LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

The Republican Centennial Edition, Wapello, Louisa County, Iowa
Thursday, July 12, 1956, Section Three, Page 50
Transcribed by Shirley Plumb, July 1, 2019

ALFALFA FIRST RAISED IN COUNTY NEAR GRANDVIEW
On Site of Ancient Indian Village

    According to available existing records, what was probably the first attempts to raise alfalfa in Louisa County was successfully accomplished by late Farrie Gast of Grandview Township in 1898.

    Mr. Gast was the father of Dan Gast, who now resides on the old Gast homestead where the first field of 14 acres of alfalfa was raised and Dan is doing an excellent job following his father’s footsteps.

    It is an interesting item of quite some note that in the Fall of 1955, Dan Gast graded open a large pre-historic Indian mound on his land. This mound contained the remains of only one who was no doubt a great leader and man of importance as he was laid to rest upon a clay floor 4 inches thick which had been smoothed out and hardened to the consistency of concrete. It was circular, approximately 20 feet in diameter and the skeletal remains were surrounded with the items that prehistoric man had. That was three axes made of hammered copper, which denoted that he was a man of great wealth. His head was resting on a circular disc of sheet Mica and the body had been covered with red ochre, a soft red iron ore. There was also a white soapstone pipe buried with him.

    There were probably other items which had disintegrated thru the years. The age of the mound which was built by the race known as “The Mound Builder” was estimated at 300 to 400 years old by an archaeologist present upon the excavation.