Artifacts found on park site

Digging at the so-called Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve, which will be created as part of the reconstruction of Highway W in the Village of Saukville, has uncovered “rather large” evidence of Native Americans dating back almost 2,000 years, officials reported last week.

Research by the Wisconsin Historical Society discovered four separate locations, the largest of which is about two acres, where artifacts were found, Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told members of the Natural Resources Committee last week.

Artifacts found at the site are “pre-contact,” meaning before Europeans were present in the area, and date from the first or second century. They include pottery, arrowheads and other tools, Struck and workers at the site said last week.

Struck said remains of a structure dating to the early 1800s also was found but was severely degraded.

Struck said the findings were made before Thanksgiving.

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 highway portion of 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.

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.

The Historical Society’s research is usually routine, but Struck said officials were not completely surprised at the findings since the site is near Peninsula Park, the location of historic rendezvous of Native Americans, trappers and other pioneers.

“We thought they might find something,” he said.

The findings will require the river channel to be adjusted, Struck said.

“The channel ran right through the main, rather large, site,” Struck said.

Another smaller site is under the roadway but it’s not significant enough to merit rerouting the road, he said.

Struck said the two-acre site 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.

“It may be no more than signage calling attention to the site but we may be able to do some educational programming too,” Struck said.

The presence of ancient residents was found by digging pilot holes around the site and then expanding the search when evidence was found.

The process continued, working out from the pilot holes until the boundaries were set.

Officials with the Historical Society did not return messages seeking comment.

Last week, Historical Society staff, assisted by county Highway Department workers, were at work excavating the site  using a backhoe, “peeling off three to four inches of dirt at a time,” Struck said.

“It’s an amazingly complicated project but we have a path forward,” he said.

Struck said work on the site is being shut down because of the weather and will resume in spring.

The findings have caused a delay in the highway and park projects and will add about $75,000 to its cost, Struck said.

But the additional cost will be covered through contingency funds, he added.

Meanwhile, the committee voted to apply for another state grant to help mitigate the effects of flooding.

Struck said the county was invited to apply for the Wisconsin Emergency Management Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience Implementation Grant.

“They (state officials) strongly encouraged us to apply,” Struck said. “We are asking for the maximum amount,” which could be up to $250,000.

Despite the invitation, Struck said being awarded the grant isn’t a certainty.

“It’s highly competitive,” he said.

The county was invited to apply after the state Emergency Management Department awarded a similar grant to the county for work on Sucker Brook in the Town of Port Washington. “We’re running into additional costs (on the project) and this will help cover that,” Struck said.

The new grant requires a county match of $83,333.

The County Board must approve the application and acceptance of the grant.

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