10,000 Years of History Along the Sugar River: Initial Results of the State Highway 69 Archaeological Survey
As part of our "Learn About Local" speaker series, come and hear from the researchers that grabbed an opportunity to do an archaeological study in Belleville during the summer 2015 highway construction.
Presented by Paul Reckner and Luther J. Leith, Wisconsin Historical Society – Museum Archaeology Program
The areas we now known as Verona and Montrose Townships have been home to humans since the glaciers of the last major period of glacial advance began to recede between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. The rich and diverse landscape they left behind in the Upper Sugar River Watershed has attracted people to the area ever since; high ridges and bedrock outcrops, prairie-covered terraces, rich floodplains, extensive wetlands, plentiful natural springs, and of course the Sugar River itself. This landscape has supported a wide range of human communities over the millennia, and all of these groups have left behind distinct traces.
The recent archaeological survey of the State Highway 69 corridor between Verona and Belleville has uncovered evidence of this deep history, from the first Paleo-Indian hunting bands to early nineteenth-century homesteaders. This talk presents some of the initial results of this ongoing research, and an overview of the geological and cultural history that makes the Upper Sugar River Watershed such a unique place.