An apparent late woodland boundary in Western Wisconsin

While short/no-tailed mounds also occur north of the Bad Axe River, they are much more common to the south, including the lower portion of the Kickapoo Valley and eastward along the lower Wisconsin River to Muscoda. Single-tailed birds occur throughout the entire region, but the rare split-tailed birds are nearly confined to the area below the Bad Axe Valley and east to Muscoda.

This distribution suggests a social boundary between effigy mound groups north and south of the Bad Axe Valley. This interpretation is solidified by corresponding Late Woodland ceramic types and projectile points in these two subregions. The diagnostic pottery of the Effigy Mound Eastman phase is Madison ware, best represented by Madison Cord and Fabric Impressed vessels (Stoltman 1990). Madison ware pottery has been reported throughout the Driftless Area, at sites north and south of the Bad Axe Valley. However, the Late Woodland type Angelo Punctated occurs only north of the Bad Axe Valley (Figure 7), with the possible exception of an incised-over-cord-marked rim reported from Fred Edwards (Finney and Stoltman 1991:243). Angelo Punctured is distinguished by bands of carefully applied parallel incisions and associated small punctations that are usually triangular or "wedge-shaped." The type is not well dated, but a pseudo-collared or braced-rim vessel from the Overhead site at La Crosse is clearly Late Woodland in form (Boszhardt 1997). A feature at the Ridder site at Trempealeau that contained a Late Woodland pot with wedge-shaped punctations but no incisions was radiocarbon-dated to A.D. 860-72 (BGS- 1875) or cal A.D. 980 (Boszhardt 1996b). The closest comparative ceramic ware appears to be Great Oasis pottery, which occurs in central and northwestern Iowa, southwestern Minnesota, and sporadically in eastern Minnesota. The Great Oasis complex is dated to ca. A.D. 900-1100 (uncalibrated) (Anfinson 1979; Tiffany 1981).

Analysis of Late Woodland projectile points also suggests a division at the Bad Axe Valley (Figure 8; Table 2). Late Woodland points in the Upper Mississippi Valley generally fall into two forms of triangular arrow tips: unnotched (Madison) and notched (Cahokia or Grant). Madison points were also manufactured by the subsequent Oneota culture, although an analysis of length/width ratios and the presence and absence of serrations indicates that Late Woodland and Oneota triangular points from western Wisconsin can be distinguished in many cases (Ching 1993). For example, Oneota points at La Crosse are not serrated, whereas a substantial number of Late Woodland Madison points from Prairie du Chien and central Wisconsin are serrated. Side-notched Cahokia and Grant points are considered horizon markers for the period A.D. 1000-1200 (Finney 1993:169).

Projectile points from the Bad Axe Valley were documented from the Loren Cade collection and UW-La Crosse test excavations at Tollackson and Cade Farms under the direction of James Theler. Projectile points from the Coon Creek drainage were obtained from Robert Sasso's (1989) survey, the private collection of Ryan Letterly, and test excavations at the Skumsrud site by the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center.