The Dividing Ridge/Dead Lake Ridge

The Dividing Ridge, like most of Madison's physical landscape, was formed by the glaciers as they dug through and then retreated from the area.

Left a long gravel ridge between lakes Monona and Wingra. Very steep and 75 feet high at its tallest point, 30 to 150 feet wide. Known as the Walnut Mounds, Dead Lake Ridge and the Dividing Ridge.

The ridge was used by ancient American Indians as a campsite and workshop. A trail wound along the crest, and another followed its base on the Lake Monona side. Many effigy mounds were built on the ridge, some as much as10 feet tall, Thunderbird, water spirit, turtle, conical and linear. Many of the mounds were graves.

In 1859 Increase A. Lapham, Wisconsin's first scientist, platted the mounds as part of his survey of the antiquities of Wisconsin. By that time some of the mounds had already been removed by settlers who purchased land upon the ridge, others were ruined by thieves looking for artifacts.

In 1870, builders began removing the Dividing Ridge for the gravel to make streets. J.H. Pieh and Elisha Keyes opened gravel pits on the ridge. By 1915 the Dividing Ridge was almost gone.

All that remains of the Dividing Ridge is a small park above the bear dens of the Vilas Park Zoo. This land was purchased by the city in 1910 and 1913. There were originally 11 effigy mounds in this park; eight remain.

Charles E. Brown, Madison's premier archaeologist of the early part of the last century, said that "the destruction of the Dividing Ridge was a crime which should never have been perpetuated. It was one of Madison's most charming scenic features."

Madison's Catholics once had a cemetery on the ridge. Beginning in 1845 the 3 acre cemetery was named Greenbush. Eventually the deceased were moved to the new catholic cemetery.