The Archaeological Guide to Iowa

William E. Whittaker, Lynn M. Alex, Mary De La Garza

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781609383374
• eBook ISBN: 9781609383381
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

Iowa has the reputation of being one big corn field, so you may be surprised to learn it boasts a rich crop of recorded archaeological sites as well—approximately 27,000 at last count. Some are spectacular, such as the one hundred mounds at Sny Magill in Effigy Mounds National Monument, while others consist of old abandoned farmsteads or small scatters of prehistoric flakes and heated rocks. Untold numbers are completely gone or badly disturbed—destroyed by plowing, erosion, or development.

Fortunately, there are many sites open to the public where the remnants of the past are visible, either in their original location or in nearby museum exhibits. Few things are more inspiring than walking among the Malchow Mounds, packed so tightly it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Strolling around downtown Des Moines is a lot more interesting when you are aware of the mounds, Indian villages, and the fort that once stood there. And, although you can't visit the Wanampito site, you can see the splendid seventeenth-century artifacts excavated from it at Heery Woods State Park.

For people who want to experience Iowa's archaeological heritage first hand, this one-of-a-kind guidebook shows the way to sixty-eight important sites. Many are open to visitors or can be seen from a public location; others, on private land or no longer visible on the landscape, live on through artifact displays. The guide also includes a few important sites that are not open to visitors because these places have unique stories to tell. Sites of every type, from every time period, and in every corner of the state are featured. Whether you have a few hours to indulge your curiosity or are planning a road trip across the state, this guide will take you to places where Iowa's deep history comes to life.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Gitchie Manitou — Indian Mounds or Rebuilt Mounds? (Woodland or Late Prehistoric)
• 2. Blood Run/Rock Island: A National Historic Landmark without Equal (Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric)
• 3. Kimball Village (Late Prehistoric)
• 4. The Cowan Site and the Origins of the Middle Missouri Tradition (Late Prehistoric)
• 5. Sergeant Floyd’s Grave — America’s First National Monument (Historic)
• 6. Double Ditch: Uncovering a 12th-Century Iowa Community with 21st-Century Technology (Late Prehistoric)
• 7. The Litka Ridged Field Site: One of a Kind in Iowa (Late Prehistoric)
• 8. Wittrock Indian Village: Quintessential Mill Creek (Late Prehistoric)
• 9. Ancient Bison Hunting at the Cherokee Sewer Site (Archaic)
• 10. Dixon: Bison! (Late Prehistoric)
• 11. Turin: Poodle Skirts and Life Magazine (Archaic)
• 12. The Earthlodge Beneath Your Feet: Davis-Oriole (Late Prehistoric)
• 13. Glenwood Archaeological State Preserve (Late Prehistoric)
• 14. Old Pacific City Cemetery (Kuhl Site): Equal Treatment in Death (Historic)
• 15. The Hitchcock House — A Stop on the Underground Railroad (Historic)
• 16. Five Island Lake: What Lies Beneath? (Paleoindian–Historic)
• 17. Fort Dodge Military Post — Not a Trace (Historic)
• 18. Mounds, Gravestones, and Murders: Vegors Cemetery (Woodland and Historic)
• 19. Boone Mound: Early Public Archaeology in Iowa (Woodland)
• 20. A Very Late Historical Bone Bed: The Iowa State Veterinary Carcass Pit (Historic)
• 21. West Des Moines Burial Site (Late Prehistoric)
• 22. Terrace Hill: Garden of the Governors (Historic)
• 23. Urban Archaeology in Downtown Des Moines (Archaic–Historic)
• 24. The Palace Site: Did People Live in Basin Houses 7,000 Years Ago? (Archaic)
• 25. Woodland Mounds Preserve: “ Irreplaceable Vestiges of the Past” (Woodland)
• 26. Buxton: Faces of the Past (Historic)
• 27. Iowaville: Village of the Ioway (Protohistoric and Historic)
• 28. Bonaparte Pottery: Industrial Archaeology in Iowa (Historic)
• 29. The Not-So-Empty North (Archaic–Late Prehistoric)
• 30. Enigmatic Alignments at the Folkert Mound Group (Woodland)
• 31. Wanampito: A Possible Ioway Site from the 1600s (Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric)
• 32. Black Medicine Site, Hartman Reserve Nature Center: Conservation for the Sake of the Past (Woodland)
• 33. Was There a Walled Prehistoric Village along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail? (Late Prehistoric)
• 34. Wickiup Hill: Public Understanding and Preservation (Archaic–Historic)
• 35. Patterson Trading Post (Historic)
• 36. Easy Fishing on the Iowa River (Late Prehistoric or Historic)
• 37. Excavating the Excavations at Ginger Stairs (Archaic and Woodland)
• 38. Woodpecker Cave (Archaic–Historic)
• 39. Edgewater Park Site (Archaic)
• 40. Plum Grove — Where the Rich Left the Least (Historic)
• 41. Jack Musgrove, Dee Norton, and Hickory Hill Park (Woodland)
• 42. Jesse Hoover — Blacksmith and First Father (Historic)
• 43. Enclosures Along the Upper Iowa (Late Prehistoric)
• 44. Fish Farm Mounds (Woodland)
• 45. Nine Hundred Mounds Gone: The Great Harpers Ferry Mound Group Disappears (Woodland)
• 46. Paint Rock and the Lost Monolith (Protohistoric and Historic)
• 47. The Beauty of Effigy Mounds (Archaic–Late Prehistoric)
• 48. Pike’s Peak — Mounds and the Unconstructed Fort (Woodland)
• 49. Sny Magill — A Glimpse of What May Have Been (Archaic and Woodland)
• 50. Dragoon Life at Fort Atkinson (Historic)
• 51. The Hewitt-Olmstead Trading Post (Historic)
• 52. The Elgin Brewery (Historic)
• 53. The Ruins of Motor Town (Historic)
• 54. Death and the Turkey River Mound Group (Archaic and Woodland)
• 55. Four Mounds Survive the Odds (Woodland)
• 56. Mines of Spain (Archaic–Historic)
• 57. Oneida Cheese Factory at Bowen’s Prairie (Historic)
• 58. Hadfields Cave: Refuge inside the Cliffs (Woodland)
• 59. Jackson County Rockshelters: Mouse Hollow and Levsen (Archaic–Historic)
• 60. Hurstville Lime Kilns (Historic)
• 61. Antoine LeClaire House (Historic)
• 62. Weed Park Mounds: “Forever Undisturbed” (Woodland)
• 63. Ancient Village Life at McNeal Fan (Archaic and Woodland)
• 64. McKinney Site: Does “X” Mark the Site? (Late Prehistoric–Protohistoric)
• 65. Toolesboro Mounds National Historic Landmark (Woodland)
• 66. Mounds and More Mounds at Malchow (Woodland)
• 67. Is There an Adena or Hopewell Ring Enclosure at the Poisel Mounds? (Woodland)
• 68. Fort Madison — Under Siege Again (Historic)
• Index