located in the town of the same name in Jefferson Co., this site was occupied ca. 1000-1200 A.D. by Mississippian people (q.v.) from Cahokia, near modern St. Louis. Its pyramidal platform mounds, palisaded walls, sophisticated pottery, and conical mounds fascinated early white settlers. Now a state park, it is one of the state's best-known and most often visited archaeological sites.

From Increase Lapham's 1844 Geographical and Topographical Description of Wisconsin:

"This ancient artificial earthwork, consists of an oblong enclosure, about five hundred and fifty yards in length, and two hundred and seventy-five yards in breadth, lying along the bank of the river. The walls are twenty-three feet wide at the base, and four or five feet high, having (except on the river side) an exterior semi-circular enlargement, or buttress, and a corresponding interior recess every twenty-seven yards. In some parts of the wall, and especially in the buttresses, the earth of which it is composed, appears to have been mixed with straw, and burned in such manner as resemble slightly burnt brick. There is no evidence that this substance was ever moulded into regular form. Within this enclosure are several remarkable mounds and excavations, and an unusual number of mounds (many of them very large,) are found in the immediate vicinity, indicating that this spot was once occupied by a very numerous population, which continued to reside here for a great length of time. The place described as the "termination of a sewer about three feet below the surface, and arched with stone," appears to be not a regular arch, nor even a sewer. It is remarked, that we have yet no evidence that the ancient inhabitants of this continent were acquainted with the nature and properties of an arch. Aztalan, according to Humboldt, is the ancient name of the country from which the people of Mexico called Azteeks, emigrated; and this is described as lying far to the north. Hence a little fancy only is necessary to locate this country in Wisconsin, and at the place where the ancient works appear to be most extensive and interesting. These works were first explored, and a deseription of them published, in 1836, by N. F. Hyer, Esq."

View more information elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org

Learn More

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: Turning Points in Wisconsin History]