Whitewater Indian Mounds Park
(Maples Group)
National Register of Historic Places
The location of this group, situated on Indian Mound Parkway on the west side of Whitewater, is unusual, but not too uncommon -
away from any body of water. There are 16 mounds altogether, of which 3 are possible mounds (not 100% confirmed).
Mounds are well marked by plaques. Plaque #1 is missing. Plaque #13, which marked the mounds outside of the park's boundaries,
is taken from its original location just and is lying on the ground inside the park. One would wonder if a landowner of that adjacent
property got tired of people treading on his domain to look at the mounds there and decided he had enough of that? That's why I'd like
to emphasize again that it's hard enough for historians and archeologists to work with private landowners to protect the mounds, so
please, if it's on private land - don't go there to look at them; there is plenty to see on federal, state and local lands. And more and more properties containing these artifacts are purchased by governments and Ho-Chunk Nation, so there are more exciting archeological
treasures to see in the future. As of this writing, the movement is afoot to rename the park into Whitewater Mounds Archeological Preserve.
When I visited this group about 10 years ago, mowing is done over the mounds, with native grasses grown in between. I would recommend reverse order – mow the area around the mounds, growing grasses on the body of the mounds. Otherwise, apart from the long-term damage caused by mowing, one can’t see when walking over some low parts of mounds (you can't see where one ends and the other starts). However, revisiting the site in 2021, I was upset that the site not only has not been improved, but fell into total disrepair. Never mind the mowing
- the entire site is covered with brambles so sick, one can't tell where the mounds are anymore - everything is overgrown and abandoned.
Some of the benches lining the trails have been toppled, and one can hardly see where the trail is. Shame!!!
