During the late 1800s, the Minnesota Historical Society employed T. H. Lewis to do an archeological survey of rock art and Indian burial mounds in the Upper Midwest. Lewis’s careful notes, drawings and publications are, in some cases, the only remaining record of rock art that has since been destroyed.

On this date in 1883, Lewis charted a series of mounds along the Sheyenne River east of what is now Valley City State University. The burial site is estimated to have been used from the 1st century A.D. until about 1700.

In 1992, Valley City astronomers built an adjacent Medicine Wheel that replicates Indian Medicine Wheels once found across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. The wheel is 68-feet across, with 28 field-stone spokes marking the passage of time from new moon to new moon.

Source:

Stickler, Joe Ph.D. Department of Science, VCSU. <http://medicinewheel.vcsu.edu/>

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