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Vol. 9 January to ' April, 1910 No. 1
THE
WISCONSIN
ARGHEOLOGIST
; JHE INTAGLIO MOUNDS OF WISCONSIN
NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE AND USE OF BONE,
SHELL, HEMATITE AND LEAD IMPLEMENTS IN
WISCONSIN.
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN AROHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKE1
Tvwvj-s-vj-.fi * m »...».T,T> »»,,-, ^.^ , ^ .
I
Vol. -9 January to April, 1910 No.
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE INTAGLIO MOUNDS OF WISCONSIN
NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE AND USE OF BONE,
SHELL, HEMATITE AND LEAD IMPLEMENTS IN
WISCONSIN.
PUBLISHED BY THK
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE. WIS.
Incorporated March 2o, 190/>, for the purpose of advancing the study and
preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
ARTHUR WENZ Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. L. E. DREXEL Plymouth
H. L. SKAVLEM Janesville
PROF. J. L. TORNEY Milwaukee
•G. A. WEST. Milwaukee
W. W. WARNER Madison
DIRECTORS
JOHN EVANS Milwaukee
CARL BODENBACH Milwaukee
TREASURER
LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY AND CURATOR
CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
SURVEY, RESEARCH AND RECORD— A. B. Stout, Dr. E. J. W. Notz,
Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Dr. F. C. Rogers, Dr. W. H. Bailey, W. W.
Gilman, Chas. T. Jeffery.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— ^>r. G. L. Collie, H. E. Cole, Dr. R. G.
Thwaites, Rev. Wm. Metzdorf, H. P. Hamilton, Dr. S. A. Barrett,
E. F. Richert, O. P. Olson, H. H. Willard.
MEMBERSHIP— A. W. Bertschy, Dr. J. S. Wallbridge, Paul Joers, J. P.
Schumacher, W. T. Ege, A. V. Drown, W. H. Elkey, Miss Bertha M.
Ferch.
PRESS— John Poppendieck, Jr., E. B. Usher, Wm. Grotelueschen, Miss
Mary E. Stewart.
JOINT MAN MOUND— J. Van Orden, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, Dr. Louis
Falge, L. H. Palmer, Mis. Henry Mertzke and S. J. Hood.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in trie Library-Museum
Building, in Milwaukee, en the third Mcnday or each month, at
S P. M.
During the months or July to October no meetings will be held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Members, $25.00. Sustaining Members, $5.00
Annual Members, $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeological Society or to the
"Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to C. E. Brown, Secretary and
Curator, Ollice, State Historical Museum, Madison. Wis.
3-313
TABLE OF CONTENTS,
Vol. 9, No. 1.
ARTICLES.
Page
The Intaglio Mounds of Wisconsin, Chas. E. Brown 1-10
Notes on the Occurrence and Use of Bone, Shell, Hematite and
Lead Implements in Wisconsin, Chas. E. Brown 11-14
Some Little Known Wisconsin Implements, Chas. E. Brown.... 15-23
Archeologioal Notes . 23-25
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Stone Saw, Green Lake County Frontispiece
PLATE
1. Wisconsin Intaglios
2. Grooved Pebble Sinkers, Pottery Disks, Etc.
3. Stone Chamber in a Burial Mound, Fox's Bluff, Madison.
STONE SAW
Green Lake County
S D. Mitchell Collection
THE WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeolojfical Society.
Vol. 9. MILWAUKEE, WIS., JANUARY TO APRIL, 1910. No. 1
THE INTAGLIO MOUNDS OF WISCONSIN
CHARLES E. BROWN,
Secretary Wisconsin Archeologk-al Society.
The so-called intaglio effigies of Wisconsin constitute an in-
teresting feature of the state's archaeology. The first examples
of this remarkable class of earthworks were discovered by Dr.
I. A. Lapham sixty years ago and were described and figured by
him in "The Antiquities of Wisconsin." In all he located nine
specimens, these being associated with groups of other aboriginal
earthworks at Milwaukee, Pewaukee, Theresa and Fort Atkin-
son. An examination of his plats of these is sufficient to con-
vince one that all were probably intended to represent the same
animal. All were of the form of effigy now referred to by
local archaeologists as the "panther" type. Effigies of this form
were at one time of quite frequent occurrence in the section of
southeastern Wisconsin in which these intaglios were noted.
At about the same time that the above mentioned examples
were surveyed, Mr. W. H. Canfield, a pioneer surveyor of Sauk
County, succeeded in locating in connection with a group of
earthworks at Baraboo, two additional intaglios. Both were of
the form of earthwork which is considered to be intended to
represent the bear. This effigy type is likewise a very common
and widely distributed one.
It is strange that during the sixty years intervening between
the discovery of these intaglios and the present, the presence of
0 WISCONSIN AIICHDOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
no other examples of this unique and interesting class of local
aboriginal landmarks has been reported. It is, however, quite
reasonable to suppose that at least a few others did at one time
exist, and were destroyed in an early day in the course of the
development of the state's agriculture.
The intaglio effigies may be described a<s being the reverse
of the ordinary effigy mounds. They are excavated out of
the soil instead of erected upon it, the earth removed from
the shallow excavation being heaped up with care along the
edges and giving form and prominence to the animal shapes de-
picted.
As the information concerning the Wisconsin intaglios is after
all rather limited only brief descriptions of them can be given.
With one exception all have long since disappeared. Lapham's
plate in which carefully prepared diagrams of a number of them
are depicted is reproduced in connection with this article.
The first of these earthen monuments to come to the attention
of Wisconsin's distinguished pioneer antiquarian were undoubt-
edly those formerly located at the place then known as Indian
Prairie and now as the Bender farm, or as Highland Springs.
This place is on the west side of the Milwaukee River, in Sec-
tions 29 and 30, in Milwaukee Township, in a county of the
same name. In May of the year 1850, he made a survey of the
Indian remains at this place. These included 22 conical mounds
of various sizes, two bird effigies, two linear earthworks, three
small circular enclosures, and five intaglios. There were at
this place also a large plot of Indian cornhills and a smaller
plot of garden beds. His description of this place conveys the
information that it was at that time a beautiful level plain ele-
vated about thirty feet above the river, which formed its east-
ern boundary. It was bounded on the north by a deep ravine
through which a small stream flowed to the river, and on the
south by a similar ravine and a tract of low marshy ground.
The land bordering the river was prairie land, the remainder of
the site being rather thickly wooded. The various earthworks
were scattered over every portion of this site which was slightly
The Intaglio Mounds of Wisconsin.
over 2,000 feet in extreme length (north and south), and about
1,000 feet in its extreme width.
One of the intaglios was situated near the edge of the woods,
near the northern boundary of the site. A figure of it is given
in our plate (Fig. 4). It was certainly intended to repre-
sent an animal and very probably the same animal as is repre-
sented in the other excavated animal forms at this place. It is
not so well constructed as these. The long tail is absent. Either
this intaglio was never completed, or this feature was missed
by the surveyor. The excavated portion of the body measured
about 40 feet in length and 12 feet in width at its middle.
It was surrounded on its four sides by low heaps of earth
which helped to define its shape. These were formed from the
earth thrown up from the excavation.
The other four intaglios were located in the woods near the
center of the site, at a distance of about 550 feet southeast of
the foregoing. They are quite closely grouped, being separated
from one another by only short distances. All were headed in
a southwesterly direction, their long tails reaching out to the edge
of the woods. All were of the style of effigy known to archaeol-
ogists as the "panther" type. Two are shown in Figs. 2 and 3
Three were of about the same length, the fourth being only
about half as long as the others.
The Indian Prairie site was purchased by Mr. J. H. Bender
in 1851, who then commenced the cultivation of the land, the
intaglios being soon after destroyed by this means and by the
making of a road through the property.
On a tract of land belonging to Mrs. Hull, and adjoin-
ing Forest Home cemetery, at Milwaukee, Dr. Lapham found
another intaglio (Fig. 1). This earthwork was of the same
general form as those just described. It was destroyed in re-
cent years through the opening of a gravel pit on the place.
Near it there were six small conical mounds of which also no
trace now remains.
Another intaglio was located by him in 1850 in the midst of
a group of earthworks on what was then known as the School
Section, near the present village of Pewaukee, in Pewaukee
8 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
Township, Waukesha County. This specimen was of the same
type as- the others but possessed the peculiar feature of a tail
with a slightly upturned tip. (Fig. 6). The earthworks
with which it was associated occuped the summit of a narrow
wooded ridge flanked on the east and west by oak openings and
marshlands. Curiously enough two of the effigy mounds of
this group were of the same type as the intaglio, one being of
about the same dimensions and of very nearly the same shape.
The other mounds in this group were seven effigies of the so-
called "turtle" type, and three linear earthworks.
At Theresa, in Dodge County, on the east side of the Rock
River, was found the intaglio shown in Fig. 5. It was asso-
ciated with a group of earthworks which were mostly of the
panther type, and of linear mounds. A comparison of this ex:
ample with the other intaglios shows it to be of the same gen-
eral form. Only the tail is lacking. For some unknown reason
this feature has not been added.
On the north bank of the Rock at Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson
County, another panther intaglio was located (Fig. 7). ft
was in the midst of a group of effigy, linear and conical mounds.
There were seventeen mounds in all, nearly all being in 1850
in a strip of woodland, within a short distance of the river bank.
The intaglios at Baraboo are reported to have been connected
with a group of four or more oval mounds located on Williams
Addition to the city. Both were "about six feet deep and fifty
feet long in the form of the very common bear- shaped mounds. ' '
(Outline Sketches of Sauk County, pp. 15, 16.) Although
plowed over, the general character of the excavation could still
be traced in 1907.
The Fort Atkinson intaglio is the only known example of its
class of earthworks which is still in existence. It lies on the
edge of the river road connecting Fort Atkinson and Bussey-
ville, at a distance of only about one mile west of the former
thriving city. It is a monument of such character that one does
not contemplate it without being stirred by a deep interest in
its hidden significance and in its prehistoric Indian authors. Tt
lies today upon a fine carpet of greensward, and is headed toward
The Intaglio Mounds of Wisconsin.
the west, its great depressed body paralleling the road, the two
rounded hollows which represent its limbs reaching to within
a few feet of its edge. From its western extremity the best
view of it is obtained. With the exception of a small portion of
the tip of the tail, which has been disturbed by the plow, every
portion of the figure is apparently as well defined as when
first viewed by its discoverer more than half a century ago.
Its greatest depth (at the middle of the body) is slightly over
two feet. The great tail of the animal reaches to within about
25 feet of a fine, large conical burial mound. This mound is
at the present time about 50 feet in diameter and about 4%
feet high. It has been plowed over several times in the past
and is reported to have been previous to that time an even more
conspicuous monument thg<n it is today. It and the intaglio are
the only two earthworks which survive of the interesting group
once located at this place. Remnants of one or two others re-
main along the roadside on the .neighboring properties. Every
trace of the others has now disappeared. The needless destruc-
tion of some of these is due to a lack of intelligence and of pub-
lic spirit on the part of their owners.
A short distance in the rear of the intaglio is a plowed field
which rises gradually to the crest of a ridge in the distance.
The picturesque Rock River, which in bygone days has carried
on its broad bosom many a fleet of Indian canoes bound for the
villages at Lake Koshkonong or below, passes by this site.
In 1905, the Fort Atkinson Chapter of Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution, fearing that the owner of the land might cause
the destruction of the intaglio, wisely obtained a three years'
lease of the property. This was again renewed for a period of
one year in 1908. This year (1910) the owner, a Mr. G. D.
Telfer, would not again renew it and it was feared from his
attitude that the obliteration of the intaglio was contemplated,
an agitation in favor of its permanent preservation was started
in which the local women's clubs, the Landmarks Committee,
the Wisconsin Archeological Society, the State Historical So-
ciety and other organizations participated.
At a recent meeting of citizens, brought about by Mrs. Geo.
10 WISCONSIN ARCHEIOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
Dexheimer, a prominent public-spirited club-woman of Ft. At-
kinson, a committee of influential business men, and women,
was appointed to negotiate with the owner for the purchase in
the public's interests, of the small strip of property required
to preserve the intaglio and mound.
For this purpose a considerable sum of money has already
been subscribed, ex-Governor W. D. Hoard and the women's
clubs heading the list with generous contributions.
The efforts of these leading citizens to save from impending
destruction one of the most remarkable of our state's ancient
Indian landmarks will be watched with great interest by thous-
ands of "Wisconsin people. It is the earnest desire of all that
their efforts shall be crowned with success.
Boiie, 'Shell, Hematite and Lead Implements.
NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE AND USE OF
BONE, SHELL, HEMATITE AND LEAD
IMPLEMENTS IN WISCONSIN
CHAS. E. BROWN
BONE AND ANTLER IMPLEMENTS
The largest Wisconsin collection of bone implements is that of
Mr. S. D. Mitchell of Green Lake. It includes harpoon heads,
awls, tubes and some articles of unknown use obtained from
a so-called ''sacred spring" in that region. Into this spring
it is supposed that these bone, and other implements found with
them, were cast for the purpose of appeasing some resident
manito.
Bone implements of these and other forms have also been re-
covered from various village sites, refuse heaps, graves and
mounds. Bone awls appear to be the most numerous. A small
number of bone beads, scrapers, needles and other articles have
also been found. From a mound at Eagle Corners were ob-
tained two rib bones, probably those of the moose. Both are
transversely notched by cuts along one edge. " One bears thirty-
four cuts, the other thirty-three. ' ' The most casual examination,
. * reveals the evidence of rubbing over the projections
between the notches." Dr. Frederick Starr, who has described
these specimens, refers to them as "rattles," and states that
"they not only might have been used for dance timing, but were
certainly so used." (See Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci., v. ix, pp.
181-183.) It is very probable that some of our native copper per-
forators were once mounted in bone or antler handles. The Win-
nebago Indians still occasionally mount wire nails in short han-
dles of bone for use as perforators in sewing buckskin. Bone awls
12 WISCONSIN ARC'HE'OLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
are also now and then found in use among the older people of
the Winnebago and Chippewa. Medicine tubes and powder
measures made of sections of bone or horn were formerly in
use. Pendants made of the perforated canine teeth of the bear
are occasionally found in graves, and on camp sites. Mr. Rich-
ard Herrmann of Dubuque has reported the discovery of two
combination bone knives and spoons, several awls and arrow-
points, two eagle claw ornaments, a bone needle with a part of
the eye intact, and a musical instrument in a mound near Gar-
ner, in Grant County.
Dr. W. J. Hoffmann mentions the former use of bone fish-
hooks and notched bone arrowshaft smoothers among the Wis-
consin Menomini. For evening strands of basswood fibre in
cord-making these Indians use the perforated shoulder blade of
a deer or other animal. (See 14 Ann. Kept., Am. Bu. Ethno.)
Radisson found that the early Boeuf Sioux of the Upper
Mississippi valley tipped their arrows with antler points. A
few antler arrowpoints have been found in Wisconsin. These
are similar to those recovered in Ohio during the recent ex-
plorations of Dr. W. C. Mills. In the H. P. Hamilton collection
is a portion of an antler which is ornamented with incised de-
signs. It was found in the City of Manitowoc. In the same
collection is a small human effigy carved from a piece of antler.
Other antler objects found in Wisconsin include pointed im-
plements, a pendant, a tube and several articles the exact func-
tion of which is still undetermined. Cut sections of antler are
occasionally found* on local village sites. In the collection of
Mr. J. P. Schumacher at Green Bay, is a pipe made of a tip
of buffalo horn. On its surface are several incised figures.
Pieces of the tusk of a mammoth were obtained with other arti-
cles in a Grant County mound. They had probably been found
in some local bone heap by the Indian with whom they were
interred.
Doubtless a much larger number of both bone and antler im-
plements will yet be found in Wisconsin. Local archaeologists
have only just turned their attention to these.
Bone, Shell, Hematite and Lead Implements.
SHELL ARTICLES
Among other articles which the prehistoric Indians of Wiscon-
sin obtained through exchange with distant and other tribes were
the large univalve shells of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Rad-
isson mentions that the Cree, a tribe residing north, of Lake
Superior, in early historic times, visited the Huron and Ottawa
of this region to obtain small sea shells and other articles of
tribal commerce. In later days the fur-traders brought sea-
shells to Wisconsin for the use of the Indians. Caches or single
specimens of large sea shells have been recovered from the soil
in recent times in a number of localities about Lakes Winnebago
and Koshkonong. Others have been obtained at Milwaukee,
Waupaca, Belmont and several other places in the state. The
shells are those of several well-known species. Several of the
large shells have portions of the whorls cut away to permit of
their use as cooking or drinking vessels. In the Milwaukee Pub-
lic Museum is a vessel of this kind made from a shell of Busy-
con perversum which was obtained in the center of a circle of
a large number of skeletons in a Sheboygan County mound. A
smaller shell vessel wras recently obtained with a number of
burials at Peebles.
Pendants and large spherical beads made from the colum-
nellas of these shells have occasionally been found on local vil-
lage sites and in burial mounds. Perforated disk-shaped beads
are frequently obtained on certain sites. From a recently exca-
vated burial mound on the north shore of Lake Mendota at
Madison, were obtained a quantity of small sea shells (Margi-
nella conoidalis), the apices of which had been ground awray
to permit of their being strung as beads. Small beads were
also cut from the valves of local fresh-water bivalves. The Win-
nebago still occasionally make these disk-shaped beads. Wam-
pum belts and strings were frequently received and presented
during councils and treaties, in which the local tribes and the
early whites participated, and the small white and purple cyl-
indrical beads have been recovered from various village sites.
14 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
The early Wisconsin Indians are reported to have employed
the valves of mussels as spoons and knives, and as scrapers in
scaling fish. Hoffmann reports that the Menomini still occasion-
ally so employ them. The money cowrie (Cypraea moneta) is
used in their medicine ceremony. Other local tribes still occa-
sionally employ it for purposes of ornament.
HEMATITE IMPLEMENTS
A small number of implements made of this material have
been obtained in Wisconsin. These include several grooved
axes, a number of celts, several cones and plummets, a gorget,
and a pipe. The total number of specimens of all classes at
present known to exist in local collections does not exceed thir-
ty-five specimens. Nearly all come from southern Wisconsin
counties. Several specimens have been obtained as far north in
the state as Winnebago county. It is very probable that som-3
of these hematite implements were introduced into the state
through early trade relations with Middle Mississippi Valley
tribes.
LEAD OBJECTS
.Considering the extent of the lead deposits in southwestern
Wisconsin and in the adjoining portions of Illinois ami Iowa,
and which several tribes now or formerly resident in this region
are known to have worked in a primitive manner, it is sur-
prising that so very small a number of articles made of this
mineral have been recovered in this state. Among these arti-
cles are a boatstone; a number of small disk-shaped beads;
a cone ; a small number of pipes, and several turtle-shaped effi-
gies. The pipes are of such form and workmanship as to indi-
cate that they were fashioned during the historic period. Frag-
ments and small lumps of galena have been obtained from In-
dian village sites at various places in the Fox-Wisconsin Valley,
and in other sections of the state. They have also been ob-
tained from burial places. It is highly probable that lead was
exchanged in prehistoric times between the local Indians and
those of the Ohio valley. The Indians of the latter region may
themselves have visited the lead region to obtain the ore.
Bone, Shell, Hematite and Lead Implements. 15
SOME LITTLE-KNOWN WISCONSIN IMPLE-
MENTS
CHAS. E. BROWN
GROOVED PEBBLE SINKERS
A good series of these is to be seen in the archaeological col-
lections of the State Historical Museum. All were collected
from aboriginal village sites in the Four Lakes region, in Dane
County. They are oval in shape and of small size, the largest
measuring 2~y2 inches in length and about one inch in thickness.
The various specimens weigh from three to. seven ounces. All
are provided with a shallow groove which encircles the speci-
mens in the direction of their longest axis. They are made froia
pebbles of sandstone, quartz, syenite and other .materials pro-
curable in the desired sizes on the shores of these lakes. In some
instances the shape of the original pebble appears to have been
slightly altered by pecking or grinding.
Mr. W. W. Gilman is the owner of a series of seven of these
sinkers, all of which came from the Four Lakes region. Several
of these are somewhat spherical in shape. Mr. Horace Mc-
Elroy is the owner of a specimen which was obtained on the
south shore of Lake Kegonsa, in Dane County. Several exam-
ples which the writer has examined come from the vicinity of
Honey Creek, Sank County. Mr. S. D. Mitchell has several
specimens obtained in Brooklyn and Marquette townships, in
Green Lake County. One of these is provided with both a long-
itudinal and a transverse groove. A specimen in the Milwaukee
Public Museum comes from Jefferson County. It is somewhat
larger than the usual size and may have been employed as a
club-head rather than as a net-weight.
IS WISCONSIN AKCIIEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
Sinkers of the form here described will undoubtedly be found
to occur in other localities in Wisconsin. Their presence should
be reported to the Society.
Outside of Wisconsin sinkers of this form have been reported
to occur in Ohio (Archaeo. Hist, of Ohio, p. 556). In the 13th
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, a quartz-
ite sinker from the Yellowstone Park region is figured (Fig.
115). Before the writer is a pebble sinker from Beaver County,
Pennsylvania, which closely resembles in shape some of the Wis-
consin specimens. Several sinkers from the Upper Missouri
River region, in North Dakota, are spherical in form and are
provided with two incised grooves, which cross each other.
Spherical sinkers, but with only one encircling groove, come
from the Harpeth River region, in Cheatham County, Tennes-
see. It would appear that grooved pebble sinkers must occur in
many parts of the United States from which they have not yet
been reported. Prof. T. H. Lewis found such implements to
occur in Minnesota. Prof. W. K. Moorehead figures a specimen
from Gilberton, Iowa. He states that they are of more common
occurrence in New England and the St. Lawrence Basin (Preh.
Impl., p. 130).
ARROWSHAFT SMOOTHERS AND WHETSTONES.
These have received but little attention, consequently but few
specimens are to be seen in local collections. It is to be expected
that additional examples of these and several other classes of
abrading implements will be collected from various village sites.
They are made of pieces of coarse or fine grained sandstone or
of other gritty rocks, and their surfaces show plainly the marks
of their employment in the smoothing, polishing and point-
ing of stone and other implements. Some were very likely used
in grinding down the points of bone and possibly of copper awls,
needles and other pointed implements and are quite properly
referred to by archaeologists as whetstones. Others are sup-
posed to have been employed for trueing the wooden shafts of
arrows. To these the name of arrowshaft smoothers has been
given. In Plate 2 several specimens are figured. These repre-
Bone, Shell, Hematite and Letad Implements.
sent examples in the Green Lake Comity collection of Mr. S. D.
Mitchell and State Historical Museum collections. Smoothers of
this form have been found in many states.
Nearly all the specimens now known are but irregular
pieces of sandstone of such size as to permit of their being con-
veniently held in the hand when in use. One or both surfaces
are crossed by one or several shallow grooves. Some have sev-
eral parallel grooves, or grooves which cross or run into each
other. Others have grooves only upon the narrow edge.
A particularly fine examp'le of arrowshaft smoother is in
the H. P. Hamilton collection. It is made of sandstone and
is reported to be one of a set of four obtained in West Marsh-
land Township, Burnett County. It is of the very extraor-
dinary length of 101/2 inches, slightly less than 2 inches in width
at the middle, and about 1% inches in width at either extrem-
ity. One end has sustained a slight fracture. It is about 1%'
' inches in thickness at the middle and one inch at either end.
All of the surfaces are smooth, the upper being traversed fro'm
end to end by a shallow groove of arrowshaft width. The edges
of this surface are slightly bevelled. Arrowshaft smoothers of
this shape but of half or less than half this size have been found
in Ohio and Indiana.
FLINT SPADES
The flint spades of the Middle Mississippi Valley are widely
known and are much prized by both museums and collectors.
Although these fine agricultural implements are generally con-
sidered to be foreign to our archaeology, it is not surprising
that a small number of specimens should have wandered
north in the course of aboriginal trade, or in some other way, and
been since recovered here by diligent Wisconsin collectors. The
rude agricultural implements of the early Wisconsin Indians
are reported to have been pointed sticks, and hoes, the blades
of which were made of the valves of river mussels.
The small number of Wisconsin spades of which we have
knowledge are oval or elliptical in outline. Nearly all have
rounded ends. Some have one extremity more pointed than the
us \\ \ xv 'i o»;isr \,.i •>. \
, The largest comes from Marquetto eount^ and measure
itfth and 4 inches m u M t h at the middle. It is
the property of Mr. A, J. Barry. Another, found in Khm,
ship. shelmvgan County, is i o length and 4%
inches wide «t tiu- muidi<< It is made of light grayish bn>\\n
tlint, bath ends bouisr hu',hl\ polished through lon&r use. This is
in th of Mr, G. W. Wolff, who states that a si
sptvimon u .> ..unod on an liuli.in \ .i.i-v M(O at tho
Ponds in this township. Other sp<vim<ms varying in length
from 9 to 10% inches have been obtained at Hebron, Jefferson
County; Richlantl i l\>unlv. and in (VlnmlMn
Count \ Mr David Van Wart is the owner of a flint spade of
tho nuhor \uuisual holl^haped form. It was found near New-
villo, Kwk Couu
lu tbo Stat, al Mnsoinu is a tiuo spado mado ^ brown
quart«iti\ tv mntorial native to Wisconsin 1 V.as o u pointtvl
antl ono lm>adly rowul<\l o\i d im'asmvs noarl\ 1"
inoluvs in length anil noarlv T> im-hos in \\idtli at tho \\
portion, bolow tho middK\ It fl from sonihtv \\ s
s\\\
An cxtnnplo of ono of i\\ s is si in the frontia-
puvo. It consists of an oval pitnv of hard rook, prolnibly \-\\\
one edge of \vhioh is s to County,
and is the pi of Mr. S. B. Mit^boll Anotbor saw was
obtained from an Indian sito on the sbo -talo LaK
Marquotto County, This sptvinion WW sists oe of flint,
sotnowbat rootangular in outlino, tbo sbarpost edge of wbii'b i*
pmvidetl alonjr its ontiiv length with tine saw-teeth. It meas-
- about five inehes in lonjrth and -uOios in widtb at tbo
widest part, near the middle. Sovoral 1 fonml
Given Uav.
S \\ tw^ls the early Indian inhabitants Wisconsin prob-
ably found very useful in sawinsr the - of stone.
bone, antler and wooii The e\ - >ther spe< us should
Moorebead figure* a stone saw from Georgia and remark* on
their rarity, "They are usually matt in tern, either tri-
angular or quadrilateral, though we hare one oral in outline
ekseiy resembling a eireular saw. The serrations generally
upon one and the longest edge/' f'r*b, ImpL? p, 376, fig^
552, 'M.
From the Careajon vilJage site at Lake Koshkonong, Mr, H. L.
gkavlem obtained a small strip of copper trade kettle metal into
one edge of whieb fine teeth had been cut. This specimen had
evidently been employed in entting up eatlin ite into pieces of
suitable size for the making of pipes and small ornaments, Dr,
Lorenzo G. Yates describes the bone saws of the Napa Indians
of California, These were made from the seapular bones of
deer or elk, one edge being provided with teeth.
Many pieees of flint with irregular edges found on loeal vil-
lage sites would serve very well as saws. Arrow and spear-
points with serrated edges could also be so used,
&H0CL&CHED STfOJrE CELTS
These differ from other forms of stone eelts in having the
lower portion of the blade slightly elevated above the remaining
portion of the implement. The raised portion or blade begins
at or below the middle. The lower portion forms a convenient
handle. Only a small number of specimens of this type have
been found in this state,
A specimen in the possession of Mr W. H, Vogel • See Plate
2) was obtained on the west side of the City of Milwaukee.
It measures about 4% inches in length, 1% inches in width at
the rounded poll and 1% inches in width at the slightly rounded
entting edge. The line of elevation of the blade is near the
middle of the implement. It is made of hard rock, probably
syenite, and is polished. Another specimen of about the same
size i* in the W, P. Clarke collection, in Milton College, The
elevated portion extends back for a distance of 1% inches from
the cutting edge and to within % inch of the middle of the im-
plement. The blade is about 2% inches wide at flic widest part
midway between the line of elevation and the cutting edge. This
20 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
celt comes from the eastern shore of Lake Koshkonong, in Jeffer-
son County. There is a specimen in the Logan museum at Be-
loit, and one in the Joseph Ringeisen, Jr., collection at Milwaukee.
The shape of these implements suggests that they may have
been employed as scrapers rather than as hatchets.
POTTERY DISKS
Only a few specimens of these have been secured from Wis-
consin village sites. Four specimens were obtained at Bussey-
ville. Jefferson County. (See Plate 2.) They have the appear-
ance of having been cut from the sherds of an earthenware vessel.
All are roughly circular in shape and are 'perforated, at or near
the center, by a single perforation. They measure from 1% to 1%
inches in diameter, and from less than 14 to about % of an inch
in thickness. A similar specimen was found on the Carcajou
Point site, on Lake Koshkonong site, in the same county. In the
collections of the Logan Museum at Beloit are several specimens
from Wisconsin. To a la^k of search for such specimens is probably
due the fact that a larger number of these earthernware disks
are not reported by local collectors. Dr. W. H. Holmes is author-
ity for the statement that small earthernware disks, generally
shaped from potsherds and sometimes perforated, have been ob-
tained from many sections of the United States. Some are care-
fully rounded and finished. Some have been obtained from
graves. It has been thought that they were employed as spindle
whorls or used in playing games. "Mr. Clarence B. Moore has
found specimens so related to human remains in burial as to
lead to the conclusion that they had served as cores for ear
disks." (20 Ann. Rep't. Bu. Am. Ethno., p. 43.) In the pres-
ent state of our knowledge we hesitate to attempt any explana-
tion of the function of the few Wisconsin examples. The author
has seen a small number of unperforated pottery disks from Ar-
kansas. Moorehead figures a perforated specimen from desert
ruins near Phoenix, Arizona, (Preh. Imp'l, p. 46). Fowke notes
their occurrence in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern
Georgia. "These are small, thin and coarse with the edges
Bone, Shell, Hematite and Lead Implements.
chipped." In northeastern Kentucky similar pieces, but fash-
ioned from fragments of limestone, and sandstone, occur. (13
Ann. Rep't Am. Bu. Ethno., p. 109).
In Wisconsin a small number of well made perforated stone
disks of about the same size and shape as these earthernware ob-
jects have been found. One of these, of catlinite, -comes from
Winneconne, Winnebago County. Another, of harder stone, was
secured from a mound in Benton Township, LaFayette County.
BONE HARPOON POINTS
In the frontispiece of a recent issue of the Wisconsin Archeolo-
gist V. 8, No. 3) there is shown a five-barbed bone harpoon point
which is in the Green Lake County collection of Mr. S. D.
Mitchell. In the same collection there is a six-barbed specimen
of similar form, and the upper half of another, from the same lo-
cality. Another example possessed but three barbs, twro of
which have been broken oft1. The rather broad tang appears to
have been perforated. It measures about 5% inches in length.
It was found near Sturgeon Bay, Door County and is in the J. P.
Schumacher collection. From the Black River sites, in Sheboy-
gan County, several bone harpoon points of smaller size and
with only one barb have been collected.
It is to be expected that additional examples of both of these
forms of bone harpoons will be collected from various Indian
village sites, especially in the Lake Michigan costal region in this
state.
Beauchamp states that : "In New^ York bone harpoons are most
abundant where the early and later Iroquois lived. Fewr have
been reported west of the Genessee river, and along the Susque-
hanna and Delaware they are unknown. The Hudson river and
Long Island seem as barren." (Bull. 50, N. Y. S. M., p. 294.)
He gives figures and descriptions of nearly fifty specimens
no two of which are exactly alike. Some have a single barb on one
side, and some a single barb on both sides. Others have a numb r
of barbs on one side, and others a number on both sides. One small
specimen is unique in being pointed at each end, and in having
22 WISCONSIN. ABCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 1
several barbs on both sides of these points. Several of the speci-
mens have perforated tangs.
W. J. "Wintemberg is the author of an instructive paper on the
"Bone and Horn Harpoon Heads of the Ontario Indians" in
which he describes and figures a number of specimens from that
province. He gives the distribution of the two recognized classes
of harpoon heads. Of the unilateral, the simplest form with
barbs along one side of the blade or point, he notes the occurrence
of specimens in California, British Columbia, Alaska, Alberta,
Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan. Ohio, New York, On-
tario, Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia. Of the bilaterally
barbed he says : ' ' This type of harpoon head has a very wide
distribution in this hemisphere, being found in use among the
natives of Tierra del Fuego, and in California, British Columbia,
Alaska, and among most of the Eskimo tribes inhabiting the
polar regions between the latter country and the north Atlantic
seaboard. Specimens of this type are also met with in Europe.
The barbs on some of the British Columbian and Californian
specimens are large like those on harpoon heads used by the cave
men of France. New York furnishes many fine examples. They
resemble Ontario forms very closely. They have also been found
in the states of Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and
Maine." He states that in the accounts of early American
colonists and travellers are to be found numerous references to
the use of harpoons by the Indians in spearing fish. Captain
John Smith found the Accawmack using bone headed harpoons.
John Joselyn and Roger Williams reported the use of similar
harpoons by New England natives. Loskiel states that the Dela-
ware and Iroquois, when on a hunting expedition, carried with
them fishhooks and small harpoons. Sagard states that the
Montagnis captured fish with "a wicker basket or with a har-
poon during night by the light of fire." Charlevoix describes
the sturgeon harpoon of the Iroquois as being secured to the
canoe by a long cord. (Annual Archaelogical Report, 1905.)
The author has described the four known forms of native cop-
per harpoon points occurring in Wisconsin. These closely re-
semble in form some of the bone harpoon points described from
Xotcs.
New York and Ontario. Both the Wisconsin copper and bone
points belong to the class of unilaterally barbed harpoon heads.
(Wis. Archeo., V. 3, No. 2, pp. 79-80.) Both bone and native
metal harpoon points were replaced by the iron harpoon points
of the fur trader.
ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES
The annual meeting of the Wisconsin Archeological Society was
held in the lecture room of the Milwaukee Public Museum, on Monday
evening, March 21, 1910. About fifty members and visitors were
in attendance. President O. J. Habhegger opened the meeting, after-
ward vacating the chair to the president-elect, Mr. Arthur Wenz. The
annual reports of Secretary Chas. E. Brown and of Treasurer Lee R,
Whitney were received and approved. The Secretary's report showed
that seven regular meetings of the Society, and a similar number of
sessions of the executive board had been held.The tenth anniversary
of the society had been celebrated by a dinner held at Milwaukee, on
June 14, 1909. On February 7 and 8, 1910, the Society had held a
joint meeting at Milwaukee with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts, and Letters, and other state organizations. Thirty-two annual
members had been elected during the year. Five members (Mr. E. D.
Coe of WThitewater, Mrs. James Sidney Peck, Col. Henry Ba>:tz and
Gen. Louis Auer of Milwaukee, and 'Mr. L. J. Noble of Menasha) had
been called by death during the year. Four numbers of the Wisconsin
Archeologist had been issued. Valuable additions had been made by
both gift and purchase to the archeological collections of the Logan
Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the State Historical Mu-
seum, the officers of these institutions manifesting a helpful appreriation
of the growing needs of local archeological students and the public.
The Historical Museum of the City of Ashland had been organized.
The Salzman Museum at St. Francis had acquired the valuable J. G.
Laurer collection. The collection of Mr. Olgar P. Olson had been
placed in the newly established Historical Museum in Darlington, and
the David Van Wart and R. Broughton collections in Evansville Sem-
inary. Public collections were being assembled in several other Wis-
consin cities in all of which work members of the Society were
assisting. Efforts were being made to secure the permanent pres-
ervation of additional groups of mounds on the State University prop-
erties and elsewhere atout the Four Lakes, at Madison, with good hore
of success.
The Glenn lands at the mouth of the Wisconsin River had not yet
been acquired by the State Park Commission, as urged by the Society
and other organizations. It was much desired that this should soon
come to pass. Vice-Pi esident L. E. Drexel and the Secretary had
KOLOCilST. v,,i. <), No. 1
visited the proposed park for the purpose of obtaining additional in-
formation concerning the fine groups of Indian earthworks within its
limits.
The C., B. & Q. Ry. had caused the preservation of a conical mound
in its depot yards at Bagley. At Cassville, a bird- effigy and a large por-
tion of a linear mound had been preserved by the citizens in River-
side Park. Something must soon be done to assure the permanent
preservation of the fine intaglio effigy, at Fort Atkinson. This re-
markable earthwork had been for several years in the care of the local
chapter of the D. A. R. The Evansville Historical Society had bought
from its station and placed upon the local public library grounds the
"spirit stone" mentioned in earlier communications. Thru the inter-
est and activity of the Sauk County Historical Society and of the
Manitowoc County Historical Society the graves of two noted Indian
chiefs, Yellow Thunder and The Wampum, had been marked with
appropriate monuments.
Public lectures had been given during the year by the Messrs. H. L.
Skavlem and Horace McElroy at Afton; by Mr. A. B. Stout at Bara-
boo; by Mr. L. S. Patrick at Marinetts, and by the Secretary at Racine,
Delavan and Madison. Lectures had also been supplied to women's
clubs at Chippewa Falls. Ashland and Marinette.
In the third addition to the Record of Wisconsin Antiquities, just
issued, proper credit had been given to all members of the Society
for researches conducted and information furnished during the year
1909. A full report on these and other departments of the Society's
work was presented.
The report of the Treasurer for the year ending March 21, 1910,
showed an income from all sources of $1,052.71, the disbursements
amounting to $681.19, leaving a balance on hand of $371.52.
A communication received from Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites, secretary
of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, expressing the thanks
of that Society for the active and able assistance rendered by state
archaeologists, during the last session of the state legislature, in be-
half of the proposed appropriation of $3,500.00 for the better main-
tenance and support of the State Historical Museum, was read. In-
vitations extended by the local members of the Society, by the State
Historical Society, and by the chairman of the Landmarks Committee,
W. F. W. C., to the Wisconsin Archeological Society to hold a state
assembly at Madison during the coming year, were accepted.
The following officers were chosen by the Society for the year
1910-11:
President — Mr. Arthur Wenz.
Vice-Presidents — Rev. L. E. Drexel, Mr. H. L. Skavlem, Prof. J. L.
Torney, Mr. Geo. A West and Mr. W. W. Warner.
Directors — Mr. John Evans, Mr. Carl Bodenbach
Treasurer — Mr. Lee R. Whitney
Secretary — Mr. Chas. E. Brown
The meeting clossd with an informal talk by Rev. Wm. Metzdorf,
who exhibited an interesting collection of stone and native metal
implements, ornaments and ceremonials.
Mr. A. T. Newman, Bloomer; Rev. E. Hanow, Adell; Mr. E. Field
Phillips, Delavan: Wm. H. Mehren, Hustisford; Mr. Carl Gushing,
Mr. Adolph Eiersach, Mr. William Groslieschen, Mrs. Sophie Miller,
Arohoological Notes.
Milwaukee; Mr. S. J. Blanc-hard, Chicago, and Mr. F. W. Gress of
Albion, Mich., have beeen elected to membership in the Wisconsin
Archeological Society. Members are requested to use their best efforts
to interest other persons in its activities.
On Friday evening, March 25, Secretary Chas. E. Brown, read a paper
on "Indian Mounds and Relics of Wisconsin" before a well attended
meeting of the West End Club, of Madison.
Vice-President H. L. Skavlem, Prof. W. E. Leonard of the University
of Wisconsin and Secretary Brown recently spent several days in
further examination of the White Crow village site, on Carcajou
Point, Lake Koshkonong This site, from which a number of collec-
tions have been made, ccntinues to yield archaelogical materials of
an interesting character.
In a recent issue of the Archaeological Bulletin, Dr. H. M. Whelpley
St. Louis, the possessor of one of the most valuable and extensive
collections of hematite implements and ornaments in the United States,
calls the attention of archaeologists to the traffic in mulitated and
fraudulent implements made of this material. He says: "Since I
began * * * collecting what the Indians made out of iron ore from
Missouri, the demand for this particular line of relics has greatly
increased and, of late, I find that seme parties are trying to improve
on the work of the Indians or repair what they consider damages
resulting from the action of the elements, by grinding down the sur-
face of specimens. To the uninitiated, such pieces may be more attrac-
tive but to the student of American archaeology, they are merely
mutilated specimens and I hope collectors and dealers will unite in
stopping this vandalism. The grinding process is confined almost
entirely to hematite axes, while polishing is practiced on some hema-
tite celts. The result of the polishing is a beautiful surface, but the
evidence of the spec'mens having been made by an Indian is almost
obliterated.
Another practice that has recently sprung up in Missouri is nothing
more or less than a fraud, pure and simple. The market is being
supplied with "relics" made by picking up pieces of crude hematite
and grinding the natural surfaces until they are comparatively
smooth. A groove is usually made around the most convenient por-
tion of the piece of hematite. These are placed on the market as freak
or rare specimens and held at what would bs high prices, were they
genuine articles. No attempt is made to duplicate type specimens
and the result is a collection of oddities which are unlike anything
over seen by an Indian. This practice is a direct violation of law
and the parties are likely to be prosecuted, as were some Missouri
men, a few years ago, who made bogus stone axes and celts.
I am pleased to say that several dealers have refused to buy
or have anything further to do with these bogus Missouri hematite
pieces, and it seems that the manufacturers are now using their
efforts to make sales direct to the individual collector.
It is to be regreted that suspicion is thus cast upon Missouri hema-
tite specimens which constitute one of the most interesting classes of
specimens in American archaeology. It will be necessary for dealers
2>» WISCONSIN ARCHK;)L:)GIST.
and collectors to co-operate n bringing the manufacturers of bogus
specimens to justice.''
The Archaeological Bulletin in a recent issue of which the fore-
going article appears, is the official quarterly organ of the International
Society of Archaeologists, whose secretary is Mr. Allen J. Reynolds of
Council Grove, Kansas. The aims of this new organization are "to en-
courage the study of archaeology as a science; to encourage the pres-
ervation of mounds, etc.; to lessen as much as possible the reckless
opening of graves and mounds; to expose frauds and makers of fake
relics, and to unite collectors and students for mutual aid and pro-
tection."
All members of the Society are urged to complete their sets of the
Wisconsin Archeologist. The supply of some issues is low.
Contributions to the research funds of the Society are desired. It
lies within the power of various wealthy Wisconsin men and women to
perpetuate their interest in the great educational value of its work by
providing a fund the yearly earnings of which may be employed in
conducting surveys and researches in sections of the state where such
work should now be undertaken.
Additional life, sustaining and annual members are desired in every
Wisconsin city and village. Members are urged to send Secretary
Brown the names of persons in their locality, whom he may be able to
interest.
It is important that the permanent preservation of mound groups in
many parts of Wisconsin should be secured. We look to our members
at ail times to aid us in bringing this about. They are requested to
acquaint themselves with the groups in the vicinity of their homes a^d
to urge their protection against the acts of the careless and ignorant.
The exploration of a mound should not be undertaken without first
applying to the Secretary for full instructions. The cause of Wiscon-
son archaeology has suffered greatly from the senseless digging into
Indian earthworks by the inexperienced.
Fl
l»
13
II
og
i
Plate 3
Stone Chamber in a Burial Mound at Fox's Bluff, near Madison
Vol. 9 April to July, 1910 No. 2
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
PIPESTONE QUARRIES IN BARRON COUNTY
FRANCO-AMERICAN STUDY OF A WANING PRE-
HISTORIC INDUSTRY
AN ORNAMENTED STONE AXE
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated March 23, 1903, for the purpose of advancing the study and
preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
ARTHUR WENZ Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. L. E. DREXEL Plymouth
H. L. SKAVLEM Janesville
PROF. J. L. TORNEY Milwaukee.
G. A. WEST Milwaukee
W. W. WARNER '. Madison
DIRECTORS
JOHN EVANS Milwaukee
CARL BODENBACH Milwaukee
TREASURER
LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY AND CURATOR
CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
SURVEY, RESEARCH AND RECORD— A. B. Stout, Dr. E. J. W. Notz,
Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Dr. F. C. Rogers, Dr. W. H. Bailey, W. W.
Gilman, Chas. T. Jeffery.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— Dr. G. L. Collie, H. E. Cole, Dr. R. G.
Thwaites, Rev. Wm. Metzdorf, H. P. Hamilton, Dr. S. A. Barrett,
E. F. Richter, O. P. Olson, H. H. Willard.
MEMBERSHIP— A. W. Bertschy, Dr. J. S. Wallbridge, Paul Joers, J. P.
Schumacher, W. T. Ege, A. V. Drown, W. H. Elkey, Miss Bertha M.
Ferch.
PRESS — John Poppendieck, Jr., E. B. Usher, Wm. Grotelueschen, Misa
Mary E. Stewart.
JOINT MAN MOUND — J. Van Orden, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, Dr. Louis
Falge, L. H. Palmer, Mrs. Henry Mertzke and S. J. Hood.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Library-Museum
Building, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday of each month, at
8 P. M.
During the months of July to October no meetings will be held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Members, $25.00. Sustaining Members, $5.00
Annual Members, $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeolosrical Society or to the
"Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to C. E. Brown, Secretary and
Curator, Office, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Vol. 9, No. 2
ARTICLES.
Page
Pipestone Quarries in Barren County, G. A. West 31
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry, Charles H.
Doerflinger 35.
An Ornamented Stone Axe, Charles E. Brown 49
Indian Mounds Preserved in Wisconsin 52
Archaeological Notes 54
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Effigy Mound, Buffalo Lake, Marquette County Frontispiece
Figure
1. Ornamented Stone Axe, Dane county.
Plate
1. Wooden Nails Used for the Boats in the Basin of the Arcachon.
2. Quartz Arrowpoints, Upper Fox River Valley.
!
>- ^
THE WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeolotflcal Society.
Vol. 9. MILWAUKEE, WIS., APRIL TO JOLT, 1910. Hi. 2
P1PESTONE QUARRIES IN BARRON
COUNTY.
BY G. A. WEST.
During the early stages of the earth's formation while its
crust was hot, every particle of water is supposed to have been
turned to mist and vapor. As the earth V crust gradually cooled
this vapor condensed and formed great oceans. The ancient
seas of the Western continent covered presumably all the land
except a Y shaped territory, the right arm of which it is be-
lieved reached from the Lake Superior District in a north-
easterly direction to Labrador. The left arm extended in a
northerly direction toward Hudson Bay, and the base reached
southward into northern Wisconsin. This Y shaped tract of
high land was doubtless not continuous land, but more likely a
succession of islands.
This ancient sea is known as the Huronian Sea and the Y
shaped land as the Laurentian Island. Locally the portion of
this island extending in the territory now known as Wisconsin,
is called the Isle of Wisconsin.
Geologists inform us that we are particularly fortunate in
having the earliest authentic history as clearly and simply writ-
ten in the formations of Wisconsin as it is in any known portion
of the globe.
The surface of this ancient island was principally composed
of quartz, mica, feldspar and hornblende.
32 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. -9, No. 2
As the earth's crust cooled the condensation of the vapors
must have caused heavy and almost unceasing rains which re-
sulted in filling the lowest places, the accumulation of water
causing them to sink still lower, and crowding up other por-
tions into mountain chains. Besides mountain building, these
incessant rains played another important part in nature's great
drama by causing the softer portions of the newly formed rocky
surface of the unsubmerged land to disintegrate and to be carried
down by the streams, the lightest materials being carried far-
thest from the shore, and forming a fine-grained clay mud.
On the western side of the Laurentian Island was thus de-
posited in thin layers a fine aluminous clay, impregnated with
sufficient iron to give to it a dark, rich red color. As ages
passed this clay was transformed into catlinite or "pipestone"
and its principal place of deposit in Wisconsin is in Barron
County.
Pipestone from the famous Minnesota quarry is somewhat
lighter in color, but is believed to belong to the same horizon.
The Indian quarry of Barron County is located in the S. E.
quarter of the S. E. quarter of Section 27. Town 35, Range
10, W.
This quarry was long worked by the Indians, and an exca-
vation formerly existed over an area of about 25 feet square
and 3 feet in depth. This seems small and unimportant, but as
the material was used almost exclusively for pipes, the amount
of waste material being small, and there being other ancient quar-
ries in the neighborhood, it seems safe to conclude that enough
catlinite was mined' in this district to supply the demand of Wis-
consin Indians for several centuries.
Because of the swampy land surrounding it, this quarry is
almost inaccessible during the summer months, but in winter
when the swamps are frozen, for several years past farmers
have drawn upon it for building stone, thus almost completely
destroying all evidences of aboriginal work.
During the past • year, the writer explored a portion of the
country in the vicinity of this quarry in quest of other primi-
tive workings. The task was not an easy one as the surface
Pipestone Quarries in Barren County.
of the country is rough and broken, the ancient streams having
formed many ravines and valleys all of which are covered by a
dense growth of vegetation. Along the highway leading from
Kice Lake in the direction of the quarries, may be seen out-
crops of shaly rock, much resembling pipestone but coarser in
texture.
On the N. E. quarter of Section 34, Town 35, Range 10
West, on the south bank of Silver Creek, the writer found
primitive workings not heretofore reported. This outcrop falls
oack from near the bed of the creek in a succession of terraces,
up the slope of a hill, about 30 feet above the sfepeam. The side
of this hill contains a dozen or more pits, ranging from four to
ten feet across, and about 4 feet in depth. Some of these ex-
cavations have been defaced by white men and by modern In-
dians, who annually make pilgrimages from the Lac Court
d'Oreille reservation, several miles to the north, to this location,
for pipestone. Large quantities of rejected rock lay scattered
about the excavations. The entire stone face of some of the
pits and the undisturbed portions of others showed much
weathering and upon the dumps were several large trees.
In cleaning out one of these pits the writer found two oblong
boulders weighing about 30 Ibs. each, which were probably used
for breaking the rock, as slight abrasion at their ends would ap-
pear to indicate. The portion of this outcrop near the surface,
or overcapping, is a very dark red, silicons rock, somewhat
harder than pipestone and quarries into slabs often 4 ft. in length
and from 1 to 6 inches in thickness. Its surface is often
beautifully ripple marked. Bands of light colored quartzite
often traverse it. Scales of mica are somewhat dispersed
throughout these bands. Examples taken from below the water
line, or even from the damp ground, were found to be much
softer and more readily cut and whittled with a knife. A
nearby settler showed a paper knife about 12 inches long made
by him from this stone, he using simply an ordinary pocket
knife in its manufacture. By experiment, the writer found
that this rock is easily wrought when fresh from the damp
earth, but hardens rapidly when exposed to the air.
34 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
Continuing the search, other primitive workings were dis-
covered about a mile down the same stream to the south.
The rock here was found to be of the same texture and
color as the last described. There are several small pits on the
sloping bank of the creek, but the principal excavation is in the
bed of the stream.
That this quarry is still occasionally worked by the Indians
for pipestone is asserted by an old settler of the neighborhood.
A large number of pipes and ornaments in the archaeological
collections of this state are made of Barren County catlinite.
Some varieties of this stone much resemble those of the far-
famed Minnesota pipestone, and many articles commonly sup-
posed to be of Minnesota stone, are in fact products of Wis-
consin quarries.
As these explorations were made during rainy weather, the
making of an accurate survey and the taking of photographs
was of necessity postponed to some future time.
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Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry.
FRANCO-AMERICAN STUDY OF A WANING
PREHISTORIC INDUSTRY.
BY CHARLES H. DOERFLINGER.
To M. Francois Daleau, the French archaeologist, we owe
many explorations and writings, but he is particularly noted
for his discovery, and diligent as well as careful personal ex-
cavation during nearly a third of a century, of one of the most
interesting and important caves known as the abodes of pre-
historic man, the cave styled "Pair-non-Pair" near the north
shore of the Gironde. In this, as probably in no other cave
known, three of the well-defined French prehistoric epochs cor-
responding with as many glacial loops and geological deposits,
the mousterian, the solutrian and madeleinian were represented
in the original succession by flint and other paleolithic imple-
ments, and bones of the reindeer and other animals that inhabi-
ted southern France in those remote times during the repeated
advances of the great northern glaciers across the North and
Baltic Seas and the northern, central and parts of the south-
western regions of Europe.
When "Pair-non-Pair" had been almost completely exploited
by its discoverer, a piece of the roof caved in, and the flood of
light thus admitted reveald a number of outlines of animals
cut into the walls and even partly colord, indicating that the
rude cave-dwellers of 20,000 to 70,000 years ago, probably
clothed only in the pelts of wild carnivores, possest a re-
markabl degree of artistic perception and skill in representa-
tion, the horse, the steinbock, the mammoth, etc., being clearly
discernabl in their pictograts.
Mr. Daleau does not confine himself to any particular line
or period in his investigations ; he is fond of following any clue
36 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST.
or probability, and thus has made a number of interesting dis-
coveries and valuable "finds".
Several years ago he made a trip to the coast of southwestern
France along what was in ancient times cald the Aquitanian
Sea. reaching from the Bretagne to the northern coast of Spain
and including1 what is now known as the Bay of Biscay or Vis-
eaja. There he discoverd evidences of an ancient industry
which is fast disappearing and which he described in a printed
pamflet, of which he kindly sent me a copy. This was brought
to the notis of the Wisconsin Natural History Society at the
time.
The whole aquitanian coast is a very interesting example of
the changes continually going on in the surface of the Erth.
It is flat and sandy, particularly south of the Gironde. This
immense estuary, the Gironde, is formd by the waters of two
great rivers, the Dordogne and the Garonne, which with their
many tributaries drain at least one-fourth of France. Many
saltwater basins and brackish marshes are strung along this
coast, which is best characterizd as a sheet of sanddunes irresist-
ibly moving eastward. The conspicuous features of the flora
are willows and conifers.
A long stretch of the coast north of the Gironde seems to
hav past thru the same stages of formation and motion in for-
mer centuries or millennia. The ilands Oleron, Re and others
further north seem to be the remains of the old dune coast left
in its march toward the East. The stretch from Point Grave
at the mouth of the Gironde nearly to where the river Adour
flows into the Bay of Biscay has not reacht the iland-making
stage yet; but a large number of smaller and larger inland
basins of salt or brackish water, from a mile to a dozen miles
long, form a chain almost parallel to the present coast line at a
distans of one or more miles, and are in the midst of the iland-
making process.
Creeks and short rivers drain the sandy region into the ba-
sins, and the latter empty their surplus separately or by com-
mon outlets into the ocean.
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry. 37
It is natural that the achievments of modern civilization very
slowly reacht the poor population of such a barren region, which
depended for its living almost entirely on fishing. The largest
of the little salt-seas is the Bassin d' Arcaehon, about 30 or
40 miles from Bordeaux, the beautiful southern metropolis.
There M. Daleau found what remains of the said ancient in-
dustry which formerly had occupied the fishermen during the
dull seasons, but which has gradually been dying off, especially
since the railroad invaded that region. It was the manufacture
of great quantities of various sizes, grades and kinds of wooden
nails, pegs or pins with heds or without heds, with or without
wedges for "clinching". Each nail was Avhittled out of one
piece of wood, of a tough variety of marsh-willow (Salix cin-
erea, "ash-tinted willow"). Experts were found to be abl to
make a large number (about 300) of these wooden nails of very
accurate shape in a day ; the product was generally used insted
of metal nails in the ages before the latter were invented, for all
kinds of constructiv work, but particularly for boatbilding.
FiOr the latter they are still preferd on account of their greater
durability, iron being rapidly corroded in the seawater.
The towns of Arcachon and La Teste de Buch were the great
markets for this industry. Thens the whole aquitanian coast
was largely supplyd. But modern commers following the rail-
road, has invaded this mart with copper nails, and the w,ood-
nail industry seems to be doomed.
M. Daleau has for nearly two decades been an interested
friend of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, and has vol-
untarily rendered our Public Museum a very valuable servis by
determining the osseous specimens containd in the collection
of French cave relics sent him from here for identification. A
year or more ago, he askt me to report whether any of our abor-
iginal tribes had used wooden nails in their boatbilding indus-
try. I made a rather thoro serch in the card catalogs of the Pub-
lic Museum and Public Library, then in the indices of all the
availabl works that seemd to promis information on the subject ;
finally, I perused the pages of at least 125 volumes of reports and
other works, devoting several weeks' time to this investigation.
38 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
I found only one case. This was mentiond by Dr. Charles Ran
in his Smithsonian Contribution, "Prehistoric Fishing". His
sours of information was Colonel Charles C. Jones' report pub-
lisht in Abbotts' "Primitive Industry". Dr. Rail's statement,
slightly condenst, is as follows:
"In 1845, while digging a canal on one of the rice-plantations
on the Savannah River only a few miles distant from the City
of Savannah, 3V2 feet below the surfase of the swamp, the work-
men came upon a dugout canoe imbedded in the soil. When
cleand and dryd, this canoe weighd 60 pounds; it could be car-
ryd by one individual. There wer no marks of sharp-cutting
tools. The agency of fire had obviusly been invokt in the con-
struction of this little boat ; it is probabl that the ordinary stone
celts, chisels, gouges, scrapers or simple shells were the only tools
used. It had evidently lain for a long time. Abov the spot were
growing cypress trees as large and seemingly as old as any of
the surrounding forest. This canoe is older than the barge
which conveyd Oglethorpe up the Savannah, when he selected
the home of the Yamacraws as a site for the future commercial
metropolis of the Colony of Georgia; more ancient, probably,
than the statelier craft which carryd the fortunes of the dis-
coverer of this Western Continent."
Col. Jones informed Mr. Ran that this canoe after its exhuma-
tion gradually yielded to decay.
"It was a dug-out about 11 feet long, 30 inches wide and
scarsely more than 10 inches deep, fashiond out of the trunk of
a cypress tree. The bow and stem were strengthend, each by a
wooden brace kept in position by wooden pins passing thru the
sides of the canoe and entering the braces at either end. Three
feet from the stem was a seat 9 inches wide, a rude cypress
plank, fitting into notches in the sides of the canoe, and also
kept in position by four .wooden pins — two at each end of the
seat — driven thru the sides of the boat and into the ends of the
seat-plank. ' '
The literature I examind in the Milwaukee Public Museum
and Public Library covers about 60,000 pages, mostly quarto or
folio. I also askt a number of persons verst in such matters,
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry.
and some well acquainted with the older generations of seafaring
people in the region of the Great Lakes; but none of them had
notist any cases in point.
The skin and bark boats of the American aborigines, so far as
our inquiry hitherto permits an opinion, have mostly been very
perishabl, and it is possibl that wooden pegs, pins, nails or
wedges may hav been used by them in one or many regions,,
but hav decay d or hav not yet been found.
In many ways the American Indians were ingenious inventors ;
it is astonishing and disappointing that it should never have oc-
curd to them to make their boats stronger and more durabl by
so simple a devise as the wooden pin, which in Europe has been
in vogue for thousands of years. It was used in the construc-
tion of the Swiss lacustrine pile-dwellings in pre-historic
times. The probability is that the lake-dwellers used it also
in bilding their boats.
During my excavations in the renownd pile-dwellers' settle-
ment in the elastic peat margin of Lake Pfaeffikon, near
Robenhausen, Switzerland, one of my rarest and most inter-
esting finds was a piece of an oar including a part of the
blade about 5 inches wide, 8 inches long and l1/^ inches
thick, and part of the roughly rounded, broken pole about 4
inches long and ll/_> inch thick, all of one piece. The blade
had at the upper end, near the pole or handl, a hole nearly
1 inch square mortist thru for the rope or thong by which
the oar was attached to the gunwale. Dr. Jacob Messikomer,
who directed the excavation at my expense, said that the
people living near some of the remote little lakes found at
great altitudes in the Alps, were still using rudder-like oars
of similar shape.
Unfortunately, only a few remnants .of this rudder are left.
It was nearly destroyed by a new preserving fluid recom-
mended in Europe by an archeologist.
My said excavation yielded a comparatively large number
of relics. They were taken out of the clayey coze of the lake
bottom, 4 to 4i/o feet under the surfase of the peat. The po-
sition indicated a minimal age of 4,000 years, at a very re-
40 WISCONSIN AECHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
liable estimate made by specialists. They were relics of a
large village of pile-dwellings bilt (at a distance from the shore
considerd comparativly safe against the dangers threatening
from there) by a half-civilized race -of men who livd about
4yOOO years before the discovery of America by Columbus,
over 2,000 years B. C., 1,400 years before the founding of
Rome, and 1,100 years before Homer who sang the story of
Troy and of the wily as well as valiant Ulysses in his Odyssey.
Roland B. Dixon seems to hav found no wood pins used
among the Maidu and Shasta Indians of California and Ore-
gon ; nor James Teit among the Shuswap in British Columbia ;
nor Alb. Ernst Jenks among the Bontog Igorote Filipinos;
nor Otis T. Mason among the Kutenai. L. H. Morgan states
in the 21st Annual Report of the Regents of the X. Y. State
University, that the ladders of the Arickaree Indians (belong-
ing to the Pawnee stock) and of the Mandan Indians (belong-
ing to the Dakotah stock) had depressions sunk into the side
rails to receiv the rounds, which wer secured by rawhide strings.
, The very carefully constructed circular houses (Mandau.
lodges at Fort Clark seem to hav been devoid of wooden pins.
Dr. Walter J. Hoffmann, however reports that the Menomini
Indians coverd their log houses with shingles fastend by
wooden pegs. Dr. Franz Boas found in the sledges of the
Central Eskimo long flat pieces of ivory fastend to the runners
with treenails (long pins or bolts of wood). John Murdoch's
model of a canoe of the Point Barrow Indians shows treenails
used in it.
Geo. H. Boehmer in his "Prehistoric Naval Architecture of
the Xorth of Europe" publisht in the Smithsonian Report of
1891 says that the timbers of the "Botley Boat" of Danzig,
Germany, wer put together with treenails of oak IVo inches
thick, securing the thicknesses of boarding to the uprights.
The Broesen Boat, bilt about 1100 A. D., found deep in the
sand far back from the present beach, had oak planks 1%
inches thick fastend to the ribs with wooden nails of 1 inch
thickness and iron nails 4 inches long. Of the iron nails only
the. powder was left, while the wooden nails of oak. juniper
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry. 41
and birch trees of one year's growth wer still in good preser-
vation.
iOne of the most remarkable and probably oldest known
relics of ship-bilding with wooden nails is a part of a boat 45
ft. long and 10 ft. wide, exhumed in the year 1900 in the
center of the Leba-Moor in Pommerania, Prussia. It did not
contain the least vestige of iron, all the planks having been
fastened by nails of juniper-wocd and calkt by means of a
northern moss (lichen?) soakt with tar.
It is said that wooden nails made of pine now last in water
only about ten years.
W. H. White in his "Manual of Naval Architecture" (1889),
and A. Campbell Holmes in his "Practical Shipbilding"
(1908). leave the impression that the wooden pin or bolt (tre-
nail, trepin, treenail) is -even in modern ship-construction still
considerd the ne-plus-ultra of reliance, and superior to the
best metal bolt in places subject to great strain, as, for in-
stance, in fastening together the timbers of the keel beams of
large vessels, even of steel-construction. A great tightly fit-
ting metal bolt cannot yield to the twists caused by tremen-
dous waves, it must either split the beams, or break; while the
wooden treenails can yield a trifle and then spring back after
the crucial strain has subsided.
It was reported to me by my correspondent, that Prof. Kin-
caid, who was a member of the Harriman Expedition in
Alaska and in the Summer of 1909 went to Japan to serch for
the gypsy moth, gave it as his opinion that in primitiv days
the aborigines of America used wooden pegs to hold their dug-
outs together, or to fasten anything else that could not be held
together by being hound. He asserted that those prominent
parts which had to be attacht to the totem-poles of the Indians,
such as noses, were held in place by pegs. Also, that sinse the
invasion of the white man these parts are sometimes attacht
by metal pegs of the same material, perhaps, as is used in
nails. The southern Indians as well as the northern tribes all
used pegs.
42 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
Prof. Kincaid further said that the temples of today in Japan
are held together by pegs, sins the Japanese regard it as sacri-
legious to use a nail in the construction of a temple, and that
all things made by the Japanese people are generally held to-
gether by pegs.
<The latest special work on the navigation of the Indians is
Dr. Georg Friederici's "Die Schiffahrt der Indianer. " It
contains 110 pages of text, covering all of America, and 20
pages of bibliografy, mentioning about 500 titles old and new.
It enumerates the following types of boats or means of navi-
gation :
Eskimo kayak (man-boat; Russian name bidarka).
Eskimo umiak (woman-boat; Russian name bidarra).
bull-boat, canoa,
dalca, piragua,
skinboat, pitpan,
canoe, balsa (reed-raft) ;
Any log, tree, branch, stump, bundle of twigs, cane, etc., is
used by Indians in North, Central and South America, often
with an astounding disregard of dangers from alligators, sharks,
currents, etc.
Mr. Geo. A. West, President of the Milwaukee Public Mu-
seum adds to the above list the "dory" used on the upper
courses of rivers in Nicaragua, and the much larger "sea-
dory," used for freighting between the coast and vessels obliged
to stay in the offing. He also offers the following valuabl per-
sonal observations made during his explorations which hav
extended from Alaska to Central America:
"Wooden Pins iised by the Eskimo.
During 1897 along Norton Sound, Alaska, it was not un-
common' to see the Eskimo with wooden canoes of considerabl
size, cut from a singl tree, with wooden pins projecting from
the inside of the stern, one on each side, about 6 inches from
the bottom, and used as a seat when the canoe is paddld by
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry. 43
0
a single person. I also observed one boat there that had SL
pin passing clear through the bow from one side to the other,,
a few inches from the bottom, and used as an end seat.
In that part of Alaska the nativs commonly bild their win-
ter houses of logs and cover them with erth. On one side of
the interior of each house two wooden pins are driven into
a log, and upon these pins is placed the stone lamp. This
lamp contains a wick made of the fiber of a plant resembling;
cotton. A third pin is inserted into the log above the lamp,,
on which pin is placed a piece of seal blubber, just far enough
from the flame to cause the oil to drip sufficiently to furnish
fuel for the lamp. The holes for these pins were workt out:
by use of pieces of iron -obtaind from wrecks.
Used by the Mosquito Indians.
During the year 1899, the writer visited the numerous villages
of the Mosquito Indians up the banks or Segovia River, Nicara-
gua, He found them using canoes of great size, cald dories. These-
boata wer each made from a mahogany log, and with a gun-
wale strip of hewn plank, usually about 5 inches in width,
fitted to the upper edge of the sides of the boat and fastend
there with wooden pins. I observd one old boat of this type^
which had been long sins abandoned, that had a pin of wood
put clear thru its bow for the purpose of repairing a crack
or split in the wood. The holes for the pins were irregular
in size and shape and appeard to have been burnt in.
Wisconsin Indians.
That the "Wisconsin Indian knew the use of a rivet or pin is.
well illustrated by the holes in the shanks of copper spears,
found here, some of which were secured with the rivets in the-
hole."
The following excerpts from a large range of readings, the
author references for which wer lost, may yet prove of some
value.
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST.
In the greatest part of British America, from Labrador to
Kodiak Hand in Alaska and south to the boundary line of tne
white birch eastward of the Rocky Mts., the birchbark canoe
was in universal use. Crossbars, if any were used, were mor-
tist into the sides or tied fast.
On the Kootenai and all over the plateau of British Colum-
bia and North Washington, the asiatic monitor shaped canoe
prevaild, both ends pointed under the water; it was made from
pine bark insted of birchbark.
The Tlingits used dugouts with painted designs. In the
area south of the north boundary of the U. S., draind by the
St. Lawrence, dugouts (pirogues) were the means of naviga-
tion.
The bull-boats mentiond above, used by the Sioux, Mandan,
Arikara and Hidatsa women on the Missouri River and else-
where, were small tub-shaped craft of willow frames coverd
with rawhide.
From Mt. St. Elias south to Eel River, California, the In-
dians made excellent dugouts from giant cedar and other light
kinds of wood, some nearly 100 feet long.
In the Santa Barbara region wooden canoes were made of
planks lasht together and calkt.
In the large number of reports from which these notes were
culd, I found not a single reference to wooden pegs or pins
used in the construction of boats; but judging from the con-
tents of some of the letters I received from well-known arche-
ologists, this may in part be accounted for by an oversight of
the explorers, whose hardships, inconveniences and burden of
prescribed reserches occupyd their attention to such an extent,
that the insignificant object of this inquiry could hav escaped
their notis, while our French confrere, being a man in easy
circumstances, had trained himself during about 30 years of slow
and careful cave-explorations, to take note of every fact, no mat-
ter how insignificant it might seem to others.
American educators of high rank have told us that we are
far behind the most advanced nations of Europe, especially Ger-
many, in our educational work, that thoroness there, super-
Franco- American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry. 45
ficiality here, are the causes of the difference in results, and of
our failures. Our record in natural science is considerably bet-
ter, but any young man looking forward to a scientific career
in any branch of human knowledge and reserch, should try to
profit from this experiens and make thoroness the supreme law
for his life work.
I was pleasurably surprised to find in the letters received from
noted American workers in the ethnological field, evidenses of
the interest and importance they accord to the apparently trifling
subject of this laborious investigation, the wooden peg or nail.
Prof. A. H. Winchell, of St. Paul, Minnesota, states: "I have
not in my actual examination of archaeological objects ever come
across anything that points directly to such implements (wooden
pegs or pins) in boat building." (Letter, Nov. 3, 1909.)
.Mr. A. B. Stout, of Madison, Wis. ; Richard Herrmann of
Dubuque, Iowa; Rev. Arthur J. Gesner, of Faribaullt, Minne-
sota, and Dr. C. A. Peterson, of St. Louis, Missouri, recognized
students of the habits and customs of the North American In-
dian, have all informd the author by letter that they are not
aware of any existing evidens that wooden pins were used in
boat making by the aborigines of this country.
Mr. G. E. Laidlaw, of The Fort Ranch, Victoria Road, On-
tario, writes : "I have been used to canoes of all sorts from the
Pacific coast to this district, and do not recollect ever seeing
any wooden pins or pegs used in the way you describe, either in
repairing or in the construction of canoes." (Letter, Nov. 14,
1909.)
Mr. Laidlaw further suggests that because of the abundance
of timber in nearly every part of America, suitable for canoe
building, it would seem unnecessary to add planks to the sides to
give added height.
The same writer later says: "Since writing you I have ques-
tioned some Ojibway Indians as to the use of pegs in construct-
ing or repairing log canoes and was informed that pegs were
never used by them, the repairs being made in the same manner
as repairs to the birch bark canoe, lacing or sewing with fiber-
ous roots" (Letter, Nov. 22, 1909).
46 WISCONSIN AKCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
Walter A. Hough, curator of Anthropology, Smithsonian In-
stitute, Washington, D. C., writes: "I might state as a general
proposition that the method of joining wood by pegging was
pretty generally known by the North American Indians. Its
use in boat-building, however, at this time cannot be affirmed
from the tribes who early met the whiteman. It is presumed
that in the East the dug-out canoes required no such construc-
tion, but it is known that along the North-west Coast and
thruout the whole Eskimo and Arctic Indian area, parts of
canoes Avere joined with pegs of wood, bone, ivory, or whale-
bone. The complicated masks of the Pueblo Indians show good
examples of pegging. I think that there is no doubt that this
primitive method of fastening was in use in America before the
advent of the white man" (Letter to Author Nov. 30, 1909).
Mr. A. F. Hunter of Barrie, Ontario, an eminent authority
on aboriginal matter, especially the ancient Hurons, in a re-
cent letter to Mr. G. E. Laidlaw says he has found no evidence
of the use of wooden pegs in canoe building among the early
tribes, and refers to page 96 of "Lizars," i. e. Robina and
Kathleen Lizars' "Description of Conditions and Events in
the County of Huron in 1829," publisht at Toronto, 1896.)
The essential contents of the passage pointed out are as fol-
lows :
"There are three kinds of vessels made by the Chippewas
on the Flats, the birchbark, the dugout and the elm canoe.
The second was used for all practical purposes by the settler;
but the Indian, and the newly arrived who "posed," preferd
the birchbark. One famous dugout was made of a pine tree
twenty-six feet long and three feet, nine inches in the beam.
It could easily carry nine barrels of pork, and four or five men
to paddle. Pine, black walnut, basswood and a tree for which
the Flats were famous, the buttonwood, wer all esteemd good,
the two last named especially, as they were the lightest and not
likely to split from exposure to the sun. They wer also the
best in the rice and the weeds, as ther was no swish a-gainst
their sides, as with the birch. The Chippewas often made theirs
from one roll of the elmbark, sewn up at both ends and gumd,
Franco-American Study of a Waning Prehistoric Industry. 47
the thwarts keeping it spred. One enormous Indian canoe
emerged from the fog one morning and made for the harbour,
the people ashore mistaking it for a schooner — with 25 In-
dians a.board and a load of bales of furs. ' '
In the same book, which is in many places spiced with a sort
of Pickwickian humor, I found on p. 95 this paragraf, which
Mr. Hunter overlookt and which contains the one solitary men-
tion of a pin, tho not in connection with boat bilding: "The
ordinary Canadian summersled was easy enough to make.
A crooked stick found in the bush was quickly turnd into broad,
flat, low runners; crosspieces were fitted into grooves; the pole
was a straight young ash with the butt sawn down the middl
for about a foot, and spred for the insertion of a wooden tung,
which was fastend by a pin." While it is not explicitly stated
that this was a wooden pin, I assume that it was, because in
the West I have many times seen wooden pins used for the same
purpose in sleds and wagons; also because metal work was ex-
pensiv in the new settlements during the erly part of the last
century.
Prof. Harlan I. Smith, Department of Anthropology, Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, New York, writes: "While I
do not recall the use of wooden nails, pegs or pins for boat
building by the American Indians, aside from those inhabit-
ing the Norhwest Coast who also use such pins for fastening
the bottoms of some of the boxes to the sides and ends and for
fastening the ends of the board used to form the sides and) ends
of some boxes. This board is notched in three places and bent
around so that cne board forms both sides and ends." (Letter
to Author Nov. 5, 1909.)
In the collections of the Milwaukee Public Museum there
are several boxes from the Northwest Coast region, such as Prof.
Harlan I. Smith mentions; one made by the Haida Indians on
Queen Charlotte Island is a particularly fine specimen; it is
17 inches long, 15 wide and 9 high. All its seams or edges
were originally fastened and tightened in excellent workmanship,
with a large number of wooden pegs set at nearly equal dis-
48 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST.
taiises. It is evidently of great age ; later repairs were made
with iron tacks, rather carelessly, probably indicating an in-
dustrial degeneration of the aborigines under the infiuens of
the white man and his firewater.
While not germane to the matter at issue, there is an element
of " missing link" humor in an observation made by M. Daleau
during another exploration trip in the aquitanian coast region.
Approaching a cabin in one of the ''backwoods" or "back-
dune" fishermen's hamlets, he saw near the en trans some of the
rude hollowd or groovd stone implments for the grinding and
polishing of tools, which had been preservd thru the ages
sins prehistoric times, and were still in use. A tall, lank, bare-
footed old fisherman, sitting near a fire, when askt a question by
Mr. Daleau, calmly took an ember from the fire with the dexter-
ous "prehensil" big toe of one of his huge feet, transfered it skill-
fully to his hand, lighted his pipe and then answered the question
with the nonchalance and dignity of a prehistoric king holding
court.
It seems to me that Mr. Daleau 's question is still far from
being answered and is worthy of an extended investigation by
amateur as well as professional archeologists. It is new, and
may lead to unexpected discoveries. The members of the Wis-
consin Archeological Society and the affiliated associations may
find it interesting and fruitful to pursue this reserch in their-
respectiv localities and to carry it even into foren territory
north and south with the help of their American and foren
correspondents.
Si
An Ornamented Stone Axe.
AN ORNAMENTED STONE AXE.
BY CHAS. E. BROWN.
Although the fluted stone axes of Wisconsin have received the
attention of local investigators for nearly ten years, specimens
of these implements exhibiting new and interesting styles of
ornamental treatment are still now and then encountered in
collections. Among those which have recently come to our no-
tice, a specimen in the State Historical Museum merits special
attention and description. This interesting example of the
ancient axe-maker's craft was obtained at the locality known as
Pheasant Branch, in Middleton township, near the northwestern
angle of Lake Mendota, in Dane County. It is rather well
fashioned of syenite and measures 9l/± inches in length and
4 inches in width at the handle groove, which passes over three
surfaces of the implement. This groove is I1/-* inches in width,
and of good depth, and is bounded above and below by fairly
prominent ridges. The poll of the axe is about l1/^ inches
high. The blade narrows gradually from the groove to the
dulled cutting edge which is about three inches in width.
The two faces of the blade are ccnvex, its front being slightly
flattened and the broad back concave from the poll to the point.
The blade is smooth but not polished and is devoid of orna-
mentation. The poll is, however, ornamented with six quite
well defined parallel grooves or flutes which extend over its
crown from the front to the back. In the side view of this axe,
shown in Figure 1, three of these ornamental grooves which
occur on one side of the poll are shown. These are about one-
half inch in width, shallow, and are separated from each other
by slight, narrow ridges.
Among several hundred ornamented, grooved stone axes of
which the writer has knowledge only twenty-two have orna-
W WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST.
Vol. 9, No. 2
mented polls. Nine of this number have polls ornamented with
from four to fourteen grooves which radiate from the crown
downward to the handle groove. One has six short, shallow
depressions (three on each side) just above the handle groove
and not reaching the crown. Two have the poll, just above
the handle groove, encircled by a single shallow depression.
Nine have polls ornamented with from two to three concentric
grooves. One has a poll ornamented with a spiral groove,
which begins at the handle groove and ends at the crown. Of
the total number of twenty-two axes, fourteen possess both orna-
mented polls and blades.
Fig. 1
During a recent journey made to the State of Iowa, a
search was made by the writer for fluted stone imple-
ments but none could be found in either the archaelogical
An Ornamental Stone Axe. 51
collections of the Iowa, Historical Society, at Iowa City; in the
museum of the Historical Department of Iowa, at Des Moines;
in the Academy of Sciences museum, at Davenport; or in a
number of private collections then visited. It is plain from
past investigations that the claim that these ornamented or fluted
axes are a distinctive feature of Wisconsin archaeology, (like the
native copper implements and animal-shaped earthworks), is
now fully substantiated.
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
INDIAN MOUNDS PRESERVED IN
WISCONSIN.
In response to recent requests there is published for the bene-
fit of the members and friends of the Wisconsin Archeological
Society, the following list of mounds at present permanently
preserved in Wisconsin.
1. Group of conical, linear and effigy mounds on the campus at Be-
loit College, Beloit.
2. Group of linear and effigy mounds, and plot of Indian cornhills,
on the campus of Carroll College, at Waukesha.
3. Group of three effigy mounds near the lake drive and east of the
creek on the grounds of the University of Wisconsin. Two
are in a wooded pasture and the third, a bird effigy on an
oval in the drive.
4. Linear and a tapering mound in a grove on the Lake Mendota
drive and a short distance northwest of the residence of the
dean of the College of Agriculture, on the grounds of the
University of Wisconsin.
5. Turtle and bird effigy on Otservatory Hill, on the University of
Wisconsin grounds. Marked in 1909, by explanatory signs.
6. Two linear mounds and bird effigy on the new University fruit
farm, at Madison. Preservation agreed to in 1910.
7. Group of effigy and linear mounds on the lawn of the State
Hospital for the Insane, at Mendota, on the north shore of
Lake Mendota. The largest bird has a wing .spread of 624
feet, being the largest effigy of this type in Wisconsin.
8. Group of eleven conical mounds on Farwell Point, on the shore
of Lake Mendota, on the State Hospital property.
9. Bird effigy and linear and conical mounds on the Dominican
Sisters property, at Edgewood, at Madison, on the north shore
of Lake Wingra. Preservation agreed to in 1908.
10. Group of four conical mounds on the pleasure drive, on the north-
east shore of Lake Wingra, at Edgewood, Madison. Saved
from impending destruction in 1909.
11. Bear effigy on the park oval at the head of West Washington
street, in Wingra Park, Madison.
12. Group of three conical mounds in Cutler Park at Waukesha.
Property acquired by the city in 1902. Mounds marked with
a bronze tablet by the Waukesha Women's Club, in 1906.
13. Two conical mounds in State Fair Park, at West Allis. Preserva-
tion agreed to by the state fair board, in 1906.
Indian Mounds Preserved in Wisconsin. 53
14. Conical mound in Lake Park, at Milwaukee, near the Folsom
Street entrance to the park.
15. Conical mound at the head of Bass Bay on property belonging to
the Schlitz Brewing Co., at the head of Muskego Lake, in
Waukesha County.
16. Conical mounds on the right of way of the Wisconsin Central
Railway, on the north shore of Buffalo Lake, between Pack-
waukee and Montello in Marquette County. Preservation or-
dered by President H. C. Whitcomb, in 1905.
17. Bird effigy and large portion of a linear mound in Riverside
Park, at Cassville.
18. Conical mound in the depot yard at Bagley, in Grant County.
Fenced by the C. B. & Q. Ry.
19. Effigy and two conical mounds in Myrick Park, at La Crosse.
20. Group of seven conical mounds in Mound Cemetery, at Racine.
Marked with an explanatory sign.
21. Turtle and three panther effigies in Elisha D. Smith Park, on
Doty Island, at Menasha. Marked with explanatory signs.
22. Man mound in Man Mound Park, near Baraboo, in Sauk County.
Property purchased by the Wisconsin Archeological Society,
the Sauk County Historical Society, and contributing clubs
of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs, in 1907.
Park dedicated and mound marked with a bronze tablet, the
gift of Hon. Jacob Van Orden, in 1908. This is the only
effigy of its kind in Wisconsin.
23. Group of mounds on the Delevan Lake Assembly grounds, near
Delevan.
24. Group of mounds on the Lake Chetek Assembly grounds, at Chetek.
This is an excellent record and one of which the citizens -of
Wisconsin and the state society may feel proud. In addition to
the foregoing, the following are being protected in the public's
interest by their present owners.
Bird effigy on the Kirk hotel property at Devil's Lake.
The so-called "Regnla Group" of effigy mounds on the Pabst
stock farm, at Summit, Waukesha County.
Group of three conical mounds in Hilgen Spring Park, at
Cedarburg.
Group of conical, effigy and linear mounds on the Lakeside
Hotel grounds, on Lake Koshkonong.
It is to be hoped that other cities and societies in Wisconsin
will soon take up the work of permanently preserving represen-
tative groups or choice examples of the Indian earthworks in
their neighborhoods.
5* WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 2
ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES.
The Third Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical As-
sociation was held at Iowa City, Iowa, on May 26 and 27, 1910. All
of the sessions were held in the College of Liberal Arts of the Univer-
sity of Iowa, and were very well attended, historians, archaeologists
and museologists being present from a number of Mississippi Valley
states. At the fifth session of the meeting, on Friday afternoon.
May 27, Mr. Arlow B. Stout, of the University of Wisconsin delivered
an illustrated lecture on the "Effigy Mounds and Mosaics of the Valley
of the Mississippi," a subject upon which his field work in Wisconsin
and acquaintance with the literature have made him an authority.
His address was received with great interest. Mr. Charles E. Brown,
representing the Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
read a paper on "The State Historical Museum," in which he pre-
sented a plan for the proper development, and urged a greater activity
on the part of state museums of this important class. Their progress
had heretofore been slow, and uncertain because their special field of
public usefulness was just beginning to be fully understood by the
state historical societies, and by the public. Golden opportunities for
acquiring representative collections of local historical materials of
great value were being lost each year because of the meagre financial
support which these museums were now receiving from their respective
states.
The State Historical Society of Iowa, under whose auspices the meet-
ing was held, deserves great credit for the manner in which it pro-
vided for the entertainment of its large number of guests. Its mem-
bers took advantage of every opportunity to make the occasion one
long to be remembered, and It is to be hoped that the Association in
the future again select this charming Iowa city for a meeting place.
After the meeting, Mr. Brown paid a visit to the very progressive
museum of the State Historical Department of Iowa at Des Moines.
At Davenport he was given an opportunity to inspect the valuable
archaeological collections of the Academy of Sciences.
From the estate of Mr. Alvinus B. Wood, of Detroit, Mich., the State
Historical Museum has received the gift of a remarkably fine socketted
native copper spearpoint of the bayonet or ridged-back type. This speci-
men is of the very unusual length of 12 5-16 inches, a size exceeded
by but one other example known to have been recovered in Wisconsin.
The Wood specimen was obtained in 1863 during the destruction of a
tumulus near Kilbourn City, in Columbia County. The other comes
from Sauk County, and is in the H. P. Hamilton collection. Another,
also in this collection, obtained near Fence Lake, Vilas County, meas-
ures nearly 11% inches in length, and weighs 12 ounces. A speci-
men in a small private collection in Milwaukee, obtained in Washing-
Archaeological Notes. 55
ton County, is 9^ inches long. A small portion of the point is broken
off: A small number of other specimens measure from about 9 to 9%
inches in length.
"A most gratifying acquisition to the Wisconsin (state) park plan
is that reported by the state park board, whereby the state comes into
possession by purchase and long-time option, of nearly all of the lands
lying contiguous to Devils Lake. The lands acquired comprise 1,100
acres, and is all that borders upon the lake except some 75 acres
owned mostly by quarrymen or cottagers.
This accomplishment by the state park board is a most notable one
and places the commonwealth in an enviable position as practical
owners and conservator of one of the most famous beauty spots in
the northwest."
On December 3, 1906, tne Wisconsin Archeological Society, adopted
resolutions strongly urging the acquirement by the state of this prop-
erty.. Other state organizations did the same To Hon. Thomas E.
Brittingham of Madison, chairman of the state park commission, and
an honored member of the Society, great credit is due for his tire-
less efforts in bringing about this result. The accession of the Devils
Lake region means the permanent preservation by the state of several
of the very interesting groups of prehistoric mounds described by Mr.
A. B. Stout in his "Summary of the Archaeology of Eastern Sauk
County," published by the Society in 1906.
At the request of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, the City ot
Milwaukee is considering the marking with an explanatory tablet of
the last remaining example of a group of Indian burial mounds for-
merly located on the present site of Lake Park. The mound in ques-
tion is located at a distance of about one hundred feet southeast of
the present Folsom street entrance to the park, iris conical in shape,
about forty feet in diameter and about two feet in height: On and
about it are several young trees which were planted in recent years.
The other mounds of this group are remembered by Mr. Carl Boden-
bach, a member of the Society, to have been located at short distances
east and southeast of the former.
Of the City of Madison the Society has requested the marking of a
small group of conical mounds located on the edge of the pleasure
drive at Edgewood, on the north shore of Lake Wingra. A committee
of aldermen will visit the mounds and report on the matter.
At Beloit, a collection of historical materials is being assembled by
local ladies in the city library.
The State Historical Society, the Wisconsin Archeological Society,
and the Landmarks Committee, W. F. W. C., have each prepared for
the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, ^ report on the local
historic sites preserved and marked under their direction. If pub-
lished this report should show that Wisconsin is well in advance of
some surrounding states in caring for its antiquities.
Vol. 9 August to November, 1910 No. 3
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE STATE FIELD ASSEMBLY
AT MADISON
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated March 23, 1903, for the purpose of advancing the study and
preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
ARTHUR WENZ Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. L. E. DREXEL Plymouth
H. L. SKAVLEM Janesville
PROP. J. L. TORNEY Milwaukee
G. A. WEST Milwaukee
W. W. WARNER Madison
DIRECTORS
JOHN EVANS Milwaukee
CARL BODENBACH Milwaukee
TREASURER
LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY AND CURATOR
CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
SURVEY, RESEARCH AND RECORD— A. B. Stout, Dr. E. J. W. Notz,
Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Dr. F. C. Rogers, Dr. W. H. Bailey, W. W.
Gilman, Chas. T. Jeffery.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— Dr. G. L. Collie, H. E. Cole, Dr. R. G.
Thwaites, Rev. Wm. Metzdorf, H. P. Hamilton, Dr. S. A. Barrett,
E. F. Richter, O. P. Olson, H. H. Willard.
MEMBERSHIP— A. W. Bertschy, Dr. J. S. Wallbridge, Paul Joers, J. P.
Schumacher, W. T. Ege, A. V. Drown, W. H. Elkey, Miss Bertha M.
Ferch.
PRESS — John Poppendieck, Jr., E. B. Usher, Wm. Grotelueschen, Miss
Mary E. Stewart.
JOINT MAN MOUND — J. Van Orden, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, Dr. Louis
Falge, L. H. Palmer, Mrs. Henry Mertzke and S. J. Hood.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Lihrary-Museum
Building, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday or each month, at
S P. M.
During the months or July to Octoher no meetings will he held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Memhers, $25.00. Sustaining Memhers, $5.00
Annual Memhers, $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeological Society or to the
"Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to C. E. Brown, Secretary and
€urator, Office, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wls.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Vol. 9, No. 3.
ARTICLES.
Page
The State Field Assembly at Madison, Charles E. Brown 57
The Marking of the State Fair Park Mounds, Arthur Wenz 79
Greetings from Sister States 83
In the Public's Interest 86
Archeological Items 89
Local Collectors and Collections.. ..t 91
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece
PLATE
1. Participants in the State Field Assembly, at the State Historical
Library
2. The Ceremonies at the Bear Mound, Wingra Park
3. On the Eagle Mound, State Hospital Grounds, Mendota
4. Indian History Room, State Historical Museum
5. Indian Cornhills, Morris Park
6. Conical Mound, Morris Park
FIGURE
1. Bear Effigy, Wingra Park
2. Goose Effigy, Merrill Springs
THE WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Quarterly Bulletin Published by the Wisconsin Archeolo^ical Society.
Vol. 9. MILWAUKEE, WIS., AUGUST TO NOVEMBER, 1910. No. 3
THE STATE FIELD ASSEMBLY AT MADISON
CHARLES E. BROWN, Secretary, Wisconsin Archeological Society
Several years ago the "Wisconsin Archeological Society
adopted the plan of holding summer field meetings of its mem-
bers and their guests in regions in the state known to be rich
in prehistoric remains. The purpose of these annual gather-
ings has been doubly that of instructing its members by ac-
quainting them with the character of the local archaeological*
field, and of increasing the popular interest in the educational
value and need of the scientific investigation and preservation
of Wisconsin antiquities. The first of these assemblies was
held at Waukesha in May of the year 1906, and was very suc-
cessful. In September of the same year a similar gathering
was held at Menasha, and in the several years following others
were convened at Beloit, and at Baraboo. All of these as-
semblies have been of such an interesting character and so well
appreciated that their coming has been looked forward to by
"Wisconsin archeologists from year to year.
At the annual meeting of the Society held in the City of Mil-
waukee on March 20, 1910, there was presented to it on behalf
of its Madison members and friends an invitation to hold a
two-days field assembly during the course of the summer in
that charming Wisconsin city. It was urged that no more at-
tractive place for a gathering of persons interested in the
significance and preservation of the state's ancient Indian evi-
dences could be selected. The picturesque shorelands of the
58 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. VOL 9, 2*0-. $
three beautiful lakes, Mendota, Monona and Wingra., in the
midst of which the capital city of the state is located, abound
in the sites of stone age and of more recent Indian villages.
in remnants of trails and planting grounds, and in many in-
structive and as yet well preserved examples of the cur ions
animal-shaped and other earthworks for which the state is so
widely celebrated among American archaeologists. The total
number of mounds formerly existing about the five Madison
lakes, it was stated, had been estimated by local authorities at
nearly one thousand. Very many of these were still in exist-
ence, and the opportunity to observe these in their undis-
turbed state should not be neglected. Additional attractions
were presented by the presence at the capital city of the State
Historical library and museum, and the University. This in-
vitation to meet at Madison was strongly seconded by tihe
State Historical Society which promised through its superin-
tendent, Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites, to in every way assist in
the entertainment of the visitors.
This invitation was very favorably received by the members
of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, and was thereafter
formally accepted by its executive board. Secretary Charles
E. Brown was instructed to bear its message of acceptance to
the Madison members. During the months of June and July
these persons held several meetings at which a program for
the assembly was outlined and a committee to assume charge
of the necessary arangements selected. This local committee
of which Mr. W. W. Warner, district vice-president of the
Society, was the honorary chairman, consisted of the following
persons: Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Warner, Dr. and Mrs. Reuben
G. Thwaites, Prof, and Mrs. Albert S. Flint, Rev. Mr. and
Mrs. F. A. Gilmore, Mr. and Mrs. Arlow B. Stout, Mrs. Jessie
R. Skinner, Mr. H. A. Smythe, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Ernest N.
Warner, Prof, and Mrs. William E. Leonard, Prof. H. B.
1/athrop, Mr and Mrs. Thomas E. Brittingham, Mr. and Mrs.
Isaac S. Bradley, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Lee, Mr. W. G. Kirchof-
fer. Miss Emma H. Blair, Col. and Mrs. Albert H. Hollister,
Col. and Mrs. John G. Salsman, Mr. Paul G. Miller, Miss Me-
The State Field Assembly at Madison.
lissa, V. Brown, Mrs. Ulrich Von Wald, Mrs. F. II. Kartak,
Prof. W. H. Lighty, Miss Louise Kellogg, Mrs. Charles E.
Buell, Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Brown, Dr. and Mrs. W. G.
McLachlan, Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Mueller and Mr. and Mrs.
Eugene Luening. This committee is deserving of the greatest
praise for the manner in which it executed its labors both be-
fore and during the assembly.
THE MADISON STATE ASSEMBLY.
On Friday morning, July 29, the first day of the assembly,
the members of the Wisconsin Archeological Society arriving
at Madison from many parts of the state, gathered in the halls of
the historical museum in the State Historical Library building,
where they were welcomed by a reception committee of local
members. After registering in the museum's visitors' record,
badges were distributed to all. At eleven o'clock Dr. Reuben G.
Thwaites, its executive head, delivered to the pilgrims the
formal welcome of the State Historical Society. The remainder
of the morning was very pleasantly and profitably spent in an
inspection of the great library, the museum, newspaper, pub-
lic document, map and manuscript, and other important depart-
ments of the State Historical Society's activities, under the ex-
pert guidance of members of its staff.
THE FIRST DAY'S PILGRIMAGE.
At 2 p. m. the members and guests to the number of one
hundred gathered at the southern entrance to the State His-
torical Library building for the proposed pilgrimage to his-
toric Merrill - Springs. All were in an enthusiastic frame of
mind. Here a photograph of most of the participants was
taken. Carriages and other conveyances which had been pro-
vided for this purpose were then entered and the pilgrimage
begun. Leading the procession of vehicles was a carriage in
which were seated Vice-president W. W. Warner, Prof. H. B.
Lathrop, Miss Pauline Buell, and Hon. Emilius 0. Randall of
Columbus, Ohio, the distinguished guest of the assembly. The
60 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST, Vol. 9. No. 3
drive was through the beautiful grounds of the University of
"Wisconsin, the first halt being made on the crest of Observa-
tory hill, an eminence at the northern edge of the grounds
giving a particularly fine view of picturesque Lake Mendota
and its miles of wooded shorelines.
On the crest of this ridge, at its western extremity and
within a short distance of Washburn observatory and the agri-
culture and horticulture buildings of the University, are two
interesting effigy mounds, all that now remain of an interest-
ing group of ancient Indian earthworks formerly located in
the vicinity. One of these structures is that of a large bird
with outspread wings represented in the act of flying toward
the south. The other effigy is thought to be intended to repre-
sent the turtle. It is peculiar among mounds of the turtle
type in having two instead of one caudal appendage. It is
represented in the act of crawling over the crest of the ridge.
These "fine mounds, so favorably situated for public observa-
tion, have recently been marked by the University at the Wis-
consin Archeological Society 's request, with temporary explana-
tory wooden signs. They are viewed each year by thousands
of students and visitors.
AT THE BEAR MOUND.
After a short halt at Observatory hill the carriages left the
University grounds and proceeded southward across the city
to Henry Vilas Park, a picturesque public park occupying a
portion of the shore of Lake Wingra, the smallest but not the
least attractive of the Madison lakes.
On a small public oval at the head of West Washington
street, on the outskirts of this park, is located the effigy of a
bear (see fig. 1). This animal-shaped earthwork is pro-
claimed by local archeologists to be one of the finest examples
of its type about these lakes. It is situated on the
point of the western end of the oval where it is easily seen
from the drive which approaches and passes to either side of
it, and has as a background a number of fine native oak trees.
Here the carriages were halted and the ceremony of unveiling
The State Field Assembly at Madison.
61
a descriptive bronze tablet provided by one of the Society's
public spirited Madison members was begun, those in attend-
ance grouping themselves beneath the great trees in the rear of
the mound. The presentation address as delivered by Prof.
H. B. Lathrop of the University of Wisconsin was eloquent
THE BEAR MOUND
Figure 1
and served to impress all with the great interest of the occa-
sion. At its conclusion Miss Pauline Buell, the pretty daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Buell, prominent citizens of
Madison, very gracefully removed the silk flag exposing the
tablet. The inscription reads:
Bear *
Wah-zhe-dah *
Common type of ancient Indian *
effigy mound *
Length 82 feet *
Marked by the Wisconsin Archeological Society *
July 29, 1910 *
62 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
PROFESSOR LATHROP'S ADDRESS.
The mound of earth at our feet is the work of hands long
quiet, a memorial the meaning of which, by the time our race
came to this region, had been forgotten by the very aborigines
themselves whose ancestors, it is believed, here built it. On
some summer's day, how many ages ago we know not, there
labored here a band of dark-skinned men and women, bearing
with them in sacks and baskets the earth, toilsomely scooped
up with blade-bones, shells, and bits of wood, of which this fig-
ure is composed. It is not difficult to imagine the scene about
them as it must have appeared on that day. The soft home-
like contours of the hills enclosing the lake below us cannot
have greatly changed. Some then, as now, were darkly hooded
with a close growrth of trees, but on most of them the oaks
stood wide apart in the midst of an undergrowth of brambles
and other rough bushes, or cast their shadows in park-like
groves on grassy slopes. The brush was thick, no doubt, and
sheltered bears and deer. The flocks of water birds on the
lakes in spring and autumn were vast and noisy. There were
no neatly painted houses ranged in order along straight white
streets; and hollow trails led from one group to another of skin
tepees near the lake shores, with great solitudes between them.
In the level meadows below us, and a few hundred yards to the
southeast, on what was then the edge of the rushy lake, was
one group of such tents, the village of the builders of this
mound. The oaks still standing in the park sheltered the
village in its later days. The ground beneath is full of the
signs of the life of the inhabitants: flint implements and flakes
and potsherds, the homely and pitiful wealth of the villagers.
Between the two oaks at the end of the little grove on the
west may yet be found the remnants of ancient hearthstones,
cracked by fire. The lake near by provided the inhabitants
with the fish and turtles which formed so large a part of their
food and were so important in their agriculture. Their corn
field and their burial ground have not been discovered, but
must have been not distant. These people must have led a
'
w
tg
fa
Tin1 State Field Assembly at Madison.
tolerably settled life; the region about them was rich in all
the elements of savage prosperity, and vigorous enemies pressed
at no great distance upon their borders. Why should they
roam far from so fair a home? On this earth, then, grew the
holy sentiments possible only where mankind have settled
habitations. Here were homes and love, affection for the lake,
the trees, the hills, for the graves of ancestors, devotion to the
commonweal— sacred feelings, however crudely or dimly mani-
fested, however mingled with savage folly and savage cruelty.
Dr. Samuel Johnson says, in words \vhich as Matthew Arnold
declares, should be written in letters of gold over every
schoolhouse door, " Whatever causes the past, the distant, or
the future to predominate in our minds over the present, ad-
vances us in the dignity of thinking beings." Such wrords
will not sound strange to the members of an archeological so-
ciety. Its very existence is a call to its members to escape at
times from the confusion and scattering of the spirit which
come from the welter of daily business, to turn back to the
simple elements of human nature in this day of many calling
voices, and to become conscious for a moment of the long stream
of life, unhasting, unresting, in which our own passes on as
a drop on its way to the ocean. But it is not the mere outer
life of the past which has an interest for us. What is the
meaning of this heap of earth? With what thoughts was it
built ? Were the minds of those who made it alien to ours,
or is this mound a little signal out of the past to let us know
that the thoughts of the past are still in us? To these ques-
tions no such easy and clear answers can be given as to those
concerned with the mere externals of by-gone days, and yet they
may be answered, if not with completeness, yet with certainty
and with sufficiency.
Those who peopled the village and built the mound were
Indians of the Winnebago tribe, members of the great Siouan
family ; and in the stupendous western migration of these peo-
ples from Virginia a band of the Winnebago stopped here on
their way near their brethren, found the land good, unpeopled
or dispeopled as it was. and here made their home. Those
64 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGISIi. Vol. 9. No.. 3
who settled this village were members of the Bear Clan; they
had an ideal unity of descent from the bear, had the bear
spirit in them, and were all conceived of as kindred. In
course of time, after their life had become rooted in this spot,
some of them formed this image of the protecting bear spirit.
The bear was their ancestor, their guardian, at once the bond
of their community and the object of their religious devotion.
Here this image, endowed with a mystic life, the home of the
spirits of many ancestors, not a dead thing or a mere inani-
mate figure, watched over their village, removed from dese-
crating companionship and the disturbances of the village life,
but near enough to exercise a watchful guardianship over it.
To the west lay many kindred villages of the Bear Clan, often
marked like this one by effigies. Rude as the mounds are, the
artists who traced them were not without imagination and de-
light in the pictures they drew with so broad a stroke. The
bear effigy — the black bear no doubt — is nearly always long-
bodied and heavy-footed, but he is no mere conventional fig-
ure. Sometimes his head is lifted and he snuffs the air, some-
times it is thrust forward and at gaze. More often, as here,
the great beast is stolidly plodding his way through the under-
brush. Each effigy testifies to the fact that the artist was
drawing sincerely and with delight what he had seen and knew
intimately.
This mound is not in time so ancient as the Pyramids, but
it is in spirit more primitive and more noble. It is more noble,
since it is not the work of drudging slaves, set to glorify the
vanity and selfishness of a despot, but of a community sym-
bolizing its bond of communal life and its religious devotion.
It is more primitive, for it comes from that childhood of the
race when men believed that human souls and magical intel-
ligence dwelt in the beasts. It is more mysterious than the
Pyramids: we know not the builders' names, or where their
dust has been laid, though of their purpose we have some ink-
ling.
Is this symbol of the sacred past and of the community life
Tlio State Field Assembly at Madisotl.
altogether strange to us? May we not find a chord in our hearts
to respond to the sentiment which raised it?
The tablet we dedicate is the gift to the Society of a gener-
ous donor who desires his name to be kept private, and is ac-
cepted from the Society by the city of Madison as a pledge-
that this memorial of a far and dim antiquity will be pre-
served intact for the future. The flag covering the tablet,
which Miss Pauline Buell is now to strip off, is a symbol of
a bond of union higher, larger, and more ideal than that of
the Bear Clan, but no closer or more holy than that to its
members. Under that flag should live a union of spirit higher
than a merely political one. It should be hospitable to the
sacred associations of all the many peoples in our composite
national life. We cannot afford to lose a benediction from
our soil; our life will be the richer for realizing that this was
consecrated ground ages before a white foot was set upon it.
AT MERRILL SPRINGS.
At the conclusion of the ceremony at the bear mound seats
in the waiting carriages were resumed and the pilgrims were
borne northward through the fine suburb known as Wingra
Park to the shore of Lake Mendota, passing on their way sev-
eral small mound groups located on University Heights and
the state university grounds. Leaving the latter the car-
riages progressed for a distance of several miles over the
beautiful pleasure drive which here skirts the south shore of
the lake, passing Ea^lc Heights and at length disembarking
at the resort long known as Merrill Springs. At this place,
which is rapidly becoming a favored summer resort for Madi-
sonians, there are several very interesting groups of mounds.
The first to be inspected was a series of three large bear-shaped
effigies located in a small grass grown lot on the lake side of
the driveway. Two have been needlessly mutilated by the
mistaken agricultural operations of a former unintelligent
owner, and the third has lost a small portion of its hindquar-
ters through the equally careless methods of some drive en-
gineer. This mound is still a finely outlined specimen and
66 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST.
Vol. 9. No. 3
measures about 80 feet in length and 20 feet across the widest
portion of the body. These mounds are favorably situated for
the study and contemplation of hundreds of Madison and other
people who pass by on this road and their owner owes it to
the public to restore and preserve them. They add a value of
THE GOOSE
Figure 2
hundreds of dollars to this bit of lake shore property. This
was the feeling of the distinguished company which viewed
tnem on this auspicious day.
Crossing' into a wooded pasture on' the opposite side of the
road a fine series of mounds were encountered. These in-
cluded three tapering linear mounds of large size, three coni-
The State Field Assembly at Madison. 67
cal burial mounds and two bird effigies. Most interesting of
these is a remarkable effigy intended to represent a goose in
flight. Its dimensions according to the recent survey of Mr.
A. B. Stout are: length of the body, 50 feet; length of the
neck and head, 108 feet, and wingspread, 135 feet It is
illustrated in Fig. 2. It lies upon the slope of a hill, its
neck stretching out upon the top. Its wings are twice crooked
and there is no doubt in the minds of archeologists as to its
identification. Four other mounds of this type are known to
exist about the Madison lakes. Of these this specimen is one
of two that are still in good condition. Its preservation is
greatly desired. The largest of the linear mounds is about
240 feet long. Passing through this pasture in close prox-
imity to the three burial mounds is a remnant of a well trod-
den Indian trail. This trail is thought to have been the one
pursued by the Sac warrior Black Hawk and his followers in
their retreat over the present site of Madison to the Wiscon-
sin river, in July 1832.
On the adjoining Merrill Springs farm of Mr. Ernest N.
Warner, is the site of an early Indian camp or village. This site
has been long under cultivation but traces of flint working and
of fireplaces can still be seen in the fields. Along the edge
of this farm near the road and crossing it to the site of the
springs and lake shore are a line of earthworks consisting of
two linear mounds, two bear effigies, seven small conical
mounds, a bird effigy and what is known as a chain of mounds.
The latter consists of a row of four conical mounds connected
with one another in a straight line by short embankments.
One of the bear-shaped and two of the conical mounds have
been mutilated. After the mounds in this group had been
carefully examined and their character explained by Secretary
Brown rand Mr. Ernest N. Warner, the archeological pilgrims
returned to the city.
THE EVENING SESSION.
The evening meeting of the Society was held in the north
hall of the State Historical museum, in the State Historical
68 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
Library building. When the session was formally opened at
8 o'clock about 200 persons were in attendance. Dr. Reuben
G. Thwaites, the first speaker on the program, in an address
entitled "The Four Lakes Region in Aboriginal Days," gave
an interesting account of the early Indian occupation of the
district surrounding the Madison lakes, describing its Indian
villages and camps, trails and fur-trading posts. He was fol-
lowed by Hon. Emilius O. Randall, secretary of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society, who succeeded in
greatly interesting the audience with an account of what our
sister state is doing and has done to preserve its archeological
resources. He told of the preservation in state parks of the
widely celebrated Fort Ancient in the valley of the Little
Miami river, in Warren county; and of the Great Serpent
Mound in Adams county, in his state. He also gave an ac-
count of the recent valuable explorations conducted by Dr.
W. 0. Mills for the state society. An archeological atlas of the
state was now in preparation. The archeological collections
in the state museum at Columbus were large and important
and worthy of the attention of American archeological stu-
dents. He extended an invitation to Wisconsin archeologists
to visit Ohio and view its remarkable antiquities.
Following Dr. Randall's address, Prof. William Ellery
Leonard of the English department of the University of Wis-
consin, presented a poetical address especially prepared by
him for the occasion of the Assembly. With his courteous per-
mission it is here presented for the benefit of members of the
Society.
PROFESSOR LEONARD 's ADDRESS.
The white man came and builded in these parts
His house for government, his hall for arts,
His market-place, his chimneys, and his roads.
And garden plots before his new abodes,
With fields of grain behind them planted new ;
Then, turned topographer, a map he drew;
And, turned historian, a book did frame,
The State Field Assembly at Madison. 69
And gave his high achievement unto fame,
Saying: "To these four ancient lakes I came,
And saw, and conquered, and with me was born
Amid these praries and these woods forlorn
A corporate life, a commonweal, a place
By me first founded for the human race."
We con his map, his book; for they have worth
Not less than many a civic tale of earth
Of cities builded in the long ago
Where still forever other waters flow.
Yet, if we read the life of states aright,
Man never yet has built upon a site
Unknown to man before him: ancient Rome,
Long ere 'twas founded, was for man a home;
The Caesars, landing in the utmost isles
Of Britain, paved the long imperial miles
Between their military towns, among
An earlier folk whom time has left unsung.
And in still earlier days the Grecian stock,
(Their gods as yet uncarven in the rock,
Their lyres as yet dumb wood within the trees
Among the mountains o'er Aegean seas)
Settled to southward in a land even then
Alive with hardihood of sons of men —
The rude Pelasgians, rearers of the stone —
In after eras to be overgrown
With weed and ivy — like at last the throne
Of marble Zeus himself. Again, they say
That fathoms deep in Egypt's oldest clay —
Fathoms beneath the sphinx arid pyramid-
Lie hid — or rather now no longer hid—
Proofs of man's home 'beside the reeds of Nile,
Ere ever those Dynasties whose numbered file
Of uncouth names we learn by rote had come,
With Isis and Osiris. Hold the thumb
Upon the map of Egypt, and then trace
With the forefinger how another race,
70 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No.
Making its way between the rivers twain —
Down the low Tigris and Euphrates plain —
Builds that Assyrian kingdom to the sea
"Where the mysterious Sumerians be.
In short, wherever a mightier people go
To lands of promise, there's a Jericho
Before whose elder walls their trumpets first must blow.
So here: our sires who felled the forest trees
Received from dark-skinned aborigines
The lamp of life. And though we well may say,
"That lamp burns brighter in our hands today,"
We well may add, in reverence for the great
Primordial law that binds all life to fate,
"That lamp of life, though wild and wan its flame,
Still burned in other hands before we came."
Here was a desert only in the name —
And from the view-point of that narrow pride
Which names a strange thing chiefly to deride.
Here was no desert : every hill and vale,
Each lake and watercourse, each grove and trail,
Was known to thousands who, like me and you,
Watched the great cloud-drifts in the central blue
And sun and moon and stars; like you and me,
Laughed, wept and danced, and planned the thing to be.
The whole wide landscape, rock, and spring, and plain,
Lay long since chartered in the human brain,
And had its names, its legendary lore,
Which countless children from their fathers bore
Down to their children's children. So man's mind
Even then was more than nature, brute and blind,
By virtue of that element of thought
Through which our own devices have been wrought.
Here in the villages by wood and shore.
With infants toddling through the wigwam door,
Were arts and crafts, in simpler form, but still
The same we practice in the shop and mill-
Here bowl and pitcher, mocassin and belt,
The State Field Assembly at Madison. 71
Mattock and spade and club and pipe and celt,
Fashioned not only for the work to do,
But often with many a tracery and hue,
To please that sense of something in the eye
"We now call beauty — though we know not why.
And here was seed-time in the self-same loam
We plow today ; here too was harvest home.
Here were assemblies of , the counsellors;
Here unsung heroes led the hosts to wars.
Here gathered at seasons family and clan
To serve the god from whence its line began,
Or bury its chieftains; for the gods, the dead,
Were unto them as us yet more than bread,
Yet more than drink and raiment, as it seems;
And they, as we do, lived in part by dreams.
And the high places round these lakes attest
The age-old mysteries of the human breast.
Thus, if you'll fill the picture out I've drawn,
Touch it with color and atmosphere of dawn,
You'll see an immemorial wprld of man,
Perhaps but portion of a larger plan
Of which we too may but a portion be
In that sum-total solidarity
Of human beings spread across the earth
In generations, birth succeeding birth —
The living who raise the citadels we know,
The dead whose bones earth bosomed long ago.
And this good company that meets today
Proves the large truth of what I've sought to say;
For why should we, whose daily tasks alone
So press upon us that we scarcely own
The present hour, still take on us to gaze
Back on the parted, the forgotten days;
"Why should we leave the quest of daily bread,
To quest for relics of the savage dead;
Why should we leave our .figuring for gold
To figure out a vanished world of old? —
7* WISCONSIN ABCHEOLOQI8T. Vol. 9. No. 3
Except that thus in human nature lurks,
Except that thus in human nature works
Some sense of common comradry and kin
With human life, wherever it has been,
And in the use of such a sense we find
Enlargement of our human heart and mind.
The final number of the program was furnished by Dr. Carl
Russell Fish, professor of American history in the University
of 'Wisconsin. This very instructive address entitled, "The
Relation of Archaeology to History," will appear in a future
issue of this bulletin.
THE RECEPTION.
At the conclusion of the speaking program an informal recep-
tion was tendered the guests by the local members of the Wis-
consin Archeological Society and their ladies, light refreshments
being served by the ladies of the State Historical Society's
staff under the direction of the Misses Daisy and Lillian Bee-
croft. The entire historical museum was thrown open to in-
spection and the visitors wandered thru its large halls at will
viewing its extensive historical and anthropological collections.
The museum had its beginning in the year 1854, and has
maintained a persistent and progressive growth since that date.
It now occupies the entire upper floor of the Historical Library
building and has eight large and small exhibition halls. Its
chief aim is popular education along the lines of local history
and prehistory. It takes prominent rank as an educational in-
stitution, and is visited by over 60,000 persons each year.
In addition to its regular collections the museum had caused
to be prepared for the occasion of the State Assembly a series
of special exhibits which the visiting archeologists greatly en-
joyed. These included the very valuable original surveys, maps
and correspondence relating to Wisconsin antiquities of Dr. In-
crease Allen Lapham, and of his associates, Dr. S. P. Lathrop,
Dr. P. R. Hoy, Moses Strong, W. H. Caiifield and other pioneer
antiquarians of the state ; a screen exhibit illustrating by means
Tho State Field Assembly at Madison.
of maps, photographs and recent surveys, the archeological
features of the Four Lakes region; a collection of Belgian
"eoliths," loaned by Dr. Frederick Starr of the University of
Chicago ; a collection of the celebrated Curtis photogravure
reproductions of North American Indians; a collection of flint
and pecked stone implements from Japan, loaned by Mr. W. W.
Warner ; a series of Indian pipes and other articles exhibited
by Maj. F. L. Phillips, and a number of smaller exhibits ob-
tained from various sources.
Thus closed the first day of the State Field Assembly at
Madison.
THE SECOND DAY'S PILGRIMAGE.
On the morning of July 30, a perfect midsummer day, a
concourse of not less than 150 members and guests of the So-
ciety all in the best of spirits, gathered at the University boat-
house for a lake pilgrimage to points of archeological and his-
torical interest on the north shore of Lake Mendota. The
small fleet of launches which had been placed in commission for
this purpose were in charge of Rev. Mr. F. A. Gilmore, Vice-
president W. W. Warner's commodious launch, the "27",
acting as the flag-ship of the flotilla.
The first objective point of the pilgrimage was to the beauti-
ful State Hospital grounds at Mendota, on the northeast shore
of the lake. By 10:30 a. m. all of the pilgrims had been safely
transported across the lake to that hospitable shore. Here
they were warmly welcomed by Dr. Charles Gorst, the efficient
superintendent of that institution, and by Mrs. Gorst.
There are permanently preserved upon this fine property of
the State several extensive groups of ancient Indian earth-
works. The most interesting and important of these series of
mounds is spread out over the beautiful lawn extending for,
a quarter of a mile from the lake shore to the main hospital
building. Among the effigies in this group, considered to in-
clude some of the finest and most remarkable in Wisconsin,
are three huge bird-shaped mounds, a deer, a squirrel, a bear
and a panther. Most impressive of these is the large so-called
74 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. S
eagle effigy, which is stated to be the largest bird-shaped mound
in Wisconsin. Its body is 121 feet in length and it has the
enormous wingspread of 624 feet, It is represented as flying
Coward the lake.
MARKING OF THE EAGLE MOUND.
/
Seated upon the body of this mound beneath the great ash
trees the pilgrims listened to brief introductory talks by Sec-
retary Brown and Mr. Arlow B. Stout explaining the labors,
of the Madison members of the Society in surveying and en-
couraging the preservation of local Indian remains. Rev. Mr.
F. A. Gilmore then delivered a very scholarly address in the
course of which he presented to the state in the Society's name
the handsome metal marker generously provided for this pur-
pose by Mr. James M. Pyott of Chicago, one of its prominent
members. Upon Miss Genevieve Gorst, a daughter of Dr. and
Mrs. Charles Gorst, fell the honor of removing the national
colors from the small stone monument bearing the explanatory
tablet. This duty she gracefully performed. The tablet bore
the following legend:
Eagle Effigy
* The largest Indian mound of its type in Wisconsin *
* Body 121 feet. Wingspread 624 feet *
* Marked by the Wisconsin Archeological Society.
* July 30, 1910. *
Following this interesting ceremony a fine picnic dinner was
served by a committee of the Madison ladies upon tables placed
beneath the large trees upon the lawn. To this dinner, through
the kindness of Mrs. Gorst, the State Hospital provided an ad-
dition of excellent coffee and home-made buns. After all of
the guests had done ample justice to this excellent repast, Mr.
Stout conducted them on a tour of inspection of the more in-
teresting Indian monuments upon the grounds, explaining their
character and the relations which thev bore to each other.
The State Field Assembly at Madison. 75
MORRIS PARK.
At 1 :30 p. m. the launches were again boarded and a trip
of several miles across the water made to Morris Park, another
beauty spot on the north shore of the lake. Here an oppor-
tunity was given to the pilgrims to view under the expert
guidance of Mr. Stout, Prof. A. S. Flint, and Mr. H. A. Smythe,
Jr., a large series of burial, linear and effigy mounds. These
are dispersed in small groups over the wooded hillsides of a
piece of property which occupies nearly three-quarters of a
mile of shore line. Among the effigies are two birds and 'sev-
eral panther-shaped mounds. The conical mounds occupy
some of the most elevated points and include some of the most
prominent and best preserved examples about the Madison
lakes. A plot of Indian cornhills located at the northeast cor-
ner of the property attracted particular attention. There were
nearly 2,500 of the characteristic small hillocks in this old In-
dian planting ground.
Morris Park, long a favorite resort of nature-loving Madi-
sonians, has recently fallen into the hands of a local real es-
tate man and has been cut up into summer resort lots. The
Society has made every effort to save the mounds from destruc-
tion.
WEST POINT.
From Morris Park the launches carried the pilgrims to West
Point, at the northwest corner of Lake Mendota. Arriving at
this attractive spot they were warmly welcomed by Hon. Henry
M. Lewis, whose summer home is located here, and by his
daughter, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, present chairman of the
Landmarks Committee, W. F. W. C. Among the prominent
citizens of Madison who had gathered at West Point to greet
the pilgrims was Secretary of State James A. Frear and sev-
eral other state officials, and their ladies.
Surrounding the Lewis cottage are four linear mounds of
the peculiar club-shaped form, a single small conical mound,
and a bird effigy. The cottage rests directly upon portions
of two of the tapering mounds, which project from beneath its
foundation in front and in the rear. Judsre Lewis in an ad-
70 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
dress to the pilgrims told in an interesting manner the Indian
history of the region in the vicinity of his home. He described
the early Winnebago village and trading posts at Pheasant
Branch, and told of the council held at Fox Bluff with them by
the fearless Major Henry Dodge, on May 25. 1832, for the
purpose of prevailing upon them not to articipate in the then
impending Black Hawk war.
Miss Louise Phelps Kellogg, a member of the staff of the
State Historical Society entertained the guests with an account
of the Rowan- St. Cyr fur-trading post located in 1832 at this
point. A small rectangular depression in the sod just wrest of
the Lewis cottage was pointed out as the supposed site of the
trader's log cabin. President Arthur Wenz of the Wisconsin
Archeological Society, being called upon, expressed the appre-
ciative thanks of the Society to the local committee of arche-
ologists and their ladies, to the State Historical Society and to
all others who had contributed to the great success of the State
Field Assembly. Secretary Brown read extracts from a num-
ber of congratulatory letters received from the officers of arche-
ological and historical societies in other states.
Dr. Frederick Starr of the University of Chicago, cheerfully
responded to a unanimous call of the pilgrims for an informal
talk. He expressed his great pleasure at having found it pos-
sible to be present and to participate after his very recent re-
turn from a long sojourn in the country of the Aino, in Japan,
with brother members and many friends in the Madison Field
Assembly. Taking as the subject of his address the curious ani-
mal-shaped earthworks of Wisconsin, he explained in an in-
teresting manner their religious and other significance. Being
himself- the proud possessor of membership in both a Fox and
an Iroquois clan he was able to explain to his audience the
peculiar and strong influence of these earthen representations
of their clan symbols upon their early Indian builders. He
pointed out the great educational interest as well as money
value of these ancient memorials to present and future genera-
tions of American citizens and deplored their destruction by
money-grabbing "land sharks," and other unappreciative and
The State Field Assembly at Madison. '
thoughtless persons. The Wisconsin Archeological Society was
doing all that it could to stay the tide of reckless destruction.
In this splendid work its efforts were deserving of the full
support of all patriotic citizens of Wisconsin.
At the conclusion of Dr. Starr's interesting address the pil-
grims said farewell to West Point and were conveyed in the
first glow of the sunset across the lake to the City of Madison,
there to take the waiting trains to their distant homes.
THOSE IN ATTENDANCE.
By the unanimous consent of all participants the State Field
Assembly at Madison has been declared to have been the most
successful summer gathering which the Society has held. The
following is a very incomplete list of those who were so fortu-
nate as to be able to attend:
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wenz, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Joers, Mr.
T. D. Brown, Mr. Carl Gushing, Mr. Geo. A. West, Mrs. Lillian
E. Davies, Mrs. Geo. W. Lyon, Mr. and Mrs O. J. Habhegger,
Miss Minna Kunkel, Mr. W. H. Ellsworth, Mr. Harold
Wengler, Dr. Geo. Kleinschmidt, Mrs. Ida Becker, Miss Ida
Fernekes, Mr. G. W. Colles, Mr. F. W. Shepard, Miss Wand-
schneider, all of Milwaukee; Dr. F. C. Rogers, Miss Julia A.
Lapham, Oconomowoc; Mr. H. E. Cole, Mrs. L. L. Runkel, Mr.
Ralph Runkel, Mrs. Henry Mertzke, Baraboo; Mr. Robert
Glenn, Wyalusing; Miss Lucile Dart, La Crosse; Mrs. Christie
Negley, Arena ; Mrs. Richmond, Miss Emma Richmond, Lodi ;
Mr. E. A. Meyers, Evansville; Prof. J. N. Loshinski, Ripon ;
Col. C. E. Warner, Windsor; Maj. J. W. Hinkley, Green Bay;
Mr. Geo. Kurtz, Kewaunee; Mrs. C. C. Ward, Waupaca; Mr.
and Mrs. H. L. Skavlem, Mr. Henry Skavlem, Miss Gertrude
Skavlem, Mr. F. W. Moseley, Janesville; Mr. Richard Blake,
Chippewa Falls; Mrs. E. B. King, Superior; Mr. 0. L. Merrittr
Waukesha; Dr. Frederick Starr, Mr. M. E. Dahl, Chicago;
Prof. W. S. Kirk, Philadelphia; Hon. E. 0. Randall, Dr. Hen-
ney, Columbus, 0.; Prof. T. W. Record, Liberty, Ind. ; Rev.
Felix Nolte, Lawrenceville, Kan.; Prof. Richard Rayner,
Louisville, Ky. ; Mrs. Kathriiie Simmons, Kansas City ; Mr.
Albert Marsh, Des Moines, la. ; Prof. J. R. Johnson, Minne-
78 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
apolis; Mr. Shinji Okami, Tokyo, Japan; and Mr. J. N. Frost,
Freeport; Mr. W. W. Warner, Eev. Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Gil-
more, Prof. W. E Leonard, Mrs. C. E. Buell, Mr. E. N. Warner,
Prof, and Mrs. A. S. Flint, Prof, and Mrs. H. B. Lathrop, Col.
and Mrs. A. H. Holli&ter, Miss Louise P. Kellogg, Dr. Reuben
G. Thwaites, Mr. I. S. Bradley, Mr. A. 0. Barton, Mr. and
Mrs. A. B Stout, Miss Melissa V. Brown, Miss Nancy Brown,
Mrs. U. F. Von Wald, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, Hon. H. M.
Lewis, Mr. Paul Warner, Mr. C. S. Coddington, Miss Pauline
Buell, Prof. W. H. Lighty, Prof. C. R. Fish, Mr. W. J. Xeidig,
Mr. Ware, Hon. J. A. Frear, Mr. H. A. Smythe, Jr., Miss Helen
E. Blair, Dr. C. H. Hall, Mr. C. E. Brown, Mr. E. D. Zdano-
wicz, Mr. Erich Miller and Mr. E. C. Nielson, all of Madison.
By holding the Assembly during the summer school session
of the University a considerable number of students, whose
names it was not possible to obtain, were enabled to attend the
evening meeting, and the second day's pilgrimage.
IN APPRECIATION.
In closing the report of the State Field Assembly the Society
desires to express its gratitude to Mr. James M. Pyott of Chicago,
and a Madison member (who desires his name withheld) for
their generosity in presenting the two metal markers; to Mr.
Theodore D. Brown of Milwaukee, for donating the artistic
programs and invitations; to the Shaum Engraving Company
of Milwaukee, for printing the information circulars; to the
to the Democrat Printing Company of Madison, for printing
the badges; to the mayor and board of aldermen of the city of
Madison, for erecting markers on several groups of mounds in
honor of the meeting; to Mr. W. W. WTarner of Madison, for
for the! use of his launch; to Dr. Charles Gorst for assistance
in mounting the tablet on the State Hospital grounds, and to
the members of the local committee for the manner in which
every detail of the meeting was managed. The hospitality
shown by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the
various members of its staff during the meeting, is certain to
be long remembered by the visiting archeologists and friends
of the Society.
The Marking of the State Fair Park Mounds. 79
THE MARKING OF THE STATE FAIR PARK
MOUNDS.
ARTHUR WENZ,
President, Wisconsin Archeological Society.
An instructive feature of the Milwaukee Day program of the
1910 Wisconsin State Fair was furnished by the exercises con-
ducted on the grounds at West Allis by the Wisconsin Archeo-
logical Society. On this day, Thursday, September 15th, the
best attended day of the fair, the Society caused an artistic
bronze tablet to be placed upon the larger of the two fine Indian
tumuli, which are there preserved.
At 3:30 o'clock on the afternoon of that lovely autumn day,
there gathered about these records of the past, in response to
the Society's call, a large audience of State Fair visitors to
witness the simple yet impressive ceremonies. This gathering
surrounded the mounds on all sides. Clauder's celebrated Mil-
waukee band, whose services had been loaned to the Society for
this purpose, opened the program by playing several spirited
selections, which drew to the spot additional onlookers from
various nearby parts of the grounds. After these pleasing musi-
cal numbers had been rendered, the writer introduced to the au-
dience, Mr. Charles A. A. McGee, District Attorney of Mil-
waukee County, who had been selected by the Society to deliver
the dedicatory address.
Mr. McGee, who has the distinction of being a direct de-
scendent of Milwaukee's distinguished pioneer French and In-
dian settler, Solomon Juneau, then delivered an eloquent ad-
dress in which he reviewed at length the State's archeological
and its early Indian history, and told of the Society's endeavors
to perpetuate the knowledge of past aboriginal life and customs
by encouraging the public protection of Wisconsin earthworks
and other Indian remains. This very important work inaugu-
80 WISCONSIN ABCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
rated some twelve years ago he stated, had deserved the en-
couragement, support and appreciation of all intelligent citi-
zens of the state. This address called forth great applause.
The tablet which he formally presented to the State Fair
Board in the name of the Wisconsin Archeological Society,
was unveiled by Miss Jean West, the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. G. A. West of Milwaukee, prominent members of the So-
ciety. While Miss West gracefully removed the national
colors from the stone monument upon which the tablet is
mounted, the band responded with the patriotic air "America."
This tablet, the cost of which was borne by several well
known citizens of Milwaukee, is 8x15 inches in size. It bears
upon it's surface in polished raised letters the legend:
Indian Burial Mound.
Two of a j;nmp of four formerly located
at this old Indian village site. *
* Marked by *
The Wisconsin Archeolo.uical Society *
* September 15th. 1910. *
Mr. Laurens E. Scott of Stanley, a member of the Stafe Fair
Board, in a few well chosen words, accepted the tablet in the
name of the board and of the state. He promised that the
mounds should be preserved to the public as long as the state
fairs continued.
His acceptance closed the program. Among the members
and patrons of the Society who were present during the cere-
monies were Dr. Lewis Sherman, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Kershaw,
Mrs. G. A. West, Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Brown, Mr. and Mrs.
O. J. Habheggar, Mr. Carl Gushing, Dr. W. II. Brown, Mrs.
H. G. Mertzke and Dr. Geo. Kleinschmidt.
THE MOUNDS.
These mounds are situated on the edge of a small Indian vil-
lage site which stretched from their location for a distance of
The Marking of the State Fair Park Mounds. 81
about 300 feet southward to the bank of Honey Creek, which
winds through State Fair Park. In removing the sod from this
site, in grading the ground in recent years, there- were un-
covered here many evidences of early Indian occupation, —
the burned and fire cracked stones of ancient hearths, the flint
chips, fragments and blocks, and a few unfinished and broken
and rejected implements of the old arrowsmith, fragments of
earthen cooking and food vessels, and other scattered remains
which tell the story of the mound-building Indians presence
and life. There were in this group originally four conical or
round mounds. Of these one was destroyed by the C. & N. W.
R. R. when building its track just outside of the west boundary
fence of the grounds. The other was destroyed in May 1903
by the then superintendent of the grounds in order to secure
earth for the surfacing of the race track. This accident hap-
pened after the preservation of the three mounds had been
consented to by the State Fair Board, and created quite a
stir in the Milwaukee newspapers.
The presence of the interesting Indian monuments was
known to North Greenfield settlers as early as the year 1845.
They were then covered with sod and surrounded by a grove of
trees, and were quite imposing structures. At about this time
Rev. Lucius Dcolittle, an Episcopal clergyman excavated one
or two of them, and in so doing uncovered a complete skeleton
and several brass or copper kettles of the wrell-known fur-trade
pattern. The bones were re-interred, only to be again disin-
terred in succeeding years by the farmer boy relic hunters of
the neighborhood. All of the other mounds suffered a like
fate, deep holes being dug at different times in their tops and
sides. Of the result of all this promiscuous and unintelligent
digging, nothing further is now known than that human bones,
fragments of Indian earthenware vessels and a few rude stone
implements were obtained.
On October 26, 1902, a survey of the three mounds of the
group then remaining was made by several members of the
"Wisconsin Archeological Society, and a brief description of
them given in the Milwaukee Sentinel of October 28, 1902,
82 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
They were then 30, 40 and 44 feet in diameter at their liases
respectfully and the highest nearly four feet high at its mid-
dle. They were in a shamefully neglected condition, deep
holes appearing- in the tops of all, the earth taken therefrom
having been thrown over their sides and edges. On February
16, 1903 the Society appointed Mr. James A. Sheridan, a com-
mittee of one, to enter into communication with the State Fair
Board with a view to obtaining its co-operation in securing
their preservation. This was finally accomplished by Mr.
Harry A. Crosby, then president of the Society, who appeared
before a session of the board and received its promise of their
future protection. Shortly after this, one of the mounds was
destroyed and the board in response to the Society's urging,
decided to repair the remaining two and to enclose them with
a fence. This fence has now been removed and the Society
will request that it be replaced by a sightlier and more sub-
stantial structure.
Since the preservation of these mounds which are among the
last which remain in Milwaukee county, they have been visited
and become objects cf interest to thousands of people. At
each succeeding State Fair the interest in them will greatly
increase. They are a valuable addition to its educational ex-
hibits.
Greetings from Sister States.
GREETINGS FROM SISTER STATES.
Iii response to invitations to attend the State Field Assem-
bly of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, extended to promi-
nent historians in other states, there were received a number of
replies and communications which were read to the archeo-
logical pilgrims gathered at West Point, Lake Mendota at the
close of the second day of the Assembly, Saturday, July 30,
1910. With the kind permission of their authors extracts from
these are printed for the benefit of readers of the Wisconsin
Archeologist.
Dr. Benjamin F. Shambaugh, president of the Mississippi
Valley Historical Association, and superintendent of the State
Historical Society of Iowa, sent the following greeting:
"Every state in the Mississippi Valley ought to be doing the kind of
work which you are doing in Wisconsin. You are setting an example
which I am sure will be followed sooner or later by your sister States.
Furthermore, you and your co-workers in Wisconsin should not lose
sight of the fact that what you do in Wisconsin is done for the whole
Mississippi Valley. We all appreciate the valuable contributions which
you are making to the history and archeology of our country."
From Gen. Gates P. Thruston of Nashville, vice-president of
the Tennessee Historical Society, there was read a letter con-
taining the following lines:
"It is delightful to contemplate what your great and progressive
state is doing for history and archeology. The South unhappily lacks
the means, and something of the enterprising spirit of your people in
these matters, but our rapid material development is giving us some
hope of being able to achieye better things in the future."
General Thurston who has just passed the seventy-fifth mile-
stone of a very useful life, has but recently presented to Van-
derbilt University, where it will be preserved in a fire-proof
building, his large and very valuable collection of southern
archeolojj'ical materials.
84 WISCONSIN AECHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
Dr. Orin G. Libby of Grand Forks, secretary of the State
Historical Society of North Dakota, wrote :
"I know many of the beautiful mounds about Madison and I gladly
endorse any effort to preserve them from destruction. They are
unique and really artistic and should be carefully preserved. We are
doing something in this state along this line. Thanks to the enter-
prise and activity of one of your members, Mr. A. B. Stout, we have
now a fine turtle boulder mosaic on our Capitol grounds. Old Man-
dan sites and other spots of historic interest are being made into re-
serves and parks as fast as our funds permit. We are glad indeed that
so vigorous an effort is on foot in your state to do what it will soon
t>e too late to do in saving these precious monuments of the past."
A letter received from Dr. Warren Upham, secretary of the
Minnesota Historical Society, contained the following informa-
tion of special interest to Wisconsin workers:
"Wh£n Hon. J. V. Brower died five years ago, after making very
extensive archaeological collections for this Society, from all parts of
this state and westward to the Rocky Mountains and south to Kansas,
leaving his work incompletely published, our Society was very fortun-
ate to secure the services of Professor Winchell to continue and to
publish this work, for he had been our state geologist for thirty years,
from 1872 to 1902, publishing" a Final Report in six quarto volumes.
The report on Minnesota archaeology now in press, printed to about
600 pages and expected to be completed in this year in some 900
pages, is a quarto volume, matching the Geological Survey Reports.
It will contain more than 500 maps and other illustrations of our
mound groups and their contents. This state has fully 10,000 mounds
but almost none of the "effigy" mounds which make your state so
famous. This report will also treat fully of the history and character-
istics of our Sioux, Ojibway, and other tribes inhabiting Minnesota."
"I have thought to ask you to mention especially the munificent
donations of Rev. Edward C. Mitchell to our Archaeological Museum,
as noted on page 10 of our report. He is chairman of our Museum
Committee, and greatly interested in everything relating to the arch-
aeology of Minnesota and the Northwest."
From the American Museum of Natural History, New York,
came this communication of Mr. Harlan I. Smith, of its de-
partment of Anthropology.
"Kindly convey to your members my cordial greetings and state that
I have watched with much interest the progress of archaeological work
in Wisconsin, especially that which has resulted in the preservation of
some of the most interesting monuments in the northern United States.
In the regions where such monuments have not been preserved, the
people will finally wake up and much regret their negligence.
"In my own state of Michigan a number of remains have been de-
Greetings from Sister States. 85
stroyed and now people are writing to me for information as to their
location in order that they may erect monuments to mark the spots.
"The nation is indeed unfortunate which forgets that a bit of col-
ored bunting draws more soldiers to defend it than the thirteen dol-
lars a month, and that more money is spent by youths and maidens
who go on their wedding tour to Niagara Falls and by old people who
have saved throughout a long weary life to visit that place, than re-
sults from the profit of the industries depending upon the water power
that defaces it. We must wake up to the fact that there is another
side of life than mere financial gain, and a side which cannot be pur-
chased with money."
Mr. Smith is well acquainted with the interesting Indian re-
mains about Madison having visited a large number of them
in 1893.
86 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9. No. 3
IN THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST
The Wisconsin Archeolc^ical Society has requested of !he
Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association the preservation
of certain examples of a cluster of Indian mounds located upon
an eminence overlooking the eastern shore of Lake AVingra.
This property has recently been acquired by the City of Madi-
son as an addition to Henry Vilas Park, the most picturesque
of the local system of parks and drives. This group of earth-
works consists at the present time of seven conical and three
linear mounds. Three of the conical mounds have been cut
in two during the gardening operations of the former owners
of the land. The remaining portions of these and a mutilated
linear mound it may be desirable to sacrifice in improving the
property. All of these mounds are quite closely grouped.
Traces of several other conical mounds are to be seen in a door-
yard adjoining the park land. This group of mounds is the last
of the several groups described by Increase A. Lapham as once
located upon the dividing ridge separating Lakes Monona and
Wingra, The operation of several large gravel pits has caused
the destruction of a large section of the central portion of the
fine ridge upon which they were located, and the few mounds
now remaining thereon are doomed.
On August 22. in company with Mr. Charles X. Brown, sec-
retary of the Madison Park an'd Pleasure Drive Association;
Mr. John Nolen. landscape architect, and several other gentle-
men, Secretary Charles E. Brown, made a trip to Morris Park,
on the north shore of Lake Mendota, for the purpose of con-
sulting with them concerning the possibility of saving from
destruction some of the fine mounds located there. In platting
this property no provision for the preservation of any of the
mounds was made although strongly urged by the Society. It
In the Public's Interest. 37
was felt that some of the more interesting of the mounds might
easily have been included in small public ovals or triangles,
without pecuniary loss to the owner. By the nature of the
present recorded plat these are caused to fall on lot lines and
roadways, which assures the destruction of most, if not all of
them. This fact a number of persons, who have purchased
summer resort lots in Morris Park, greatly regret. The preser-
vation of the mounds in the manner desired would have greatly
enhanced the value of their lots.
After carefully examining the mounds with reference to the
plat the visiting experts came to the conclusion that the preser-
vation of the more prominent of the mounds could not now be
accomplished without considerable expense to the owner in
vacating and re-recording portions of the plat. The failure to
provide for them in the first place is a sad and regretable mis-
take.
A feature which greatly interested many of the large num-
ber of participants in the second day's lake pilgrimage of the
Wisconsin Archeological Society, during its state Field Assem-
bly held at Madison last summer, was the site of the Rowan-
St. Cyr fur-trading post, at West Point, All that remained
to indicate the location of the early log cabin of the traders of
1832-33 was a sunken square depression a foot or slightly more
in depth and of small dimensions. It was not at that time
certain that the site was that of the trader's cabin, but it is
understood that an examination of an early map, since made, has
established this beyond question. The little cabin site was at
that time located upon property belonging to Mr. F. E. Doty,
and its preservation was considered assured. Now a portion
of the rear of this place has been disposed of to an employee of
the state legislative reference library, wrho intends to erect a
cottage on the land thus obliterating the historic landmark.
She has been urged by the Wisconsin Archeological Society to
so change her building plans as to preserve the site. It is to
be sincerely hoped that this may be possible.
88 WISCONSIN AECHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 3
Since the Wisconsin Archeological Society began its cam-
paign of education at Madison, several years ago, a new and in-
telligent interest in the local Indian mounds, trails, and vil-
lage and camp sites has sprung up and many owners of
mounds, who formerly paid but little attention to such instruc-
tive remains on their properties, have now come to the point
of considering them as assets of real value and well worthy of
protection. In the past year at least one local realty com-
pany has caused the permanent preservation of a fine effigy
mound by including it in a small public park, on the property
which it was subdividing and preparing for sale.
There has been some talk of setting aside a Saturday after-
noon in the near future when a pilgrimage of students of the
University of Wisconsin to groups of Indian mounds can be
arranged for. In the past, hundreds of students have left
that institution each year without seeing any of the remark-
able ancient earthworks for which the region about the stated
educational center is celebrated. It is with pleasure that we
announce that the cause of Wisconsin archeology now has many
firm friends among the professors and instructors in the Uni-
versity, where it had but a few before. The recent marking
with descriptive signs of the mounds on the crest of Observa-
tory hill, which for years were carelessly trodden over, has
caused thousands to stop and ponder. Hundreds of visitors
from other states now scale the ridge for the purpose of view-
ing these strange landmarks of the past.
The Wisconsin Archeological Society expects every one of
its many widely scattered members to lose no opportunity of
preaching the gospel of the preservation of Wisconsin antiqui-
ties. Mounds, intaglios, cornfields and garden beds, boulder
mortars and spirit stones, should everywhere be preserved in
view of the future, when their value to the state's citizens
will be many times what it is today. There are but few locali-
ties in Wisconsin where by bringing proper and timely influ-
ence to bear some notable record of the past may not be saved
from obliteration by the careless and thoughtless.
.Archeologicai Items.
AKCHEOLOGICAL ITEMS.
At the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society, held at Columbus, Ohio, on May, 13, 1910, Dr.
W. C. Mills, its curator, reported upon the progress of the preparation
of the Archaeological Atlas of the state, which was begun in 1909.
"Practically the entire summer was spent by the Curator in the
northern part of the state; and practically the entire northern half of
the state has been carefully gone over, and the mounds, earthworks,
etc., have been marked upon the map. At the present time the coun-
ties with preliminary work entirely complete are as follows: Franklin,
Logan, Allen, Darke, Preble, Montgomery, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry,
Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Erie, Lorain, Medina, Cuyahoga,
Summit, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Jefferson, Bel-
mont, Monroe, Jackson, Knox, and Fayette counties and the prelim-
inary work in Huron, Ashland, Wayne, Stark, Mahoning, Columbiana,
Carroll, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Richland, Crawford, Wyandot, Hardin,
Marion, Morrow, Lucas, Fulton, Williams, Defiance, Paulding, Van
Wert, Mercer, Auglaize, Shelby, Miami, Champaign, Clark, Greene,
Butler, Warren, Clinton, Clermont and Brown will be completed by
tlie middle of June.
"We started in to make our own maps, but when we found that the
Road Commissioner was having an Atlas made, similar to our own
ideas, we decided the size and character of our road map would be of
service to us by merely making the addition of mounds and earth-
works." O. A. & H. Q., p. 259.
Those who are assisting the Wisconsin Archeologicai Society in its
surveys in this state will be able to best appreciate the magnitude and
great value of the work which Dr. Mills has undertaken in Ohio. In
successfully completing this splendid task the Ohio Society has the
best wishes of Wisconsin archeologists.
Mr. H. H. Willard, a charter member of the Society, has removed
from the state and is now residing at Ada, S. D. Mr. David Van Wart
formerly of Evansville, an active member of the Society since the year
1907, is now a resident of California. Both men are likely to become
closely identified with archeolcgical work in the states of which they
are now citizens.
It has recently been the duty of Secretary Brown to examine two
birdstones and a bannerstone of the double-crescent form, which had
been offered for sale to a member of the Society by an Indiana dealer
in Indian relics. All were fashioned of slate, and upon examination
all proved to be frauds. It has been strongly suspected for several
years by some of the Society's members that at some locality in In-
diana or in Ohio there exists an individual or several persons who are
regularly engaged in the manufacture and sale of stone pipes, and
various ornaments and ceremonials. Many of their productions are
dangerously well-made, and archeological students in those states owe
it to the cause of American archeology that this "factory" be located
•and the counterfeiters exposed.
90 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 3~
By the death of Emil Wahl, M. D., of Milwaukee, on September 12,
1910, the Wisconsin Archeological Society has lost another generous
patron. Dr. Wahl was admitted to membership in the Society in the
year 1906, and although able to attend but few of its sessions' has al-
ways taken a keen interest in its labors.
From the July-August issue of Records of the Past we extract the
following announcement of the death of Prof. Cyrus Thomas: "The re-
cent death of Professor Cyrus Thomas has removed one of our eminent
authorities on the history of the North American Indians. He was edu-
cated as a lawyer and as a clergyman, but since 1869 he devoted him-
self to science, first as geologist under Hayden in his survey of the
western Territories. Later he became state entomologist for Illinois
and in 1877 a member of the United States Entomological Commission.
In 1882 he became connected with the United States Bureau of Ethn-
ology and has written extensively on the historic and prehistoric in-
habitants of North America."
The cause of Wisconsin archeology is indebted to Professor Thomas
chiefly for his descriptions of explorations conducted by his assistants
in the counties of Dane, Grant, Crawford, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and
Barren, published in the 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnol-
ogy ( 1890-91), and for his Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East of
the Rocky Mountains (1891), the Wisconsin section of which formed
the basis of the1 present A Record of Western Antiquities, published
by this Society in 1906. Some of the Wisconsin mound groups he
himself visited in company with Rev. Stephen D. Peet. Professor
Thomas' descriptions of local evidences have done much to encourage
scientific exploration in Wisconsin.
The mid-year meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Associa-
tion will be held at Indianapolis, on December 27, 1910. This year's
meeting will consist of sessions of committees, a business session,
and a joint session with the Ohio Valley Historical Association and
the American Historical Association. At the joint session, Mr. Dan E.
Clark of Iowa City will participate in the program with a paper on
"Early Ports on the Upper Mississippi," which is expected to prove
of exceptional interest. Dr. Benj. F. Shambaugh of Iowa City is the
present president and Mr. Clarence S. Paine of Lincoln, Nebraska, the
secretary-treasurer of the Association.
In the appointment of committees, the composition of which has
just teen announced, Wisconsin has been honored with three places.
Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites has been named a member of the important
committee on the relation of state historical societies and depart-
ments of history. Mr. Charles E. Brown becomes chairman of the com-
mittee on state historical museums, and Mr. Arlow B. Stout, a mem-
ber of the committee on historical sites. Mr. H. C. Fish of Bismarck,
a former Wisconsin man, is a member of the committee on historical
museums. This committee is a new one and is expected to have a
great influence upon the development and support of historical mu-
seums in Mississippi and Missouri valley states.
A number of Madison and Minneapolis members are expecting to
attfnd the Indianapolis meeting. All persons interested in the study
and preservation of Mississippi valley history are invited to become
members of the Association.
BLUE HORN STONE DISK
Chippewa County
About % size
Local Collectors and Collection*. 91
LOCAL COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS.
Mr. Joseph Ringeisen, Jr., of Milwaukee, the well known collector,
has purchased and added to his valuable collection the large cabinet
of stone implements and ornaments of Mr. Bmil Weisse of Sheboygan
Falls. Mr. Ringeisen announces that in this collection he has ac-
quired two additional birdstones, one of which was recovered at Lake
Koshkonong, Jefferson County, and the other at Kelpper's park, in
Granville Township, Milwaukee County. The first is fashioned of
:granite and the second of slate.
The cabinet of Mr. Henry P. Hamilton has been enriched by the addi-
tion of a fine catlinite tube. It has the present distinction of being
the largest specimen of this class of stone implements obtained in
Wisconsin, and comes from Section 7, Hackley Township, Forest
County. It measures 11 inches in length, and about % of an inch at
one and l1^ inches in diameter at the other extremity. The greatest
diameter of the tube, near the center is about I1/, inches.
Dr. W. H. Bailey is the possessor of an exceptionally large and fine
blue hornstone disk, an illustration of which appears as the frontis-
piece of this bulletin. It was recently obtained upon the west shore
of Chain Lake, in Chippewa County. This specimen is of special in-
terest to archaeologists as indicating the distance northward in Wis-
consin which objects made of this imported material travelled in early
aboriginal days.
Mr. Frank Mueller, of Princeton, recently exhibited to the editor a
small spear or arrowpoint made of lead. It comes from St. Marie
Township, Green Lake County, and judging from its dull color has pro-
bably lain in the soil since the days of the Wisconsin fur trade. It is
nearly 3i/» inches in length. Its leaf-shaped blade is provided on both
faces with a well-defined median ridge, and its base is prolonged into
two short projections between which the tip of a wooden spear or
arrowshaft might have been fitted, and afterwards bound.
Mr. A. J. Barry, of Montello, reports the addition to his collection
of a pointed bone implement about 5 inches in length. It possesses
the curious feature of two small perforations, one being near the mid-
dle, and the other about midway between the middle and pointed end
of the implement. It is about % of an inch wide at its base.
Dr. Alphonse Gerend, of Cato, has been successful in securing an in-
teresting fluted stone axe. The poll is ornamented with shallow groves
which radiate from its crest downward to the handle groove. On one
face of the blade are a number of longitudinal and on the other a single
diagonal groove.
92 WISCONSIN AECHEOLOGIST.
Vol. 9. No.
Maj. Fred L. Phillips, of Madison, has placed in the State Histor-
ical Museum a cannon ball which was obtained in a load of black earth
taken from an Indian burial mound on the dividing ridge between
lakes Monona and Wingra, at Madison. This mound was located near
the old Madison cemetery. The ball is about iy2 inches in diam-
eter and weighs 8 ounces. It has been placed in a case containing a
large series of articles connected with the fur-trade period of Wiscon-
sin history.
Vol. 9 December to February, 1910 No. 4
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE RELATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY
TO HISTORY
SILVER TRADE CROSSES
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN AECHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
Wisconsin Archeological Society
MILWAUKEE, WIS.
Incorporated March 23, 1903, for the purppse of advancing the study and
preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
ARTHUR WENZ Milwaukee
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. L. E. DREXEL / Plymouth
H. L. SKAVLEM Janesville
PROF. J. L. TORNEY Milwaukee
G. A. WEST Milwaukee
W. W. WARNER Madison
DIRECTORS
JOHN EVANS Milwaukee
CARL BQDENBACH Milwaukee
TREASURER
LEE R. WHITNEY Milwaukee
SECRETARY AND CURATOR
CHARLES E. BROWN Madison
COMMITTEES
SURVEY, RESEARCH AND RECORD— A. B. Stout, Dr. E. J. W. Notz,
Dr. W. G. McLachlan, Dr. F. C. Rogers, Dr. W. H. Bailey, W. W.
Gilman, Chas. T. Jeffery.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS— Dr. G. L. Collie, H. E. Cole, Dr. R. G.
Thwaites, Rev. Wm. Metzdorf, H. P. Hamilton, Dr. S. A. Barrett,
O. L, Hollister, O. P. Olson, H. H. Willard.
MEMBERSHIP— A. W. Bertschy, Dr. J. S. Wallbridge, Paul Joers, J. P.
Schumacher, W. T. Ege, A. V. Drown, W. H. Elkey, Miss Bertha M.
Ferch.
PRESS — John Poppendieck, Jr., E. B. Usher, Wm. Grotelueschen, Miss
Mary E. Stewart.
JOINT MAN MOUND — J. Van Orden, Mrs. Jessie R. Skinner, Dr. Louis
Falge, L. H. Palmer, Mrs. Henry Mertzke and S. J. Hood.
SESSIONS
These are held in the Lecture Room in the Library-Museum
Building, in Milwaukee, on the third Monday of each month, at
8 P. M.
During the months of July to October no meetings will he held.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Life Memhers, $25.00. Sustaining Members, $5.00
Annual Memhers, $2.00
All communications in regard to the Wisconsin Archeoloarical Society or to the
"Wisconsin Archeologist" should be addressed to C. E. Brown, Secretary and
Curator. Office, State Historical Museum, Madison, Wls.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Vol. 9, No. 4.
ARTICLES.
Page
The Relation of Archaeology to History, Carl Russell Fish 83
The Winnebago and the Mounds, Arlow B. Stout 101
Silver Trade Crosses, Charles E. Brown 104
The Centenary of Increase1 Allen Lapham 113
Notes on the Four Lakes Indians, Frank R. Smith 115
A Group of Indian Mounds on the Pecatonica River,
Charles E. Brown 117
Archeological Notes 119
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece
Copper Axe Imbedded in a Skull
PLATE Follow text
1. Silver Cross
2. Silver and Bone Crosses
3. Silver Cross
4. Pecatonica River Mound Group
FIGURE Page
A. Effigy Mound 102
B. Roman Cross Ill
COPPER AXE IMBEDDED IN A SKULL.
THE WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST
Quarterly Bulletla Published by the Wisconsin Archeolodlcal Society.
Vol. 9. MILWAUKEE, W1S.. DECEMBER TO FEBRUARY, 1910. No. 4
THE RELATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY
TO HISTORY
Address delivered by Carl Russell Fish, Professor of American History
in the University of Wisconsin, during the State Field Assembly of the
Wisconsin Archeological Society, on July 29, 1910.
The derivation of the word archaeology gives little idea of its
present use. "The study of antiquity" is at once too broad in
scope and too limited in time, for the followers of a dozen
other "ologies" are studying antiquity, while the archaeol-
ogist does not confine himself to that period. The definition
of the word in the new English dictionary corrects the first of
these errors, but emphasizes the second, for it describes it
as: "The scientific study of remains and monuments of the
prehistoric period." This obviously will not bear examina-
tion, as the bulk of archaeological endeavor falls within the
period which is considered historical, and I cannot conceive
any period prehistoric, about wrhich archaeology, or any other
science, can give us information. Actually, time has nothing
whatever to do with the limitations of archeology, and to think
of it as leaving off where history begins, is to misconceive them
both. The only proper limitation upon archaeology lies in its
subject matter, and I conceive that it cannot be further defined
than as : " The scientific study of human remains and monu-
ments. ' '
In considering the relations of the science to history, I do
not wish to enter into any war of words as to claims of "so-
ciology", and "anthropology" and "history" to be the in-
94 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
elusive word, covering the totality of man's past, but simply
to use history as it is generally understood jit present and as
its professors act upon it. Certainly we are no longer at Hi;1
stage where history could be defined as ''Past Politics," and
it is equally certain that there are fields of human activity
which are not actually treated in any adequate way by the
historian. The relations of the two do not depend on the
definition of history, but the more broadly it is interpreted,
the more intimate their relationship becomes. The sources o^:
history are three-fold, written, spoken, and that which is neither-
written nor spoken.
To preserve and prepare the first, is the business of the phil-
ologist, and archivist, the paleographer, the editor, and experts
in a dozen subsidiary sciences. The historian devotes s<>
much the larger part of his time to this class of material, that
the period for which written materials exist is sometimes
spoken of as the historical period and the erroneous ideas of
archo3ology wilich I have quoted, become common.
Least important of the three, is the spoken or traditional,
though if we include all the material that was passed down for
centuries by word of mouth before being reduced to writing,
such as the Homeric poems or the Norse sagas, it includes
some of the most interesting things we know of the past. In
American history, such material deals chiefly with the Indian
civilizations., and its collection is carried on chiefly by the an-
thropologists. In addition, nearly every family preserves a
mass of oral traditions running back for about a hundred
years ; and there is a small body of general information, bounded
by about the same limit, which has never yet been put into
permanent form. The winnowing of this material to secure
occasional kernels of historic truth that it yields is as yet a
neglected function.
The material that is neither written nor oral falls to the
geologist and the archaeologist, Between these two sciences there
is striking similarity, but their boundaries are clear; the geol-
ogist deals with natural phenomena, the archaeologist with
The Relation of Archaeology to History. 9o
that which is human, and which may, for convenience, be called
monumental. The first duty of the archaeologist is to discover
such material and to verify it, the next is to secure its preserva-
tion, preferably its actual tangible preservation, but if that
is not possible, by description. Then comes the task of study-
ing it, classifying and arranging it, and making it ready for
use. At this point the function of the archaeologist ceases,
and the duty of the historian begins; to interpret it, and to
bring it into harmony with the recognized body of informa-
tion regarding the past. It is not necessary that different in-
dividuals in every case do these different things. We must
not press specialization too far. Nearly every historian should
be something of an archaeologist, and every archaeologist should
be something of an historian. When the archaeologist ceases
from the preparation of his material, and begins the recon-
struction of the past, he commences to act as an historian ; he
has to call up a new range of equipment, a new set of qualifi-
cations.
The fields in which the services of archaeology are most ap-
preciated are those to which written and oral records do not
reach. Its contributions in pressing back the frontiers of
knowledge are incalculable, and are growing increasingly so
with every passing year. To say nothing of what it has told
us of the civilizations of Egypt and Assyria, it has given to
history within the last few years the whole great empire of
the Hittites^ We have learned more of Mycenaean civilization
from archaeology than from Homer. Practically all we know
of the Romanization of Britian is from such sources, and that
process, not long ago regarded almost as a myth, is now a
well articulated bit of history. In America, within the last
thirty-five years, by the joint work of the archaeologist and the
anthropologist, many of the points long disputed concerning
the Indians have been set at rest, more knowledge of them has
been recovered than was ever before supposed possible, and new
questions have been raised which invite renewed activity.
From all over the world, moreover, remains of the past, amount-
90 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
ing to many times those now known, call for investigation. It
is safe to say that within the next fifty years more sensational
discoveries will be made by following material, than written,
records.
It is not, however, only in the periods void of written sources
that archaeology can perform its services. It is in the period
of classical antiquity that we find the combination happiest.
There indeed, it is difficult to find an historian who does not
lay archaeology under tribute, or an archaeologist who is not
lively to the historical bearing of this work. When we come
to the medieval period the situation is less ideal, the historian
tends to pay less attention to monuments, and the archaeol-
ogist to become an antiquarian, intent upon minutia, and los-
ing sight of his ultimate duty. In the modern period, the his-
torian, self-satisfied with the richness of his written sources,
ignores all others, and the archaeologist, always with a little io\t,
for the unusual and for the rust of time, considers himself
absolved from further work.
As one working in this last period, I wish to call the atten-
tion of American archaeologists to some possibilities that it of-
fers. Abundant as are our resources they do not tell the whole
story of the last couple of centuries even in America, and we
have monuments which are worthy of preservation and which
can add to our knowledge of our American ancestors, as well
as of our Indian predecessors. Even in Wisconsin something
may be obtained from such sources.
The most interesting of our monumental remains are, of
course, the architectural. Everybody is familiar with the log
cabin, though something might yet be gathered as to the sites
selected for them, and minor differences in construction. Less
familiar is the cropping out of the porch in front, the spread-
ing of the ell behind, and the two lean-to wings, then the
sheathing with clap-boards, the evolution of the porch posts
into Greek columns, and the clothing of the whole with white
paint, all representing stages in the prosperity of the occupants.
In nearly every older Wisconsin township may bje found build-
The Relation of Archaeology to History. 97
ings representing every one of these stages, the older ones indi-
cating poor land or unthrifty occupants and being generally re-
mote from the township center, or else serving as minor farm
buildings behind more pretentious frame or brick structures.
In the same way the stump fence, the snake fence and the wire
fence, denote the advance or the retardation of progress. Other
studies of economic value may be made from the use of different
kinds of building materials. The early use of local stone is
one of the features of Madison, its subsequent disuse was due
not so much to the difficulty of quarrying as to the decreased
cost of transportation making other materials cheaper, and was
coincident with the arrival of the railroads. Very interesting
material could be obtained from the abandoned river towns,
still preserving the appearance of fifty years ago, and furnish-
ing us with genuine American ruins.
On the whole the primitive log cabins were necessarily much
alike, but when the log came to be superseded by more flexible
material, the settler's first idea was to reproduce the home or
the ideal of his childhood, and the house tends to reveal the na-
tionality of its builder. Just about Madison there are farm
houses as unmistakably of New England as if found in the "Old
Colony," and others as distinctly of Pennsylvania or the South.
T am told of a settlement of Cornishmen, which they have made
absolutely characteristic, and even the automobilist can often
distinguish the first Wisconsin home of the German, the Eng-
lishman or the Dutchman. Where have our carpenters, our ma-
sons and finishers come from, and what tricks of the trade have
each contributed?
Such studies reveal something also of the soul of the people.
Not so much in America, to be sure, as in Europe, where na-
tional and individual aspirations find as legitimate expressions
in architecture, as in poetry, and less here than in the West,
which copied its fashions, than in the East, which imported them.
Still we have a few of the Greek porticoed buildings which were
in part a reflection of the influence of the first French Republic
and in part represented the admiration of the Jeffersonian democ-
!>s WISCONSIN ABCHKOLOGIST. Vol. 9, N... I
racy for the republics of Greece; but that style almost passed
away before Wisconsin was settled. We have a number of
the composite porticoed and domed buildings which succeeded
and represented perhaps the kinship between the cruder dem-
ocracy of Jackson and that of Rome. We have many buildings
both public and private, some extremely beautiful, which re-
flect the days in the middle of the nineteenth century when
the best minds in America drew inspiration from the Italy of
the Renaissance, when Story and Crawford, and Hawthorne
and Margaret Fuller lived and worked in Rome. The succeed-
ing period when the French mansard stands for the dominat-
ing influence on things artistic, or rather inartistic, of the Sec-
ond Empire, is everywhere illustrated ; while the revival of Eng-
lish influence, in the Queen Anne; the beginning of general
interest in American history, in the colonial; the influence of
the war with Spain; in the square cement; and many oth«-
waves of thought and interest, can be pointed out in almost
any town. A careful study of its architecture will nearly al-
ways reveal the approximate date of foundation, the periods
of prosperity and depression, the origin of the inhabitants,
and many other facts of real importance.
I have spoken so far of the contribution of archaeology tu
the science of history. Fully as great are its possibilities along
the lines of popularization and illustration. The work of neither
archaeology nor history can go on without popular support,
and the local appeal is one of the strongest than can be made.
Not every town has an interesting history, but almost every
one, however ugly, can be made historically interesting to its
inhabitants, if its streets can be made to tell its history, and by
reflection something of the history of the country, which may
be done merely by opening their eyes to their chirography. It
should be the part of the hope of the local archaeologist to
make his neighbors and his neighbor's children see history in
everything about them, and if this is accomplished we may
hope gradually to arouse a deeper and more scientific interest,
and a willingness to encourage that research into the whole
past, in which historian and archaeologist are jointly interested.
The Relation of Archaeology to History. 99
On a recent visit to Lake Koshkonong I found my interest
very much stimulated by the admirable map and plates illus-
trating the Indian life about its shores, and it has occurred to
me that one extremely valuable way of arousing general interest
and of arranging our archaeological data, would be in a series
of such minute maps. For instance the first in the series would
give purely the physical features, the next, on the same scale,
would add our Indian data — mounds, village sites, cultivated
fields, arrow factories and battle-fields, trails and any other in-
dications that might appear — then one on the entrance of the
white men, with trading posts, garrisons, first settlements and
roads, the next would begin with the school house and end
with the railroad, and one or two more would complete the set.
Such studies of the material changes of a locality, would not
form an embelishment, but the basis of its history.
Another work might be undertaken through the local high
school. The pupils might be encouraged to take photographs of
houses, fences, bridges and other objects, interesting for the
reasons I have pointed out, as well as all objects of aboriginal
interest. These should always be dated and the place where
they were taken noted. In fact, a map should be used, and
by numbers or some such device the pictures localized. These
photographs properly classified and arranged would give such
a picture of the whole life of the community in terms of tangible
remains as could not fail to interest its inhabitants as well as
serve the student. In the newer portions of the state, particu-
larly in the north it would be possible to take pictures of the
first clearing, and then file them away and a few years later
take another picture of the farmstead with its improvements
and so on until it reached a, condition of stability. Thus to
project into the future the work of a science whose name sug-
gests antiquity, may seem fantastic, but even the future will
ultimately become antiquity. "We have still in Wisconsin some
remnants of a frontier stage of civilization which is passing and
cannot be reproduced, and to provide materials to express it
to the future cannot be held superfluous. If we imagine the
100 WISCONSIN AUCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
joy that it would give to us to find a photograph of the site of
Rome before the city was built, of one of the great Indian vil-
lages of Wisconsin before the coming of the white man, we can
form a conception of the value of such an ordered and scientific
collection as I have suggested to the future student of the civ-
ilization of our own day.
The Winnebago and the Mounds. 101
THE WINNEBAGO AND THE MOUNDS
ARLOW B. STOUT
It is generally considered that the Indians of today have no
traditions concerning the construction of earthen mounds by
their ancestors. The writer who has held this to be the case,
was agreeably surprised to obtain recently some positive data
on this question.
A band of Winnebago was in camp during the summer of
1910 at the mouth of Dell Creek, on the lower Dells of the
Wisconsin River. Among them were several members of the
noted Dekorah family. The camp was but a few rods from the
cottage in which the writer was spending his vacation and an
acquaintance was soon made with the young men of the band.
One of these, Fred Dick by name, after three weeks of ac-
quaintance, was questioned concerning the authorship of the
Indian mounds, some of which were located in the immediate
vicinity.
In response to numerous questions he gave replies about as
follows :
"Yes, Indians use to build mounds. Our Winnebago people
did. They built many round mounds for burial. Don't build
mounds any more. Don't do many things we used to do. White
man coming changed many things of the old time."
With the writer Fred Dick visited a nearby effigy, a plot
of which is shown in Fig. A. This is one of the types diffi-
cult to identify as representing a known animal and hence he
was pressed for an explanation. He examined the structure
carefully but could give no clue to its identity. He offered,
however, to ask information of the older Indians of the band.
This he did and later reported the following story in response
to questions:
102 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
"This is an animal that lives in the water. It comes out at
night and goes along the bank. No I never saw the animal.
Only the oldest people ever saw it. No it has no name. Indians
use to have a name for it but white man has no name for it.
Guess old people only thought they saw the animal. It must
be what you would call a spirit animal. Don't know of an>
Indians that now have that animal (as a totem). I am a bear.
That other fellow (Bill Dekorah) is a panther. Yes, Indians
built these animal mounds too."
Fig. A.
The above was related under such circumstances that the
writer has no reason to doubt the accuracy of the communi-
cation.
This bit of evidence supports the view that the Winnebago
built both conical and effigy mounds and that the latter were
built in connection with the totem system or organization. This
bit of evidence regarding the use of a "spirit animal" as a
totem is interesting in view of the large number of effigy and
so-called linear mounds that do not represent any known ani-
mals.
The writer has held for a number of years that the various
types of linear mounds found in Wisconsin are in reality effigy
mounds built to represent objective or subjective totems.
Studies of the "Wisconsin mounds show that a large number
of the effigies represent known animals. The art displayed is
realistic. Bird, bear and mink effigies belong to this class.
Another group of effigies represent animals but with certain
features more or less exaggerated. We may say the figure is
more or less conventionalized. To this class belong the turtle
and mink types with extenuated tails. Without doubt some
of the linear types belong to this class in that they were built
Th<> \Vinnebago and the Moulds. 103
to represent known animals but the structures were so conven-
tionalized that identification is not possible.
To the class of "spirit effigies" belong those mounds repres-
enting imaginary beings to which were attributed various ani-
mal characteristics. In this class probably belong many of our
anamolous effigies together with the greater number of the
linear types.
The totem theory has been universally accepted in its appli-
cation to the pure effigies. It is here extended to include the
Linear types. Considerable data has been accumulating from
archaeological studies in Wisconsin concerning the various types
of linear mounds, their arrangement in mound groups their
relation to the immediate topography and the gradations to-
ward pure effigies which make untenable the views that they
were constructed as a means of defense, or as house sites, or as
n'aiuo drives. The only theory consistent with the archaeolog-
ical facts as known today is that the linear mounds of Wis-
consin are in reality effigy mounds.
104 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
SILVER TEADE CROSSES
CHARLES E. BROWN
Among the articles made of silver which the fur-traders
brought to Wisconsin to barter with the Indian inhabitants
were silver cross.es of several styles and of various sizes. These
are occasionally found listed in the invoices of the traders at
present preserved in the manuscript collections of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin and elsewhere.
In a statement of goods sent to the Wisconsin River for
purposes of trade in October 1804, by Francis Victor Malhiot,
in charge of the North West Fur Company's post at Lac du
Flambeau, there are mentioned among other items of "silver-
ware"— "9 large double crosses." and "6 medium sized do."
Of these three of the former were returned to the post by the
trader's returning agent, in May 1805, the remainder having
been disposed of to the savages.1
The journal of Sir William Johnson, of September 17, 1761,
relates that among the silver ornaments which he left at De-
troit to be forwarded to Ensign James Gorrell at the British
military post at Mackinac for purposes of trade, were ninety
large silver crosses.2 On October 12 of the same year, Lieu-
tenant Gorrell was placed in command of the post at Green Bay,
in Wisconsin, and it is very probable that he brought with
him some of this jewelry and used it in making presents to
the Indian chiefs participating in some of his subsequent coun-
cils with the local tribes.
Many of these silver crosses, both Roman and double and
triple-barred were made by Montreal silversmiths, especially
1 Wisconsin Historical Collections, xix, pp. 222, 223.
2 Metallic Ornaments of the New York Indians, p. 43.
Silver Trade Crosses. 105
for the Indian trade. Not a few of those which have since been
recovered from burial places or obtained from Indians in New
York, Canada and elsewhere, have the name Montreal, as well
as occasionally the initials of the silversmiths, stamped upon
them. These smiths also made large quantities of silver arm-
lets, brooches, earrings, headbands and other Indian ornaments.
Such jewelry appears also to have been made at Quebec and in
other places in Canada and the eastern United States, the com-
petition between these places as to the character and prices of
the goods furnished becoming quite keen at about the middle
of the 18th century. John Kinzie, the fur-trader, when a boy
ran away from his home in New York City, "and finding his
way to Quebec learned the trade of silversmith." When en-
tering upon his career a few years later, as trader at Detroit,
he became known to the Indians as Shawneeawkee, or "Silver
Man."3
Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, who has made a careful study of
the metallic ornaments furnished to the Indians of the St. Law-
rence Valley, shows that until near the close of the 17th cen-
tury these were mainly of brass and copper, these being, then
superseded by silver ornaments which continued in favor for
nearly two centuries, giving way in their turn to the cheap
Indian jewelry of recent years. The large silver crosses had
little or no interest as religous symbols to the savages who re-
ceived them, being treated as mere ornaments. In proof of
this assertion he calls attention to the fact that figures of birds
and beasts were sometimes engraved on them, and that some
have the name Montreal stamped upon their surfaces. The
smaller silver crosses also are usually purely ornamental in their
character. He explains that to the two-barred silver crosses,
which are widely distributed ' ' a fictitious antiquity and rarity ' '
lias heretofore been assigned by some American antiquarians
' ' under the name of patriarchial cross. " " The makers of these
ornaments had little care for the original use or meaning of
articles, so long as they were attractive to the eye and would
Wisconsin Historical Collections, xix, p. 379.
106 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
sell. ' ' T|ie traders and Indian agents presented them to pagan
savages whose good-will they desired to gain, or exchanged
them 'for their full value in furs and other produce of the
Indians. Under the rules of the Catholic church the double-
barred cross is "permitted to be worn by only patriarchs."
Rev. Beaucham states that he obtained all of his own crosses
of this character from the one pagan Onondaga family in New
York.4
Mrs. Elizabeth T. Baird in her "Reminiscences of Early
Days on Mackinac Island," states that when the Indians got
out of provisions in their long journey to Canada they would
exchange their silver ornaments received from the British gov-
ernment for food. "Purchasers of this silver were plentiful
and much of it afterwards found its way into the white man's
melting pot."5 In more recent years Wisconsin jewelers have
occasionally purchased silver crosses and other silver ornaments
from persons who found them, and have made use of the metal
for various purposes.
Mr. Antoine Grignon, of Trempealeau, a member of the noted
Wisconsin family of traders, informs the writer that during his
early experiences as a trader among the Winnebago he frequently
saw them wearing silver crosses of both the single and double-
barred forms. He never included these ornaments among his
own stock of trade merchandise, and does not know where
the Indians procured them. Mr. Geo. II. Squier, of the same
village, remembers also to have seen them in use.
The crosses and crucifixes distributed among their Indian con-
verts by the early French missionaries were usually made of
brass or copper, and sometimes of lead. In New York and
elsewhere some of these have been recovered. Thomas L. Mc-
Kenney mentions that during his treaty with the Chippewa
at Fond du Lac on Lake Superior, in 1826, he distributed jew-
elry among those in attendance as follows. "Every woman
got a ring with a stone set in it, and a cross of glass, and almost
* Metallic Ornaments of the New York Indians, pp. 42, 43.
5 Wisconsin Historical Collections, xiv, pp. 18, 19.
Silver Trade Crosses. 107
every child; whilst to the young men and chiefs were distrib-
uted gorgets and silver brooches."0
DOUBLE-BARRED CROSSES
A considerable number of the silver crosses which were brought
to Wisconsin during the period of the British and American
fur-trade have been found in recent years in Indian graves
and on the sites of former Indian camps and villages in the
state but only a small number of these are within reach at the
present time. Through the courtesy of their owners a descrip-
tion of some of these is given.
Fig. 1, Plate 1 represents a silver double-barred cross in the
collections of the State Historical Museum. This specimen is
3 inches in length. Its lower arm is 1 1-2 inches long. The
ends of the two horizontal arms are slightly expanded and
notched at the center. At the top of the vertical arm is a hole
for suspension. Below this perforation is a small depression in
which are to be seen traces of two letters these being probably
the initials of the silversmith who made this cross. The cross is
of very nearly the same pattern as one obtained near Geneva,
N. Y., and which Beauchamp illustrates in his Fig. 207. Both
specimens are ornamented on both surfaces with a delicate
tracery of small 'dotted depressions. In our example these are
in places nearly obliterated by the wear of the silver. It was
found in 1855, in Section 35, in Richwood Township, near Porf
Andrew, Richland County.
In Fig. 2 is shown a cross which was taken from an Indian
burial mound at Prairie du Chien, in Crawford County, dur-
ing its exploration by members of the research party of the
Bureau of Ethnology. Prof. Cyrus Thomas gives the following
account of its finding: "Scattered through the mound were
found human skeletons in various stages of decay and in diff-
erent positions, but mostly stretched horizontally on the back.
Sketches of a Tour1 to the Lakes, p. 340.
108 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
Mixed with these remains were fragments of blankets, clothing,
human hair, one copper kettle, three copper bracelets, one sil-
ver locket, . . . . , ten silver bracelets, .... one hav-
ing the word "Montreal" stamped on it. and another the let-
ters "A B"; two silver ear-rings j six silver brooches . . .
one copper finger ring ; one double silver cross ; one knife handle ;
one battered bullet, and one carved wooden pipe similar to
those in present use."7 This cross is of nearly the same pat-
tern as the foregoing. It is about a third larger in size. The
letters "A S" appear in a, small depression near the top of the
vertical bar.
The fine cross shown in the central figure of Plate 2 was
found in Waukesha County. It and the other crosses figured in
this plate are in the collection of Mr. C. E. Tribbett, of Dar-
lington, Ind. Its owner calls attention to the fact that it has
evidently seen long continued use as the metal ring by which
it was suspended has worn through the perforation.
The small silver double-barred cross in the lower left-hand
corner of Plate 2 is reported to have been found at Lake Wau-
bes.a, in Dane County. It is about 2 1-2 inches in length. It
is peculiar in the somewhat triangular shape of the arms and
upper termination of the vertical bar.
In the Milwaukee Public Museum there is a fine, large double-
barred cross. It comes from Preston Township, Trempealeau
County. It is of the same general style as the specimen shown
in Fig. 4. Plate 1. This specimen measures about 5 1-4 inches
in length. The lower and longer of the two arms is 2 3-4 inches
long. The central bar and arms are ornamented with central
continuous wavy lines. On the arms these are separated from
the tips by a vertical line. These wavy lines consist of small
sharp-angled zigzags which take this serpentine course. They
appear to have been stamped into rather than engraved upon
the surface of the metal. This pattern appears upon both sur-
faces of the cross. An example of this ornamental character
is shown in the central cross in Plate 2.
7 12 Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 51.
Silver Trade Crosses. 109
On one side of the cross, at the intersection of the upper
arm with the vertical bar are stamped two tiny stars.
In 1852, a "double armed, ringed, silver cross, with E. C. in
Roman capitals engraved in the center of the upper arm;"
was obtained in the excavation of a small burial mound situ-
ated near the junction of the White and Fox Rivers, in Bur-
lington Township, Racine County. With this cross, were found
"many silver ear-rings, breast-pins also a large
quantity of blue glass beads.8
Some years ago a double-barred silver cross was obtained
from an Indian grave, near Eleventh Avenue, on the south
side of the Menomonee Valley, in Milwaukee. A similar speci-
men is reported to have been found near Readstown, in Ver-
non County. Another, of small size was found, according to
Mr. S. D. Mitchell, at Marquette, in Green Lake County. It
was secured by the late F. S. Perkins, of Burlington. A speci-
men formerly in the collection of the Minnesota Historical So-
ciety is said to have been found in a mound in the lower Wis-
consin Valley.
The silver cross shown in Fig. 3, Plate 1 was obtained from
an Indian grave in Huron County, Mich. This cross is 1 7-8
inches in length, and the arms about 1 5-16 inches in length.
Its surface is without engraving of any kind. It differs from
the specimen is illustrated in Fig. 1 in the equal length of the
arms, and in the trefoil terminations of all the limbs. The
central portion of the trefoil ornament of the upper end of the
vertical bar has been broken off. This specimen is also in the
State Historical Museum.
In the cabinet of Mr. John T. TCeedor of Houghton, Mich.,
are two fine double-barred silver crosses which were found
about ten years ago on Round Island, near Mackinac Island.
They were obtained with a series of other Indian articles which
included several metal pots, pewter bowls, beads, iron axes,
knives, and stone and pewter pipes. Both are fine specimens
and are of exactly the same pattern though of different sizes
Wisconsin Archeologist, v. 3, p. 37.
110 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
and with, a different engraved ornamentation. The larger meas-
ures nearly 6 inches in length. The lower and longest arm
measures about 2 3-4 inches in length. It is ornamented with
three triangles and wavy lines. Of the triangles there are
three — one at the center of the intersection of each arm and at
the base of the vertical bar. The smaller, shown in Fig. 4,
Plate 1, is about 4 9-16 inches in length. The lower and longer
cross-bar measures about 2 inches in length. This and the other
cross are quite similar in shape.
Mr. A. B. "Winans, of Battle Creek, Mich., is the owner of
several fine double-barred crosses found in that state.
ROMAN CROSSES
The single-barred cross shown in Fig. B. is in the cabinet
of Mr. Horace McElroy, of Janesville. It was obtained on
Carcajou Point, Lake Koshkonong. Its length is about 2 7-8
inches, and the single arm 1 7-8 inches in length. In shape it
is unlike any specimen known to the writer. From the point
of union with the vertical bar the arms expand gradually to
the tips. The upper portion of the vertical bar terminates in
a loop-like projection which is perforated for suspension. The
limbs are ornamented with an engraved tracery of triangles
and small circular depressions. The reverse is without orna-
mentation. The silver plating of this cross has been worn
away.
In the Logan Museum at Beloit College there is a Roman
cross, which was found on the site of the old fort at Lower
Town, in Prairie du Chien. Mr. W. H. Elkey, who formerly
owned this specimen, describes it as being about 3 inches long
and 1 3-4 inches wide.
The fine large Roman cross illustrated in Plate 3 measures
8 3-8 inches in length, being the largest trade cross of any
style as yet recovered in Wisconsin. It was found at Green
Bay, and is in the State Museum collections, at Madison. All
of the limbs are f61iated, the lower one terminating in a square
Silver Trade Crosses.
Ill
base. At the top of the vertical limb there is a perforation
through which a silver ring must once have passed, and a
smaller perforation at the lower extremity of the same arm
which was probably intended to facilitate the attachment of
an ornament or ribbon.
Fig. B.
This cross is made of silver, is less than a thirty-second of
an inch in thickness and weighs three ounces. Both surfaces
are elaborately, though rather rudely ornamented with fig-
ures formed of straight and dotted, and curved and zigzag lines,
the figures on them being dissimilar. At the center on one
surface is stamped the word Montreal and above it in two
places, the letters P A. Beauchamp gives illustrations of sev-
eral large crosses in shape somewhat resembling the Wisconsin
specimen. One of these, obtained by L. H. Morgan from a
Cuyuga Indian, at Grand River reservation, Canada is 10
inches long and 6 inches wide. A smaller example, in the
Richmond collection in New York State, is 9 3-8 inches long
and 7 1-4 inches wide. He describes four others, these being
112 WISCONSIN' ARCIIEOLO<;iST. Vol. 0, No. 4
respectively 13 1-2, 12 1-4, 8 3-8 and 8 inches in length
respectively. The largest weighs eight ounces. He says of
these large crosses. "Their true date is in the latter part of
the 18th century, or possibly later. In New York and Canada
they were in use but a few years ago."
The cross shown in the upper left-hand corner of Plate 2 is
made of bone. It is about 2 inches in length, and is reported
to have come from an Indian grave near Elkhorn, in Wai worth
County. It belongs to Mr. C. E. Tribbets.
CRUCIFIXES
The small bone crucifix shown in Plate 2 is in the same col-
lection as the cross just described and comes from the same
district. The figure on its face is rudely carved.
A small brass crucifix was found near Neenah, Winnebago
County. On- its front is a small well-modelled figure of
Christ with arms extended and knees drawn up. In a small
oval above the head are the letters INRI. On the reverse side
of the cross arm is the word Souvenir in raised letters, and
extending downward from it the words De la Mission. The
tiny letters are much worn and the inscription can be made
out only with difficulty. It is possible that this little crucifix
was given at some Indian mission, probably -at one of those
formerly located in the Fox River Valley, in Wisconsin. It
measures about 1 9-16 inches in length. It is in the State His-
torical Museum.
In the same institution there is a small figure of Christ,
which was probably once attached to a cross. It was obtained
from an Indian burial place in Green Bay, in 1879, near which
it is reported that many crosses, medals, etc. have been obtained.
Its arms are outstretched, head inclined to one side and knees
drawn up in the conventional attitude. It is made of cast
brass, and its length is 2 1-4 inches. Its hands and feet arc
marked with iron rust, evidently from the oxidizing of the
iron nails by which it was attached to the cross.
The Centenary of Increase Allen Lapham. 113
THE CENTENARY OF INCREASE ALLEN
LAPHAM
On March 7 there will occur the one-hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Dr. Increase Allen Lapham, the father of arch-
eological research in our state. In order to properly observe
this important event the Wisconsin Archeological Society, for
whose activities Dr. Lapham 's early researches have furnished
a great measure of the inspiration, has appointed a committee
consisting of the Messers. L. R. Whitney, J. L. Torney and
C. W. Lamb to arrange an appropriate program to be presented
on this occasion. It is possible that several members of the
Society, who were well acquainted with Dr. Lapham, will be
among the speakers.
He was born in Palmyra, N. Y., in March. 1811. He came to
Milwaukee from Columbus, Ohio, in July 1836, and soon be-
came a prominent figure in the life of the territory in which
he had settled. In the Wisconsin Archeologist of January
1902 (Vol. 1, No. 2) a. brief account of Lapham 's great and
devoted services to his state in the field of archaeological ex-
ploration is printed. "The Antiquities of Wisconsin," which
was published in 1855 by the Smithsonian Institution, has made
his name a familiar one to the antiquarians of tw7o conti-
nents. He achieved distinction also as a geologist, botanist
and meteorologist. Many pages would be required to re-
count fully the life and services of this remarkable man. He
was the originator of what has now become the United States
Weather Bureau. In 1873, he was appointed state geologist of
Wisconsin. He was one of the founders of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, also of the Wisconsin Academy of Sci-
ences, Arts and Letters. In 1860, he was honored by Amherst
College with the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was an active
114 WISCONSIN ARCIIEOLOGIST. Vol. 0. ?sfo. 4
or honorary member of many scientific associations in the
United States. Dr. Lapham died at Oconomowoc, on Septem-
berv 14, 1876. At Madison, a public school building is named
in his honor, and only last year the City of Milwaukee caused
one of its public parks to be named after him. ^As a citizen
he was known as a thoroughly honorable, active and amiable
man. His fellow citizens often gave him marks of their con-
fidence and esteem. He was modest in the highest degree, so
that modesty seemed in him to become a fault. He was a man
of truth and consistency, and may others arise like him to be
a blessing to mankind."
Mr. Charles Lapham, a son, and the Misses Mary J. and
Julia A Lapham, daughters of Wisconsin's distinguished sci-
entist, have been for years prominent in the work of the Wis-
consin Archeological Society.
Notes of the Pour Lakes Indians. 115
NOTES OF THE FOUK LAKES INDIANS
FRANK R. SMITH
Mr. Ira Hulbert, a Wisccnsin pioneer, at the present time a
resident of Sparta, states that he came to the present location
of Madison in October of the year 1838, over the trails from
Lake Koshkonong where he and ethers had been engaged in
trapping. He and his companions had made this pilgrimage
for the purpose of trading with the Indians then occupying
the region about the Four Lakes. Arriving on the shore of
Lake Mendota, they visited a large Indian village situated
about -where Tenney Park is now located.
There were at this time, he estimates, about 500 or 600 Win-
nebago Indians encamped here and elsewhere about the Madi-
son lakes. He and his companions remained in the locality for
only three or four days being greatly discouraged in their ef-
forts at trading with the natives. The Indians wanted calico,
tobacco and trade beads but Mr. Hulbert and his companions
had brought only a supply of money intending to purchase
peltries rather than to trade for them. They were offered
thirty muskrat skins for a half-pound of powder. For a hand-
ful of glass beads they might have struck a good bargain in
furs..
The Indians were living in wigwams having a framework of
bent poles and covered with rush matting and strips of bark.
These were scattered about in groups of fifteen or twenty.
Their owners were largely engaged in hunting and trapping,
the women devoting themselves to weaving rush mats. They
appeared, both young and old, to be quite happy and contented.
They possessed a few traps and a small number of flintlock
guns, the latter being mostly smoothbores and not much to be
11G WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
depended upon for "it was a matter of speculation when the
trigger was pulled whether they went off or not." Their bows,
however, could be relied upon, and ' ' when one of these let fly an
arrow it usually went about to the spot desired. Their ar-
rows were mostly pointed with flint points, that is, the ones they
hunted with. The arrows used around the camp had a blunt
head or a sharp wooden point and were nearly all feathered.
For a distance of seventy-five yards they made good shots and
at from twenty-five to forty yards a wild goose or a duck was
almost always their meat, for their aim was quite accurate.
Boys of from eight to twelve years of age would knock an old-
fashioned penny out of a split stick stuck in the ground at a
distance of forty or fifty feet on an average of every other shot.
When an adult Indian took his bow and about twenty flint-
pointed arrows and left camp at 'daylight he meant business.
When he found a flock of geese or ducks feeding near the
shore and could get within easy range, say within forty or fifty
yards without being seen, he generally bagged several before
the flock took flight."
"The lakes had many canoes on almost every shore. Many of
these were made of birchbark, and others were hollowed out of
logs. These they were very expert in managing." Mr. IIul-
burt states that "the Indians were great gamblers and were
willing to stake from one to twenty muskrat skins on a single
game." They played the game of bowl and other gambling
games known to the Wisconsin Indians. "They dressed mostly
in deerskin, and all had a five-point Mackinaw blanket which
they had obtained from the government or elsewhere."
If Mr. Hulbert chanced upon any of the Indian mounds
then so numerous about the local lakes he paid little attention
to them, nor did he concern himself in questioning the natives
concerning their origin or significance. It is interesting that
some stone-tipped arrows should have been still in use in this
locality. Mr. Hulbert is certain that he is not mistaken on that
point,
A Group of Indian Mounds on the Pecatoriica River 117
A GROUP OF INDIAN MOUNDS ON THE
PECATONICA RIVER
CHARLES E. BROWN
The group of Indian earthworks figured in Plate 4 were
visited - by the writer and Professors H. B: Lathrop and
William E. Leonard, of the University of Wisconsin, during a
walking trip made by them down the valley of the Pecatonica
River from Calamine to beyond the Green County line, in
August 1910. These interesting remains are located on the
top of a high bluff overlooking the river, on a piece of prop-
erty belonging to Mr. Charles Kerber. This property is lo-
cated in Section 7, Darlington Township, La Fayette County,
and at a distance of about three miles southeast of Darlington.
The group consists of eight linear, six conical and two effigy
mounds. The eight westerly mounds of the series are located in
a grassy pasture, and the remainder in an adjoining strip of
woodland. The last are partly on the eastward slope of the
bluff and are obscured by a thick growth of young trees and
brush. The mounds are quite closely grouped being -separated
from one another by only short distances. None were over two
feet in height. The largest of the linear mounds measured
about 225 feet in length and had a nearly uniform width of 12
feet. The smallest of the mounds of this class was about 75
feet long. One was about 150 feet long. Five others were
90 or 100 feet long. The bear effigies were both good examples
of this widely distributed effigy type. One was 75 and the
other 66 feet in length. The conical mounds were each about 18
feet in diameter. The tell-tale holes in the centers of all of
them showed where the farmer boy relic hunter had been at
work. In one of these the outlines of a central burial chamber
118 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST. Vol. 9, No. 4
built of limestone fragments was quite plainly exposed. Noth-
ing could be learned of the contents of these mounds. The
site upon which they are located is a commanding one, being
on the top of the bluff fifty or more feet above the winding
river below.
A narrow valley separates this bluff from another lying to
the west of it. On the eastern slope -of this second bluff Pro-
fessor Leonard found the remains of a linear and of a conical
mound. The latter lay in the hillside garden of Mr. X. J.
Thompson, the present occupant of the land, and whose house
is nearby. The linear mound also extended into the garden,
and that portion of it, although under cultivation, could still
be traced.
On the top of a bluff in Section 8, at a distance of about
a mile east of the foregoing groups, and on the same side of
the river, Mr. Olgar P. Olson, who has frequently contributed
La Fayette County data to the state records, located a single
conical mound. This mound was situated in a woodland on
the property of a Mr. James Ccokley. It was about 40 feet in
diameter and about 4 feet high. Adjoining this woodland on
the west was a cultivated field which showed every indication
of having been an Indian camp site. Hundreds of flint and
other implements have been found there.
Our party visited other sites along the picturesque Peca-
toiiica, and succeeded in obtaining clues to others, which can
be investigated on the occasion of some future trip.
Areheologleel JU-ms. 119
ARCHEOLOGICAL ITEMS
Hon. John Strange of Menasha, the present owner of the old Gov-
ernor Doty homestead, on Doty Island, has at the Society's suggestion
very kind]y consented to take steps to protect the old Indian boulder
corn mill which for a number of year's has lain in the water in front
of the property. It will be1 placed on top of the bank. There are a
number of similar boulder mills in the state which deserve protection.
Mr. J. P. Schumacher has promised that the boulder mill located on
the Pox River at Green Bay shall be removed and taken to a place of
greater safety on public grounds in that city.
The Madison members of the Society are urging the preservation
of a cluster of Indian mounds which happen to be located in the re-
cently secured addition to Henry Vilas Park. They are located on the
crest of a hi1! on the northeast shore of Lake Wingra. There is some
danger of their destruction thru the contemplated improvements to
the park. The State Historical Society and other organizations are
also urging preservation.
During the month of December, 1910, there departed from this life
Hon. James Madison Pereles, for many years a prominent and highly
resDected citizen of Milwaukee. Judge Pereles had been a member
and patron of the Society since the year 1903. His death was a dis-
tinct loss to many educational associations besides our own. During
this month the Society was so unfortunate as to lose another devoted
patron in the person of Co1. Albert H. Hollister of Madison. The
genial Colonel will be well remembered by the members and friends
who participated in the last summer's field assembly of the Society, in
which as a member of the local reception committee he took a prom-
inent part. His death is deeply regretted by many organizations of
which he was a member. As this bulletin goes to press we learn of
the deaths of two othe;- members of the Wisconsin Archeological So-
ciety, these being Mr. William H. Hesse of Neenah and Mr. H. H. G.
Bradt, formerly of Eureka. Both will be missed from our councils.
There have recently been elected to membership in the Society Mr.
W. G. Kirchoffer, and Mr. Ernest N. Warner, Madison; Mr. H. J. Reup-
ing, Fond du Lac; Prof. Paul G. Miller, Northfield, Minn.; Dr. Geo.
Kleinschmidt, Mr. W. A. Phillips, Mr. C. L. Fortier, Mr. R. G. Boettger
and Mr. B. J. Brah, Milwaukee; Prof. J. N. Loshinski, Ripon; Mr. Er-
win A. Meyers, Evansville, and Mr. A. H. Dewey, Rochester, N. Y.
Mr. Geo. R. Fox of Appleton was elected a life member. Our members
are urged to aid the Society by interesting other citizens in its activ-
ities. As the losses suffered by the Society during the past year have
120 WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIST Vol. 9, No. 4
been particularly heavy because of deaths, removals from the state,
failure to respond to the treasurers calls for dues, and from other
causes, many new members are desired to fill the gaps in the ranks.
Application b<anks may be obtained from the Secretary.
It is the intention of the Society to cause to be introduced during
the session of the present State Legislature, a bill providing for
the special protection of the historic and prehistoric Indian re-
mains located upon the public lands, forestry reserves,, state parks,
grounds of state educational and other state institutions, and upon
other properties dedicated to public use. Investigation and experience
have shown that the fact that an Indian mound or other monument is
located upon state property is no safeguard against its mutilation, de-
struction or removal. The State owes it to its present and future citi-
zens that such monuments should be adequately protected against
vandalism. If a proper penalty is exacted for such destructive acts
the useless wrecking and mutilation of its aboriginal treasures will
cease. A clause in the bill will provide for the proper investigation,
when considered desirable, of these by scientific or educational or-
ganizations or institutions.
The skull shown in the frontispiece of this article was obtained dur-
ing the recent excavation of a mound located on the shore of Sand
Lake, in Chippewa County. Imbedded in it as shown in our illustra-
tion was an axe made of native copper. We are indebted to Dr. W. H.
Bailey of (jhippewa Falls for the photograph from which our illustra-
tion is made.
At last summer's State Assembly there was discussed by various
members of the Society the possibility of holding this year's gathering
at some point on the Mississippi River, preferably at Prairie du Chien,
which is well known to possess so many attractions for both the
archaeologist and historian. Mr. Robert Glenn of Wyalusing, and
other members of the Society residing in that section of the state,
have promised that if a meeting is held there that it will be best in
every respect which our organization has ever held. This proposed
meeting is still a long way off, but we make this announcement now
in order that every member and patron of the Society may give to it
careful thought. Those who failed to get to the Madison meeting
must not be absent at this year's gathering.
We trust that this year's State Legislature will not fail to make
provision for the purchase of the lands at the mouth of the Wisconsin
River, which for several sessions have been offered for state park
purposes. A large number of interesting mounds will be among the
many other treasures thus saved to future generations of cur people.
The state owes it to the inhabitants of the southwestern Wisconsin
counties to secure these beautiful lands for park purposes while they
may be had.
Plate 2 — Silver and Bono Crosses.
'late 3 — Silver Cross.
I
1
1 1
Vol. 9 April to July, 1910 No. 2
THE
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
PIPESTONE QUARRIES IN BARRON COUNTY
FRANCO-AMERICAN STUDY OF A WANING PRE-
HISTORIC INDUSTRY
AN ORNAMENTED STONE AXE
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
1 >EM OCR AT PR] NT I N ( i
•TATB PRINTER
E
WISCONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE STATE FIELD ASSEMBLY AT MADISON
PUBLISHED BY THE
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MILWAUKEE
:ONSIN
ARCHEOLOGIST
THE RELATION ^ OF AKCI i AliOLO*
TO HISTOKV
SILVER TRADE GROSSES
PUBLISHED ir TH]
WISCONSIN ARCHEOLOGIOAL
MILWAUKEE
Your Aid Is Desired
The Wisconsin Archeological Society is endeavoring to
awaken a live interest in the great historical and educa-
tional value of Wisconsin's antiquities. It is encourag-
ing the preservation of representative groups of Wiscon-
sin mounds; is conducting surveys and researches, and
assisting in the establishment of archaeological collection*
in the educational institutions of our state.
ecome a
Member of tke State Society
and Encourage the
in Prog
Now
ress
Its worthy and very necessary labors deserve the full
support of all intelligent and public spirited citizens.
No one desires that the antiquities of our state shall be
destroyed before a full, record of their location and char-
acter shall have been made.
000
The Society has 600 members nu*r. It wants three
times that number.
Subscriptions to its research and survey funds are
needed.
Donations of collections and specimens will be thank-
fully received,
ooo
Annual membership, f ' Sustaining membership, $5.
Life membership, $25.
Address
THE WISCONSIN. ARCHEQIOGICAL SOCIETY
"Chas. E. Brown, Secretary and Curator,
MADISON, WISCONSIN.'.'
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