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Samuels' Cave, also known as Brown's Cave, Pictured Cave, or Mystery Cave, is a 
The following summer the Rev. Edward Brown visited Samuels' cave. He traced the carvings and persuaded Frank's father to open the mouth of the cave and protect the interior. Brown reported the finding to the State Geologist and the State Historical Society, and they sent antiquarian archaeologist John Rice to direct the excavation of the floor. They uncovered four layers of ashes separated by layers of clean sand ten to fourteen inches thick. The second layer contained sherds of pottery made from clay and ground shells. The third layer contained more elaborate pottery, 
Some images on the walls were carved and some were painted. There were animals which Brown interpreted as bisons, lynx, rabbit, otter, badger, elk and heron. One panel showed a hunter and an elk. Another showed a hunter pointing a bow and arrow at a deer, with a child behind him. Another showed a human figure with a head-dress, which Brown interpreted as a chief. Other designs were indecipherable.
In 1984 archaeologists from the Mississippi Valley Archaeological Center at the
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Article about Bell Coulee Shelter and Samuels' Cave, National Speleological Society, Inc., March 2005
Landforms of La Crosse County, Wisconsin Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Rock shelters in the United States Native American history of Wisconsin Caves of Wisconsin Geography of La Crosse County, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in La Crosse County, Wisconsin
prehistoric
Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
, naturally formed rock shelter
A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...
located in La Crosse County, Wisconsin
La Crosse County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the county's population was 120,784. Its county seat is the city of La Crosse. La Crosse County is included in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropo ...
. The cave contains petroglyphs
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 ...
and pictographs
A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...
from the Native Americans
Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States.
Related terms and peoples include:
Ethnic groups
* Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...
who lived in the area. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1991.
The cave is a deep hole in the sandstone, discovered by 18-year-old Frank Samuel while trapping raccoons in 1878. He squeezed into a hole that an animal had dug in a bank and emerged into a dark cavity. On the walls, the young coon-hunter found simple images left by people before him. That winter some local boys built fires inside their secret cave and carved their own names on the walls.
The following summer the Rev. Edward Brown visited Samuels' cave. He traced the carvings and persuaded Frank's father to open the mouth of the cave and protect the interior. Brown reported the finding to the State Geologist and the State Historical Society, and they sent antiquarian archaeologist John Rice to direct the excavation of the floor. They uncovered four layers of ashes separated by layers of clean sand ten to fourteen inches thick. The second layer contained sherds of pottery made from clay and ground shells. The third layer contained more elaborate pottery, bivalve
Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...
shells, and a bone tool. Brown and Rice interpreted the layers as four occupations of the cave with long intervals of vacancy between. When the rock shelter was occupied, its mouth had been fifteen feet wide, but a landslide had sealed it until the animal burrowed through. Based on trees growing on the landslide, Brown and Rice estimated the landslide had occurred at least 150 years before. Modern archeologists recognize the shell-tempered pottery that Brown described as a hallmark of 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 the classificat ...
people, so at least some of the artwork was probably produced by them, which places it from 1300 to 1625 A.D.
Some images on the walls were carved and some were painted. There were animals which Brown interpreted as bisons, lynx, rabbit, otter, badger, elk and heron. One panel showed a hunter and an elk. Another showed a hunter pointing a bow and arrow at a deer, with a child behind him. Another showed a human figure with a head-dress, which Brown interpreted as a chief. Other designs were indecipherable.
In 1984 archaeologists from the Mississippi Valley Archaeological Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
visited Samuels' Cave and noticed a panel of charcoal drawings on the back wall which had not been recorded before. (Photos of some of these drawings are online at MVAC's Rock Art website, linked among the notes below.)
Many of the images in the cave were pretty intact when Frank Samuel found them in 1878, since they had been protected by the landslide for many years. But once the mouth of the cave was reopened, moisture and temperature changes resumed working away at the sandstone. Over the years many people visited the cave, some carving their own marks on the walls. After all this, many of the prehistoric images have been badly damaged, so the cave is no longer open to the public.
Notes
External links
*{{Commons category-inline , Samuels' CaveArticle about Bell Coulee Shelter and Samuels' Cave, National Speleological Society, Inc., March 2005
Landforms of La Crosse County, Wisconsin Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Rock shelters in the United States Native American history of Wisconsin Caves of Wisconsin Geography of La Crosse County, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in La Crosse County, Wisconsin