Indian Mound

Indian Mound is a Virginia historical marker in Lee County, dedicated 2000.

Rte. 58, just west of Smith Hollow Trail

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A short distance north is the Ely Mound, the best-preserved Indian mound in Virginia. It dates to the Late Woodland-Mississippian Period (AD 1200-1650), during which more complex societies and practices evolved, including chiefdoms and religious ceremonies. Often, temples, elite residences, and council buildings stood atop substructure or townhouse mounds such as Ely Mound. Lucien Carr, assistant curator of the Peabody Museum in Boston, led an excavation here in 1877. By proving the connection between this mound and present-day Indians, Carr refuted the then-popular "lost race" hypothesis for Mound Builders in eastern North America.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1796 · Map of The Tennassee (sic) Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1796 · Kentuckey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1822 · Map Of Kentucky. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1891 · Jonesville, Kentucky (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1895 · Gen. map VII. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Map Of Kentucky, 1822, covering the location of Indian Mound, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map Of Kentucky, 1822, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

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