Mounds

Our plan to attend the Baraboo River Encampment -- a re-enactment of a nineteenth century traders' camp -- was a bust, the event having ended before we arrived. Our other trips for the morning were more successful as we visited two small local parks with Indian mounds.

The first one is a wayside between Wisconsin Dells and Portage and a place I often drove by when working for hospice out of the Portage office. It has been closed until recently when the land was returned to the care of the Ho-Chunk Nation. According to the sign it is a "sacred cemetery and religious site", consisting a a few effigy mounds that were designed apparently to be seen from the Wisconsin River. The plan is to clear out tree growth that now blocks that view.

These sorts of mounds are not particularly high, the effigies being only raised a foot or two about the surrounding area in most instances. Archaeologists admit that they are not sure of the significance of most of the designs. (Where is Indiana Jones when you need him? Harrison Ford, BTW, is a graduate of Ripon (Wisconsin) College where he was Tom's brother Steve's roommate.) Some are burial sites for an individual, some for groups and some are not burial sites at all.

The other small park is outside Baraboo, Man Mound. The effigy of a man is easily discerned, even though the lower part of the legs have been destroyed when a road went through. Michelangelo and I both remarked that we are surprised it was not named "Devil Mound", given the horns on the head. Also, the area already has a popular tourist attraction at Devil's Lake, so it seems like it would have fit a local theme. The image of the outline of the figure that I got off the website is pretty faint, so I hope you can make it out. It is 179 feet long.