Toolesboro Mound Group
Encyclopedia
The Toolesboro Mound Group, a National Historic Landmark
, is a group of Havana Hopewell culture
earthworks on the north bank of the Iowa River
near its discharge into the Mississippi
. The mounds are owned and displayed to the public by the State Historical Society of Iowa
. The mound group is located east of Wapello, Iowa
, near the unincorporated community of Toolesboro
.
and the gathering of food. Wild plants living in the rich alluvial soil of the two rivers could be supplemented with fish
, shellfish
, and waterfowl
.
The Hopewell culture was a Native American celebration of the economic surplus, in food and other goods, created by harvesting the natural wealth of the American Midwest. Native Americans, in the Hopewell period, buried their dead in earthen mound
s, accompanied by grave goods that displayed their status
and possibly their religious and social leadership.
Grave goods discovered in Hopewell mounds include copper
from Lake Superior
, sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico
, mica
from the Appalachian Mountains
, and obsidian
from the region of what is now Yellowstone National Park
.
It is believed that the Hopewell Interaction Sphere had extensive trading relationships that enabled them to transfer large quantities of high-status goods across wide sections of the North American continent. The Hopewell of the Toolesboro area would have been able to export blades cut from local flint
. Local freshwater pearl
s were another highly prized item, exported and distributed over a wide area.
The surviving mounds of the Toolesboro Mound Group were built by the Havana Hopewell culture
sometime between 200 BCE and 100 CE. The status of the people buried in the mounds indicates that the mounds were raised by people working within an organized community with an established social hierarchy. It is believed that there is likely to have been a Hopewell village located nearby, but as of December 2006 the location of this village had not yet been identified. Archeologists conjecture that the Iowa River, shifting its course frequently duiring the following two millennia and spreading alluvial silt over its path, may have flooded or buried the site.
. To support this, there are two other sites in close vicinity, McKinney and Poison Ivy, that are both Oneota sites.
Early records describe as many as 12 mounds near Toolesboro. Subsequent settlement and excavation have reduced that number to seven. The family of George M. Mosier, a local land owner, donated a parcel of land containing the mound group to the state of Iowa in that year. In 1966, the Toolesboro Mound Group was listed as a National Historic Landmark, and in 1969 a small visitor center and parking lot were built near the site. The state has designated the Historical Society of Iowa as custodian of the site.
Of the seven mounds, only two are visible on the grounds of the Educational Center. The remaining five are located in an adjacent woodlot, and are separated by a wire fence from the Educational Center.
The Toolesboro Mound Group is a grave site of the Native Americans of the United States. The Historical Society welcomes visitors to the site, but requests that they not walk on or near the mounds themselves.
The site's address is 6568 Toolesboro Road, Wapello, Iowa.
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, is a group of Havana Hopewell culture
Havana Hopewell culture
The Havana Hopewell culture were a Hopewellian people in the Illinois River and Mississippi River valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri from 200 BCE to 400 CE...
earthworks on the north bank of the Iowa River
Iowa River
The Iowa River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the state of Iowa in the United States. It is about long and is open to small river craft to Iowa City, about from its mouth...
near its discharge into the Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The mounds are owned and displayed to the public by the State Historical Society of Iowa
State Historical Society of Iowa
The State Historical Society of Iowa , a division of the , serves as the official historical repository for the State of Iowa and also provides grants, public education, and outreach about Iowa history and archaeology. The SHSI maintains a museum, library, archives, and research center in Des...
. The mound group is located east of Wapello, Iowa
Wapello, Iowa
Wapello is a city in Louisa County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,124 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Louisa County. It is pronounced whop-UH-low, and almost rhymes with Tupelo....
, near the unincorporated community of Toolesboro
Toolesboro, Iowa
Toolesboro is an unincorporated community in Louisa County, Iowa, United States. The Toolesboro Mound Group, a National Historic Landmark, lies nearby....
.
Building the mounds
The mouth of the Iowa River was a superb location for people skilled in huntingHunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and the gathering of food. Wild plants living in the rich alluvial soil of the two rivers could be supplemented with fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
, and waterfowl
Waterfowl
Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans....
.
The Hopewell culture was a Native American celebration of the economic surplus, in food and other goods, created by harvesting the natural wealth of the American Midwest. Native Americans, in the Hopewell period, buried their dead in earthen mound
Mound
A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically...
s, accompanied by grave goods that displayed their status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
and possibly their religious and social leadership.
Grave goods discovered in Hopewell mounds include copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
from Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
, sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
from the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
, and obsidian
Obsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...
from the region of what is now Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
.
It is believed that the Hopewell Interaction Sphere had extensive trading relationships that enabled them to transfer large quantities of high-status goods across wide sections of the North American continent. The Hopewell of the Toolesboro area would have been able to export blades cut from local flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
. Local freshwater pearl
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
s were another highly prized item, exported and distributed over a wide area.
The surviving mounds of the Toolesboro Mound Group were built by the Havana Hopewell culture
Havana Hopewell culture
The Havana Hopewell culture were a Hopewellian people in the Illinois River and Mississippi River valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri from 200 BCE to 400 CE...
sometime between 200 BCE and 100 CE. The status of the people buried in the mounds indicates that the mounds were raised by people working within an organized community with an established social hierarchy. It is believed that there is likely to have been a Hopewell village located nearby, but as of December 2006 the location of this village had not yet been identified. Archeologists conjecture that the Iowa River, shifting its course frequently duiring the following two millennia and spreading alluvial silt over its path, may have flooded or buried the site.
After the Hopewell
Since the original construction, other groups of people have been associated with the site. Close by is an earth work referred to as "the old fort" that was considered to be a part of the Toolesboro Hopewellian mound group. It is considered possible that this was actually constructed about a thousand years later by a different Native American group, the OneotaOneota
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...
. To support this, there are two other sites in close vicinity, McKinney and Poison Ivy, that are both Oneota sites.
Preserving the mounds
Americans exploring the Mississippi valley found a wide variety of Hopewell mounds up and down the river bluffs. Almost all of them were destroyed, either by careless excavation or by the agricultural plow. In the late 1800s, the Toolesboro Mound Group was inexpertly excavated by the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, which recovered some artifacts.Early records describe as many as 12 mounds near Toolesboro. Subsequent settlement and excavation have reduced that number to seven. The family of George M. Mosier, a local land owner, donated a parcel of land containing the mound group to the state of Iowa in that year. In 1966, the Toolesboro Mound Group was listed as a National Historic Landmark, and in 1969 a small visitor center and parking lot were built near the site. The state has designated the Historical Society of Iowa as custodian of the site.
Of the seven mounds, only two are visible on the grounds of the Educational Center. The remaining five are located in an adjacent woodlot, and are separated by a wire fence from the Educational Center.
The Toolesboro Mound Group is a grave site of the Native Americans of the United States. The Historical Society welcomes visitors to the site, but requests that they not walk on or near the mounds themselves.
The site's address is 6568 Toolesboro Road, Wapello, Iowa.