Ancient mounds show how people lived before Columbus

By CARIN TUNNEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Down a narrow rural road in southwestern Michigan, an empty corner has neatly mowed grass and two tiny rolling hills. The mounds would likely go unnoticed if not for a small historical marker that most drivers pass without slowing. But hidden beneath the unremarkable ground lie answers to Michigan’s ancient past. This and similar earthworks sites tell us how ancient hunters and gatherers interacted with their environment in a time before written language documented how they lived. Unlike the majority of mounds across Michigan, these survived development, agriculture and human curiosity.