Selected Mounds - Houston County, MN

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La Crescent Group, (southern part). This contains 10 mounds, of which three are effigies. The circular mounds are small and somewhat scattered. They are all situated on the two plateaux mentioned, one about 30 ft., and the other about 50 ft. above the river. The effigy which is on the lower terrace represents nothing so much as a cross, but it doubtless belongs to that class which is named bird effigies. Mr. Lewis, in Science, No. 6,1885, has designated another of these effigies a frog, and taken by itself it has the form of a frog more than that of any other animal, but it may rather be composed of two imperfect bird effigies, one directly in advance of the other and so near together that they are united in one mound. This idea is rather favored by the fact that a third effigy, like a bird with spread wings, is very close in the rear, and by a little enlargement, either of the frog or this third bird, the three would be brought into union. The spread of the wings, the size and length of the body and the direction of flight are almost identical in the trio. This part, and the northern part of this group, are numbered continuously from south to north.

Mounds near Pine creek, south of La Crescent, on S. E. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, sec. 15, T. 104-4, located on a spur from a plateau, about 50 ft. above the river. This group consists of two, an elongated mound and a bird effigy, with the remains of an animal effigy on plowed land. The form which is called a bird effigy is hardly susceptible of that designation, as its wings are more like short, small, elongated mounds, and the head and body could be considered together as one elongated mound, crossing that of the wings nearly at a right angle. The body, however, is wider than the head. Surveyed July 18, 1884.

Pine Creek group, south of La Crescent, S. E. 1/4, N. W. 1/4 and N. E. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, sec. 15, T. 104-4. On a plateau about 50 ft. above the flood plain of the Mississippi. This group of 22 mounds embraces four bird effigies, all of which, with straight, broad wings, appear more like simple Greek crosses, with :one arm too long and the opposite one too short. As they are all headed, however, in the same direction, they appear to be a small flock of birds, and can hardly be separated from numerous others which are more evidently intended to represent birds in flight. One of the tumuli is egg-shaped, and they are all small, the largest being 32 ft. in diameter. Surveyed July 18, 1884.