Ancient encampment to pay off for oxbow park

The discovery of an ancient Indian encampment along the Milwaukee River in Saukville will pay unexpected dividends where work is planned for reconstructing Highway W and a new park is planned, Ozaukee County supervisors were told last week.

The so-called Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve, which will be created as part of the reconstruction of Highway W, in November uncovered evidence of the encampment dating back about 1,500 years.

Research by the Wisconsin Historical Society discovered four separate locations, the largest of which is about two acres, where artifacts were found.

Artifacts found at the site are “pre-contact,” meaning before Europeans were present in the area. They include pottery, arrowheads and other tools.

The Historical Society was hired by the county to conduct “cultural and historical”  research on the site where Highway W will be reconstructed to help alleviate flooding.

The project seeks to raise Highway W, move it slightly east and add two culverts under it.

The culverts will allow the Milwaukee River when it rises, to flow under the road into the historic oxbow and then flow back out, helping keep the highway open to traffic during rainy weather.

It will still be subject to closure during 100-year storms, officials say.

In decades past, work on Highway W removed the oxbow, forcing the river to flow over the road, often closing it to traffic.

The project will create a 67-acre park that will include land donated by the Village of Saukville.

But finding the encampment will require moving the river channel farther east. That will expand the park by about 13 acres and almost triple the wetlands in the park from about two acres to about six, county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck said.

About two acres of wetlands west of the road will also be restored by moving the road east, Struck said.

Moving the channel east will allow it to connect with another river channel that runs under Green Bay Avenue.

“We now can do a much larger oxbow that more accurately replicates the original oxbow,” Struck said. “We feel this is going to work out very well.”

Struck said the encampment will be an added feature to the park, which will include a kayak launch and be suitable for passive recreation activities like fishing and walking.

Struck said he anticipates a trail system that will skirt the encampment and include signage explaining what was found there.

Because the road and the wetland restoration projects are seen as one, the county is saving up to $700,000 by not having to buy wetlands mitigation credits, Struck said.

Nearly $4 million in state and federal grants have been committed to the project, which should be completed in 2027, Struck said.