Effigies are patterns on the land made by the careful placement of stones. More than one hundred effigies in South Dakota were created by American Indians, but little is understood about them. Archaeologists believe some mark significant places, people, or events, while others may have aided hunting or held spiritual power. Many different stories are associated with an effigy, and one effigy may appear differently from one researcher’s sketch to another because of changes in rock visibility, alterations to the effigy, or differences in interpretation. Human effigies were recorded near Punished Woman's Lake in 1883, but they no longer exist. James E. Todd began exploring stone effigies in the 1880s and later became the state geologist, and Doane Robinson, South Dakota State Historian from 1901-1925, wrote about many of the state’s stone effigies.