Mounds have been built around the world through out all ages - but almost always in the usual round (conical) shape. However during the period of 700 AD to 1300 AD the southern half of Wisconsin saw a flurry of mounds built in the shape of animals (effigy mounds) that was unmatched anywhere in the world. Thousands of effigy mounds were built in Wisconsin, but only a few were built across the Mississippi in Minnesota. As a result Wisconsin still has hundreds of effigy mounds - but Minnesota has none. Fortunately, late 19th century Minnesota was blessed with concerned citizens and scientists who recorded thousands of Native American mounds in the state literally as those mounds were being plowed out of existence. One of the brightest stars in that group was Theodore Hayes Lewis who surveyed more than 7000 mounds in Minnesota in the 1880-90's. While most of the mounds are long gone, Lewis' detailed documentation of those mounds allows us to take a virtual tour of earthwork shapes that disappeared under plow blades more than a century ago. Superimposing Lewis' surveying sketches onto modern day aerial photos provides an almost ghostly glimpse into how the landscape was used during two different periods (for example, the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Wabasha, MN). Lewis' efforts included surveying and documenting the couple of dozen effigy mounds that still existed in Minnesota in the early 1880's. It was with good reason that T.H. Lewis referred to the plow as "that fell destroyer of antiquities". The situation was especially dire with regard to the effigy mounds since they were only 1 to 2 feet high. It seems that only a few seasons of plowing were sufficient to erase all traces of them. Minnesota's effigy mounds lasted for about a thousand years - and then were gone in an eyeblink. The links at the top of this page (sorted by county) are the closest that we can come in the 21st century to viewing these beautiful works of Minnesota Native American art in the landscapes in which they were placed. In truth some of these groups were so enormous (for example, the Five Hawks Effigy Mounds) that they could not have been appreciated from the ground. So these aerial maps are, in a sense, a distant "next best thing" to still having those effigy mounds in existence. But as Lewis wrote:

Lewis was apparently a bit possessive about his work, and wrote up his field notes in way that would only be useful to someone who had actually visited the site themselves. The main difficulty was that the smallest unit he used to describe location was a block of forty acres - so his surveying sketches cannot be matched up with any particular spot in that 40 acres unless there are notable landmarks to reference against. The modern day availability of aerial photographs removes the need for a site visit in the cases where there are landscape features notable enough to be recognizable in the aerial photos. I chose effigy mounds for this project since they were usually situated in relatively "dramatic" parts of the landscape - which allowed for easier referencing against Lewis' terse field notes. But in essence these maps are my best estimate as to position based on what is visible in the aerial photos, what is in Lewis' notes, and GIS software used in conjunction with PLSS datasets downloaded from the Minnesota Department of Transportation website.

The Effigy Mound Builders chose locations for their art where the shape of the landscape itself aided in "animating" those figures. Even though the animal shaped mounds are gone, we can still appreciate the locations the builders chose to position their art forms. They also apparently followed a strict set of rules regarding how those animals should be oriented. The effigies are usually aimed in the direction of flow of the nearest major river, and land animals also usually have their feet towards the side of the waterway.

Figure 1.The map above shows the distribution of recorded effigy mound sites. Black dots represent effigy mound sites in Wisconsin, and orange dots represent effigy mound sites in Minnesota.

References:

T.H. Lewis, "Notice of Some Recently Discovered Effigy Mounds", Science, Vol 106, p. 131-132, 1885.

Aborigines of Minnesota, (1911), by N.H. Winchell.

Minnesota's Indian Mounds and Burial Sites, (2003), by C.M Arzigian and K.P. Stevenson.

Indian Mounds of Wisconsin, (2000), by Robert Birmingham and Leslie Eisenberg - includes a well written, and up-to-date summary of what is known about the Effigy Mound Culture.

Antiquities of Wisconsin, (1855), by Increase Lapham - includes many survey sketches of effigy mounds recorded in Wisconsin.

Links:

The Wisconsin Historical Society has an online list of effigy mound sites that can be visited in Wisconsin.

The Effigy Mound Culture also crossed the Mississippi into northeastern Iowa, and many effigy mounds still exist in the Effigy Mounds National Monument near Harper's Ferry, IA.