Eagle Heights Mound Group

Native Americans have for many centuries revered this prominent hilltop overlooking Lake Mendota to the north and University Bay and marsh to the south. The trees were once much less dense than they are today, so the views from this site must have been magnificent.

Today, you'll need to visit it when leaves are off the trees to get a sense of what it must have looked like when the forest was not so thick.

Elevated locations like this one, especially those with views of water, were often favored as sites for sacred burial mounds. Eagle Heights exemplifies this pattern with three mounds: two "linear" and one "conical."

The Preserve contains many burial mounds and other ancient archaeological sites. Please respect these sacred mounds by staying on the marked trails.

To learn more about the history of the Eagle Heights area, see Thomas D. Brock, “Eagle Heights,” Historic Madison: A Journal of the Four Lakes Region 12 (1995), 37-44.

Read the full article about Native American presence in the Preserve and how the mounds were built.