Serpent Mound Discovered Within Chicago's City Limits

Serpent Mound Discovered Within Chicago's City Limits

The Serpent Mound is located in Thatcher Woods outside of Chicago, Illinois.  The Serpent is believed to have been constructed by the Winnebago Sioux Indians that were part of the Hopewell mound builders that constructed burial and effigy mounds in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Historian, George Catlin Places the Mandan Sioux at the Serpent Mound in Ohio in Ancient Times

Historian, George Catlin Places the Mandan Sioux at the Serpent Mound in Ohio in Ancient Times

The Dakota Sioux not only built mounds for their dead, but also constructed Serpent Mounds in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

“Prehistoric America,” Vol. II. Stephen Peet, 1892 

    “It is well known that Catlin, the celebrated painter maintained that the Mandan’s, who were a branch of the Dakotas, originally were located in Ohio, the very region in which the great serpent is found, but that they migrated from that region, passing down the Ohio River, and up the Missouri, and that they became nearly extinct by the time they reached the headwaters of the Missouri.  I think there may be a pretty fair deduction drawn, that they formerly occupied the lower part of the Missouri, and even the Ohio and Muskinghum, and have gradually made their way up the Missouri to where they are now.”

Archaeological Map of Illinois and Indiana Mound Builders

Archaeological Map of Illinois and Indiana Mound Builders

For Directions to 85 burial mound and earthwork sites in Indiana

                                   Best Travel Guide to the Mound Builders

Serpent Mound and Burial Mounds in Chicago, Illinois

Serpent Mound and Burial Mounds in Chicago, Illinois

THE most southerly point on the west shore of Lake Michigan where traces of ancient labor can be found, is about four miles south of the “State line” between Wisconsin and Illinois. These works are doubtless burial-places, and consist of a series of round or conical mounds, nine in number, from three to five feet in height, and about thirty feet in diameter, arranged in a serpentine row along the crest of a ridge of sand, an ancient lake beach, which extends for many miles along the lake shore. (See Fig. 1.)

Also found in Chicago is this Serpent Mound located within a Park in the City.  The  location of this serpent mound is somewhere in Thatcher Park, but I have yet to investigate it to give an exact location.


      We first saw this beach in the road three miles north of Racine, and traced it at intervals into the State of Illinois. It has an elevation estimated at fifty feet above the present level of the lake, and at the mounds affords a good view of the country on both sides. It is here about half a mile distant from the lake. It consists of sand and gravel, and rests upon a bed of hard clay. There is no doubt that this ridge extends south to the end of the lake, and is connected with the remarkable series of ridges described by Prof. Shepard.¹ It is occupied by the main road from Milwaukee to Chicago, and is frequently so broad on the top as to afford room for buildings.

Map shows locations of trails and Indian Burial Mounds in the City of Chicago 1 Amer. Journ. of Science and Arts, XXXIV. 134. Serpent links from “Mound builders” Ohio's Serpent Mound Visitors Guide http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2013/01/ohios-serpent-mound-visitors-guide.html Origins of Ohio's Great Serpent Mound is in Scotland http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2013/01/origins-of-ohios-famous-serpent-mound.html Ohio's Great Serpent Mound Visitors Guide http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2013/01/ohios-serpent-mound-visitors-guide.html Visual Tour of the Serpent Mounds in the Ohio Valley http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2012/12/visual-tour-of-serpent-mounds-in-ohio.html Large Stone Alter Reported Near Ohio's Famous Serpent Mound http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2013/01/large-stone-alter-reported-near-ohios.html Serpent Mound Discovered in Indiana http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2012/04/serpent-mound-discovered-in-indiana.html Serpent Effigy and Indian Fort Wisconsin http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2012/02/serpent-effigy-and-indian-fort-works-in.html Possible Serpent Effigies in Waukesha County, Wisconsin http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2012/02/possible-serpent-effigies-in-waukesha.html Adena Serpentine Enclosure in Hamilton County, Ohio http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2011/11/adena-serpentine-enclosure-in-hamilton.html Ohio Mounds: Adena Hilltop Serpentine Enclosure in Hamilton County http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2011/11/ohio-mounds-adena-hilltop-serpentine.html Serpent Mound in Peebles, Ohio and its Ancient Symbolism http://moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2011/09/serpent-mound-in-peebles-ohio-ans-its.html