Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-11-22
A PLEA FOR NATURAL ANTIQUITIES.


rec.in0 attention to what it is doing to
"secure the preservation and to make
known to Wisconsin people the educa-
tional value and significance OF the re'
markabie. but now rapidly disappearing
antiauities of our state. The curator
land secretary Of the society writes me
that s'for many years our ancient
mounds and monuments have been at
t1e mercy of vandals and curiosity seek.
ers and her priceless aboriginal treasures
in CLAW. stone and metal have been spir.
tied awav TO distant regions where they
are now inaccessible to Wisconsin peo-
nile. +" This society is awakening an in
terest in the historical and educational
Importance of Wisconsin antiquities. 1t
IA securing the preservation OF our
mounds: il is protecting them from van.
dalisn. It ia conducting surveys and
researches in all parts of the state. 1t
ia encouraging the establishment OF col
Elections of aboriginal implements in the
educational institutions of the state. !.
Now what can we common people OF
Vernon county do to help along this
work? We can preserve all the arrow
heads. spears, axes and copper imple'
ments we have and those we Fl ID in the
future. and not sell them to some for
eign Archaeological as was done years ago
along the Mississippi, when I. II Lewis
! of St Paul, bought many valuable arti.
Giles, We can aid in the preservation OF
the mounds Of our county. Thess
mounds, many times, are not on very
valuable land and might be saved II
! their owners only knew how valuable
thev are to science and how great is
their antiquity. have in mind group
of fine effigy or animal mounds situated
on a terrace at the base of bluff. per
hans a third of mile west OF Purdy,
on the road to De Soto. | hope the own
or of that land knows what viiUshle
collection of animals he has on lat Ter
race. On the west side along tie cage
of the terrace is a giant bird with wings
perhaps two hundred feet from tip to
tip. It's body was mostly dug away to
form the highway. East of toat mann
moth bird are twenty other eftlgy
, mounds mostly of four legged animals.
Several of them have been destroyed by
, work on the highway. Ibis IS one OF
, the finest groups of mounds to be FOUND
in our county. They extend half way
, up the bluff They were plated and
! surveyed some twenty years ago by L:
81. Lewis. These mounds are covered
by growth of small trees They occu'
by perhaps an acre or two Of land, This
small tract of land ought to be fenced
and kept for park. 1t is used now Tor
a picnic ground. The owner ought to
sell 1t for a reasonable price { some as
ISOLATION who would care FOR 1t, ard
make a park of it, We have 40 9TH
er monuments in the county, not the
work of man, but rather the proof that
. kkfr in tho dpffffcGc
and that no glaciers and icebergs ever
Aoated over Vernon county, Il refer to
Monument Rock and the Three Chin.
neys If the owners of these two pic
turesque monuments would enclose, say
half an acre of ground around them and
deed it to the towns to care for for all
time, people Thousand years hence
would be more certain to look upon
these monuments This Is greedy age;
Monument Rock might easily sell for d
hundred dollars century hence for
building rock, and it would go.
Another thought Scattered over
this county are good many relics of
pioneer life which are, like old man
Sweeney wife, slowly evsporating
away" They might be saved for future
generations to lock upon If there was
any place to put them. Thus Senator
Munson would no doubt contribute a
sect IN of the liberty pole" which gave
name to the hamlet five miles south of
us. Marcus G. Bergh, one of the most
efficient bank commissioners in the un-
lon, told me he thought he could obtain
the stone hand mill used by that hardy
band of Norsemen, his ancestors, who
settled on Coon Prairie nearly sir y years
ago provided we have safe place to
deposit such relics at the county seat.
/ will loan the limb that GrandEtaff died
upon, the ear of Chas Pitts of the
Younger gang. who died at North6eld
brick from Zske Tainter's chimney q
brick from the hospital at Ft. Crawford
section of log from Moses Decker's cab.
In, and numerous other relics It. W,
Alexander will do his part, and like G.
A. Tenney probably loan valuable rel
les of the Black Hawk war
Now where can such relics be safely
stored2 Have we in the basement at
the court house, or in some of the small
Ter rooms, space where show cases could
be placed against the walls in which
collections could be exhibited, properly
labeIed2 | believe we have space there
and believe the county board would
give 1t If asked to do SO Viroqua has
at last beautiful library building and
it occurs to me that every old resident
of the place who has written book,
ought to be invited to present 10 the H.
brary copy of every book he has writ
ten, with his autograph on the title
page. Then the library might be make
rich in Wisconsinisna. If may use that
word can do but little IN that direct.
ion, but could furnish a complete set
of the Farmers Institute Bulletins and
may sometime furnish the complete six.
teen volumes of the State Historical col
lections A young lady wrote me from
Lawrence university asking for informa-
ton. and stating that a student friend
was preparing thesis the central
thought Of which was that in the his
tory of Wisconsin the writer of fiction
will find as much and better material
than Cable found in the south to weave
J into his stories of life in Louisiana. That
college girl las struck rich theme /
hope = hat sac will find time to work it
ont She can delve into the sixty-three
volumes of the Jesuit Relations trans
lated and edited by Secretary Twaites
of orr Historical Library; she can study
the histories of Green Bay, Portage,
Butte des Mort and Prairie du Chen for
two centuries past she can read ''Wau-
bun, written by Mrs. Kinzie at Por-
tage in the thirties; Legler's Story of
our State Smiths History Of Wiscon-
sin" Strong's History; the sixteen vol
umes of our state historical collections