The Lemonweir Glyphs (or

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s) are a set of carvings by early Native Americans near the

Lemonweir River The Lemonweir River is a river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is a tributary of the Wisconsin River as the Lemonweir River originates near Tomah in Monroe County and flows into Juneau County through New Lisbon and Mauston before converging ...

Juneau County, Wisconsin Juneau County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,718. Its county seat is Mauston. History Before white settlement, before loggers and explorers, the area that is now Juneau Count ...

. They were listed on the

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 v ...

in 1983. Some time before recorded history, people in Wisconsin's

Driftless Area The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. Never covered by ice during the last ...

climbed partway up a bluff above a river and carved marks on a sheltered spot in a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

wall. Some of the marks are indecipherable, but others depict animals: a fish, a deer or elk, a

thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds k ...

, a heron or crane, a buffalo, a lizard, and a deer or antelope. The largest animal is twelve inches tall. The deepest carvings are nearly a half inch deep and the shallowest are only faintly visible. Some of the images have been damaged by modern initial-cutters. Nearby, more marks are cut into a seven-foot sandstone boulder. The top and one side are cut with various arrangements of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines - all abstract, with no animals.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Juneau County, Wisconsin Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Juneau County, Wisconsin