Cranberry Creek Archeological District, also known as Cranberry Creek Mound Group, is an ancient American Indian burial mound site from circa AD 100–800 near New Miner, Wisconsin, United States. It is three miles east of

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge Necedah National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located in northern Juneau County, Wisconsin near the village of Necedah. It was established in 1939 and is famous as the northern nesting site for reintroduction of an eastern Uni ...

in Juneau County. It is part of the "effigy mound culture" of native peoples in Wisconsin, who practiced the "respectful burial of their dead". Humans first inhabited Wisconsin about 12,000 years ago, and the use of burial mounds developed in between 500 BC to 1000 AD during what is referred to as the Woodland period. The burial mounds during the late Woodland period tended to be built as

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of birds, bears, and panthers, and examples of these can be found in the Cranberry Creek Archeological District. As with other burial mounds on state property, the mounds in this region are protected against unauthorized disturbance. Many of the best examples of mounds in this area are on the east side of Cranberry Creek. In addition to effigies, conical, linear, and oval mounds are found. Although archeological studies have been conducted here since 1917, and farming has damaged parts of the northern cluster, the cluster in the southern section is essentially unaltered by modern man. Cranberry Creek Archeological District encompasses one of the larger mound groups in Wisconsin with over 300 mounds, and possibly up to 500 mounds. Cranberry Creek Mound Group is owned by the

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin charged with conserving and managing Wisconsin's natural resources. The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has the authority to set policy ...

, and covers . The area is heavily forested, containing

river birch ''Betula nigra'', the black birch, river birch or water birch, is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas. It is one of the few heat-tol ...

silver maple ''Acer saccharinum'', commonly known as silver maple, creek maple, silverleaf maple, soft maple, large maple, water maple, swamp maple, or white maple, is a species of maple native to the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canad ...

red maple ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nativ ...

jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana'') is an eastern North American pine. Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and the north-central and ...

, and

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

. It is a State Natural Area since 1986. In addition to the Cranberry Creek Archeological District, Juneau County has two other related

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

: Gee's Slough Mound Group (ref: 78000108), which is also from the Woodland culture, and Lemonweir Glyphs (ref: 93001173).

See also

References

Further reading