Wisconsin historians recently announced the discovery of at least 11 ancient canoes on Badger State lakes, including one vessel that dates back to 2500 B.C.
The discovery was announced by the Wisconsin Historical Society in a press release on May 23. The canoe was discovered on Lake Mendota outside Madison.
The Wisconsin Historical Society explained that two ancient canoes were discovered in a cache on the lake in 2021 and 2022. Since then, historians have found at least 11 other ancient canoes along the ancient shoreline that appear to have been submerged over time.
Not all of the canoes will be removed from the lake because they are fragile. In an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Dr. Amy Rosebrough, an archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, explained the significance of the find.
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The discovery of the ancient canoe was announced last week in a press release from the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
“Native peoples in Wisconsin and across the United States actively engaged in fishing, traveling and trading on inland lakes and rivers, but their canoes in the Great Lakes region have not been clearly studied,” she explained.
“In modern terms, it’s like trying to understand life in the Midwest without ever seeing a real pickup truck. Canoes allowed people to fish in deeper lakes, carry goods hundreds of miles away, and travel farther.”
Rosebrough added that he believes there are ruins of an ancient village beneath the lake that have yet to be discovered. Divers have found stone tools in the lake, and experts believe there are many other hidden ruins beneath it.
“But Lake Mendota is a difficult lake to work on,” Rosebrough acknowledged. “We have limited visibility to conduct diving missions, and we are researching non-destructive remote sensing techniques that may be useful this summer.”
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Archaeologists have discovered an ancient canoe in the murky waters of Lake Mendota. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
“Even if we don’t find a village, the discovery of these canoes and the tools found inside the first canoe, a human-made stone tool called a net sinker, reminds us that people have been living and working near the lake for thousands of years.”
Radiocarbon dating has determined that the oldest canoe dates back to 2500 BCE, which means it was built around the same time as Stonehenge. The canoe was built more than 1,700 years before the first Roman settlement and 2,500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
The canoes all vary in age, with the most recent dating to 1250 AD. Archaeologists explained that the canoes “may have been deliberately hidden underwater during the winter, a standard practice to protect them from freezing and deformation.”
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The canoes are all different ages, and because they are fragile, not all of them will be removed from the lake. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
“This practice of storing canoes for the winter has probably been carried out in roughly the same location for generations because of nearby settlements, or what we’re seeing is just a window into a much larger area that may make up a large portion of the lakeshore,” she explained.
Rosebrough added that while Lake Mendota is small compared to the Great Lakes, the south-central Wisconsin lake is huge when it comes to archaeological potential.
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Archaeologists used carbon dating to determine the canoe’s age. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
“The Great Lakes often receive a lot of funding for maritime archaeology, but even smaller lakes like Lake Mendota have their own history and stories to tell us about the people who lived here hundreds and thousands of years ago,” she said. “We’re proud to work with Wisconsin Native American tribes to discover all we can about Tea-Waxikominak and share these stories now and in the future at the new Wisconsin History Center, scheduled to open in early 2027.”
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