Tag Archives: Highground

Dove Mound Effigy by David Giffey

 

“The Mourning Dove Mound is a symbol of peace at the Highground. It represents a constant presence of peace among numerous other memorials and monuments dedicated to wars and conflicts.

As the designer in 1985, I tell the story on this video of the mound and how Native American people built burial and effigy mounds for centuries before I designed the dove mound. It was dedicated in 1989. In recent years, I met hundreds of school children in person at the Highground to tell the Dove Mound story.” 

The artist:  David Giffey

Learn about the Dove Effigy Mound at the Highground Memorial Park

 

International Day of Peace Event at The Highground Memorial Park

Day of Peace 

Monday, September 21 at 1pm at the Peace Dove

Link to Peace Event on Highground Website

Directions to Highground

 

For peace-loving people in Northern Wisconsin, there will be “thoughtful words, acoustic music, zero politics…a gathering of fellowship to hopefully turn people’s thoughts toward peace, tolerance, joy,” at the Dove Mound in Highground Veterans Memorial Park, W7031 Ridge Rd, Neillsville WI 54456.

The peace event will begin at 1 p.m. on International Peace Day, Monday, September 21. Billed as “a good gathering of fellowship,” the Dove Mound was designed by Veterans For Peace Chapter 25 member David Giffey, a Vietnam war veteran, in 1985. It was built and dedicated in honor or POWs and MIAs in 1989, and is 100-feet in length, 130-feet in width, and 6-feet in height. Howard Sherpe (1944-2016), an Army medic in Vietnam, was a co-founder of the Highground project and chair of the design committee.

 

Sherpe wrote: “…what began as a memorial for POW-MIAs has taken on a much greater significance…it has developed a life of its own and has become a symbol of the peace we all seek.” The Native American influence is evident at the Dove Mound. Wisconsin has the greatest concentration of effigy mounds in the world. John Beaudin (1946-1993), a First Nation attorney from Madison, spoke during the Dove Mound dedication ceremony.

 

Beaudin, a veteran of the Vietnam war, said: “This effigy mound is a spiritual place where you can come and let your mother, the earth, hold you…leave your troubles and cares on the mound, as you walk away renewed and refreshed.”

Highground Veterans Memorial Park Website Home Page

Effigy Mound Historical Marker