Wittrock Indian Village State Preserve

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State Preserves

Wittrock Indian Village State Preserve is a 6-acre area featuring the buried remains of an ancient, fortified village occupied by Indians of the Mill Creek culture between the years 1200 and 1300. 

It is located on a low terrace of Waterman Creek, a tributary of the Little Sioux River, in O’Brien County. 

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About the Land

The property area was deeded to the Iowa Conservation Commission in 1937 by the Wittrock family, who plowed around the site for their farm fields, and left the site intact. 

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Directions

Access to preserve is across private land. Permission must be obtained to cross private property.

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Historical Significance

The site was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and as an archaeological state preserve in 1968. A plaque and interpretive sign with the following quotation are located on the eastern edge of the preserve: 

"The ancient Mill Creek Indians built this village and lived here for about 300 years. They made their living hunting bison and cultivating corn, beans and squash. Living was dangerous here in those days and the villagers found it necessary to build substantial fortifications to protect themselves from other Indians. 

Posts have been set along sections of the north and south stockade. The original stockade completely surrounded the village. Posts were set to make a solid stockade wall. Inside the wall the villagers built 20 (uniformly sized) rectangular earth lodges 20 by 30 ft. in size and set two ft. deep in the ground. Each lodge had a central fireplace and storage pits and was entered by way of an (south-facing) entrance tunnel (10 to 15 feet long). Excavation in 1965 by the State Archaeologist first disclosed the existence of the stockade and house type."

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Visitor Information

Major collections from the site are currently curated at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Anthropology in Madison and at the Office of the State Archaeologist in Iowa City. Some material is also curated at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee. 

Gabions (erosion control structures) were built in 1994 on Waterman Creek to protect the western edge of the preserve from streambank erosion. 

Other archaeological sites in Iowa include:

  • Catfish Creek
  • Gitchie Manitou
  • Hartley Fort
  • Indian Bluffs
  • Little Maquoketa River Mounds
  • Malchow Mounds
  • Slinde Mounds
  • Toolesboro Mounds
  • Turkey River Mounds 
  • Woodland Mounds State Preserves 
  • Effigy Mounds National Monument
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