Found / Explainer

Sheboygan's Indian Mound Park was Saved by a Garden Club and Newspaper Campaign

Earthen Indigenous burial mounds were created in the shape of birds, reptiles and mammals.

by Gary C. Klein via Sheboygan Press on October 12, 2023

...in the Black River area of Sheboygan County. The "Effigy Mound builders" name was derived from their way of constructing earthen burial mounds in the shape of birds, reptiles and mammals. They also built mounds in linear, oval and conical forms, according to the Sheboygan Indian Mound Park guide.

Before white man arrived to early Wisconsin with his axes and plows, Sheboygan County had virgin forests with an abundance of fur-bearing animals. When white Europeans arrived on the scene in the 1700s, they traded items such as blankets, knives and axes for maple sugar and fur from the Indigenous people. The peaceful trading didn't last long, as the white man wanted command of the land.

Problems arose between Indigenous people and European inhabitants in the Midwest, which festered into the Black Hawk War. At the war's conclusion, Indigenous people ceded control of the lands, which eventually became the Midwest we know today.

Soon, inquisitive men such as citizen scientist Increase Lapham came on the scene in Wisconsin during the 19th century.

In 1851, he wrote a document titled "Antiquities of Wisconsin." It was a landmark publication filled with expert drawings that included the Seeley Hill mounds in Sheboygan. The Seeley Hill mounds, in town of Sheboygan, was named after Dr. J.F. Seeley, whose home stood nearby.

Lapham, however, did not describe or discover the Kletzien Mound group. In 1899 and again in 1900, Dr. Alphonse Gerend and George Wolff completed surveys of Sheboygan County's mound collection. The duo created important descriptions about the mound culture.

With the result of development of Wisconsin in general, many mounds were destroyed. Many areas within the central city of Sheboygan are an example. Pioneers, who excavated the area that is now Central High School, discovered some 30 skeletons in shallow pits. Other areas where burials were discovered include the land where today's U.S. Post Office stands, New York Avenue, Ninth Street and the intersection of Ontario and North Ninth Street.

Preservation issues arose in the early 20th century in the state. According to Dippel, the Wisconsin Archaeological Society reported some 12 groups of mounds were in Sheboygan County with a smaller number of solitary mounds. Today, the smaller number of remaining sites are protected under Wisconsin's burial site laws.