Turkey River Mounds State Preserve | |||||||||||||
Map: | USA Iowa#USA | ||||||||||||
Embedded: |
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Relief: | 1 | ||||||||||||
Location: | Clayton, Iowa, United States | ||||||||||||
Coordinates: | 42.7197°N -91.0483°W | ||||||||||||
Area Acre: | 62 | ||||||||||||
Elevation: | 761feet[1] | ||||||||||||
Established: | 1968 | ||||||||||||
Governing Body: | Iowa Department of Natural Resources |
Turkey River Mounds State Preserve is a historic site located near the unincorporated community of Millville, Iowa, United States. The 62acres preserve contains thirty-eight of forty-three Native American mounds located on a narrow Paleozoic Plateau at the confluence of the Mississippi and Turkey rivers.[2] They vary in size and shape and are 1.3feet to 6feet in height. The conical mounds range from 20feet to over 100feet in diameter. The linear mounds vary from 80feet to 175feet in length. There is one effigy mound in the shape of a panther that is 98feet long and 40feet wide. There are also compound mounds in the preserve. The mounds were constructed during the Woodland period (500 BCE and 900 CE). They were used for burials and ceremonial places, and are now protected by law. The preserve is also home to a variety of trees, prairie grasses and flowers.
The mounds were first surveyed in 1885, and Ellison Orr studied them in the 1930s. People from Dubuque, Iowa bought the property in 1934 and gave it to the Iowa Conservation Commission in 1940. Other archaeological surveys were undertaken in 1964 and 1973. It was dedicated as a state preserve in 1968 for its archaeological, geological, and biological qualities.[2] The preserve was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1990.