REPORT FROM SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA
Deborah Morse-Kahn, M.A.
Minneapolis

The Fisk Site

(Spring 1996: Steinbring, Justin, Morse-Kahn, Hagglund, Schoenholz, Bailey, Callahan)
(Please note: locatoring information has been deleted)

The Fisk site is comprised of a series of tiered sandstone outcrops holding shelters of varying sizes, a circular ditched enclosure, and 8-9 sequential mounds of mostly circular shape. The entire complex appears highly defensible, with reasonable access available only from the SE.

Three tiers of "fish-hook" shaped terminal sandstone outcroppings in a northeast-trending ridge each contain at least one sizeable shelter named, in ascending order, First Cave, Second Cave, and Third Cave according to local knowledge.

Third Cave

Third Cave, the largest in the complex, holds a sizeable anthropomorphic figure, now affected by water damage and graffiti, and petroglyphs of a type called 'groovings' covered a considerable amount of the surface in the entire third tier rock shelter, and were found among contemporary graffiti on the walls of all three tiers.

The circular enclosure, sited to the SE and directly below the outcrops on a sloping terrace, is deeply ditched at the center, with two three breaks, one possibly created by recent foot traffic. The eastern walls reach to an approximate height of twelve feet. This 'ring shelter' noted in the 1995 survey was determined to be an historic quarrying ditch.

The mounds, sited to the E and directly below the outcrops on a level terrace, run sequentially on a N-S axis and are, with one exception spherical and conical. While a few were rather small, most of the circular mounds reached a height of at least 5-6 feet, and all had trees rooted on the surface.

A second bluff with outcroppings and rockshelters at about the same height ASL was found directly south across a broad valley. Evidence of grooving was also found there, as well as possible astroarchaeological markers on site.

©1996 Deborah Morse-Kahn

A view to the east from the Third Cave.

Deborah Morse-Kahn, M.A.
Project Manager
deborah@pclink.com

Fisk site photographs copyright© 1996 Charles Bailey