Incredible Find – 3,000-Year-Old Canoe Found In Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota

Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - An incredible find is being reported from Wisconsin, where an ancient canoe carved from a single piece of white oak has been discovered in Lake Mendota. It's the second time scientists find an ancient canoe found in Wisconsin, and this one is 3,000-year-old, making it the oldest canoe found in the Great Lakes region.

A 3,000-year-old canoe found in Wisconsin's Lake Mendota. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society

As previously reported on AncientPages.com, a canoe was brought to the surface of Lake Mendota last November. Based on the results from the first studies, scientists have confirmed this is the oldest intact boat ever found in Wisconsin waters.

Carbon dating indicates that the vessel is approximately 1,200 years old and was in use around A.D. 800, centuries before European arrival.

The canoe, located in 27 feet of water about 100 yards off the Shorewood Hills shoreline, was discovered by Tamara Thomsen, who was on a recreational dive but is also a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Tamara Thomsen has now discovered yet another ancient canoe in the same lake. While giving a scuba diving lesson in Wisconsin's Lake Mendota she spotted a piece of wood peeking out of the sand. Being a marine archaeologist Thomsen could quickly tell this was a remarkable find.

"This is not a joke. I found another dugout canoe," she texted her boss.

In a press statement, Wisconsin Historical Society's informs maritime archaeologists, alongside partners from Wisconsin’s Native Nations, recovered a 3,000-year-old dugout canoe from Lake Mendota in Madison. Radiocarbon dating performed on the latest canoe places it to 1000 B.C., making it the oldest ever discovered in the Great Lakes region by roughly 1,000 years.

The 3,000-year-old dugout canoe is carved from a single piece of white oak and measures approximately 14.5 feet in length.

Discussions about recovering it from the lakebed began immediately following the discovery, in collaboration with Wisconsin’s Native Nations. It was found in the same area the first canoe was discovered, suggesting that the location of Lake Mendota’s shoreline may have changed over time and could have once been much lower, according to Dr. James Skibo, Wisconsin Historical Society state archaeologist.

“Finding an additional historically significant canoe in Lake Mendota is truly incredible and unlocks invaluable research and educational opportunities to explore the technological, cultural, and stylistic changes that occurred in dugout canoe design over 3,000 years,” said Skibo. “Since it was located within 100 yards of where the first canoe was found at the bottom of a drop-off in the lakebed, the find has prompted us to research fluctuating water levels and ancient shorelines to explore the possibility that the canoes were near what is now submerged village sites.”

Wisconsin Historical Society staff and volunteers remove the canoe from its transport trailer and carry it into the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society

Although it is likely that water transportation dates back to the arrival of Native peoples in this region, this discovery provides the earliest direct evidence. The 3,000-year-old canoe helps to tell a more complete story of the continuum of Native life in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region. Members from the Ho-Chunk Nation and Bad River Tribe were present at the canoe recovery.

“The recovery of this canoe built by our ancestors gives further physical proof that Native people have occupied Teejop (Four Lakes) for millennia, that our ancestral lands are here and we had a developed society of transportation, trade and commerce,” said Ho-Chunk President Marlon WhiteEagle.

“Every person that harvested and constructed this caašgegu (white oak) into a canoe put a piece of themselves into it. By preserving this canoe, we are honoring those that came before us. We appreciate our partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, working together to preserve part of not only our ancestors’ history but our state’s history.”

Wisconsin Historical Society archaeologists, along with skilled volunteers, conducted the excavation and recovery efforts. The canoe was hand-excavated in preparation for today’s recovery mission and then securely transported to the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison for preservation and storage.

This is the first 1,200-year-old canoe found in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society. More on this story here

It will be cleaned and cared for by Tribal members and Society staff before being hand-lowered into a large preservation vat also containing the 1,200-year-old canoe discovered in 2021. Together the canoes will undergo a two-year preservation process that will conclude with freeze-drying to remove any remaining water.

“I was amazed when a 1,200-year-old canoe was uncovered last year, but this discovery of a canoe dating back to 1000 B.C. is just extraordinary,” said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

See also: More Archaeology News

“This incredible finding provides an opportunity for us to work in concert with Tribal Nations to not only study but celebrate the history of the Indigenous people who’ve called this land home since long before Wisconsin became a state, and I look forward to learning more about this artifact’s origins.”

Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com Staff Writer