging. The owner of the land upon which it is situated has conscientious convictions against any disturbance the sanctity of the graves of any people, whether ancient or modern.

In a mound a few miles east of Charleston, from which many pieces of pottery have been taken, many fragments of skeletons were discovered, which evidence almost as much care as was bestowed on the bodies of the ancient Egyptians. The bodies were placed in a reclining position, with the faces turned to the east.



On the farm of J. H. Drew, eight miles south of East Prairie, on north side of Upton Slough the most famous site in Mississippi County, earlier called Beckwith Fort, has now been renamed Towosaghy State Park. Archaeologists on the Towosaghy site claim it may prove to be one of the most important remaining Indian city sites in the southeastern part of the United States. In the future years Towosaghy is to be excavated, and the original buildings reconstructed, providing a "living museum" of the life of the ancient peoples who inhabited Mississippi County.