Glasgow Twp, Wabasha County, Minnesota
The Cook Valley Mounds are one of two mound groups along the Zumbro River Valley that contain effigy mounds. T.H. Lewis surveyed this mound group on October 24, 1884. He wrote:
"This group of 34 mounds embraces 3 effigies and 4 elongated mounds. The former are not in the line along the brow of the bluff with the tumuli, but the elongated mounds are in the general line of extension of the group. One represents a bird in flight, but with its wings half closed as if descending to its perch. The others are near together and represent some animal with a heavy tail and short neck, but a large head. They might be considered a poor imitation of a dog, or a fox, or a wolf, or a beaver, or a racoon. The tail of the bird has not a rectangular termination like those of Prior Lake in Scott County, but a widening and rounded end, which is encroached on by a public road. Between the wings this bird is 2 ft. high. The largest tumulus is 52 ft. in diameter and 5 ft. high. Another is 42 ft. by 6 1/2 ft.; another 50 ft. by 3 ft., and still another 42 ft. by 5 ft. The plateau on which this group is situated is 75 ft. above the Zumbro."
The antiquarians of the 1800's postulated a whole menagerie of animals in their attempts to interpret the effigy mounds that show a side view of a quadraped. Scholars generally now agree that a quadraped with a long tail represents a profile view of the lizard-shaped creature known as the Water Spirit - symbol of the Lowerworld. Those with short (or no) tails are taken to represent a ground animal like a bear, canine, deer, etc - the symbol of the Earth. The tails seen on the two quadraped effigy mounds probably are "short" enough to mark these as belonging to the ground animal category, but are a bit long for that category. Quadrapeds in profile are usually seen to march in the direction of the flow of the nearest river, and also to have their legs represented as being on the side towards the waterway. The orientation of these effigies therefore seems to reflect the position and direction of the flow of the both the Zumbro River and the Mississippi River.
The bird effigy in this group could best be described as looking like a child's "snow angel", and as Lewis pointed out, quite different in configuration from the birds in the Five Hawks Effigy Mounds. It is not clear how the direction of the bird's flight relates to the flow of any nearby waterway.
