Effigy Mounds

https://www.nps.gov/efmo/index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effigy_Mounds_National_Monument Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves more than 200 prehistoric mounds built by Native Americans. Numerous effigy mounds are shaped like animals, including bears and birds. These were built mostly in the first millennium, by peoples of the Woodland Culture. As of 2017, they have been featured on the US quarter. The monument is located primarily in Allamakee County, with a small part in Clayton County, Iowa, in the midwestern United States. The park's visitor center is located in Harpers Ferry, Iowa, just north of Marquette. The mounds preserved here are considered sacred by many Americans, especially the Monument's 20 culturally associated American Indian tribes. A visit offers opportunities to contemplate the meanings of the mounds and the people who built them. The 200 plus American Indian mounds are located in one of the most picturesque sections of the Upper Mississippi River Valley. Located 3 miles north of Marquette, Iowa on Hwy 76. Visitor Center The visitor center is open year-round except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day; during extreme weather conditions; and as indicated below. Because visitor center hours may vary by season, the specific opening and closing times during either the summer or the winter season follow. Located 3 miles north of Marquette, Iowa on Highway 76. Marching Bear in Spring Bear Effigy Mounds with visitor walking nearby. Marching Bear Mound Group in summer. Scenic Overlook at Fire Point Scenic view of the steep bluffs adjacent to the Mississippi River as trees start to change color. Scenic overlook from the popular Fire Point Trail overlooking the Mississippi River and Driftless area bluffs. Mounds on a Foggy Morning Three conical mounds in a foggy morning setting. Three Conical mounds along the Fire Point Trail during a foggy morning. Conical Mounds Leading to Fire Point Circular mounds in a single line. Follow a line of conical mounds that will lead you out to Fire Point which overlooks the Mississippi River. Bear Mound View from the air of a mound covered in short green vegetation with forest behind. A bear mound visible along the park's North Unit trail. NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. view of river and hanging rock overlook Bat Projects in Parks: Effigy Mounds National Monument Learn about bats in Effigy Mounds National Monument and some fun facts! A ranger uses acoustic equipment to locate bats in a forest Effigy Mounds National Monument: Tribal Collaboration for Landscape Management When the Cultural Landscape Report for Effigy Mounds National Monument was initiated in 2013, the process recognized the on-going significance of the landscape to existing Native American Tribes. Creation of this report, published in 2016, involved consultation with tribal partners to determine the best management practices for the landscape. This effort not only opened up a new chapter in planning for the park, but has also shaped an understanding of cultural association. Grass grows taller on low earth mounds, in a cleared space between trees. Wildland Fire in Tallgrass Prairie: Midwestern United States Prairies depend on fire to maintain the ecosystem stability and diversity. One benefit of fire in this community is the elimination of invasive plants, thereby helping to shape and maintain the prairie. Bison grazing in recently burned area. Wildland Fire in Oak Woodlands and Savannas of the Midwestern United States Oak woodlands depend on disturbances like fire to survive. Frequent fire created and maintained the open structure and make-up of the woodlands. Today, there are fewer oak woodlands across the central United States. Oak woodlands are converting into forests due to a lack of fire. Oak trees with an understory of grasses and forbs. The Bears of Effigy Mounds In the midwestern United States, early Native Americans built earthen mounds known today as effigy mounds. Marching Bear Group Exploring the Fire and Archeology Interface The Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) worked with Midwest Region Fire Program to design and carry out experiments to collect information about the effects of fire on various classes of archeological materials. The goals of this project were to assess the fire/archeology interface to provide managers of Midwestern parks with information that will aid in decision-making concerning the stewardship of archeological and natural resources. Firefighters monitoring fire Fish Communities at Effigy Mounds National Monument Scientists have been monitoring fish populations in Dousman Creek since 2008. They collect fish using a backpack electrofishing unit. Monitoring fish allows scientists to determine which species are in the park and how well they are doing in the streams. Dousman Creek at Effigy Mounds National Monument. Volunteer Bird Monitoring at Effigy Mounds National Monument Heartland Network staff and volunteers monitor birds within the park during the Spring-breeding season. Volunteers are key to the success of this monitoring effort as they are able to survey birds in years when the Heartland Network is not scheduled to do so. This allows Heartland staff to establish continuous records on bird population trends for the park. Northern Cardinal Bird Community Monitoring at Effigy Mounds National Monument Unchanging diversity, richness, and even distribution of individuals across species values suggest habitat on the park has remained similar across years and provides for a rich array of bird species. Bald Eagle at Effigy Mounds National Monument Goat Prairie Monitoring at Effigy Mounds National Monument Goat prairies are a unique kind of plant community found on the edges of bluffs where soils are shallow. Effigy Mounds National Monument has unique and diverse plant communities, including goat prairies, because of its geology, history, and location along the Mississippi River. The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network monitors goat prairies at the park to understand how they are changing in order to preserve them. Two people standing in low vegetation in an open area between trees at the edge of a bluff. Celebrating soils across the National Park System First in a series of three "In Focus" articles that share insights into the near-universal and far-reaching effects of soils on the ecology, management, and enjoyment of our national parks. Fossil soils at Cabrillo National Monument reveal marine deposits Changing Patterns of Water Availability May Change Vegetation Composition in US National Parks Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios. Green, orange, and dead grey junipers in red soil, mountains in background Things to Do in Iowa Find things to do, trip ideas, and more in Iowa. View of a wide river from the top of a bluff. Tree branches extend into the view from the left. Series: Things to Do in the Midwest There is something for everyone in the Midwest. See what makes the Great Plains great. Dip your toes in the continent's inland seas. Learn about Native American heritage and history. Paddle miles of scenic rivers and waterways. Explore the homes of former presidents. From the Civil War to Civil Rights, discover the stories that shape our journey as a nation. Steep bluff with pink sky above and yellow leaves below. Aquatic Community Monitoring at Effigy Mounds National Monument Monitoring data from 2008 to 2017 show that Dousman Creek at Effigy Mounds National Monument is in fair to good condition. However, the habitat and aquatic community is changing because of flood events and upstream water management practices. The creek is supporting more aquatic species that are tolerant of environmental changes in recent years. We use information about aquatic community composition to assess water quality and stream condition. Three NPS scientists wearing waders and walking through a river with nets. Updated Species Database Will Help Boost Amphibian Conservation Across the National Park Service To steward amphibians effectively, managers need basic information about which species live in parks. But species lists need constant maintenance to remain accurate. Due to recent efforts, the National Park Service now has an up-to-date amphibian species checklist for almost 300 parks. This information can serve as the basis for innumerable conservation efforts across the nation. A toad sits on red sand, looking into the camera. Bird Community Monitoring at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, 2022 Effigy Mounds National Monument supports a diverse array of bird species. About two-thirds of the birds in the region are in decline. Birds are great indicators of environmental change and can serve as an early warning system. The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network monitors birds at the park to understand how they are doing and how they respond to changes in their habitat. Overall the bird community on the park is faring better than in the region. A still lake reflecting the sprinkling of autumn colors in the trees on the hills around the lake.

Effigy Mounds National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior National Monument Iowa Illustration NPS/Michael Hampshire With what nature pro­ vided, Effigy Mounds people fashioned tools and ornaments like this bird-bone awl (far left) and bear-tooth pendant (left). With basket loads of fill ma­terial, Effigy Mounds people in northeastern Iowa created a variety of animal shapes three to four feet high and up to 212 feet long. Bears and Birds Made of Earth At first you see low rises on the landscape, but soon your eye picks out regular patterns in the hills. Trace the patterns, and those hills turn into familiar shapes—­animals rising out of the ground in low relief. The effigies aren’t nature’s work—American Indians created them between 850 and 1,400 years ago. American Indians built mounds at various times and places across the Americas, but only in the upper Midwest did a culture regularly build mounds seemingly shaped like birds, turtles, lizards, bison, and, most commonly, bears. Why were effigy mounds created? They are best viewed from above, so who or what was meant to see them? With no written re­cords and few surviving tribal stories and traditions, the mounds’ origin and meaning remain a mystery. Effigy mounds have at­tract­ed the most attention but are not the area’s oldest mounds, nor were their builders the first to live here. Humans have lived in eastern Iowa for over 10,000 years. Dome-shaped conical mounds began to be built about 2,500 years ago by people now known as Woodland Indians. By 1,400 years ago, in the Late Wood­­­land period, area Indians began to build effigy mounds from just west of the Upper Mississippi River to Lake Michigan’s western shore. Locally this hunter-gatherer culture thrived on the rich resources of Mississippi waters, wetlands, and forests. From summer camps along the river they fished and gathered freshwater mussels, arrowhead roots, wild rice, acorns, fruits, and berries. White-tailed deer and elk were staple foods in winter when extended family groups lived in rock shelters in the local river valleys. European explorers began arriving in the late 1600s. The fur trade among the Indians, French, Brit­ish, and later Americans continued into the mid-1800s. The region saw a big influx of American settlers starting in the 1840s. Land with mounds was logged, plowed, and turned into farmland. Many early 18th-century views held that technologically advanced cultures from the Middle East, China, or Europe had built the mounds, but Earthen effigy mounds began to apSmith­sonian Institution research in the pear 1,400 years ago, and were possibly 1880s showed that the moundbuilders religious sites or clan symbols used in sea- were prehistoric American Indians. sonal ceremonies. Some show evidence of fire, probably ceremonial, in the mound’s Surveys of northeastern Iowa in the 1800s head, heart, or flank. Some tribal stories and early 1900s documented the preshold that the bear is the guardian of ence of over 10,000 mounds of all types. Earth and the bird the guardian of the But within 100 years, fewer than 1,000 sky. Perhaps the mounds were a means survived, and several people mounted of connecting the people to the land and efforts to preserve some of the remain­ing their spirit world and ancestors. mounds. The Effigy Mounds National Monument was es­tab­lished in 1949. Around 850 years ago, the building of Today, as you walk along the bluffs and effigy mounds ceased. Archeological evi- around the mounds, be re­spectful of the dence suggests a major cultural transition: ancient people whose relationship with the people started to live in larger perma- nature inspired these creations. nent villages, making new forms of pottery, and most significantly depending far The heart of the Effigy more on agriculture than on hunting and Mounds world lay in today’s southern gathering. Archeologists call the prehisWisconsin and parts of toric people who took up this new way adjacent states. Most of life the Oneota Culture. It is be­lieved survi­ving effigies lie along waterways. that they are the ancestors of historic tribes in the effigy mounds region. Tools and Trade Stone was abraded to make a celt or adze (below) and a ham­ merhead (right). Chert was fashioned into spear points and ar­ rowheads (lower center and right). Clay from river­banks was used for pottery like this decorated shard (far right). Exotic ma­ ter­ials came from trade: the breastplate (upper right) was made from copper mined on the Up­ per Peninsula of Michigan. Artifact photographs NPS NPS A Guide to the Mounds Effigy Mounds National Monu­ment holds 206 known prehistoric mounds, 31 in the form of animal effigies. Oth­ ers are conical, linear, or compound (left to right in the bird’s-eye diagrams below). Little Bear effigy mound (right) is near Fire Point. Illustrations NPS / Michael Hampshire Conical Conical mounds, round domes of earth, are the oldest and the most numerous mounds in this area, dat