 Mounds are the most visible evidence of cultures that lived for hundreds of years in the mix of biomes in northern Illinois.Mound groups in eastern North America are primarily located along waterways, as is the case with the Beattie Park Mounds.Effigy (animal-shaped) mounds are found in Wisconsin and adjoining parts of neighboring states south of the conifer hardwood forests and stretch from eastern Iowa to Lake Michigan

The mounds and mound remnants in Beattie Park date from an era during the Late Woodland known as the Effigy mound Period.