I L L U S T R A T I O N BY M I C H A E L S C H M I D T
50 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION V O L U N T E E R
THE PAST
BY M A R G A R E T A .
HAAPOJA
A r c h a e o l o g i s t s are u n c o v e r i n g
key pieces i n tke puzzle o f k u m a n
kistory at M i n n e s o t a state parks.
A
s we walked beneath tall red
pines in McCarthy Beach
State Park campground one
chilly October afternoon,
archaeologist Dave Radford
said recent excavations revealed that people
camped here more than 10,000 years ago.
A raw wind blowing across Side Lake felt
like it could have come across the glacial
ice sheet receding north around that time.
I pictured men huddled around a campfire,
feasting on caribou and perhaps boasting
about the day's successful hunt. I imagined
women scraping hides for tanning while
children played along the shore. I wondered
what those early campers would think of the
motor home parked here today.
"This nice isthmus between the two lakes is
a classic example of the kind of location where
we put our campgrounds today' Radford said.
"It's about the prettiest place you could find,
and that was true in prehistoric times too."
In fact, most prehistoric habitation sites in
Minnesota tend to be near lakes, according to
state archaeologist Scott Anfinson. As a result,
he said, today's booming lakeside development
could be destroying thousands of such sites.
4 9
"A hundred years from now, perhaps the
only intact archaeological sites will be found
in large, undeveloped holdings, such as state
parks and state and national forests," he said.
"To ensure that we don't lose the insight into
our past they provide, it is critical that we try
to protect archaeological sites on state and
federal property."
That is just what Radford and other
archaeologists are doing in Minnesota's
state parks and recreation areas. Before
construction of buildings and roads, they
survey sites that might hold artifacts.
"Written word in Minnesota dates back
about 375 years," Radford said. "That accounts
for about 3 percent of the time that humans
were present in the state. Archaeology, along
with American Indian oral traditions, is key
to understanding the other 97 percent of
human occupation in Minnesota."
Most archaeologists agree Minnesota's first
inhabitants migrated here as the last major
glacier receded about 12,000 years ago. We
Lake
Project Area
Little
Sturgeon
Lake
/
YEARS
IN
2 FEET OF
Side Lake
SOIL
top
of the graph contained artifacts from the
W o o d l a n d p e r i o d ( 1 0 0 0 B.C. t o A.D. 1 7 0 0 ) .
The yellowish b r o w n loamy sand
beneath
t h a t layer contained artifacts from
the
p r e c e d i n g P a l e o - l n d i a n p e r i o d ( 1 2 , 0 0 0 B.C.
t o 9 , 0 0 0 B.C.).
A t t h e left-hand side o f the g r a p h , t h e soil
w a s d i s t u r b e d b y a tree fall in t h e p a s t . Y o u
c a n a l s o see t h e r o o t s o f a r e c e n t l y c u t tree
t h a t w a s g r o w i n g o n the site.
I n t h e p h o t o , t h e bare layer o f soil a t t h e
b o t t o m o f t h e d i g is barren o f artifacts, as it
d a t e s back t o t h e last Ice A g e w h e n t h e land
w a s covered b y glacier. Today, a p o r t i o n o f t h e
site is a paved p a r k i n g lot.
Grayish brown to dark brown loamy sand
I
Brown to dark yellowish brown loamy sand
I
Yellowish brown medium coarse sand
^ ^ H
Light olive brown sand
Root
F i r s t Inhabitants
Sturgeon
10,000
The d a r k b r o w n , l o a m y s a n d at t h e
Tree Fall disturbance
H
T F
know little about the daily life of these Paleolndian people because little of their material culture remains in the soil. Durable stone
spear points and scant evidence of campsites
lead archaeologists to think that they traveled
through the area in small groups, hunting large
game such as woodland caribou and nowextinct species of bison and mammoth.
As time went on, these nomadic people
Margaret A. Haapoja, freelance
writer
and frequent contributor to Minnesota
Conservation Volunteer, lives on Little Sand
Lake, south of Calumet.
52 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION V O L U N T E E R
N o r t h wall
of an e x c a v a t i o n site at McCarthy
S o i l profile
graph
of n o r t h wall,
became more settled. In the Archaic period
they harvested game and plants seasonally
from selected regions. They crafted tools from
stone that came from quarries both near and
far, indicating the beginnings of extensive
trade networks. They began using pottery for
cooking and storing food. Archaeologists call
this the Woodland period, datingfromabout
1000 B.C. to A.D. 1700.
As a Minnesota Historical Society archaeologist assigned to work with the DNR,
Radford began looking for evidence of
thesefirstinhabitants in state parks in 1984.
Since then, Radford and his archaeologiMAY-JUNE 2 0 0 6
same
Beach S t a t e Park, 1 9 9 4
excavation
cal teams have surveyed more than 500
sites slated for bike trails, buildings, campgrounds, and other construction projects.
State, and sometimes federal, laws mandate
such archaeological assessment prior to
development in state parks.
Working with American Indian tribes is
an important part of conducting archaeology. The Minnesota Indian Affairs
Council, a liaison between the state and
11 tribal governments, helps oversee the
protection of sites with American Indian
heritage. For example, the council's cultural resources specialist, Jim Jones, assisted
51
they dug up 10-foot-by-13-foot sections to a
depth of about 2 feet. They worked their way
down in 2.5-inch increments—"like a layer
cake," Radford said—recording what they
found on each level and mapping each find.
They found artifacts such as burnt animal
More T h a n 1 , 6 0 0 Artifacts bones from elk and bison, fire-cracked rocks
After checking archaeological records at the from hearths, and copper scraps and stone
Minnesota Historical Society and the Fort chips from tool making along the shoreline
Snelling History Center to see if any previous and in the campground as well as in nearly
fieldwork uncovered artifacts, Radford and all of their shovel tests.
his team "go out and do a surface reconnais"That's a pretty good density of positive
sance," said Radford, "look on the ground for shovel tests," said Radford. "I think this site
artifacts and cultural features. Next we'll go could have been occupied and reoccupied
in and do patterned shovel testing. We grid many times. What we do know is that we
the project area off and put in a shovel test have a Paleo-lndian occupation here about
every 50 feet, digging a hole that's a foot and 10,000 years ago, and then we have all kinds
a half wide and throwing all the fill onto a of Woodland occupations that are 800 to
screen to sift out artifacts. If we find some- 2,500 years old."
thing, we'll excavate larger units and evaluate
For nearly a month, the team unearthed
how important the site is."
stone tools, including arrow and spear
At McCarthy Beach State Park, they deter- points, stone scrapers, choppers, and knives.
mined that an area beneath the parking lot They also found several small tools of copwas going to be most impacted by paving, so per, which were probably used as awls or
in rerouting a hiking trail near an ancient
cemetery in Itasca State Park. Jones recommended that the park neither publicize
nor interpret the cemetery mounds but
simply protect them.
NATIONAL
LANDMARK
An outstanding example of
period of human occupation in
archaeology in state parks is
central Minnesota.
Mille Lacs Kathio, the only
were there around 1680.
On the first Sunday in June,
Among the finds is evidence
Mille Lacs Kathio State Park
National Historic Landmark
of prehistoric villages of the
in Minnesota designated
Mdewakanton Dakota tribe
knapping, pottery making,
because of its archaeological
that hosted Sieur du Luht and
and spear t h r o w i n g . During
has demonstrations of flint
significance. For more than a
Father Hennepin in the 1600s.
the year the park also hosts
century, archaeologists have
Archaeologists have recovered
archaeological tours in 10-
studied our prehistoric heritage
glass beads and metal objects,
person voyageur canoes and
here. To date, t h e y have
including the finger rings that
on snowshoes. See w w w . d n r .
discovered more than 30 sites
French Jesuit missionaries gave
state. mn.us/state_parks/
of early settlements spanning
t o Indians. Small seals on the
m i l l e J a c s _ k a t h i o . Or call
9,000 y e a r s — m o s t of the
rings show that the Jesuits
320-532-3523.
52
MINNESOTA CONSERVATION V O L U N T E E R
ARTIFACTS
FROM
A
MCCARTHY
BEACH STATE
Jasper t a c o n i t e drill p o i n t
PARK
remade
from
spear point, Paleo-lndian period.
B
Scraper remade from spear point,
Paleo-
lndian period.
C
S t o n e scraper, W o o d l a n d
D
Stone arrow point, Woodland
period.
E
Knife
period.
River flint scraper, age
unknown;
the o n l y nonlocal stone artifact found
at
this site.
F
Jasper t a c o n i t e scraper, age u n k n o w n .
G, H , I C e r a m i c p o t t e r y s h a r d s , m i d d l e W o o d l a n d p e r i o d ( 3 0 0 B.C. t o A . D . 9 0 0 ) .
J, K , L C e r a m i c p o t t e r y s h a r d s , l a t e W o o d l a n d
period (A.D. 9 0 0 t o A.D. 1 7 0 0 ) .
MAY-JUNE 2 0 0 6
53
COPPER
F I N D S AT S I D E
LAKE
These copper artifacts could not be definitively aged.
Copper was used from the late Paleo-lndian period into
the Woodland period. The eventual decline of copper use
among Woodland Indians is attributed to the exhaustion
of easily accessed copper resources at Isle Royale, the
Pine City area, and the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper
Michigan.
A
Copper awl used t o perforate hides.
B
Copper needle.
C
Unidentified fragment of a copper object.
A
perforators for decorating leather. And they
unearthed pottery shards, ceramic fragments that once formed whole pots. The
team spent another five months washing,
cataloging, and analyzing 1,629 artifacts.
After mapping and photographing
the artifacts, the team sent them to the
Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.
Interpretive displays with reproductions of
some of the artifacts are being prepared for
the park office.
Copper T r a d e
McCarthy Beach assistant park manager
"Copper artifacts are pretty rare to find in Dave Ellis Hollenhorst watched Radford
Minnesota," Radford said. "The copper that and his team painstakingly sift through the
these early residents worked could have soil, one shovelful at a time. He shared the
been found loose in the glacial deposits in excitement of the archaeologists, piecing
the area, or it could have been traded with together the past and looking at the larger
people from Isle Royale, where there were picture of who lived here and when and
how they lived.
American Indian copper mines."
One of the most interesting finds was a pro"Pieces of rock the size of crumbs came to
jectile point made ofjasper taconite, a common life and somehow connected me to a longmaterial found in outcrops on the Canadian dead camper of the past," Ellis Hollenhorst
Shield on Minnesota's Iron Range.
said. "It's a human connection between the
"A classic Paleo-lndian spear point, typi- electrified, air-conditioned camper of today
cal of those used for hunting large game and the mammoth hunter of yesterday." £
animals like bison, caribou, deer, moose,
or elk, had been reworked into a drill," said Archaeological artifacts are protected in
Radford. "Materials like that from 9,000 to Minnesota state parks. If you find an artifact
10,000 years ago are some of the earliest evi- in a state park, leave it where you found it and
dence of occupation in this part of the state, notify park staff. Archaeologists must study
not long after the glaciers receded. Across an artifact in its original location in order to
the state, Paleo-lndian sites are quite rare." properly age and interpret it.
54
MINNESOTA CONSERVATION V O L U N T E E R