Lemonweir Glyphs

{{Short description|Historic petroglyphs in Wisconsin, United States}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2012}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Lemonweir Glyphs

| nrhp_type = hd

| nocat = yes

| image =

| caption =

| nearest_city =

| locmapin = Wisconsin#USA

| architect OR builder =

| architecture =

| added = November 4, 1983

| area = {{convert|140|acre}}

| refnum = 93001173{{NRISref| version = 2010a| dateform = mdy}}

}}

The Lemonweir Glyphs (or petroglyphs) are a set of carvings by early Native Americans near the Lemonweir River in Juneau County, Wisconsin. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.{{cite web|title=Lemonweir Glyphs|date=January 2012 |url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/NationalRegister/NR1205|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|accessdate=2017-11-20}}

Some time before recorded history, people in Wisconsin's Driftless Area climbed partway up a bluff above a river and carved marks on a sheltered spot in a sandstone wall. Some of the marks are indecipherable, but others depict animals: a fish, a deer or elk, a thunderbird, a heron or crane, a buffalo, a lizard, and a deer or antelope. The largest animal is twelve inches tall. The deepest carvings are nearly a half inch deep and the shallowest are only faintly visible. Some of the images have been damaged by modern initial-cutters.{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Charles E.|title=Petroglyphs at the Mouth of the Lemonweir River|journal=Wisconsin Archeologist|date=1937|volume=17|issue=4|pages=76–78}}

Nearby, more marks are cut into a seven-foot sandstone boulder. The top and one side are cut with various arrangements of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines - all abstract, with no animals.