Tainter Cave facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Tainter Cave
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Tracing of a pictograph from inside the cave's entrance. Robert F. Boszhardt posits this may represent a baby on a cradleboard.
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| Nearest city | Clayton, Crawford County, Wisconsin |
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| NRHP reference No. | 01000106 |
| Added to NRHP | May 8, 2001 |
Tainter Cave, also called Tombstone Cave, is a dry cave in Crawford County, Wisconsin. Long ago, Native Americans used this cave. They carved pictures called petroglyphs and drew paintings called pictographs on the walls. These pictures show birds, people, deer, and cool patterns.
Tainter Cave has over 100 pictographs. This is more than any other known place in Wisconsin! It's also special because it was the first ancient site found deep inside a dark cave in the Upper Midwest.
Contents
Discovering Tainter Cave
This cave is found in sandstone rock. It sits near the top of a hill in an area called the Driftless Area. The cave entrance faces east. It goes back over 175 feet into the hill.
The first part of the cave gets natural light from the opening. But the two rooms deeper inside are completely dark. The ceiling is usually low, so you often have to crawl or bend down.
Local people and cave explorers knew about Tainter Cave for many years. In 1967, a group called the Wisconsin Speleological Society mapped it. They called it "Tombstone Cave."
In 1993, a cave fan named Daniel Arnold wrote to archaeologists. He told them about a diamond carving near the entrance. He also mentioned old carvings, animal drawings, and human figures. He even saw burnt birch bark torches on the floor.
Professional archaeologists visited in 1998. They realized that many images among the modern drawings were made by ancient Native Americans. Because of its importance, Tainter Cave was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Exploring the First Chamber
The cave entrance is a long, flat crack. It is about 35 feet wide and four feet tall at its highest point. Inside, the first room is about 60 feet deep. There are large rocks on the floor that have fallen from the ceiling.
Among the modern drawings, there are clear ancient Native American carvings. One is a carved diamond with a dot in the middle. This design is similar to others found in nearby ancient sites. There is also a carved drawing of a bird without a head. It is near the bottom of a large rock.
On the ceiling near the entrance, there are more drawings. One shows a human figure with lines across its body. This might be a baby wrapped in a cradleboard. A line almost connects it to a spotted bird. If it is a baby, this picture might show a special naming ceremony.
On the south wall, you can see more drawings. One is a deer or elk with a solid body and antlers that curve forward. Scientists tested a tiny bit of the paint. They found it was made around 690 A.D. This means the artist lived during the Late Woodland period. This was when effigy mounds were being built. The style of the antlers is unique for this area and time.
On the west wall, there is a panel of drawings. These might show spear tips. There are also groups of curved lines and shapes. These look like designs found on pottery from the Late Woodland period. High on this panel is a bird-like figure. In the middle is a human figure without a head, perhaps a shaman. At the bottom is a creature that looks like a lizard. These three figures might be placed to show the Upper, Middle, and Lower worlds.
People likely lived mainly in this first chamber. It was the only part of the cave with natural light. Deer bones were found on the surface. Many were crushed and partly burned. Pieces of shell were also found.
Archaeologists found four pieces of pottery. They were thin and made with grit. One piece matches pottery from about 250-500 A.D. Other pieces look like pottery from 250-700 A.D. A small piece of wood charcoal from the floor was dated to 535 A.D.
Burnt rolls of birch bark are also scattered on the floor. Most are along the walls in the first and second chambers. These were probably used as torches. They gave light at night and helped artists see while working in the dark parts of the cave.
Exploring the Second Chamber
At the back of the first chamber, there is a low opening. It leads into a completely dark room. This room is about 75 feet long and 10 to 15 feet wide. The ceiling is not quite high enough to stand up straight. Small rocks are scattered along the walls. There is a large pile of fallen rock halfway down the room.
This dark room has fewer pictures than the first. Some have probably fallen with parts of the wall. But low on one side wall, there is a panel of creatures. A horizontal crack divides them. Above the crack are three birds without heads. There are also three sets of "rake wings" and some turkey-track bird feet. A small creature that might be a dog is also there.
Below the crack, there is a group of deer and hunters with bows. The hunters' bodies are filled in with paint. But the square-shaped deer are not. Instead, three deer have smaller deer drawn inside them. These are probably baby fawns inside their mothers. Other deer have simple objects inside them. Lines connect many of the hunters' bows to the deer. This hunting scene likely shows a group hunt in late winter or early spring. The use of bows and arrows means the drawing was made around or after 500-700 A.D. This is when bows are thought to have arrived in this area. Everything below the crack shows creatures that live on the ground. Everything above shows bird-like creatures, except for that one small dog with the birds.
Nearby on the ceiling, there is a faint black drawing of an animal. It has four short legs and two long, wide horns. The long horns look more like an ancient type of bison that died out about 5000 years ago. Modern bison have shorter horns. If it is the ancient bison, the artist would have been a Paleo-Indian or Archaic person.
A well-preserved part of a moccasin was found on the floor of the second chamber. It was a piece of the sole, from the toe to the arch of the foot. It had stitch-holes where it was sewn to a heel part. Stitch-holes on the side show it was sewn to the top part of the shoe. A piece of the top flap with laces was still there. The thick sole seems to be made from bison or elk hide. Small pieces of grass were stuck inside, probably for warmth. A tiny piece was dated to 1440 A.D. This moccasin is a rare find. It is the first ancient moccasin found in the Midwest north of the Ozarks.
Exploring the Third Chamber
At the end of the second chamber, the roof rises into a domed room. It is about 50 feet long and 25 feet wide. There is rubble on the floor. At the back of this room, a narrow crawlspace continues for another 15 feet. At the very end, someone scratched "THE END" on the wall.
This dark room also has fewer pictures. But on the ceiling just before the crawlspace, there are some images. They are partly covered by a white mineral. One important drawing is a black rectangle with two triangles inside. The box looks like it is pierced by a spike. Both the spike and the triangles are filled with criss-cross lines. This style is different from anything found before.
Why Tainter Cave is Important
Local people have known about Tainter Cave since the 1800s. It has a lot of drawings left by their visits. Some ancient pictures have probably been lost due to natural rock falls. But many Native American drawings are still in great condition. Some styles are similar to art in other places. But some are unique and have never been seen before.
The floor of the cave has not been dug up by archaeologists. It probably holds tools and other items. These could tell us more about the people who lived in and visited the cave. To protect these important things, a steel gate was put in place in 2000. It has openings to let bats fly in and out, but it keeps trespassers out.
Tainter Cave showed archaeologists that deep sandstone caves with rock art could exist in the Driftless area. After this was known, another deep sandstone cave with drawings was found 20 miles away. It is called Larsen Cave.
For comparison, you can look at Samuels' Cave. This is another sandstone cave in La Crosse County. It also has drawings by ancient Native Americans. However, most of those drawings have been damaged by people carving their names and by natural processes.
Contains photos of some of the images in the cave.
