[Native Americans, Pseudo-science] Traditions of De-Coo-Dah, and Antiquarian Researches: Comprising Extensive Explorations, Surveys, And Excavations Of The Wonderful And Mysterious Earthen Remains Of The Mound-Builders In America; The Traditions Of The Last Prophet Of The Elk Nation Relative To Their Origin And Use; and the evidences of an ancient population more numerous than the present aborigines

New York: Horace Thayer, 1858. Hardcover. Very Good, Carefully handled..

Rebound in half leather to maroon cloth. Bindings are tight and square. Text clean, light even toning. Moderate shelf handling wear. 8vo, 8.8 inches tall, 334 pages, contents and engravings list at the end. Embellished with seventy engravings, descriptive of one hundred and twenty varying relative arrangements. including a fold-out frontispiece. as usual 'the large map is generally lacking.' [Sabin] Early Edition.

Ref: Hathi Sabin 62698. Howes P-351; Lewis, 65ff. William Pidgeon was an antiquarian and archaeologist his most famous work, Traditions of Dee-Coo-Dah, a history about lost tribes of the Upper Mississippi and the mounds they left behind.

The book was eventually revealed to be partly a hoax, and partly embellishment of actual research. Combining elaborate sketches and maps of mound groups in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota, Pidgeon claimed to have discovered an elaborate network of coded earthen symbols used by an ancient race that predated Native Americans; one of the last survivors of this putative race, "Dee-Coo-Dah", was interviewed by Pidgeon.

Eventually his work became popular in the late 19th century, when there were numerous myths about pre-Indian mound builders, and Pidgeon's book went through at least three printings, making him a fortune. [wiki]

The famed archaeologist Theodore H. Lewis later revealed that Pidgeon had fabricated most of his research, and distorted much of the rest of it, mapping mounds where none existed, and changing the arrangement of existing mound groups to suit his needs. Pidgeon appears to have died in obscurity in 1880.