Heritage Area: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Effigy Mounds National Monument
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2007. Heritage Area: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Effigy Mounds National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976106. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description The Monument is located in northeastern Iowa adjacent to the Mississippi River. It includes 2,526 acres in Allamakee and Clayton Counties characterized by forested uplands, steep bluffs, floodplain terraces, and swift cutting streams channeling into the bedrock terrain on the west bank of the Mississippi River. More than 200 conical, linear, compound and effigy mounds constructed between 500 BC and AD 1300 are located within the Monument. The Monument also contains other archeological sites. The Monument is divided into four management units defined by the 2013 General Management Plan: North Unit, South Unit, Heritage Unit, and Sny Magill Unit. The North, South and Heritage Units combined include 2,406 acres containing 106 verified mounds. The Sny Magill Unit is located approximately ten miles south of the North Unit and comprises one of the densest concentrations of extant mounds in the country. Ninety nine designated mounds and twelve mound-like features are located within a one hundred twenty acre site. The mounds are clustered closely together in this low-lying area on the western bank of the Mississippi River. The Heritage Units is in a remote location which is difficult to access. A network of abandoned logging routes provides limited access to some portions of the area. The Yellow River winds through this character area from east to west. The river and its floodplain are flanked on the north and south by steep slopes and deciduous forest. Archeological sites in the Heritage Unit include historic sites, scatters, isolated flakes and bones, and two unverified mounds. The Heritage Unit includes two bear-shaped effigy mounds (the Twin Bear Mounds), the Heritage Bird Group, comprising two linear mounds (97 and 98) which are adjacent to each other, one bird mound (99), and one linear mound referred to as the heritage linear mound, and one conical mound (Mound 87, the Heritage Lone Mound). Effigy Mounds National Monument is historically significant for its association with American Indian mounds. The Monument preserves outstanding representative examples of significant phases of American Indian cultures in the American Midwest, protects wildlife and natural values within the Monument, and provides for scientific study and appreciation of its features for the benefit of current and future generations.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2007-08-24
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- EFMO , MWR
- Keywords
- agriculture, American Indian cultures, American Indian mounds, archeology, Atrisco NM Land Grant Heirs, burial, burial mound, earth mounds, Ethnographic Landscape, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Ho-Chunk Nation, Lowere Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota, military, Mission 66, mounds, Native American, Native Village of Shungnak, Northway Village, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, Piscataway Indian Nation, Pleasant Ridge Effigy Mound Group, Powhatan Renape Nation, recreation, Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, Squaxin Island Tribe of the Squaxin Island Reservation, Woodland Period, Yellow River