Upper Wakanda Park Mound Group

Visit the Upper Wakanda Park Mound Group to view three large oval mounds located on a ridge overlooking Lake Menomin, a widening of the Red Cedar River. Seventeen other mounds were located below this ridge, but were flooded when the construction of a dam in the 1950s elevated the water level of the lake.

Before their flooding, fourteen of the mounds were excavated and radiocarbon dated to sometime between A.D. 1000 and 1400. Burials and stone concentrations, or altars, were found in them. One of the burials was of an individual who had been cremated while wearing a clay face covering or mask. The custom of placing clay coverings or masks on the faces of the dead has been documented at two other mound sites in Wisconsin: the Cyrus Thomas Mound Group on Rice Lake and the Outlet Mound Group on Lake Monona.