Elmside Park Mounds

(Elmside Group)

National Register of Historic Places

 

This site contains bear and lynx effigies - remnants of once giant cluster of mounds stretching from Yahara River to Starkweather Creek

at modern Olbrich Park that used to include, among others, huge birds with wingspan of more than 500 feet. The other effigy - leftover

from the same group - is protected at Hudson park. The effigies are in good condition and marked, not mowed but could use light

fencing to prevent casual walking over them (people walking/biking along the cliff don’t realize it when they go over mounds).

  There is an Effigy Tree sculpture right next to the mounds, originally carved by Ho-Chunk sculptor Harry Whitehorse as a tribute to

his ancestors and the Effigy Mound Builders. The wooden sculpture ever since deteriorated and was replaced with a bronze one. The

rocks surrounding the sculpture have neat effigy carvings on them.

Jim Steakley

Articles from Wisconsin State Journal

& Capital Times, August 1988