Criel Mound

Criel Mound, also known as the South Charleston Mound, is a Native American burial mound in South Charleston, West Virginia. Built by the Adena culture, probably around 250–150 BC, it is among the few surviving mounds of the Kanawha Valley Mounds and is thought to date from the Woodland period after 500 B.C.

The mound was originally conical, 33 feet (10 m) high and 173 feet (53 m) in diameter at the base. It was the second-largest burial mound of its kind in West Virginia, after Grave Creek Mound. In 1840, residents leveled its top to erect a judges' stand while holding horse races around the base.

Excavated in 1883–84 by Professor Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution under Col. P.W. Norris, the mound contained thirteen skeletons. Eleven lay at the base, where a large central skeleton was surrounded by ten others in a spoke-like pattern. Arrowheads, lanceheads, shell and pottery fragments, a fish-dart, and a sheet of hammered native copper were also found.

Criel Mound is now the centerpiece of Staunton Park, a small municipal park maintained by the city of South Charleston. It hosts community activities including arts and crafts fairs, revivals, memorial services, sunrise services, and town carnivals. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Earthen monuments of this kind in Eastern North America served as graves, platforms, and symbols.

The mound was originally conical in shape. Residents of the area leveled the top in 1840 to erect a judges' stand, as they ran horse races around the base of the mound at the time.

The Criel Mound was excavated in 1883–84 under the auspices of the US Bureau of Ethnology and the supervision of Col. P.W. Norris. The excavation was performed by Professor Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution. Inside the mound, Professor Thomas found thirteen skeletons: two near the top of the mound, and eleven at the base. The skeletons at the base consisted of a single very large but badly decayed skeleton at the center, a "once most powerful man" which according to A.R. Sines, who assisted Col. Norris in the excavation, measured "Six feet, 8 3/4 inches" (205 cm) from head to heel (the Smithsonian nomination form added "but the extreme height indicated might have been an exaggeration created by earth pressing down on the burial"). This skeleton was surrounded by ten other skeletons arranged in a spoke-like pattern, with their feet pointing toward the central skeleton. The skeletons at the base had been wrapped in elm bark and were lying on a floor of white ash and bark. Several artifacts were found buried with the skeletons, including arrowheads, lanceheads, and shell and pottery fragments. The central skeleton was accompanied by a fish-dart, a lance-head, and a sheet of hammered native copper near the head. Holes found at the base of the mound suggest that the bodies at the base had been enclosed in a wooden vault.

Kanawha Valley Mounds

The Criel Mound is part of the second-largest known concentration of Adena mounds and circular enclosures which Cyrus Thomas called the "Kanawha Valley Mounds". This area extends for eight miles (13 km) along the upper terraces of the Kanawha River floodplain, in the vicinity of present-day Charleston. In 1894, Cyrus Thomas reported 50 mounds in this area, ranging from 3’ to 35’ in height and from 35’ to 200’ in diameter. He also reported finding eight to ten circular earthworks, enclosing from 1 to 30 acres (120,000 m2). Stone mounds dotted the bluffs above the floodplain.

While many of the original Adena mounds were destroyed during later development of the area, a few remain. The Wilson Mound is in a private cemetery in South Charleston. A recreation of the original Shawnee Reservation Mound exists in Institute, West Virginia.

Staunton Park

Today, the Criel Mound is the centerpiece of Staunton Park, a small municipal park maintained by the city of South Charleston. It is a gathering place for community activities, such as arts and crafts fairs, revivals, memorial services, sunrise services, and town carnivals.