A day of good choices – Effigies, Pikes Peak, and more turtles

Today’s stretch of the G R R will take me from La Crosse, Wisconsin to Dubuque, Iowa. This is a distance of 119 miles by direct route and, assuming no diversions, only a slightly longer 130 or so by the G R R. In meandering from Saint Paul to La Crosse yesterday, I had six Mississippi crossings. I expect no more than three today and perhaps as few as one.

I started on the Wisconsin side and crossed into Iowa at Wisconsin Route 82 to pick up the Iowa G R R on the river’s west bank. Though beginning on an overcast Saturday morning, the drive on Wisconsin side was one of the loveliest of the trip thus far. The road follows the bluffs that rise above you on your left with a similar landscape on the opposite side of the river to the right. For a time, the drive offers only occasional glimpses of the river but it is among the more scenic drives you can take except for those moments when a lock and dam or power plant comes jarringly into view. When this occurs, I suggest trying to visualize the pristine river of centuries past.

Where I crossed the river, the Iowa section runs at river level

for several miles before curving up and away from the river itself. This doesn’t lessen the natural beauty of the ride as the bluffs are very densely wooded. This marked the first of the day’s good choices. I think I found two of the more scenic sections of the G R R. Finding my first intended stop – the Effigy Mounds National Monument – which is maintained by the National Park Service was easy because the road is well marked.

I’m going to stop right now and state that my pictures don’t show great definition in differentiating the Mounds. Again, this is as much a limitation of my photographic “talent” as it is my camera. However, I will also add that at ground level, the specific shapes described can be a bit difficult to discern and the clearest definition of the shape of any specific mound or series of mounds is probably best viewed from above. With that said, a certain solemnity descends as you climb the 400 or 500 feet up the path from the Visitor’s Center to the park itself.

It’s immediately clear why the mounds preserved here are considered sacred by many Americans – especially by the Monument’s 12 affiliated American Indian tribes.

The people who left these mounds are presumed to have occupied the Upper Mississippi River between 1,400 and 750 years ago. The construction of effigy mounds was a regional cultural phenomenon that different generations of cultures followed. Mounds of earth in the shapes of birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, turtle, panther, or water spirit are the most common images.

Like earlier groups, the Effigy Moundbuilders continued to build conical mounds for burial purposes, but their burial sites lacked evidence of trade goods found in and around mounds of the preceding Middle Woodland Culture. The Effigy Moundbuilders also built linear or long rectangular mounds that are presumed to have been used for ceremonial purposes that remain a mystery. Some archeologists believe they were built to mark celestial events or seasonal observances. Others speculate they were constructed as territorial markers or as boundaries between groups.

The animal-shaped mounds remain the symbol of the Effigy Mounds Culture. Along the Mississippi River in northeast Iowa and across the river in southwest Wisconsin, two major animal mound shapes seem to prevail: the bear and the bird. Near Lakes Michigan and Winnebago, water spirit earthworks – historically called turtle and panther mounds—are more common.

I don’t know if I am by nature a more contemplative person than anyone reading this but I do know that I became quite immersed in thought as I wandered these grounds. (I should mention that I didn’t walk deep into the park where I might have had better views. Leaving the inn in the rain in Saint Paul, I slipped on the boardwalk leading from the boat marking only my second fall of the journey. The first happened in the Badlands but I neglected to mention this. Those who traveled with me on the train journey in 2013 know that I am imbued with neither grace nor balance. The second fall twisted my knee which was swollen and made walking a bit painful.)

In addition to the calming nature of the site, it affords some splendid

river views.

Note: In keeping with my 2022-2023 reformation of the blog into shorter entries, backdated to maintain their sequence, any comments on this post might pertain to its new configuration. See the full explanation in the post Conventions and Conversions.