Four years after discovering a 1,200-year-old dugout canoe in Lake Mendota, archaeologists with the Wisconsin Historical Society and regional First Nations continue to uncover new details from one of the most significant underwater archaeological sites in the Great Lakes.
Since retrieving the first canoe in 2021 and a second—estimated at 3,000 years old—in 2022, researchers have identified 14 additional ancient canoes still submerged in the lakebed. Six of those were found in the spring of 2025. As preservation work on the two recovered vessels nears completion, investigators are developing n