Emeryville Shellmound for kids
The Giant Hill Made of Shells. A true story near Oakland, CA, told for kids 6-8.
Read along
Look around. Do you see any hills? Long, long ago, right near here, there was a hill that people built out of shells! The Ohlone people lived by the Bay for a very long time, and they built this hill. It was called the Emeryville Shellmound.
It was about sixty feet tall. That is as tall as a building with six floors! Imagine climbing that many stairs. Crunch, crunch, crunch! The hill was very special.
It was a sacred place, and a place to remember loved ones who had passed away. Today the hill is gone, but the spot is a California Historical Landmark, so people remember it. Now, can you find a shop or a building near the road? Hold your hands up high, like a giant hill, and take a big, quiet breath to say thank you to the people who lived here first.
Quiz the back seat
What was the big hill made of?
Show the answer
Shells. Shells! And it was the biggest of more than four hundred shellmounds around San Francisco Bay. Wow!
3 fun facts
- The Emeryville Shellmound is a sacred burial site of the Ohlone people.
- It was about sixty feet tall.
- It was the biggest of more than four hundred shellmounds around San Francisco Bay.
For grown-ups
Written with AI from public sources, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeryville_Shellmound
- giarts.org/article/buried-shells
- emeryville.org/Government/About-Emeryville/History/Indigenous-People/Shellmound-Introduction/Memorialization/The-Shellmound-as-a-Volume
- apeoplesguide.org/sites/shellmound
- shellmound.org/learn-more
- kqed.org/news/11704679/there-were-once-more-than-425-shellmounds-in-the-bay-area-where-did-they-go
- emeryville.org/Government/About-Emeryville/History/Indigenous-People/Shellmound-Introduction/Public-Information-Report/Archaeological-History
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Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).