Lemonweir Glyphs Explained

Lemonweir Glyphs
Nrhp Type:hd
Nocat:yes
Added:November 4, 1983
Refnum:93001173

The Lemonweir Glyphs (or petroglyphs) are a set of carvings by early Native Americans near the Lemonweir River in Juneau County, Wisconsin. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1]

Some time before recorded history, people in Wisconsin's Driftless Area climbed partway up a bluff above a river and carved marks on a sheltered spot in a sandstone wall. Some of the marks are indecipherable, but others depict animals: a fish, a deer or elk, a thunderbird, a heron or crane, a buffalo, a lizard, and a deer or antelope. The largest animal is twelve inches tall. The deepest carvings are nearly a half inch deep and the shallowest are only faintly visible. Some of the images have been damaged by modern initial-cutters.[2]

Nearby, more marks are cut into a seven-foot sandstone boulder. The top and one side are cut with various arrangements of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines - all abstract, with no animals.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lemonweir Glyphs. January 2012 . Wisconsin Historical Society. 2017-11-20.
  2. Brown. Charles E.. Petroglyphs at the Mouth of the Lemonweir River. Wisconsin Archeologist. 1937. 17. 4. 76–78.