Serpent Intaglio

Location:  Rice County

Contact:  Coronado-Quivira Museum, 620.257.3941

Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster.  Please do not use without permission.

The past--always intriguing, can sometimes be a vexing puzzle consisting of only tantalizing clues, but no certain answers.   Such is the case with the Serpent Intaglio earthwork in central Kansas.  The earthwork was first noted in the 1920's by school children attending a nearby one-room school house.  They came upon the unusual depression one day while exploring the prairie near their school, and brought it to the attention of their teacher.  The teacher noted that it was certainly interesting, but dismissed it as the result of some natural phenomena--perhaps a buffalo wallow or some such.

An artist's impression of the Serpent Intaglio as part of an ancient Indian ceremony is reproduced in the photo, above right.

About ten years passed before the next notice of the Serpent Intaglio.  A young farm boy, Bob Higgins, was often sent to check the windmill in that pasture.  While the tank filled with water, he would explore the prairie.  He discovered and was intrigued by the unusual depression atop the highest ground in the area, and in which an unusual grass for the area grew.   After serving in World War Two, Mr. Higgins (pictured, left) returned to the area and became a successful farmer and stockman, eventually purchasing the pasture with the usual feature, and grazing cattle there for many years.

Archeologists had been excavating prehistoric Indian villages in the immediate area, but were apparently either unaware of the Serpent or unaware of its significance.  This changed in the 1970's with the "discovery" of the Serpent Intaglio by an archeologist who had worked in the area and heard of the earthwork.  Since then, the site has been excavated, studied, re-excavated, and re-studied many times, and indeed work continues there to this day.   Still there are only intriguing pieces to the puzzle.  What is generally accepted is that the serpent was dug by Native Americans around 1200 AD.  The serpent image had some significance to these peoples, generally representing renewal of life--this has been documented by other excavations in the area.  The presence of a different type of grass growing in the depression can probably be explained by the lack of topsoil due to its removal by the Indians when the serpent was dug.  The "head" of the serpent indicates the point on the horizon where the sun sets on the Summer Solstice, and the "tail" indicates the point on the horizon where the sun comes up on the Winter Solstice.  The depression averages about 10 inches deep by about 3 feet wide (this varies), and is about 100 feet long.  With the aid of the computer, I've added lines to the image, right, to help define the feature. 

Based on these facts, it has been theorized that the Serpent Intaglio performed the function of a calendar, and there were probably some religious ceremonies associated with the earthwork.  Though there were numerous villages in the area, and arrowheads and other Indian artifacts are common nearby, no artifacts of this type have ever been recovered in the area of the Serpent.   The people who lived here and constructed the earthwork left no written records, so everything we know--or think we know--about the Serpent Intaglio has to be based on what archeologists deduce from their excavations.  The notion that the Serpent is even a man-made creation has been challenged, though it is generally accepted as such.   Everything beyond that is guess work.  A puzzle with most of the pieces missing.

So much for the science.  As we were about to leave, Bob asked me if I was familiar with "water witching".  I was.  This is a method, used since pioneer times, to determine the most favorable place to dig a water well.  The usual procedure is to walk forward with two pieces of wire, bent in an 'L' shape, and held parallel.  When the wires cross, this indicates water below ground.   It's not 100 percent, but it is more reliable then random chance.  Though there have been a large number of quacks through the years claiming they could find everything from lost loved ones to gold using "witching", most sensible folks limit its usefulness to finding suitable water well locations.  In fact, the method is still used by some well diggers to this day, though geological surveys have made it largely unnecessary.  It's just one of those things that works--no one knows for sure why, but there's always a logical explanation for everything eventually.  With this for a background, I must retell my experience at the Serpent Intaglio.  Mr. Higgins handed me two pieces of wire, and I walked across the earthwork.  The moment I stepped into the depression, the wires crossed--I couldn't hold them apart--and as soon as I walked out, they uncrossed.  At the "head" the wires rotated   uncontrollably in a complete circle.  I had nothing to do with the action of the wires, and the effect--quite frankly--was a little spooky.  I hesitate to recount this adventure here because it makes me sound like some sort of nut--which is a popular impression anyway.  But this episode really did happen, and I as yet have no explanation for it.  Certainly a strange and noteworthy event.

BACK TO INDEX