MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Willow Drive Mounds and Habitation Complex in the National Register of Historic Places on September 11, 2025. The property is located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, adjacent to Lake Mendota in the city of Madison, Dane County.
The Willow Drive Mound and Habitation Site Complex consists of a group of Late Woodland burial mounds situated on and surrounded by a habitation area visited repeatedly between 5000 B.C. and A.D. 1000. This complex is a distinctive example of pre-contact Native American ritual and land use in a lakeshore environment. The nominated property includes one habitation site and four contributing burial mounds.
The Willow Drive Mounds and Habitation Complex is significant in the areas of art, religion, and Native American archaeology.
Artistically, several burial mounds at Willow Drive are rare forms distinctive to the Teejope (Four Lakes) region. The mounds, which include an effigy mound showing a goose or other waterbird in flight, a probable water spirit, a linear mound with a bifurcated end and a small conical mound, are intentionally arranged in a linear procession. Together, the mounds may represent a symbolic juxtaposition of Upper and Lower World spirit beings with an overall water-related theme. These spirits were an integral part of contemporary world view and may have significance to clan structure.
The site has strong potential to shed light on ritual practices during the period between A.D. 750-1200. Effigy mound construction and effigy mound groups are reflections of religious beliefs extending beyond those associated with the immediate process of burying the dead, including conceptions of the cosmos and natural world.
Finally, the site has yielded more information on the construction of the mounds based on the excavations that have already been conducted and excavations from other mound groups in Wisconsin.
Additional information for the Willow Drive Mounds and Habitation Complex is available at:
North End of Willow Drive | National or State Registers Record | Wisconsin Historical Society
To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit: https://wisconsinhistory.org/hp/register/
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.
