Newstory: Ancient Artifacts Found

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Ancient artifacts found buried in the dirt of Moniteau County
By Daniel Klote Democrat staff

The Missouri River flows eastward from its head in Three Forks, Mont. to an area just north of St. Louis where its waters crash into the Mississippi River.

It is considered one of the great rivers of the United States, cutting its way across the central part of the continent, the last leg of its journey bisecting Missouri. The river's deep, muddy waters have left the state with fertile bottoms and rough hewn rock cliffs.

Harold Gentzsch, Jamestown, stood on one such bluff, the site he had chosen to build his house. On a clear night, the lights of Jefferson City could be seen in the distance, blinking serenely in the dark. The place that would be his backyard ended in a sheer cliff, where decades before a rock quarry had been, overgrown and weed choked now. It was a perfect place for a home.

The only concern, and a small one, was a raised mound of dirt on the edge of the bluff, just before the drop off. An old, dead elm tree with clutching roots and leafless limbs stood beside it. Gentzsch thought both would have to be removed to have a suitable backyard.

It took nothing more than some strenuous pushing for the tree to be felled, plunging into the quarry below, tearing dirt from the side of the mound as it toppled. As Gentzsch describes it now, ?When that tree fell, a smell came out of the mound that I've never smelled.? He said it was like rot and some kind of preservative, ancient and lost.

What Gentzsch had accidentally found was an American Indian burial mound. In the dirt that had been torn loose, he discovered a weathered-white human tooth and a finger bone. Gentzsch replaced the remains and dirt and smoothed the land back over. The faint raise of the mound is there today in his backyard, years later.

Remnants of ancient ures can be found throughout Moniteau County, and in the month of November, American Indian Month, one can turn an eye to the past and remember the ones who were here long before. Water has always been a focal point of people, and with our creeks and the Missouri River on the edge of the county, this land is ripe with evidence of the American Indians. They are here, nestled in the black-top soil, mounds that are apart of what we think of as our naturally rolling hills. . . . .

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