The effigy-mound culture centers in Wisconsin, particularly in the southern half of the state and extends into contiguous southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and northern Illinois. The effigy mounds are constructed in the forms of animals such as bear, deer, panther, wolf, fox, buffalo and turtle; and also in the images of birds such as eagles, swallows and geese. Occasionally, they also represent the human form. Most of the animal effigies are represented in profile, but a few are depicted as though viewed from above.
The effigy mounds vary greatly in size, and they occur mainly in groups together with conical and linear mounds.
While the mounds of effigy forms supposedly are attributable to ceremonial or totemic ideas, they also contain burials, in approximately the same proportion as do the conical and linear mounds. These burials may be either normal interments of bodies in the flesh; bundle burials, representing the bundled bones of from one to thirty or more individuals; or charred skeletal remains. An interesting feature of the burials is that they usually occupy definite places with respect to the anatomy of the effigy- centrally within the head, midway between the shoulder and hips and in the position of the head.
In the southern counties of Minnesota there are numerous interesting groups of the effigy-mound culture. Wabasha County is one of the richest sections of the entire state in earthen remains. South of the La Crescent group on Pine Creek, there is a group of twenty-two mounds, of which four are effigy birds. What is known as the Lone Bird Effigy Mound is located near Richmond in Winona County.
Hurley, William, . An Analysis of Effigy Mound Complexes in Wisconsin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975.
Shetrone, Henry, The Mound-Builders, D Appelton and Company, New York, New York. 1930.
Rowe, Chandler. The Effigy Mound Culture of Wisconsin, Greenwood Press. Westport Connecticut. 1956.