Today I discovered a great hint of another burial site, possibly my 274th. After 25 plus years of research, this one is new, and leaves one with more questions than answers. I will share what I know.

Here is depicted a conical effigy mound. So as best as I can gather from the description, we are looking west from Evanston Road (now Broadway) with Green Bay Trail (now Clark Street in the background. Clark appears to be the plank road. .  As best as I can figure, This would be about the present site of the Uptown Theatre built 1925 at 4816 N. Broadway, (formerly Evanston Road).  

There are vestiges of a cemetery in the distance which could only be the early years of St Boniface Catholic Cemetery opened 1863. The house at this time is a mystery. 

 EFFIGY MOUNDS

An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth generally containing one or more human burials. They remain places where First Peoples frequent to visit and speak with ancestors, to put down tobacco and to give thanks.

 Scholars believe that effigy mounds were built primarily for spiritual purposes, although most also fulfilled a burial mound function. According to 2011 ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry 89% of conical mounds contain evidence of burials. The Effigy Mound Builders buried one, two or three people in a single mound. These burials were most often done singly – one atop the other in successive years. The effigy mound builders normally did not include grave goods.

 INTAGLIO

Unlike a photo, this was an unfinished Intaglio which is in the family of printing and printmaking techniques. The image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print.

 PLANK ROADS

The plank road in the background, the “Rosehill and Evanston” road ran from Graceland Avenue (Irving Park)  north to Rogers Park, along Clark St.  Plank roads in the Chicago area generally were built between 1848-1855 The Northwestern Plank Road to Wheeling is now Milwaukee Ave. The Western Plank Road is now Irving Park Road from Milwaukee Avenue west to Elgin and Genoa. Ogden Avenue was the Southwest Plank Road to Naperville and beyond, The Blue Island Plank Road followed Blue Island Avenue and then Western Avenue south to Blue Island. One plank road ran south on State Street about 10 miles. The wooden planks, deteriorated rapidly or were stolen and the plank roads were abandoned by the growing number of railroads radiating from Chicago.

 If anyone can offer more information on this particular mound, I will be happy to add to this blog.