The Indian Mound neighborhood is located in the northeast corner of Historic Northeast. The Indian Mound is a geological feature located at Belmont Avenue and Gladstone Boulevard. It is at the east end of Kessler Park and Cliff Drive. The ridge above the Missouri River has probably seen continuous Native American settlement for hundreds of years. Early amateur archeologists found remains of settlements at Hardesty Avenue and at White Avenue along Gladstone Boulevard. When the foundation was dug for Gladstone Elementary School in 1913, the remains of a village including a dance floor were found.
But what is the Mound? Some have said it is a burial site, others a place for signal fires, and some have said it’s just a place where generations have lived and their waste and daily living built up the area.
The original Mound was about 5-feet above grade and over the years a number of “digs” were done at the site. In 1877, a story in the Kansas City Times related the opening of two ancient mounds on the bluff. A stone hearth was found in one mound and the other contained human bones. The location of the second mound wasn’t indicated nor which held the bones. The Journal Post reported in 1897 that a flint arrowhead was found at the top of Indian Mound and later in 1921 the same paper had a story about 25 to 30 arrowheads were dug up “near the top of the mound.”
In 1923 amateur archeologists dug two trenches in a cross shape 5-feet deep and 50-feet long. Found were pestles for grinding grain, spear and arrowheads, flint knives and human bones.
In 1937, with the Mound deteriorating badly, it was decided, as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, to cover the mound with soil. What we see today is the end result of that work.
Indian Mound will probably remain a mystery. A modern, scientific dig would need to remove the 1937 soil and then try to determine where previous digs took place. Only if “virgin” parts of the Mound could be found would it be possible to identify uses through the centuries. That’s not likely to happen and maybe it’s best if it remains just a subject of speculation.
