South Unit: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Effigy Mounds National Monument
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2007. South Unit: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Effigy Mounds National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976104. 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. 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. The South Unit includes trails that provide access to mound groups, two scenic overlooks, and the Old Military Road and associated cistern. This unit also includes rock shelters and cabin sites. The northern portion of the South Unit includes mounds 62 through 64, two non-numbered mounds at site 13AM446, the Founders Pond Overlook, Nazekaw Point Trail and Nazekaw Point Overlook. The South Unit Trail provides a rugged pedestrian route and limited access for maintenance vehicles into the South Unit from Highway 76. A section between the northern and southern sections of the south unit includes mounds 65 through 68 (the South Prairie Mound Group). The South Unit Trail passes through the west side of the character area and spur-trails provide pedestrian access to the mounds. The southern portion of the South Unit contains mounds 69 through 86, a portion of the Old Military Road, the South Unit Trail, and a spur trail that provides pedestrian access to mounds. A tree identified as a portal tree by Bill Quackenbush, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, is located near the east end of mound 86.
- 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, cabin site, earth mounds, Ethnographic Landscape, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Ho-Chunk Nation, Lowere Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota, military, military road, 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, rock shelter, Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, scenic overlook, Squaxin Island Tribe of the Squaxin Island Reservation, Woodland Period, Yellow River