CHAPTER VIII

Man Mound, Famous Archeological Wonder--Why Indian Earthworks Were Built

The famous man mound, a few miles northeast of Baraboo, is the most interesting archeological feature of the region. This earthwork is shaped like a giant human figure and is the only known Indian monument of this nature in the world.

A Deer Mound

On the way to the site of the man mound, a deer mound may be visited at 727 Eighth Street, Baraboo, (on Trunk Line 33, Baraboo to Portage) in an oak grove, on land owned by Mrs. Catherine Crandall Train. The rear portion of this mound, a rare effigy, was destroyed a number of years ago. A linear mound may be seen just back of the effigy.

Continuing on the trunk line two miles, a turn is made to the left, the highway approaching a rugged elevation on the left side of the road. This outcrop of sandstone is known locally as Rocky Point or Violet Hill, from the abundance of violets which carpet its slopes in the spring. Violent Hill would perhaps be a better appellation as the point has been responsible for a number of serious accidents. Early in the history of this region a bold frontiersman made the wrong turn, because of a maudlin mind acquired in the village by overindulgence in rum, and his wagon, tipping over, his life was snuffed out on the rocks.

About the year 1870 another devotee of Bacchus became a sacrifice. Before his team had reached the top of the hill this confused husbandman, thinking he was at the turn in the road, directed his horses into the rocks and by the overturning of his wagon-box, was killed.

Another victim was an employee of a hop yard located near the man mound. One night this individual walked down the slope north of the hill but instead of following the highway skirting the rocks, he walked directly over the crest. Stepping into the darkness, he fell headlong down the declivity barely escaping death.

Only a few years since, a driver and team came down this same north slope in a snow storm. The snowdrifts were deep and the driver finally abandoned his conveyance, walking behind his horses in an endeavor to follow the road. Blinded by the falling snow and confused by the drifts, man and team plunged over the cliff and were only saved from destruction by the abundance of snow. So deep were the drifts that little could be seen of the horses after the tumble, except their ears.

The Man Mound.

The journey now leads a fraction of a mile farther up the north range of the Baraboo Bluffs, then a mile to the east to Man Mound Park, the central object of which is the famous man mound.

The length of the mound is 214 feet and width at the shoulder 48 feet. In order to assemble this large amount of earth the Indians, having neither shovels nor iron tools of any kind, used bark or other baskets, scrapers of wood or stone, and their hands. The observer will realize with what labor and under what difficulties the workers accomplished their task. When the Indians were gathered here, in camp they, with their activity and fantastic dress, must have presented an unusual picture in the boundless wilderness.

The man mound was located and platted by W. H. Canfield, local surveyor, historian, and archeologist, July 23, 1859. The original survey is now in the possession of the Sauk County Historical Society. The name of the discoverer of this earthwork has been lost in the dimness of time. When the highway was graded a number of years ago the lower part of the legs were destroyed and subsequently the feet, for years beneath a board fence on the north side of the road, were leveled. Why the mound was built is explained near the close of this article.

On August 7, 1908, the Man Mound Park was formally dedicated at a joint state assembly of the Wisconsin Archeological Society and Sauk County Historical Society, the bronze tablet, a gift by J. Van Orden of Baraboo, being unveiled at that time. Previously the land had been purchased by the two societies and the Landmarks Committee of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs.

Region Rich in Indian Mounds.

In primeval times the Baraboo region was rich in Indian mounds and, although the plow has been active since the 40's and 50's of the last century, many of the aboriginal earthworks still remain. They were erected by the savages on hillside and on plain, by lake, stream, and on the upland, in the deep forest and on the open prairie. They are the relics of a people now disappearing and are of ever increasing interest to the investigating archeologist.

The theory was at one time advanced that a pre-Indian race, the Mound Builders, constructed the earthworks, but modern archeologists have disproved the idea of the existence of any such a pre-historic people, holding the builders of the mounds were none other than the Indians. It is believed the Winnebago are the authors of the majority of the earthworks found in Wisconsin. The great number of these heaps of earth scattered over the country indicate a considerable Indian population extending over no small period of time.

Indian mounds or tumuli are of various forms and, with few exceptions, may be classed as round or conical, elongate or wall-like pyramidal, and effigy or emblematic mounds. The conical mounds in the United States vary in height from scarcely a perceptible swell to elevation of 80 and sometimes 100 feet. Ours are smaller the highest not over 25 feet. Those in the Baraboo region seldom exceed in height of 2, 3, or 4 feet. In the conical mounds the Indians often buried their dead and sometimes one, two, or three layers of charcoal are found above the remains, indicating that fires, probably of a ceremonial nature, had burned over the dead.

The long or wall-like mounds are earthworks of a usual length of 30 to 300 feet, in extreme cases the wall having a maximum extension of 800 or 900 feet. Linear mounds are found in the effigy mound region.

Pyramidal mounds are not found in the Baraboo country.

The effigy mounds represent animal forms, and, with few exceptions, are confined to Wisconsin and contiguous portions of neighboring states. The famous serpent mound and several other animal-shaped earthworks are located in Ohio and two bird mounds are in Georgia. Effigy mounds vary from 3 to 4 to 500 feet in length and in height from a few inches to 5 or 6 feet. Burials were rarely made in these mounds which have the outline of the deer, bear, lizard, turtle, eagle, swallow, frog, or other forms of animal life. Indians are divided into clans and most effigy mounds are believed by archeologists to be the emblems of these. In order to perpetuate the clan idea, the Indians constructed about their places of residence the mounds symbolic of their clans, thousands of these earthen elevations being scattered over southern Wisconsin.

The deer mound at the home of Mrs. Train is a clan emblem but archeologists believe the effigy in Man Mound Park an Indian deity.

Mounds of all types, in the eastern part of Sauk County, numbered over 600, according to a survey made by Dr. A. B. Stout about 1905. Many of the mounds have been leveled by the plow and cultivator.