Prehistoric Burial Site

These are graves, and they were left in place. History Nebraska says the cemetery came to light while an access road for the park was being built, and the plans were changed so the road went around it. The state bought the land in 1985 and opened Eugene T. Mahoney State Park in 1991, naming it for the former state senator and long-time Game and Parks director credited with reviving the park system. A wooden sign beside the burial ground names its preservation a gift of the LaDonna Irene Mahoney Memorial.

What the plaque says

Prehistoric Burial Site From 1050-1400 the lower Platte and Missouri River valleys were home to prehistoric Indian farmers. These people lived in small villages and isolated farmsteads, cultivated corn and beans, and hunted game. The Indians built square-shaped houses made of logs and covered with earth, with long, earth-covered entryways. They were substantial structures containing a fireplace, beds, storage areas, and trash pits. Remains of these earthlodges are found in the park. Here is the site of a prehistoric cemetery used by these early Indians. Archeological evidence indicates that the bodies were exposed to the elements until only bones remained. The bones were buried later in a communal graveyard. The practice of cemetery burial by these prehistoric people indicates their deep regard for the afterlife. Because few such cemeteries are known, this site is an irreplaceable resource for the study of Nebraska's early inhabitants. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places and preserved by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Nebraska State Historical Society. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum — 1.1 mi
  Two hangar-sized halls beside I-80 near Ashland holding the bombers and reconnaissance planes of the command that ran America's nuclear force from Offutt, south of Omaha, from 1948 to 1992.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 25 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.
• The Durham Museum (Omaha Union Station) — 25 mi
  Omaha's 1931 Union Station, Gilbert Stanley Underwood's Art Deco depot for the Union Pacific, closed to trains in 1971 and kept as a city museum with its waiting room intact.
• Nebraska State Capitol — 25 mi
  Bertram Goodhue's 400-foot tower on the prairie, built in four phases from 1922 to 1932 and paid off on completion, home of the only one-house legislature in the country.

More markers nearby

• The Ox-Bow Trail — 2.3 mi
• Gretna Fish Hatchery — 3.5 mi
• The Armour and Company Icehouse — 7.8 mi
• New Pennsylvania Cemetery — 9.5 mi