The following article about the preservation of the Wisconsin mounds was originally published in 1907 when people were beginning to recognize the importance of saving the mounds for future generations.
Wisconsin Mounds
Archaeologists Work for Preservation of Ancient Relics
Works Left by Prehistoric People in the Devil’s Lake Region May Become Part of a State Park
There is a disposition to accord the archaeologist and his work more consideration than formerly. Years ago the average American was too busy with the present to bother himself much about the past. But as research and investigation have opened up some of the pages of the history of former ages and given glimpses of the peoples and mammals which lived in that far off time, there has developed a growing regard for ruins and relics which have their stories to tell of bygone ages. The national government is paying more heed to the Aztec ruins in Arizona, and almost every state in the union is showing a disposition to preserve anything which the archaeologist is able to point to as forming a link between the past and the present.
In Wisconsin in the Devil’s Lake region are mounds of prehistoric origin which the archeological society of the state has surveyed and which according to the present plan are to be included in a large park to be established by the state. It is urged that the several fine groups and solitary mounds be appropriately marked. Although these mounds are prominent and conspicuous it is a fact that many summer visitors to the section, through ignorance of their presence, fail to observe these remarkable earthworks. Best known, perhaps, is a great bird effigy having a wing extent of about 150 feet. The great tail is forked and the wings are bent near the tips. The bird is represented as flying toward the lake, the shore of which is but a few rods distant. A well worn path from Devil’s Lake station to the boat landing crosses the north wing, a pavilion stands on the tip of the tail, and a hotel building on the south wing. The mound is several feet in height and otherwise well preserved.
A few rods north of the old Cliff house at the north end of the lake is a long, low mound which has been cut in two by the railroad. Some 30 rods to the west are two linear mounds, one extending out into the public road, the other nearly parallel to the lake shore.
Further west and directly in front of the well known Claude cottage is a group. Of this group an effigy intended to represent a bear, a type of aboriginal earthwork common to the Baraboo region, and a linear mound are still well defined.
Traces of others, now sadly mutilated, are still to be seen among the trees and near the bank. Upon the very crest of the terminal moraine and a short distance to the northeast of these is a well preserved effigy known to students as the “Lynx,” which animal its outline does indeed suggest. Its length is 21 feet and it occupies an area about nine rods square. The head is remarkably large in proportion to the body and short tail. The body is over three feet in height. This fine effigy is at present surrounded by trees and is in such a position that it should remain a well preserved evidence of aboriginal mound building for many years to come. It is one of a type not often encountered and the visitor strolling over the sunny hillsides and ranges of this beautiful region may profitably pause in his rambles to admire it and ponder over its significance.
These mounds comprise the fixed archaeological features of the region included within the intended park limits. Properly marked they should prove a great and interesting attraction to visitors.
It is not sentiment alone that demands their permanent preservation. A wholesome and intelligent interest in Wisconsin’s early aboriginal remains is becoming more and more general. “It is significant,” remarks the Milwaukee Sentinel, “that with a few exceptions all the known effigy mounds are confined to our state. Thither must all students come for inductive study of these. But these prehistoric monuments are being rapidly destroyed through the ignorance of the white man, to whose possessions they are, contemplated from any viewpoint, in reality a valuable asset.”
Source: Hopkinsville Kentuckian. (Hopkinsville, Ky.), 07 May 1907.
