{"id":2494,"date":"2026-09-24T15:40:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/?p=2494"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:04:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T20:04:57","slug":"prairie-mounds-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/2026\/09\/24\/prairie-mounds-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairie Mounds & Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lidar image above shows various cultural features and a large number of prairie mounds northeast of Siloam Springs, Arkansas.<\/p>\n

I’ve been reading up on prairie mounds. What are prairie mound? Small mounds dot a huge area of the Mid-South and down into Texas and Louisiana as well as much of Kansas and the Ozarks. They are usually less than 30 feet in diameter and from 1 to perhaps 5′ tall. They dot mostly level ground to slight slopes on open prairies. They have been attributed variously from Indian mounds, burrowing animals, frost heave, and a host of other speculative origins. But the prevailing science says they are relics of a past climate where desert like conditions on a tundra like terrain post-Ice Age, created these mounds as prevailing winds from the northwest blew fine silts and sand which accumulated around clumps of scrub or weeds. As time progressed these mounds grew during drought conditions.<\/p>\n

It was long assumed that this occurred some 5,000 or more years ago as the ice retreated north. Known as the Last Glacial Maximum, it was assumed for decades that man arrived in North America after the ice started to retreat. New science however, makes it clear that man was here much longer than that. Some of the last prairie mound research now suggests these prairie mounds or prairie pimples are much younger. Also, their origin is different from the mima mounds in the Northwest and upper Midwest. Quickly, Mima mounds are often attributed to pocket gopher and the actual origins disputed. Prairie mounds of the mid-west and south are more commonly attributed to wind blown sediments. In fact, the research suggests the mounds may be as recent as 5,000 to only 1200 or so years ago.<\/p>\n

This begs the question. How common is drought? Can we claim climate change is driving drought with a clear and long history of repeated periods of drought? We know from archeology that the Southwest has had frequent droughts lasting from a few years to decades. Drought in the 11th and 16th century is documented by not only archeology but from early accounts from Spanish explorers in the case of the latter.<\/p>\n

Mounds NE of Siloam on Stump Prairie\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearly it took repeated drought periods with the right conditions – drought, northwest winds, and bare ground that the source dirt could be transported to the new site. This implies this is not a single event but perhaps repeated drought conditions were necessary to build the mounds. So, is drought an indication of \u201cman-made\u201d climate change? Probably not. Perhaps these changes in climate are long-term, repeated events that are actually part of the \u201cclimate\u201d as we know it. The hubris of man claims we are creating a new climate, but perhaps the better question is what impact will climate have on man. Will we have enough water for people located in the places they are now? Can we grow enough food if the high plains is no longer our bread basket. Inquiring minds want to know.<\/p>\n

References from the Arkansas Archeological Survey can be found further explaining was these mounds are and are not. They are not to be confused with the mounds that Caddoan Indians created a thousand years ago.\u00a0 https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/features\/prairie-mounds\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lidar image above shows various cultural features and a large number of prairie mounds northeast of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. I’ve been reading up on prairie mounds. What are prairie mound? Small mounds dot a huge area of the Mid-South and down into Texas and Louisiana as well as much of Kansas and the Ozarks. They are usually less\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2494"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2502,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494\/revisions\/2502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roxnoil.com\/wpadmin\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}