Weird tale shows that Indian mounds could hold more than old relics

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had an interest in old Indian mounds. I’ve read a lot about them over the years and have visited more of them than I can count. I’ve also written about them quite a bit and have tried to document as many of them as possible for future generations.

With that said, a friend of mine recently suggested that I check out a short story called “The Horror from the Mound” by Robert E. Howard. I’d never heard of this fictional tale, although I’ve read a lot of Howard’s stories in the past. Howard, a native of Texas, is most famous for being the creator of the fictional character, Conan the Barbarian, but he also wrote a lot of stories about the Old West.

First published in the May 1932 edition of “Weird Tales” magazine, “The Horror from the Mound” involves two West Texas farmers, Steve Brill and Juan Lopez. Brill is a young and down-to-earth farmer, the type of man doesn’t believe in ghosts and legends. Lopez, an old Mexican, has no problem believing in the supernatural.

Both men live in simple frontier homes that are separated by a small hill and a narrow creek. An old Indian mound is located within sight of Brill’s house, and one day he notices that Lopez always gives the mound a wide berth as he walks to and from the fields to his shack over the hill. Brill believes that Mexicans look “with superstitious aversion on the mounds that are found here and there through the Southwest – relics of a past and forgotten age, containing the moldering bones of chiefs and warriors of a lost race.”

When questioned about the mound, Lopez tells Brill an old family story about how Spanish explorer Hernando de Estrada and his expedition camped near the mound in 1545. One of Lopez’s ancestors, a soldier named Porfirio Lopez, was with Estrada and passed down a story about how the mound is cursed. After Lopez sets off for home, Brill gets the idea that there is Spanish treasure buried in the mound and decides to dig it up.

Brill’s ill-advised excavation into the mound carries over into the darkness of night, and as you might imagine, he doesn’t find buried treasure. Instead, he unearths an unspeakable horror that spells doom for both Brill and Juan Lopez. If nothing else, the moral of this story is “Don’t disturb Indian mounds.”

If you’re interested in reading this story to find out what happens, you can find free copies of the story online. It’s a short, quick read and well worth it if you’re interested in stories about Indian mounds. Just Google it, and you should be able to locate a good reading copy. (The copy I read is available through Project Gutenberg’s website and was only 23 pages long.)

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with any information about old Indian mounds in and around Conecuh County. If you know any stories, folk tales or legends about these sites, please let me know. Again, I think it’s important for us to document as much of this information as possible for the generations yet to come.