Effigy Mounds National Monument

Friday - 27 September 2002: Spring Green, Wisconsin - One day, three states, one National Monument! We woke to sunny skies. DT ran and I ran out - to the grocer and the kennel to fetch my dawg. Everyone at the market was very friendly - maybe because it was the Rainbow Market - and my pooch was happy to see me, but seemed quite pleased with all the girls at the kennel fusing over him. (Snickers is always popular with strangers.) We didn't leave Minneapolis-St. Paul until nearly 11 a.m.., and headed east on Highway 50, The Hiawatha Trail, through picture-perfect little towns. The rural homes in Minnesota are so well-kept. Our goal was Route 61 - The Great River Drive, which runs south along the Mississippi River.

We started at Red Wing (yes, the shoes) and drove south. At Lake City (the Birthplace of Water Skiing), we had a lunch break at a great rest area right on the river - more like a park. Snickers loved it - lotsa lawn - and all that water! He took one little lap out of the Mississippi and decided bottled water is more to his liking! This part of the river is included in the 261-mile Mississippi National Wildlife Preserve.

Mississippi Mutt

One of the larger towns along the river is Winona, Minnesota. Winona is the Sioux word for "first born daughter". As we drove through Winona, my Winona called to tell me 500 IMF protesters had been arrested in DC - basically all of the protesters - and the City was going to hold them through the weekend and it was now safe for her to leave her apartment. It is rainy very hard in DC this morning and Lisa felt the weather played a big part in the poor protester turn-out.

We crossed into Iowa. In this area we had the strangest feeling - the river is so wide here and there are dairy cows and that "dairy cow smell", and it reminded us so much of the Oregon Coast. Nearly every farmhouse had acres - and I mean acres - of green lawn - neatly mowed. Near Harper's Ferry, the nice houses and farms turned into tacky single-wides along the river - on stilts! (Now, that's attractive!) Where there were no dumpy shore-side trailers, we drove through deciduous forests. The trees have started to turn and it was a very pretty drive.

We were headed to Effigy Mounds National Monument. About 3,000 years ago, until about 750 years ago, American Indians created burial sites on this bluff above the Mississippi, near where the Wisconsin River enters the Mississippi River. Many of the mounds are in the shapes of birds, turtles, bison, and most commonly, bears. The mounds were created to be seen from above - what/who was meant to see them? No one, even the Natives, now know. There are 195 known prehistoric mounds it Effigy Mound National  Monument. The government, with help from local tribes, have excavated 14 mounds and found burial evidence. We hiked around the trails for over an hour - DOGS ARE ALLOWED! The forest was beautiful - alive with squirrels, woodpeckers and other birds. Snickers was on full hunt-mode - from the end of his regulation-6-foot leash.

Effigy Mounds National Monument:  Snickers with me at Fire Overlook


DT and Snickers on the trail – note the burial mounds on the right side of the photo

After our visit, we continued east into Wisconsin and followed the north shore of the Wisconsin River until it was getting dark. We stopped in Spring Green at a very poorly rated campground. The Valley RV Park was so poorly rated, we had decided to not even stop, but as we drove past - it didn't look bad at all. We pulled in. DT filled-up with diesel while I checked-in at Mr. & Mrs. T's Liquor, Cheese & Bait & RV Park. I am not kidding. Candles are lit, a lovely dinner waits.

RV Park: Valley RV Park in Spring Green, Wisconsin