MEDICINE MOUNDS. Medicine Mounds is a line of four rounded, conical hills in southeastern Hardeman County (at 34°11' N, 99°37' W). The mounds rise 200 to 350 feet above the surrounding plains. The highest, at 1,744 feet above sea level, is topped by a flat cap that the Comanche Indians believed to be inhabited by a powerful and benevolent spirit. The Comanches used this peak as a place for mixing medicinal herbs so that the spirit would add to their curative powers. The remains of an ancient buffalo trail flank the mounds to the west; otherwise the hills are surrounded by cotton and grain fields.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel, The Comanches (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952).
