Kingsley Bend Indian Mounds | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Kingsley Bend Indian Mounds

Kingsley Bend Indian Mounds | Wisconsin Historical Society

Hwy. 16, 4 mi. E of Wisconsin Dells, Columbia County

The mounds of this group are a fairly representative sample of those built by the people of the Effigy Mound Culture between A.D. 700-1000. It has been through excavation of other burial mounds quite similar to these that archeologists have learned most of what they know about the people who built them. These people lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild vegetable foods. They practiced little if any agriculture. There was usually only a single burial in mounds such as these, but in some mounds upwards of a dozen burials have been found. Artifacts such as flint tools and clay pots were seldom included with the burials. Archeologists have not yet accurately determined the significance of the various animal and geo­metric shapes in which the mounds were built.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]