By James Heinz
In a previous article https://wmhs.org/wisconsins-oldest-shipwreck/ I reported on Wisconsin State Underwater Archeologist Tamara Thomsen finding a sunken 1,200 year old dugout in Lake Mendota in 2020. By 2024 the Wisconsin Canoe Survey, headed by Thomsen and Dr. Sissel Schroeder, had documented 75 dugouts in the state. https://schroeder.labs.wisc.edu/research-projects/the-wisconsin-dugout-canoe-survey-project/
Sixteen of the 73 canoes are sunk in Lake Mendota along the ancient shoreline. All of them are clustered along the lake’s current southwest shoreline near Shorewood Hills. The oldest canoe found there is from 5,200 years ago, which is 1,000 years older than the Egyptian Pyramids.
At a lecture I attended, Dr. Schroeder explained that Native Americans did not believe in individual ownership of property. They considered canoes the collective property of all. She compared the use of the canoes to the modern use of E-bikes and scooters: Use it when you want it and leave it for someone else to use when you are done. Tamara Thomsen said that the area where they are found can best be described as a parking lot for ancient canoes.
She said the reason so many canoes were found in one place is that they were being used by Native Americans visiting nearby Lake Wingra, and burial and effigy mounds in the area, both of which they considered sacred.
Dr. Schroeder said that the ancient watercraft were uncovered by modern watercraft: wake boats. Wake boats made for water skiing produce a much deeper wake than conventional boats. As the wake boats approach the Shorewood Hills shoreline today, they turn away to avoid running aground and their deeper wakes have blown the silt off the sunken canoes.
Canoe on the bottom of Lake Mendota courtesy of Wisconsinshipwrecks.org
Two Lake Mendota canoes have been removed by Tamara Thomsen for conservation. The others, like the one found in Pewaukee Lake, will be left in place. Thomsen described the recovered canoes as having the consistency of wet cardboard, which makes moving them without damage difficult.
The recovered canoes have been digitally scanned and can be viewed at the survey project website. They are currently undergoing a multi-year stabilization project which involved submerging them in polyethylene glycol. They are scheduled to be displayed in the new Wisconsin Historical Society when it opens in 2027.
If you find what you think is an ancient canoe, contact Tamara Thomsen at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
