Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs
Encyclopedia
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in Roche-a-Cri State Park
Roche-a-Cri State Park
Roche-a-Cri State Park is a state park north of Adams and Friendship in central Wisconsin. The park, in area, was established in 1949....
, near Friendship, Wisconsin
Friendship, Wisconsin
Friendship is a village in Adams County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 698 at the 2000 census.-Geology:The Friendship Mound sits just to the north of town. It is a castillated mound formed from the last glaciers to cover the area during the Ice Age. Another mound, Roche-A-Cri,...
. They consist of Oneota
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 the United States from around AD 900 to around 1650 or 1700. The culture is believed to have transitioned into various Macro-Siouan cultures of the...
rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
, mostly petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
s resembling bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s and geometric designs. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. The petroglyphs were vandalized by soldiers and area settlers between 1845 and the 1880s, notably Company D of the Wisconsin 1st Cavalry Sharpshooters in 1861.