The Toolesboro Mound Group, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

, is a group of

Havana Hopewell culture The Havana Hopewell culture were a Hopewellian people who lived in the Illinois River and Mississippi River valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Hopewell Interaction Sphere The Hopewell Exchange system began in the Ohi ...

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour * Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), m ...

on the north bank of the

Iowa River The Iowa River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the state of Iowa in the United States. It is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 and is ...

near its discharge into the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. The mounds are owned and displayed to the public by the

State Historical Society of Iowa The State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI), a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, serves as the official historical repository for the State of Iowa and also provides grants, public education, and outreach about Iowa history ...

. The mound group is located east of

Wapello, Iowa Wapello is a city in and the county seat of Louisa County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,084 at the time of the 2020 census. Wapello is part of the Muscatine Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Wapello was platted in the late ...

, near the unincorporated community of Toolesboro.

Building the mounds

The mouth of the Iowa River was a superb location for people skilled in

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

and the gathering of food. Wild plants living in the rich alluvial soil of the two rivers could be supplemented with

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

, and

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...

. The Hopewell culture was a Native American celebration of the economic surplus, in food and other goods, created by harvesting the natural wealth of the American Midwest. Native Americans, in the Hopewell period, buried their dead in earthen

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

s, accompanied by

grave good Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...

s that displayed their

status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** City status ** Legal status, in law ** Political status, in international law ** Small entity status, in patent law ** Status conference ...

and possibly their religious and social leadership. Grave goods discovered in Hopewell mounds include

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

from

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

sea shell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washe ...

s from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

from the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

, and

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

from the region of what is now

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

. It is believed that the Hopewell Interaction Sphere had extensive trading relationships that enabled them to transfer large quantities of high-status goods across wide sections of the North American continent. The Hopewell of the Toolesboro area would have been able to export blades cut from local

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

. Local freshwater

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s were another highly prized item, exported and distributed over a wide area. The surviving mounds of the Toolesboro Mound Group were built by the

sometime between 200 BCE and 100 CE. The status of the people buried in the mounds indicates that the mounds were raised by people working within an organized community with an established social hierarchy. It is believed that there is likely to have been a Hopewell village located nearby, but as of December 2006 the location of this village had not yet been identified.

Archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...

s conjecture that the Iowa River, shifting its course frequently during the following two millennia and spreading alluvial silt over its path, may have flooded or buried the site.

After the Hopewell

Since the original construction, other groups of people have been associated with the site. Close by is an earth work referred to as "the old fort" that was considered to be a part of the Toolesboro Hopewellian mound group. It is considered possible that this was actually constructed about a thousand years later by a different Native American group, the

Oneota Oneota is a designation archaeologists use to refer to a cultural complex that existed in the eastern plains and Great Lakes area of what is now occupied by the United States from around AD 900 to around 1650 or 1700. Based on classification de ...

. To support this, there are two other sites in close vicinity, McKinney and Poison Ivy, that are both Oneota sites.Iowahistory.org
teacher's guide.

Preserving the mounds

Americans exploring the Mississippi valley found a wide variety of Hopewell mounds up and down the river bluffs. Almost all of them were destroyed, either by careless excavation,

grave robbery Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave, tomb or crypt to steal commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property. A related act is body snatching, a term ...

, or by the agricultural

plow A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

. In the late 1800s, the Toolesboro Mound Group was inexpertly excavated by the ''Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences'', which recovered some artifacts. Early records describe as many as 12 mounds near Toolesboro. Subsequent settlement and excavation have reduced that number to seven. The family of George M. Mosier, a local land owner, donated a parcel of land containing the mound group to the

state of Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. In 1966, the Toolesboro Mound Group was listed as a National Historic Landmark, and in 1969 a small visitor center and parking lot were built near the site. The state has designated the Historical Society of Iowa as custodian of the site. Of the seven mounds, only two are visible on the grounds of the Educational Center. The remaining five are located in an adjacent woodlot, and are separated by a wire fence from the Educational Center. The Toolesboro Mound Group is a grave site of the Native Americans of the United States. The Historical Society welcomes visitors to the site, but requests that they not walk on or near the mounds themselves. The site's address is 6568 Toolesboro Road, Wapello, Iowa.Park Guides for the Louisa County Conservation Board
Louisa County Conservation Board. Accessed 2009-02-07.

References

External links

Toolesboro Indian Mounds - State Historical Society of Iowa
{{authority control Havana Hopewell culture Native American museums in Iowa Archaeological museums in Iowa Museums in Louisa County, Iowa National Historic Landmarks in Iowa Iowa state preserves Protected areas established in 1963 Protected areas of Louisa County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Louisa County, Iowa State Historical Society of Iowa Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 2nd-century BC establishments 1st-century disestablishments

Building the mounds

After the Hopewell

Preserving the mounds

See also

References

External links