Aztalan State Park

Aztalan State Park is located in Aztalan, off highway Q, south of Johnson Creek shopping area.  It is listed as a National Historic Landmark.  It contains Wisconsin's most important archaeological site, an ancient Middle Mississippian village that thrived between 1000 and 1300 AD.  It is along the Crawfish river and some ancient mounds and stockade walls have been restored.

It was a wonderfully warm day that Jackie, Kathy and myself decided to go check out Aztalan State Park.  When we got there we found we were the only people in the whole area.  There is a daily fee (self serve) to pay to park in the State Park.  We drove to the end of the road which was closest to the river.  We saw a rustic walking path that lead us to the water, and then alongside it. 



Jackie climbing a tree along the Crawfish River



We basically walked around the whole park, up the three mounds that are there, all the while reading the historic signs that are placed throughout the park.  I thought that the mounds were burial mounds but when archaeologists dug in these mounds in the 1920s, they didnt find burial remains but found a large post set in a pit in the center, surrounded by gravel and soil. Corn was found in the pits. The larger of the two mounds may have been the storage facility for the entire village; or storage for food just for the top village officials; or it may have been used for ceremonies and rituals.  In the northern mound, ash was found.  This mound may have been used for a death ritual.  A small building was constructed.  The floor was covered with a mat of cattails, on which ten people were placed side by side, with their heads towards the doorway, and the bones of another person were bundled together with cord. Once this construction was complete, and the bodies were inside, the building was burned.

The stockade have been restored in various areas.  The stockade is a wall of logs set into the ground vertically. The stockade was then finished by weaving flexible willow branches through the posts, and plastering the whole with a mixture of clay and grass to fill in the gaps.  It is believed the stockade surrounded the whole village.





Kathy, our big game hunter, now known as snakelady, found a grass snake and picked it up.  This was pretty much the only wildlife we saw this day along with a few chipmunks.

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Hope you all feel smarter now that you know a little more about ancient Wisconsin history.  Though Aztalan State Park is not listed as a hiking trail, but we really enjoyed the area and the paths around the Park worked for us!