NPS Photo by Ken Block

Restored Prairie - North Unit

Effigy Mounds National Monument is located in extreme northeast Iowa. Presidential Proclamation 2860, October 25, 1949, established Effigy Mounds National Monument declaring that “... earthen mounds in northeastern part of the State of Iowa known as the Effigy Mounds are of great scientific interest because of the variety of their forms, which include animal effigy, bird effigy, conical, and linear types, illustrative of a significant phase of the mound-building culture of the prehistoric American Indians...”. Public Law 87-44, May 27, 1961, added land to the monument and mandated preservation of the mounds, wildlife, and other natural values.

The landscape of the monument reveals evidence of a continuum of mound-building cultures and their relationships to the environment over a span of at least 1,800 years. The monument’s varied landforms and habitats, characteristic of the non-glaciated “Driftless Area,” provide exceptional diversity of plant and animal species. These natural resources are important both for understanding past lifeways, which depended on them, and monitoring the health of present ecosystems.

Active resource management at Effigy Mounds National Monument began by addressing many issues which included mound erosion, old field management, archeological site stabilization, and the development of a unified approach to the management of natural and cultural resources. This represented a shift from the general management approach of protecting the resource to one of actively managing the resource to mitigate European cultural disturbance and interrupted environmental processes. The prehistoric moundbuilders and their environment were inextricably linked.

The culture of the effigy moundbuilders was sustained by a unique association of climate, geology, topography, flora, and fauna that shaped the lifestyles and belief systems of these people. The mound-building cultures are associated with the eastern hardwood forest that extends across the eastern third of the continent.

The monument represents an important link in a complex of protected areas that preserve many of the values characteristic of this region. Much of the nearby Mississippi River bank and island area is protected by the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish refuge, a 261-mile-long preserve that extends from Wabasha, Minnesota, to Rock Island, Illinois. Close by, and adjoining the Heritage Addition is the Yellow River State Forest, administered by the State of Iowa. Situated between the currently developed monument units and the Sny Magill unit is Pikes Peak State Park, which preserves several effigy mounds, as well as bluff tops much like those of the monument.