Prior Lake, Scott Co, Minnesota
Figure 1. T.H. Lewis' 1883 surveying sketch superimposed on aerial photo.
Click here for Google Map of area
The Five Hawks Effigy Mounds were the westernmost recorded example of the animal shaped mounds the Effigy Mound Builders constructed in the period of 700 AD to 1300 AD in southern Wisconsin (and into adjacent states). The "hawk" name at this site is a misnomer that stems from a single reference by antiquarian T.H. Lewis to "like a hawk in sailing" regarding the birds in this group. These 'hawks" were in fact just five examples of the common bird theme seen among the Effigy Mound Builders earthworks in southern Wisconsin. Most scholars believe that the birds were a graphic representation of the Upper World shown by the Thunderbird and may represent some sort of clan associations of those who built these mounds. These 150 ft. wing span birds marked a place that was special to the builders. Two possibilities are that it may have been either a territorial boundary or a ceremonial gathering spot. While bird effigies are seen throughout southern Wisconsin, studies have shown that bird effigies are more commonly seen on the western side of southern Wisconsin (as opposed to the also common bear/deer and panther/Water Spirit effigy mounds). One thing that is certain is that if they still existed today, these bird effigies would be a major local tourist attraction. Instead we are left to contemplate the builders' choice of the gentle rise of ground behind the Five Hawks Elementary School athletic fields as the best place to support these mound birds "in flight". Effigy mounds were usually located near water, and Upper Prior Lake is one obvious explanation of this location. Another characteristic noticed in effigy mounds is that the direction of the animal's movement usually reflects the direction of flow of the nearest river. From this we can conclude that the direction of the Five Hawk's flight is based on the flow of the nearby Minnesota River.
T.H. Lewis surveyed this mound group on August 30, 1883. That was to be our last record of this spectacular group until 1961 when a group from the Anthropology Department at the University of Minnesota conducted a salvage investigation as Hwy 13 was being put through the area. The 1962 report from that group found that 80+ years of plowing had left no traces on the surface of any of the embankments or effigies. They found that only one bird effigy was to be directly impacted by the road building operations. It was listed as No. 5 in the Lewis diagram, and was believed to be positioned diagonally across the middle of the planned path for the highway. Excavation operations found what may have been the ditch (borrow pit) next to the head of No 5, but no other traces. Final efforts included taking a road-grader and scraping back, inch by inch, the soil over the position of bird No. 5 in Lewis' diagram in the hopes of seeing the "soil shadow" sometimes seen in such circumstances. However no other traces were found. This indicated that the decades of plowing had dug deeper than had the mound construction. The site (21SC16) was subsequently removed from the list of archaeologically sensitive areas. The City of Prior Lake webpage has an excellent summary of local history that mentions the former existence of other mound groups near the lake. These would likely have been of the more common round (conical) burial mounds rather than effigy mounds.
Figure 2. T.H. Lewis' 1883 sketch of the Five Hawks Effigy Mounds.
These may have been the first effigy mounds mapped by the legendary mound surveyor T.H. Lewis. Not only were these his initial impressions, but this effigy group has several unique features - primarily the long embankments "intimately" associated with the bird effigies, and in the theme of "three birds in a row" (also seen in the Hein Mounds near La Crescent, MN).
Lewis wrote:
"This group embraces 5 effigies and 4 embankments. The effigies represent birds with wings spread like a hawk in sailing. The rear extremity of their bodies terminates rectangularly, the same as three of the elongated embankments. Yet one of the last has one termination that runs to a point that turns a little to one side, suggesting the form of a dentist's gouge. Another embankment has rounded terminations like those of most other localities, and this one seems to have some relation to one of the effigies, since it begins near the tail and extends nearly parallel with it 260 ft., being 18 ft wide and 1 1/2 ft high. The other embankments with rectangular ends are 105 ft. and 100 ft. long, 18 ft. wide and respectively 1 1/2 ft. and 2 ft. high, nearly parallel and in the same line of extension. The ditch which surrounds Nos 8 and 9, the elongated rectangular embankments, is 3 ft. wide at the bottom. The ditch around No. 7, the dentist's gouge, is over 5 ft. wide. Similar ditches surround the effigies. On effigy mound No. 6 is a stump of a tree 3 ft. in diameter; on No. 4 are two stumps 2 ft. in diameter, and on No. 3 are three oak stumps from 2 ft. to 2 ft. 3 inches in diameter. These effigies are about 2 ft. high at the point of the body between the wings, and have bodies 15 ft. to 18 ft. wide and about 2 ft. high.
The following new elements, are therefore observable in this group:
1. Effigy mounds
2. Rectangular terminations of the elongated mounds or embankments.
3. A rectangular embankment running to a point which is turned to one side.
It is most reasonable, so far as their forms and relative positions indicate their relations, to consider
these mounds to be of the same date and origin, for the following reasons:
1. The rectangular embankments are not essentially dissimilar to those with rounded ends.
2. The rectangular termination pertains to three of the embankments, and to the effigies.
3. The embankment with circular ends appears to be associated with the body of one of the effigies, and
in its line of extension.
In the light of the intimate association of these embankments, or elongated mounds, with the circular tumuli, these considerations tend toward the reference of the round mounds and embankments to the same age and origin as the effigy mounds."
Figure 3. Lewis' sketch of the Five Hawks Effigy Mounds overlayed on the Scott County Digital Elevation Model. Darker background shading means higher elevation (and black lines are streets). The bird effigy mounds were positioned on the low ridge that forms the highest ground between Crystal Lake and Upper Prior Lake.
Teacher Resources:
Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeastern Iowa
Online Teacher's Guide to Effigy Mounds National Monument
A Fascinating Study: The Development of Effigy Mounds