Effigy Mounds Administrative History

¹Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 95—96.

²"Fort" may not be the proper term to describe these edifices, as most of them seem to have been one or more cabins and/or fur or merchandise storage sheds, perhaps connected or enclosed by a stake fence.

³Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 95-96.

⁴"Chronology of Events," Fact File, Effigy Mounds National Monument. This file is a combined and expanded version of the chronologies of events in the History of Allamakee County and the History of Clayton County, Iowa, and the History of Crawford County, Wisconsin.

⁵Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Report of Investigation No. 116, 93—95.

⁶Ibid., 101—04, 106.

⁷Ibid., 98; Less, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa (n.p., n.d.), 59-60; and Richard N. Current, Wisconsin: A Bicentennial History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1977), 5-6.

⁸Logan, Woodland Complexes, 180-81; Jonathan Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. (n.p., 1781; reprint edition, Minneapolis: Ross and Haines, Inc., 1956), 50-51; Wilfred D. Logan, interview with William S. Wood, Phoenix, Arizona, March 10-11, 1987; and Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 60-61.

⁹Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 105-06; and Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 63.

¹⁰Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 104—07.

¹¹Ibid., 107.

¹²Ibid., 107—09.

¹³Ibid., 108; and W. Eugene Hollon, The Lost Pathfinder: Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949), 63—64, 86.

¹⁴"Chronology;" Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 68, 72; and Bruce E. Mahan, Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier (Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1926), 276.

¹⁵It is not clear why the Americans did not build the fort on the site recommended by Zebulon Pike eight years earlier.

¹⁶Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 64—65; W.J. Ghent, The Early Far West (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1931), 2, 280. However, Upper Explorerland Report, 17, states that Giard's claim, executed in 1795, was the second of three.

¹⁷Carver, Travels, 55-58.

¹⁸Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 108.

¹⁹Lucille M. Kane, June D. Holmquist, and Carolyn Gilman, The Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1978), 224.

²⁰ Kane, et al., Northern Expeditions, 144-151. Quotation is from page 149.

²¹ Henry R. Schoolcraft, Narrative Journals of Travels from Detroit Northwest through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River in the Year 1820, (Albany: E&E Hosford, 1821; reprint edition, New York: Arno Press, 1970), 156-57, 331—34.

²²Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 114—16.

²³Ibid.; and Kane, et al., Northern Expeditions, 84-95.

²⁴Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 68; and Kane, et al., Northern Expeditions, 90-91.

²⁵Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 68—70; and photostatic copy of an untitled article by Ellison Orr, n.p., n.d., in the files of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

²⁶Lees, et al., History of Northeastern Iowa, 68—75; and Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 176-78.

²⁷Because the government usually built sawmills to provide lumber for the construction of its new forts, there may have been a sawmill in the area, though not necessarily at the same location, prior to 1829.

²⁸ Orr article; and Logan, History of Effigy Mounds, 23.

²⁹Orr article.

³⁰Orr article; and Chicago Daily Tribune 7 December 1956, part 3, page 2, from the files of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

³¹Orr article; Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 201-03; and Ellery M. Hancock, History of Allamakee County (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913), 57.

³²It is very possible that some sort of makeshift road leading from the ferry landing to the top of the bluff existed for some years before 1840, and was used by the army for access to the post gardens, hayfields, and wood lots.

³³Fort Atkinson was built approximately fifty miles west of the Mississippi River in modern Winneshiek County, Iowa, to protect the Winnebago Indians following their relocation from the Yellow River reservation.

³⁴ Unidentified newspaper clipping, undated (circa 1950—1954), probably from the North Iowa Times, McGregor, Iowa, in files of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

³⁵Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 209, 242-43, 260—63; and "History of the Sixth Infantry Regiment." Mimeographed. (Covington, Kentucky: n.p., 1897).

³⁶The selection of the road's route may have been influenced by local entrepreneurs. One story alleges the military originally intended to open a road westward from about where McGregor is located now. According to Bruce Mahan, Hercules Louis Dousman, a partner of John Jacob Astor's in the fur trade at Prairie du Chien and a rival of Alexander McGregor's in the Mississippi River ferry business, opened a trail to the top of the bluffs from his own ferry landing on the Iowa shore. Apparently, Dousman bribed the officers to improve his trail by providing carriage rides to the top of the hill and fee whiskey for the soldiers. See Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 125-26. For the reasons stated in the text, and because drunkenness among the troops was not a common problem at the military posts in the area, Mahan's account is not likely.

See also letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

³⁷A jerkline was a single rein attached to the near lead animal only. A jerk on this rein caused the teams to turn right; a pull caused the team to turn left.

³⁸Ibid., 220—23, 238—240; and an unidentified, undated newspaper clipping, probably from the North Iowa Times, McGregor, Iowa, in the files of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

³⁹Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 220-23. Other sources claim the stream was named after the great quantities of game killed there by Lieutenant Martin Scott of Fort Crawford. See Mahan, 264.

⁴⁰According to Ellison Orr, the Methode family camped on Paint Creek near Waukon Junction, not on the Yellow River. See Orr, "Annals of Old Fort Crawford" (in volume 9 of his unpublished manuscript, 1941), p. 5; and Orr, "Sundry Archaeological Papers and Memoranda" (unpublished manuscript, 1939), p. 71, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁴¹Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 104; and Logan and Ingmanson, Palimpsest, 290.

⁴²Letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁴³Orr's manuscripts state McGregor lived in Prairie du Chien from 1835-47. See "Hunting an Old Dam Site," (in volume 9 of his unpublished manuscript, 1941), p. 9, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁴⁴Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 224-237.

⁴⁵Orr, "Sundry Archaeological Papers" (in volume 12 of unpublished manuscript, 1939), p. 71, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989; and Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 278, 561.

⁴⁶Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 470.

⁴⁷Ibid.; and Orr, "Reminiscences of a Pioneer Boy" (in volume 7 of his unpublished manuscripts, n.d.), p. 99; Orr, "Some Reflections of Our Pioneer Neighbors and their Surroundings" (in volume 9 of his unpublished manuscripts, 1941), p. 7; and "The Neutral Ground, the Old Military Road and the Half Way House — A Tale of Cause and Effect" (in volume 9 of his unpublished manuscripts, 1941), p. 71, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁴⁸ Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 242-45; and Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 227. See also Orr, "The Neutral Ground," 2,3, and 7.

⁴⁹Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 59, 234-36; Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 116—18, 120, 122; and Logan and Ingmanson, Palimpsest, 291—92.

⁵⁰Census—year maps of Allamakee and Clayton Counties, Iowa, photographed at the County Recorders' Offices, Waukon and Elkader, Iowa, by Ranger Rodney Rovang, Effigy Mounds National Monument; Logan and Ingmanson, Palimpsest, 291—92; and Orr, "The Early Mills of Allamakee County, Iowa" (in volume 9 of his unpublished manuscripts, 1941), pp. 2, 18, 24, and 26; and Orr, "Sundry Archeological Papers," pp. 30B and 78, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁵¹Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 245, 296-98, 306, 469; and Great lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 122-23.

⁵²See Denny Rehder and Cecil Cook, Grass between the Rails — The Waukon, Iowa. Branch of the Milwaukee Road (Waukon and Mississippi Press, 1972), as referenced in Robert Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁵³Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 117-18; and Ralph Blackwell, interview with William S. Wood, February 12, 1987.

⁵⁴Established as a ferry landing, the small town which developed at Red House Landing became a focal point for the river's clamming industry. See Orr, Vol. 12, Sundry Archaeological Papers and Memoranda, 1939, pp. 30B and 78, as referenced in letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁵⁵Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Reports of Investigation No. 116, 114-16; Kane, et al., Northern Expeditions, 84-95; Orr article; Ghent, Early Far West, 153, 156; Chicago Daily Tribune 7 December 1956, part 3, page 2; Mahan, Old Fort Crawford, 209, 242—43, 260—63; "History of the Sixth Infantry Regiment"; Hancock, History of Allamakee County, 234-35; and Rodney D. Rovang, interview with William S. Wood, n.d. [1987].

⁵⁶Wilfred D. Logan, interview with William S. Wood, March 10, 1987; James David, interview with Wood, February 11, 1987; Ralph Blackwell, interview with Wood, February 11, 1987; Bernard Carnicle, interview with Wood, February 11, 1987; Thomas Sinclair, interview with Wood, February 11, 1987; Timothy Mason, interview with Wood, February 11, 1987; and Lori Stanley, Ferguson Tract Archeological Project II: A Cultural Resource Study in Allamakee County. Iowa (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Research Center, 1984), 3—4.

⁵⁷Cyrus Thomas, The XII Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, John W. Powell. Director, to the Trust of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1894), p. xlii; and R. Clark Mallam, The Iowa Effigy Mounds Manifestation: An Interpretive Model (Iowa City: Office of the State Archeologist, 1976), 21—23.

⁵⁸Robert Petersen, "The Wisconsin Effigy Mounds Project, I" Manuscript. (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Archaeological Research Center, 1979), 3.

⁵⁹Ibid.

⁶⁰Squier and Davis supported the concept of the Mound Builders as a vanished race extinguished by modern Indians. See Robert Petersen, "An Archeological Reassessment of the Effigy Mound Tradition in Iowa," Manuscript (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Archaeological Research Center, 1986), 2.

⁶¹According to Petersen, Pidgeon was a staunch believer in the so-called "Mound Builder Myth" that the mounds were constructed by a super race extinguished by modern Indians, and freely altered his research data to support the myth. See Petersen, "Archeological Reassessment," 4.

⁶² Charles Reuben Keyes, "Shall Iowa Have National Monuments?" in Lees, et al., History of Northeast Iowa, 34—35; and Mallam, Iowa Effigy Mounds, 22.

⁶³Petersen, "Archeological Reassessment," 4—5.

⁶⁴Logan, History of Effigy Mounds, 25-26.

⁶⁵Letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁶⁶Logan and Ingmanson, Palimpsest, 293-94; Logan, History of Effigy Mounds, 26; and letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁶⁷Ellison Orr, "An Autobiography," Typescript, autograph dated 1944; and Vol. 7, "Reminiscences of a Pioneer Boy," 119. See Also "Citation for Ellison Orr," unattributed, dated August 16, 1949, both in the files of Effigy Mounds National Monument.

⁶⁸ Thomas, introduction to The XII Annual Report, passim; and Mallam, The Iowa Effigy Mounds, 21-25. According. to Robert Petersen, a Col. Norris led most of the Bureau of American Ethnology's research teams in northeastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin. Norris sent his detailed notes to Cyrus Thomas in Washington, D.C., and Thomas prepared the reports. See letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.

⁶⁹Petersen, "Archeological Reassessment," 3.

⁷⁰Ibid.

⁷¹Logan and Ingmanson, Palimpsest, 294—95; Mrs. Addison Parker, Sr., "Iowa's National Monument," Typescript, n.d.; and Logan, History of Effigy Mounds, 27-28.

⁷²Letter, Petersen to author, April 7, 1989.