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Viola Rockshelter In 1986, Ron Kessler and Mark Anderson audited a course on Midwest archaeology taught by Jim Theler. They mentioned a rockshelter they had visited in Vernon County that had rock art, as well as artifacts eroding out at the entrance. The site was Viola Rockshelter, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Jim visited the site with Ernie Boszhardt, and that fall, they conducted a brief salvage excavation at the eroded shelter margins and recovered Late Archaic to Late Woodland artifacts.

One of the petroglyphs on the shelter wall is shown here. Interpretations of rock art can vary, but the wavy line perhaps represents water, supporting a watercraft (canoe?) that carries a human or spirit-being with lines radiating from the head. A second petroglyph shows a figure with a similar 'headdress' pattern.

Like many other rock art sites, this location is physically fragile and culturally sensitive, and its location is not made public. Cynthia Stiles-Hanson included the site in her discussion of regional rock art sites in the Wisconsin Rock Art volume of The Wisconsin Archeologist (Vol. 68, No. 4, 1987). Geri Schrab and Robert "Ernie" Boszhardt's 2016 book, Hidden Thunder: Rock Art of the Upper Midwest (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Madison) offers more recent perspectives on regional rock art.

(Entry by Dr. James Theler)