Wisconsin Boulder Mound Site

Norman Muller writes:

A large boulder mound site in north central Wisconsin was recently investigated by Jack Steinbring, an archaeologist and international rock art expert. The site measures about 10 acres, and consists of about 50 stone mounds spread over a glacial kame, surrounded on both sides by marshes. The boulders comprising the mounds are round glacial erratics, of a size one or two men could carry. As Jack said, he wonders where these boulders came from, since the area is part of a national forest, and not covered with loose stones. One of the mounds has a red rhyolite porphery stone on it (#3).

These red stones are commonly found for petroforms in other parts of the state. Another of the mounds (#5)seemed to have a geometric shape, similar to what we find here in the Northeast. But because the boulders are round and not angular or flat, they do not make for convenient building material, and hence the mounds frequently subside. Jack also said that this is trapping area and not farm land.

Jack says he has just heard of another stone mound site nearby in the general vicinity of the first, and hopes to explore it before the weather deteriorates. They get snow pretty early in Wisconsin.