Page 8 - RAGBRAI2011

DAY 4 - BOONE TO ALTOONA Archaeological excavation at Saylorville Boone Mound excavation,1908.
Lake, 1960 (taken by David M. Gradwohl).

SAYLORVILLE LAKE
On Day 4 of our ride, we peddle out of Boone and descend south to near the
Saylorville Lake area. Construction of the Saylorville Dam, approximately 11 miles up
the Des Moines River from the City of Des Moines, was approved by Congress in 1958.
In 1960 an archaeological survey of the Saylorville reservoir was begun by Iowa State
University, and decades later, nearly 700 archaeological sites have been recorded in the
area. A total of seventeen mounds or mound groups were either recorded or reported
during the Saylorville surveys. Of these mounds, the most impressive was the Boone
Mound. Located just west of Boone, near where the Kate Shelly High Bridge stands,
the mound was excavated in 1908 under the direction of Thompson Van Hyning of the
State Historical Museum. Boone Mound was one of the largest mounds west of the

Mississippi, and mea-
sured 14 ft high, 130
ft wide across one axis
and 160 ft across the
other, and contained
over 4,000 potsherds,
human remains and
stone artifacts. The
mound floor was
comprised of closely
spaced limestone
slabs and included
several crypt-like com-
partments, which may
indicate its use as a
charnel house. Strict
state and federal laws
now rightly protect
Native American buri-
als from disinterment.

Map by Colleen Eck of the OSA.