It was quite a drive from Michigan. We got to Minneapolis, Minnesota only to see another building designed by Frank Gehry. The Weisman Art Museum is located on the banks of the Mississippi River on the University of Minnesota campus.

The Building features steel-clad turrets and bays. There is no classic façade here. Instead, we see many independent geometric forms combined together in a chaotic manner. In Frank Gehry’s design, oval shapes are traditionally dominant.

After seeing a modern building, we wanted to see something related to the distant history of this region of the USA. Earthworks created by prehistoric cultures are common in the Midwest. The indigenous Native Americans have built many earth mounds over the centuries. Work that required many laborers was possible because local societies developed hierarchical structures with the elites to command the construction. The most common are conical mounds built as burial places.

Effigy Mounds in the Upper Mississippi River Valley in Iowa are especially interesting for their many animal-shaped earthworks. The largest of them is the Great Bear Mound that is 42 meters/ 138 feet long. There are also many simpler rectangular mounds that were used for ceremonial purposes. Even today, many Native American Tribes consider all mounds as sacred places.