Mines of Spain State Recreation Area and E. B. Lyons Nature Center

The Mines of Spain State Recreation Area and E. B. Lyons Nature Center is a state park in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States. It is near Dubuque, the eighth-largest city in the state. The park features picnic areas, 15 miles of walking/hiking trails, 4 miles of ski trails, and the Betty Hauptli Bird and Butterfly Garden. It also includes archaeological sites of national importance as an early lead mining and smelting venture led by French explorer Julien Dubuque, as well as Dubuque's gravesite. These sites were collectively designated a National Historic Landmark District as Julien Dubuque's Mines.

The earliest known inhabitants of this area were from the Late Archaic period . This era is marked by an increasing sense of regionalism and sedentary occupation of land. The existence of copper in northeast Iowa from the Lake Superior region suggests the practice of long-distance trade. Archaeologists have located evidence of a wide variety of projectile points from this era, population expansion, exchange of raw materials and finished goods, and galena, which is associated with more complex mortuary rituals. Evidence from the Woodland period are found in pottery, burial mounds, and cultivated plants. Locally, this period of settlement grew out of the Late Archaic period, which in turn transitioned into the Oneota period . The Oneota are an Upper Mississippian culture that is marked by subsistence on horticulture as in the past, but increasingly on hunting and gathering. Elements from this era include bison and scapula hoes, triangular projectile points, and manos and metates.

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