Burial Mounds and Effigy Earthworks of Devil's Lake State Park

For untold generations, what is now called Devil's Lake and the surrounding lands has been an important cultural landscape for the Indigenous people of this area. It has long been known as Tee Wakacak in the Ho-Chunk language, closely meaning Sacred Lake in English. At both the north and south shores there are earthworks, commonly referred to as burial mounds, in effigy as well as geometrical shapes. These mounds are monuments of a culture that thrived on this landscape some 1,000 years ago and the descendants who continue to live in this area. 

This presentation will consider these earthworks as a reflection of a culture, why and how they may have been created, how they were viewed by early European settlers, some early efforts for the preservation of these sites, and how they can be appreciated and respected as a part of the current cultural landscape of Devil's Lake State Park. The presentation will include maps and models of the state park's earthworks and mounds, as well as closely observing some of these as they exist today. 

The presentation will begin among the effigy earthworks located just north of the Sugar Maple Shelter on the North Shore. Please park in the Visitor Center parking lot. To finish the presentation, we will drive to the South Shore to experience the bird-shaped earthwork located there.

About the Facilitator

Rob Nurre is the Preservation of Sites Committee Chair and past President of the Wisconsin Archeological Society. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of Little Eagle Arts Foundation (LEAF) which, among many other projects, provides native arts and culture programming at Devil’s Lake State Park. A quarter century ago, Rob coordinated and provided the introduction for the republication of the first book on Wisconsin's effigy earthworks, Increase A. Lapham's Antiquities of Wisconsin which was originally published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1855. He has been deeply involved with the care of the Man Mound National Historic Landmark east of Baraboo. Rob's work focuses on the respect for, and appropriate care of, effigy earthworks and related cultural monuments.  

This program is funded in part by a grant from Sauk County Economic Development, Arts and Culture Committee, a Committee of the Sauk County Board of Supervisors and the Wisconsin Arts Board.