Effigy Mounds, Happy Anniversary, Winter Begins…

Well folks, you’re getting a twofer! I meant to post this back in early December but… yeah… things happen.

*looks skittishly at the date of last post and cringes…

I’ve been very busy- I finally have my new boss in place but it’s a whirlwind of activity. We started planning for this year and like all well laid plans they went out the window in March… more on that in the next post.

This post is a catch-up of the end of October through the beginning of December.

After my break and trip to Omaha last…*cringe* year, I went back to work refreshed and ready for the next thing.

Turns out my next thing would be going to Effigy Mounds for work related training. The training was great, but the hiking trails and the history were so much better!

Effigy Mounds National Monument is a place that inspires reflection and wonder. It was established in 1949 to protect prehistoric mounds left behind by Native Americans. Over time more land was added, and it now protects 191 known prehistoric Indian mounds, 31 of which are effigies of bear and birds.

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Effigy Mounds has had its ups and downs. When it was first added to the NPS, archaeology-based parks tended to have multiple digs that would degrade and destroy the sites in question. By the late 1950s Effigy started moving away from the digs and instituted a “nondestructive testing” methods only policy- by the 1970s it shifted even further to preservation and interpreting the mound builder story.

The 1980s and 1990s would bring about new changes, that would influence one of the biggest scandals at Effigy Mounds, namely the passage of The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A former superintendent fearing that the entire collection at Effigy Mounds would be repatriated, hide the remains of 41 people. The mismanagement of the remains was only discovered after another superintendent went rouge and ignored Section 106 (site vetting for archaeological impacts) for 78 maintenance projects. You can read more about both incidents here:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2191011/case-of-the-missing-bones

I had both incidents on my mind while wandering the grounds. I can’t help but feel disbelief and anger at how it happened. The boardwalks remain, one of which punched over one hundred holes into a series of mounds. It saddens me that we have such reverence for cemeteries but dismiss mounds.  

I walked with a sense of sad beauty. The positive is the new management staff and interpreters there are working towards rebuilding the connections with the tribe and are putting protections in place to prevent such actions from happening again. But only after something horrible happened…

That was my mindset while wandering around the grounds at Effigy Mounds.

Now, while it was somewhat maudlin, I did find a lot of wonderful places and I loved the trail system- especially the trail to Fire Point. I even wrote a haiku… I also found a few spots along the questionable boardwalk that I liked. I like that the boardwalk makes it far more accessible for more people, but I still think there could have been a compromise on how it was put in with respect for the mounds.

I wish I had more time to explore the area around Effigy Mounds- both in Wisconsin and eastern Iowa. There are some beautiful areas I would like to explore… I do plan on making a return trip.

I did get to stand on the banks of the Mississppi again which is always like coming home.

However, I had to pack it in and get back to my hubby for our first-year anniversary! We did not do anything fancy- I just got back from a weeklong work trip and he was working hard, suffice it to say we had a great anniversary.*

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*Side note, there are some things I just do not want to write about or put out there- I didn’t post anything on social media about it either.

November, for the most part was a bust- just work, trainings, and more work. However, we did go to my family in Missouri for Thanksgiving! Got hang out with my sister, brother-in-law, and the kiddos, plus mom and dad. We went to my aunt’s in Naylor…we were a little late…but considering Wade and I didn’t roll in until almost 4 in the morning it could have been worse. Since it was a whirlwind trip we didn’t do much sight seeing or hiking- although we did do some hiking around the old house and hauled out some furniture and other stuff worth saving before dad and some friends finished burning it down.

December started out nice- it was a little warmer than it had been in the past and I was hopeful I would get out and do some hikes. However, that was a pipe dream. Snow came, negative wind chill, and I became a hermit. I did get out a little bit, but I’ll talk about that in part 2 of the “catch-up postings.”

Keep wandering,

BJ