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Group's work to preserve Kincaid Mounds nearly complete

BY ADAM TESTA, THE SOUTHERN

Sunday, October 5, 2008 11:16 PM CDT

MASSAC COUNTY - Mary H. Bremer of Metropolis had never visited Kincaid Mounds, but she felt a need to improve and preserve the historic site.

Ten years ago, Bremer formed a committee of volunteers to begin restoration work at the site, which is about 15 miles from Metropolis on the Massac-Pope county line.

Mounds on the site had once been the base of houses and other structures used by chieftains of the Mississippian tribe of Native Americans beginning around the year 1050. Archeological evidence shows occupation of the site until about 1400.

Various families owned the site through America's early years, including the Kincaid family, who named the site and built their home atop the largest known mound. The state of Illinois purchased the Massac County portion of the property in the 1970s, but parts of the site in Pope County remain under private ownership.

"You could drive by it, and it would look like you were seeing woods," Bremer said, referencing trees the state let grow at the site. "Most people didn't even know the mounds were there."

Intentions were to protect the mounds, but the trees "were doing more harm than vandals ever could" to the archeological value of the site, she said.

When the Kincaid Mounds Support Organization approached the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency about improving the site, clearing the mounds was the top priority, Bremer said. After that came the construction of a scenic overlook and interpretive panels to tell the history and significance of the site.

Early plans called for the overlook to be farther west than its current location, but archeological evidence suggested the proposed site was actually a bulldozed mound.

"Mounds most likely would have been considered sacred places, and it just wouldn't be right to build a parking lot on top of someone's sacred spot," said Paul Welch, associate professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The overlook's location was moved closer to the Pope County line, and the structure was completed and dedicated in December. Now, as the site's support group moves into its 10th year, efforts have shifted to oil-and-chipping the 4-mile road leading to the site.

Material expenses to chip a 1-mile stretch of road total about $11,300, said Jim Modglin, treasurer of the Kincaid Mounds Support Organization. The group has previously received $10,000 per year in funding from the state, but cuts to the state budget may reduce that figure this year.

Committee member Martha Schwegman said seeing the improvements to the site 10 years after work started gives her a feeling of serenity. Her husband, John, who also serves on the committee, said it's a fulfilling sense to see the work mostly completed.

Others have begun to take notice as well.

"They've just really turned things around down there," said Brian Butler, senior scientist with the Center for Archeological Investigations at SIUC.

adam.testa@thesouthern.com

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