USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 15
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THE FINNY KIND
Although there is a manifest diminution in the quantities of fish caught in the waters of Sauk County, it is also evident that all the varieties originally found are still represented. In one of his papers dealing with this feature of the subjeet W. H. Canfield lists the follow- ing as "native fish": Pereh, beam, bass, piekerel, trout, silver eel, shovel-billed sturgeon, lamprey, yellow perch, striped bass, eove bass, darter, lake sheepshead, eel pout, shiner, dace, white sucker, black sucker, red horse, horned pout, river whitefish and gar pike. It is a seientific faet that running waters are self-purifying; it is also known that those which are invaded by man, and receive the varied refuse of his kind, deteriorate as breeders of fish. It has been suggested therefore that it is more the continuous disturbance of the waters than any marked dif- ferenee in their purity whiel interferes with nature in her dealing with the finny tribe. On the other hand, with the planting of settlements along the streams much new food material reaches their waters. With the increase in the activities of the State Fish Commission, also, it is believed that the balance of fish life will be maintained and even increased over the abundance of the primitive times.
REPTILES BEING STAMPED AND DRIVEN OUT
The reptilian phase of animal life played a very disagreeable part in the early period of the county's history. Every man's hand is still against the pests, and every foot is instinctively raised to bruise and crush the head of every reptile which ventures into the open. The yellow rattlesnake, the massauger, the bull and the blow snakes were common when the country was new. The hills of the Baraboo Ranges, and especially the eliffs around Devil's Lake, were so infested with them
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that huntsmen and travellers in those districts never started on a trip without being well supplied with whiskey and other antidotes for the poisonous bite. The black rattlesnake was uncommon. The milk and the blue racer snakes were quite rare, but the green grass snakes and the water snakes were everywhere. Fortunately, there is a distinct dwindling of the venomous varieties, albeit the dread sound of the "rattle" is still sometimes heard by the frequenter of the rocks, gorges and cliffs around Devil's Lake. But the snake is lazy and a coward; loud noises are said to be especially distasteful to him; he does not like to be disturbed while lying in the sun on a hot rock; he enjoys having a long sun-bath and then cooling off in some shadowy gorge at his leisure. Few of these conditions are now ideal for his snakeship, and he is seeking other habitat than the rocks and dens of Sauk County.
We gauge the rise and fall of the fish-stock, because we value it as a desirable food asset; we note the status of the snake tribe, with joy in 2 / its decline and of fond hope for its complete extermination. 3 .
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TYPES OF MOUNDS FOUND IN SAUK COUNTY
The bird at the top is located on the Kirkland shore of Devil's Lake; the long lizard like mound to the right is near the center of section 5 in the town of Green- field, is 656 feet long, the longest mound in the county; the mound between the bird and lizard is found near the line between sections 24 and 25 in the town of Delton; the three bear mounds near the top (black) are near the H. C. Langdon home in Greenfield; the three to the left of the three bears are in a group on the bank of Draper Creek near the William Donald home between Baraboo and Devil's Lake; the deer mound (part of which has been destroyed) is at the home of Mrs. J. G. Train, 727 Eighth street; the three birds are, in section 23 in Delton; the panther mound between the birds and deer is on the north shore of Devil's Lake; the mound shaped like a short handled paddle is located in section 32, Fairfield; and the rectan- gular mound with the other dark ones at the bottom are in the Stage Road group, sections 25 and 36, Delton.
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CHAPTER VI
TRACES OF THE NATIVE RACES
SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIAN TOTEMS-ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF EASTERN SAUK COUNTY-EARLY SURFACE SURVEYS-WORK OF THE SAUK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY-LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY-THE TERMINAL MORAINE-ALTITUDES OF VARIOUS LOCALITIES-DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EARTH WORKS-FIELD OF THE SAUK COUNTY SURVEY -SUMMARY OF RESULTS-DELTON-YELLOW THUNDER'S FORTY- FAIRFIELD-HUMAN REMAINS-GREENFIELD-HUGE MAN EFFIGY- PRESERVATION OF THE MAN MOUND-MAN MOUND DESCRIBED BY DR. I. A. LAPHAM AND DR. STEPHEN D. PEET-MESSRS. STOUT AND COLE START PRESERVATION MOVEMENT-SUBSCRIPTION COMMITTEES Ar- POINTED SUPPORT OBTAINED OF WISCONSIN FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS-SITE OF MAN MOUND PARK PURCHASED JOINT MAN MOUND COMMITTEE IN CHARGE-COVENANT SEALED BY WAMPUM BELT-THE DISCOVERY-WORK OF THE WOMEN'S CLUBS-PRESENTATION OF TABLET-SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT A DAKOTAN GOD-NO COUNTERPART IN THE WORLD-THE MEMORIAL TABLET UNVEILED THE ACCEPTANCE -OTHER GREENFIELD RELICS-OLD PROVISION CACHES-BARABOO-A PERFECT POTTERY VESSEL-FLINT CHIPPERS AND INDIAN VILLAGE SITE-BIRD EFFIGY AT KIRKLAND-MERRIMACK-SUMPTER-PRAIRIE DU SAC-FEW TRACES OF OLD SAUK (INDIAN) CITY-REMARKABLE BIRD EFFIGY-THE WESTERN HALF OF SAUK COUNTY-PRIMITIVE. HIGHWAYS OF TRAVEL-THE WISCONSIN RIVER TRAILSAUK PRAIRIE TO BARABOO RAPIDS-BARABOO VALLEY TRAILS NORTH AND SOUTH FROM THE BARABOO-THE DELLS AND PORTAGE ROUTE-WERE THEY TRAVELED BY THE MOUND BUILDERS?
The prehistoric peoples, who may have been the forebears of the Red Man of North America, like the Indian of historic times, evidently had an eye for beauty, as well as forethought in the ways and means of sus- taining life; for both selected as their favorite abiding places, their hunt- ing and their fishing grounds, their villages and the homes of their dead, broad and invigorating rivers flowing through forests which teemed with wild game and rendered inexhaustible supplies of fish ; and pretty inland lakes sparkling in the open sunshine or somberly buried in the rough em- brace of beetling cliffs. None of the noble waterways of the United
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States are so abundant and impressive with the proofs of that obvious truth as the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. Sauk County is the central jewel of that superb chain, and the eastern part of the county which is stamped with all the varied features ranging from soft-curving beauty to ragged grandeur, bears many and wonderful proofs that the primitive peoples of recorded and unrecorded ages have made their homes and graves on the shores of its rivers and lakes.
SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIAN TOTEMS
The conditions would seem to be reciprocal for the creation of those sentiments instinctive to all mankind, and therefore founded on universal truth, which recognize powers beyond the flesh and outside the compass of the physical senses; which not only recognize the super-natural but endeavor to express infinite ways, and by comparison with worldly objects, some measure of that instinctive recognition of those mysterious influences above, beyond and everywhere just outside the powers of the human grasp.
In various degrees of intricacy and yet distinctiveness, the tribes of North American Indians have endcavored to leave memorials upon the earth expressive of their conceptions of the powers beyond themselves and yet intimately influencing themselves, their kindred, their clans and tribes. Those who have made a scholarly study of this phase of the primitive life of the red race, such as Emma H. Blair, in her "Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley," conclude that such representa- tives of the Indian race as the Iroquois and the Pueblos, which were out- side the territorial scope of that work, were further advanced socially and politically than those of the Mississippi Valley, which include the great families of the Algonquins and the Dakotas-they, in turn, embracing, respectively, the Foxes and Sauks and the Winnebagoes, of Sauk County. The former belonged to the division of the Algonquins which included the Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Menominees, Miamis and Shawnees, and, within historic times, at least, seemed to have advanced to a higher plane of living and supernatural beliefs than the Dakotas.
The French travelers and missionaries came in contact with the Sauks and Foxes at an earlier day than with the Dakotas, and from the first gave them a higher character than the Winnebagoes. The former always acknowledged that they were once Chippewas and, like their more northern kindred, they seem to be possessed of rather a fiery and open temperament, somewhat romantie and eloquent, and far less pre- disposed to the slothful and vicious habits which from the time of the early Jesuit fathers to modern times gave the Winnebagoes an unenviable notoriety. There were not a few noteworthy exceptions to such racial traits among their leaders, our own Yellow Thunder being among the most prominent.
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The Sauks, or "people of the yellow earth," were identified with the central group of Algonquins, and were noted, even as late as the first quarter of the eighteenth century for their proneness to symbolize their belief in the influence of guardian spirits upon their lives. They had their good spirits and their demons, who came to them and talked to them; and some of the wisest of the old Greek philosophers believed as much. Such American observers as Maj. Morrell Marston and Thomas Forsyth, military commander and Indian agent respectively, in the "20s of the nineteenth century, found them divided into a dozen or fourteen tribes, and expressing their belief in spirits of such varied dispositions as were symbolized by the bear, the wolf, the dog, the elk, the eagle, the partridge, the sturgeon, the sucker, the panther, the swan and thunder. Different clans or tribes adopted various deities, or spirits, as their own, and were known as Bear people, Eagle people, Wolf people, etc. The Indians did not worship the objects themselves, as many incorrectly suppose; none believed that they were descended from bear, eagle or wolf, but simply adopted some predominating trait as the one which they would incorporate into their own natures, as the strength of the bear, the ferocity of the wolf, the swiftness of the eagle in the upper air.
This interrelation of totems and clans and individuals is so interest- ing and complex, and bears so directly on the significance of the effigies among the earthworks of the prehistoric mounds, that several extracts are reproduced from "The Handbook of American Indians."
In that work, J. N. B. Hewitt says: "An American Indian clan, or gens, is an intertribal exogamic group of persons, either actually or theoretically consanguine, organized to promote their social and political welfare, the members being usually denoted by a common class name derived generally from some fact relating to the habitat of the group. or to its usual tutelary being. In the clan lineal descent, inheritance of personal and common property, and the hereditary right to public office and trust are traced through the female line, while in the gens they devolve through the male line. Clan and gentile organizations are by means universal among the North American tribes; and totemism, the possession, or even the worship of personal or communal totems by indi- viduals or groups of persons, is not an essential feature of clan and gentile organizations. Clans and gentes are generally organized into phratries, and phratries into tribes. Usually only two phratries are found in the modern organization of the tribes. One or more clans may com- pose a phratry. The clans of the phratries are regarded as brothers one to another, and cousins to the other members of the phratry, and are so addressed. The phratry is the unit of organization of the people for ceremonial and other assemblages and festivals, but as a phratry it has no officers; the chiefs and elders of the clans composing it serve as its directors. The government of a clan or gens seems to be developed from Vol. 1 -- 0
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that of the family group and, in turn, gives rise to the tribal government, and a confederation is governed on the same principle."
Alice C. Fletcher : "Totem is a corruption by travelers and traders of the Chippewa 'nind otem,' or 'kitotem,' meaning 'my own family,' 'thy own family-' thence, by extension, 'tribe, or 'race.' The totem represented an emblem that was sacred in character and referred to one of the elements, a heavenly body, or some natural form. If an element, the device was symbolic ; if an object, it might be represented realistically, or by its known sign or symbol. An animal represented by the totem was always generic; if a bear or an eagle, no particular bear or eagle was meant. The clan frequently took its name from the totem and its members might be spoken of as Bear people, Eagle people, etc. Variants of the word totem were used by tribes speaking languages belonging to the Algonquin stock, but to all other tribes the word was foreign and unknown. The use of this term is too often indiscriminate and incorrect, which has obscured its real meaning. As the emblem of a family or clan it had two aspects (1) The religions, which concerned man's relations to the forces about him and involved the origin of the emblem, as well as the methods by which it was secured; and (2) the social, which per- tained to man's relation to his fellowmen and the means by which an emblem became the hereditary mark of a family, a elan or society. There were three classes of totems: The individual, the society and the elan totem. Research indicates that the individual totem was the funda- mental. This personal totem was most often selected from the objects seen in dreams or visions, since there was a general belief that such an object became the medium of supernatural help in time of need, and for this purpose would furnish a man, in his dreams, with a song or a peculiar call by which to summon it to his help. The religious societies were generally independent of the elan organization; but sometimes they were in close connection with the clan and the membership under its control. The influence of the totem idea was most developed in the clan, where the emblem of the founder of a kinship group became the heredi- tary mark of the composite elan, with its fixed obligatory duties on all members. The idea of supernatural power was attached to the elan totem. This power, however, was not shown as in the personal totem by according help to individuals, but was manifested in the punishment of forgetfulness of kinship. While homage was ceremonially rendered to the special power represented by the totem of the clan or of the society, the totem itself was not an object of worship. Nor was the object symbolized considered as the actual ancestor of the people; the members of the Bear elan did not believe that they were descended from a bear, nor were they always prohibited from hunting the animal, although they might be forbidden to eat of its flesh, or to touch certain parts of its body. The unification and strength of the elan and tribal structure de- pended largely on the restraining fear of supernatural punishment by
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the totemie powers, a fear fostered by the vital belief in the potency of the personal totem."
With these explanations of the significance of the Indian totems, represented by the effigy mounds of prehistorie times, greater interest should attach to a literary examination of archaeological relies in what- ever part of the United States they are found.
ARCHAELOGICAL SURVEY. OF EASTERN SAUK COUNTY
The most complete survey of this portion of the county, which em- braces all that is most valuable within its area, from the standpoint of the archeologist, was made under the general supervision of A. B. Stout, of Baraboo, vice president of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, in 1906. The results of his investigations were published in "The Wisconsin Archaeologist and Transactions of the Wisconsin Archaelogical Society." From that publication is extracted most of the salient points which appear in this chapter, the additions made by the author of this work being mainly confined to the light task of bringing the subject historie- ally up to the present.
EARLY SURFACE SURVEYS
In his "summary of the archaeology of Eastern Sauk county," Mr. Stout says, first, under the sub-head of "early surface surveys": "Sev- eral important groups of mounds located within the area herein con- sidered, have, in the past, been carefully surveyed and platted by Mr. Wm. H. Canfield, of Baraboo, who settled in Sauk county in 1842. Throughout his long residence in this locality, Mr. Canfield has taken a deep interest in local history and archaeology. His duties as a civil engineer gave him a wide acquaintance in the county and afforded au opportunity for a considerable knowledge of its antiquities. He has contributed two works on local pioneer history entitled, 'Outline Sketches of Sauk County,' and 'Historical Sketch of Baraboo and Greenfield,' both of which contain important information concerning local archae- ology. He has also furnished valuable surveys and descriptions for the 'Antiquities of Wisconsin,' published in 1855, and for various other publications, and in this way has done much to acquaint the outside world with the archaeological features of Sauk county.
"In 1850 Dr. I. A. Lapham conducted certain surveys in the southern part of the county, and plats and descriptions of several groups of mounds made at that time are accessible to the student in the before mentioned work. Some which he did not describe are indicated on his map. Dr. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the distinguished archaeologist, visited various mounds about Baraboo in 1883, and Rev. Stephen D. Peet, editor of the ' American Antiquarian,' also visited and collected archaeological data in the county.
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"The fields, village sites and mounds of Sauk county have in the past yielded thousands of valuable and interesting aboriginal implements in clay, stone and metal. Of these, several good collections are still owned by residents, but a great majority have been removed from its limits by persons, who for many years past, have invaded the county in the interest of private or public collections elsewhere. Thus, for years it has been known in a general way that Sauk county was rich in antiquities, yet no systematic effort has ever been made to secure an adequate record of the evidences of any given section until the writer began the present somewhat methodical survey. This work pursued out of a personal interest and as a means of recreation, has occupied his leisure time during the past two years.
WORK OF THE SAUK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"This organization was incorporated in 1905 as an auxiliary of the Wisconsin Historical Society. One of the principal features in its plan of work is the collection and maintenance of a public museum, and in which it desires to assemble, among other materials of educational value, a representative collection of the antiquities of the county. Already the effort in this direction has met with creditable success. It is now endeavoring to retain local aboriginal materials within the county, where they may forever be accessible to the public and students, and to check further losses through commercialism, from which Sauk County has suf- fered severely in the past.
"It also aims to co-operate with the State Archaeological Society for the encouragement and progress of local archaeological research, and the preservation of Wisconsin antiquities.
"Mr. H. E. Cole, President of the Society, is one of the editors of the 'Baraboo News.' Through his personal interest and through a series of articles published in his paper, he lias already done much to stimulate the latent interest, and instruct the residents of Sauk County in the educational and other values of its remarkable and interesting aboriginal landmarks and other remains.
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY
"The seven townships included in this report form a belt of terri- tory that stretches across a large bend of the Wisconsin River. This does not, however, include the extreme inner portion of the bend which is a part of Columbia County.
"Extending across this belt from west to east are two ranges of quartzite bluffs, one either side of the Baraboo River. These occupy a considerable area and stand out as conspicuous landmarks. The forees
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of erosion have made them irregular in outline with picturesque gorges and many precipitous rock faces. Between these ranges is the rather narrow troughshaped valley of the Baraboo.
"In the southwestern portion of the area under treatment are abrupt sandstone bluffs and sandy areas of considerable extent. The western and northern parts of Delton Township are also very sandy. Between these bluffs and the Wisconsin River, both north and south of the quartzite ranges, is a gently rolling strip of country.
THE TERMINAL MORAINE
"A well-defined terminal moraine crosses this area in a general north and south direction. It enters the county just south of the lower Dells of the Wisconsin River, passes west of the city of Baraboo, winds around to the east of Devil's Lake, and leaves the county a short distance north of Prairie du Sac. East of this moraine are found many typical features due to glaciation, among which are the several rapids at Baraboo, which are caused by the river flowing through recessional moraines.
"Devil's Lake is the only body of water of any size within the area, although there are several small glacial lakes, some of which are now extinct. The eastern part of Fairfield is part of a large marsh. Dell Creek with its sandstone gorge, a miniature of the Wisconsin River Dells, crosses Delton. Several smaller creeks rise in the bluffs and flow to the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers.
ALTITUDES OF VARIOUS LOCALITIES
"These streams are shown on the accompanying map, as are also the main contour lines, which are reproduced from the United States topographical survey maps of this section. The Wisconsin River at Merrimack is 748 feet above sea-level; Devil's Lake has an elevation of 968 feet; the railway depot at Baraboo is 862 feet, in altitude, and the highest point in the bluffs is a trifle over 1,600 feet. In some places the crest of the South Range is from 500 to 800 feet above the Baraboo River. The general topography, as shown on the map, will indicate better than words the relation of the local mounds, trails, and village sites to natural land features.
"The bluffs, with their slopes, are clothed with forest, covering several square miles, where may still be found a few deer, wolves, wild-cat and other wild animals, mere remnants of the abundant animal life of earlier days.
"The eastern line of the area passes within a few miles of the his- toric portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. The southern part
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of the county, therefore, lies in the central part of the natural highway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi."
DEALS CHIEFLY WITH EARTH WORKS
Mr. Stout states in his introduction that it was his original inten- tion to conduct an archaeological surface survey of the entire county, but the undertaking proved too great a tax on his time and means, and he therefore deemed it advisable to confine his researches and investiga- tions to the cream of the territory, eastern Sauk. His publication deals principally with the earthworks of that section, "leaving the treatment of the artifacts to some future worker." He adds: "Special aeknowl- edgment for interest and assistance is due H. E. Cole, W. H. Canfield, Roy Langdon, J. W. Carow, L. H. Palmer, Roy Palmer, H. J. Webster, William Toole and sons ( William and Eben), V. S. Pease and Joseph Johnson, all of Baraboo; E. C. Perkins and Robert Patterson, of Prairie du Sac. From Charles E. Browne, secretary of the Wisconsin Archae- ological Society, from V. S. Pease and from Mrs. H. E. Cole, the author received helpful suggestions and criticisms on the subject matter."
FIELD OF THE SAUK COUNTY SURVEY
The townships covered by the survey were Fairfield, Baraboo, Green- field, Merrimack, Sumpter and Prairie du Sac and all but the northern tiers of sections in the Town of Delton, in which there are no mounds.
It appears from a summary of the results of the entire survey that, in eastern Sauk County, there is a total of 734 mounds, whose existence is fully established. Of that number, fifteen are solitary, with no mounds nearer than 80 rods; thirty-seven groups contain from 2 to 5 mounds each ; eleven groups, from 6 to 10; ten groups, between 11 and 20 inclusive ; and three groups have between 20 and 30 mounds each. Beyond this number one group is composed of 36 mounds, two of 63 each, and one of 65. It is definitely known that 337 of these earthworks were constructed as tumuli, one as an enclosure, 183 as effigies and the rest as ridges (with the exception of a few mounds of unknown shape). Of the effigies whose shapes are definitely known, there are 43 birds, 47 bears and 12 mink, with other miscellaneous types. More than 300 of the total number of mounds are now leveled, and are only here recorded by virtue of pre- vious surveys, or other authentic data. A total of 198 mounds still re- main undisturbed, and others are in various stages of destruction (in 1906).
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