Ancient Grand River Indian culture

A look inside Newaygo County mounds

Newaygo County had more Indian mounds than any other county in Michigan. W. B. Hinsdale estimated there were 93 in the county out of 1,068 mounds and 113 earthworks in the state. By comparison, Wisconsin was estimated to have 10,000 mounds.

I see a few reasons for this vast discrepancy; the first is that Wisconsin was part of the overland route of the Old Copper Culture. It was especially active during the Hopewell times with copper processing stations. Copper would sometimes be hammered into thin sheets for easier transport. The second reason is Wisconsin was much more influenced by the Cahokia Mississippian culture than Michigan was. Cahokian Mississippian was a mound building culture.

According to Hinsdale, “The maps indicate that the valleys of the Saginaw, the Grand, the Clinton, Muskegon, Pere Marquette and the St Joseph Rivers were the centers of greatest mound construction” in Michigan. Saginaw had the largest amount of villages and Newaygo County had the second largest number. In all Hinsdale estimated there were 748 “busy centers of aboriginal life” in Michigan.

Professor Hinsdale wrote, “The largest mounds, it would appear, were located upon the middle reaches of the Grand River and in Wayne County in the vicinity of Detroit.” The Grand River runs from east of Jackson to Grand Haven. His ‘middle reaches’ is probably the eastern reaches around present day Grand Rapids. In his book Primitive Man in Michigan Hinsdale notes, “The mounds of the Grand River Valley bear striking resemblances both in structure and contents to many mounds in Ohio and the South.”