Living in Vermillion SD in the late 70s and early 80s, I knew there was a place called Spirit Mound that was a little way out of town. However, I did not know why it had that name. I do not remember my teachers talking about the history of the place. When my family first moved there, the area was empty land. My brothers tell stories of sliding down the hill on old truck hoods. Mainly in later years we knew it as a farm lot. Mostly high school kids used the area as a spot to go drinking because it was out of town.
I continued my education at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. I majored in English Education with a history minor. I was even required to read the Lewis and Clark journals for a class. But I do not recall anyone sharing that our close by Spirit Mound was a place special in the story of the expedition.
Over this last year, my first working for the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, IA, I realized that I needed to visit Spirit Mound. I had learned that the Spirit Mound Trust, the National Park Service, and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks had worked to restore the site as much as possible to the conditions that Lewis and Clark saw. Memorial Day came and the weather was gorgeous, so I drove from Sioux City out to the site. I was not prepared for the amazing changes. What had been a farm lot and old buildings was alive. Now the land is planted with prairie species. Song birds and colorful butterflies are abundant. A well-maintained gravel walking trail leads to the summit. I walked the trail, marveling at the view.
What I did not find was any spirits that the legend of Spirit Mound warned against.
In Clark’s journal, he explained the legend of Spirit Mound as follows:
“…and by the different nations of Indians in this quarter is Suppose to be the residence of Deavels. That they are in human form with remarkable large heads, and about 18 inches high, that they are very watchful and are arm’d with Sharp arrows with which they Can Kill at a great distance; they are Said to kill all persons who are So hardy as to attempt to approach the hill; they state that tradition informs them that many Indians have Suffered by these little people. So much do the Maha [Omaha], Soues [Sioux], Ottoes [Otoes] and other neighboring nations believe this fable, that no Consideration is Sufficient to induce them to approach the hill. One evidence which the Inds give for believing this place to be the residence of some unusial Spirits is that they frequently discover a large assemblage of Birds about this mound…”
On August 25, 1804, Lewis and Clark and ten other men walked nine miles from their camp to reach Spirit Mound. They wanted to see this place that so frightened the native people of the area. They did not find any spirits. What they found was a natural landform “mound” consistent with the surrounding terrain.
Today Spirit Mound is one of a few remaining physical features identifiable as a place Lewis and Clark visited and recorded. As I hiked the trail to the top, I could almost imagine the Corps of Discovery exploring this feature. I promised myself that I would revisit this site many times.
