The Fisk Site, Minnesota's first known grooved-petroglyph site, was the last of twelve potential rock art sites to be visited by the author in the late autumn of 1995 on a self-designed, independent survey effort among the sandstone outcroppings in southeastern Minnesota's unglaciated Driftless Area running the Mississippi River.

Training in rock art search techniques had been obtained from David Lowe of the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the previous summer and, in the course of this training, the author concluded that Lowe's assertion that petroglyphs and pictographs could predictably be found at the range of 980-1060 feet ASL in specific geological and topographical locale in Wisconsin's unglaciated regions of Iowa and Dane Counties should translate adequately to the extension of the unglaciated regions to the north and west in southeastern Minnesota.

Moreover, recent successful rock art survey efforts out of the topographically similar regions of southwestern Wisconsin (Boszhardt et al) and northeastern Iowa (Stanley) indicated a high probability of rock art finds.

Early consultation was taken with the Wisconsin and Iowa researchers, and preliminary studies were made of all field notes held by the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office and the Office of the State Archaeologist, and a comprehensive known-site map made of the counties under consideration for research.

The author sought to augment her own survey skills and experience by consultation with other professional and avocationalist archaeologists in the regional community of rock art enthusiasts, and myriad other cultural resource management associates--preservationists, naturalists, wilderness trackers, and field specialists in forestry, geology, geography, cartography, hydrogeology--who were willing to share their expertise.

The original research plan was eventually amended to include the re-surveying of known rock art or mound sites in Minnesota that had not been viewed in many decades, or were thought destroyed.

Twenty-six total sites were surveyed in Wabasha, Winona, and Houston Counties, from mid-September to mid-December of 1995, of which:

      8 were new sites resulting in rock art finds and evidence of habitation: 
 
      5 were re-surveys of known sites not visited since the late 1970s, looking for
        features thought destroyed: in 3 of the 5 instances, the features were found to 
        be yet extant and were, along with the full site, measured and photo-documented 
        for the first time;  in the other 2 instances, destruction of the features was 
        confirmed;

      1 was a re-survey of a feature known to exist but not viewed for some years;
        
      1 was a re-survey of a known site for an expanded feature search;
  
      3 yielded negative survey results but were recorded for their value for future
        regional research;

      8 were passed over as negative or insignificant, and not recorded.
 

The following individuals were of assistance to the critical first year of the southeastern Minnesota Rock Art Survey:

Lynn Swanson, Timothy Wahl & Joyce Meints, Minnesota Geological Survey, for their consultations and generous sharing of preliminary materials from the then not-yet-released southeastern county atlas materials;

Valiree Green, DNR Forestry-Houston County, Minnesota, who helped me in establishing critical state land ownership boundaries for that region and stayed on as a friend and field companion;

Mark J. Dudzik, Minnesota State Archaeologist, for his preliminary referral to vital research resources;

Guy Gibbon, Faculty in Anthropology, University of Minnesota, for his generous advisory support for the continuing effort;

Lori Stanley, Faculty in Anthropology, Luther College, Decorah IA, without whose support and companionship I would not have mustered the energy and courage to see my way through this work;

David Lowe (UW-Madison) who trained me, encouraged me, and who honored me with the first viewing of the Black Hawk Prairie site in southwestern Wisconsin.

I am indebted to the many private property owners who permitted me access to their land.