Belmont Mound State Park

Belmont Mound State Park
Belmont Mound State Park, July 2010
Map showing the location of Belmont Mound State Park
Map showing the location of Belmont Mound State Park
Location of Belmont Mound State Park in Wisconsin
Map showing the location of Belmont Mound State Park
Map showing the location of Belmont Mound State Park
Belmont Mound State Park (the United States)
LocationBelmont, Lafayette, Wisconsin, United States
Coordinates42°46′7″N 90°20′58″W / 42.76861°N 90.34944°W / 42.76861; -90.34944
Established1961
Governing bodyBelmont Lions Club

Belmont Mound State Park is a state park of Wisconsin, United States, containing Belmont Mound, a 400-foot (120 m) hill. The park is managed by the Belmont Lions Club rather than the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Belmont Mound is an outlier of the Niagara Escarpment, one of several in this part of the unglaciated Driftless Area. "Belmont" derives from the French for "beautiful mountain."

A portion of the park received further protection in 1981 when Belmont Mound Woods State Natural Area was added to the Wisconsin State Natural Areas Program. The park is for day-use only; there are picnic facilities but no campground. The observation tower was closed in 2019 by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources due to three suicides and misuse of the tower a decade earlier.[1] In the fall of 2021, the removal of the observation tower was completed.[2] The First Capitol Historic Site, where the first session of the Wisconsin Territory Legislature met beginning on October 25, 1836, is located just west of the park entrance.

  1. ^ Article
  2. ^ The Belmont Mound Adventures in Driftlessness, Accessed 19 Oct 2021.