Larry Hurley’s Photos of the Week: Native Americans Effigy Mounds
Over a thousand years ago, Native Americans built effigy mounds, and many of these are located in Wisconsin. These “Indian Mounds” as we called them when I was growing up here were large earthen mounds in the shapes of animals. Archaeology being outside of my skill set, I refer you to the internet for further information. One of these mounds, the Heim Mound, is on a residential-sized lot across the street from my home, tucked away on a hillside behind a couple of houses. We took a look at it in late summer several years ago, and at that time of the year it was a brushy area without much to see, and I put it out of my mind, which has its limitations.
On March 13 I was out in the yard, willing the earliest bulbs to bloom, and I saw folks in fire-fighting gear parking in front of my house and walking up the street. I used my old-guy charm to ask one of them what they were up to, and it turned out that they were students at the University of Wisconsin, enrolled in a controlled burn class, and they were going to burn the mound area. Burning is a normal maintenance practice for prairie plantings, but I wasn’t aware of burning of forested areas, and since the only thing between the burn and me was a house, a row of pine trees, and my street, I thought I’d check it out.
I spoke to the instructor and also someone from the Wisconsin Archeological Society about the burn. They have been burning for several (ten, I think) years to control invasive Euonymus japonicus, a creeping woody plant that vines and climbs trees, in a manner similar to English Ivy. He said that when they started, the Euonymus was 6 inches deep over the mound, but they had nearly eliminated it. If you look at the photo of the mound in the Wikipedia link, you can see the glossy leaves of the Euonymus covering the mound. They told me that several weeks after the burn I should return to view 30 species of native wildflowers.
Which we did on April 25. From the bare scorched ground had appeared a beautiful woodland scene: Virginia Bluebells, Trilliums, Trout Lilies, Wild Ginger, Bellwort, Hepatica, False Solomon’s Seal, Dutchman’s Breeches, Blue Cohosh, Ostrich Fern, Virginia Waterleaf, Wild Geranium, Jack-in-the Pulpit…all revealed now that the Euonymus had been suppressed. Beautiful sight on a beautiful spring afternoon.
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