Under your feet on Observatory Hill, two effigy mounds survive on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Under your feet and along the slope are two surviving effigy mounds: one shaped like a bird, the other described as a double-tailed turtle or water spirit. Once a panther effigy and a linear mound were part of this group as well, but they were destroyed in the twentieth century.
These earthworks were built between 650 and 1200 A.D. by the Late Woodland people, the same people responsible for building effigy mounds throughout Wisconsin. The place you stand gained formal recognition when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 2004. Listen with your eyes to the gentle rises and shapes, imagining how those forms would have read across the landscape centuries ago.
Please respect the mounds as you move around them; they are ancient expressions of people who shaped this land long before the campus. Notice the bird effigy and the double-tailed turtle mound, subtle rises that have shaped this hill for centuries.