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Panther Intaglio Effigy Mound

Jefferson County, US

Panther Intaglio Effigy Mound

The Panther Intaglio Effigy Mound is a ground depression in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The effigy is a reverse mound: a depression in the shape of a panther or water spirit created by Native Americans before the arrival of settlers. In the mid-1800s ten of these reverse effigy mounds were found in Wi

sconsin, but all except this one have been destroyed. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The vast majority of effigy mounds are mounds, where people piled soil a few feet above the natural surface of the ground to form the shape of some animal or geometric object. In contrast, an intaglio "mound" is a hole dug in the shape of the object. The Panther Intaglio in Fort Atkinson is a cavity 125 feet long and two feet deep on the north side of the Rock River. The shape of the hole has been described as a lizard, a panther, and a water spirit. Whatever was intended, the shape is commonly found among the raised mounds of the upper Midwest. The hole at Fort Atkinson is also known to be man-made because it once lay in a group of over a dozen raised mounds, including some conical mounds, a bird, a bear, a dumb-bell shape, and some linear mounds. All these others are now...

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