MVAC Home

The Sand Lake project near La Crosse was one of the most significant research efforts in MVAC's history. This multiyear project provided an unprecedented look at the sophisticated agricultural practices of Indigenous occupants of the area over five hundred years ago. Surface surveys conducted by UW-L staff and students and local volunteers found a concentration of Oneota sites around the mouth of Sand Lake Coulee, a small tributary valley northeast of Onalaska. Excavations in 1982, 1984, and 1986, supported in part by funding from the National Science Foundation and Earthwatch, found perfectly preserved ridged fields buried under later sediments. The discoveries earned national attention and even appeared on the cover of American Antiquity, the journal of the Society for American Archaeology. Besides the importance of the finds themselves, the project's Earthwatch connection took public participation--and awareness of these fragile cultural resources--to the national and international level. In subsequent years, expanding modern development triggered additional excavations in habitation sites surrounding the ridged fields. Today the area is almost entirely developed, with only small areas preserved, but knowledge of how Indigenous peoples shaped and made use of the land remains.

Link to learn more about the Sand Lake Archaeological District.