Canada's Serpent Mound: A Prehistoric Masterpiece Near Toronto

Hidden in a beautifully wooded grove by the waters of Lake Simcoe, just north of Orillia, Ontario, lies one of North America's most striking prehistoric relics: the Serpent Mound. This enormous earthwork—shaped like a sinuous serpent swallowing an egg—stretches nearly 300 feet in an almost easterly-west direction, averaging five feet high and widening to create a hypnotic, serpentine form. Discovered only three years before the 1899 New York Daily Tribune article that brought it to light, it's one of just three such structures worldwide, alongside kin in Asia and Scotland's Loch Ness region.​

Local Ojibway descendants at Rice Lake view it through ancient legend: a massive serpent once devoured shoreline villagers, its head a cursed burial spot symbolizing punishment, much like biblical tales of Laocoön and his sons. Antiquarian David Bovis, curator of the Provincial Museum, spearheaded excavations after I. Laidlaw of Balsam Lake first noted the ridge in 1896. Digging revealed human bones in both the "egg" (a large oval at the serpent's mouth) and the head, mingled with dark soil patches in yellow clay—proof of later burials atop the original builders' work.​

What purpose did it serve? Bovis found no clues tying it to known tribes, though a lingering affinity among Algonquins suggests possible ancestry. Relics unearthed included intriguing artifacts, despite curio hunters' predations, hinting at sophisticated mound builders predating historic peoples. Serpent motifs echo global myths—from Egypt's egg-swallowing serpents in temple reliefs to Brahmin tales of temptation—raising tantalizing questions: ritual site, astronomical marker, or warning from a lost race?​

This Canadian gem rivals Ohio's famed Serpent Mound, proving mound-building artistry spanned borders. Who crafted it, and why? The silent earthwork endures, whispering secrets across millennia.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1899-10-01/ed-1/?sp=26&q=Arkansas+Mound+prehistoric&r=-0.039,0.009,0.331,0.198,0