Madison Wisc (Lake Mendota - divers found a dug out canoe)

[Jasper]

1200 YEARS OLD , IS A VERY RARE FIND FOR WISCONSIN.

Even though some waters in Wisc. are cold enough to preserve objects .. Madison is about 60 miles latitude north of Chicago...
(one of the warmer locations in Wisconsin)
EX- Lake Superior that borders Wisconsin has many vessels still in tack because of the frigid water temps.

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/w...home-top-story

[baudkarma]

I can't read the story, unfortunately. Too bad, it sounds interesting.

[Jasper]

Tamara Thomsen and Mallory Dragt thought they would take a spin under Lake Mendota on a couple of underwater scooters, motorized gadgets that scuba divers use to propel themselves through the water.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in June, and the duo, who work at Diversions Scuba, debated whether they had just seen a log sticking out of the bottom of the 9,781-acre lake or something extremely rare.

The discovery, on a slope in 27 feet of water near Shorewood Hills, has turned out to be about as historic as it gets.

Dugout canoe
A 1,200-year-old dugout canoe was raised from Lake Mendota Tuesday by the Wisconsin Historical Society. The canoe was discovered in June during a recreational dive and is the oldest intact boat ever recovered from Wisconsin waters. The canoe will undergo preservation efforts over the next two years before it can be displayed in a museum.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
After a bit of investigation, it turns out that Thomsen, who is also a maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society, was right in judging that it was more than just a log: It was a dugout canoe. A few weeks later, carbon-14 dating showed that the 15-foot-long vessel was an estimated 1,200 years old, the oldest intact boat ever found in Wisconsin waters.

On a brisk Tuesday, amid a chop of waves and 50-degree water, the canoe was brought to shore by teams of divers who shared fist bumps and hugs to applause from residents of the Spring Harbor neighborhood who had gathered at the beach to witness the canoe’s return to shore.

Dugout canoe
Bystanders watch as yellow floats are used to bring a dugout canoe to Spring Harbor Beach. The 1-mile trip took nearly two hours.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
“This is the first time this thing has been out of the water in 1,200 years. And maybe they left from this very beach to go fishing,” said James Skibo, Wisconsin’s state archaeologist. “Not only has it been underwater; it’s been under the ground. The reason it’s so well preserved is that it has not been exposed to the light. So that’s one of the reasons we have to start preserving it. There’s living organisms on it that are chewing away on it as we speak.”



Canoe graphic.JPG
Kelly Meyerhofer
The canoe will ultimately be displayed in the Historical Society’s proposed new and expanded museum on Capitol Square. But for the next two years, it will undergo a series of treatments. The first, in a 16-foot-long, 3-foot-wide tank at the State Archive Preservation Facility on Madison’s Near East Side, will preserve its liquid environment, although mixed in the water will be a biocide to kill any algae or microorganisms. That’s followed with a treatment of polyethylene glycol designed to replace the water that has saturated the wood.

The process will make the structure more solid and stable, and prevent further degradation, said Amy Rosebrough, a leading expert on the Effigy Mound builders of Wisconsin, who likely made the canoe and inhabited villages and encampments around Lake Mendota and throughout much of southern Wisconsin. A cache of net sinkers, used to weigh down fishing nets, was also found with the canoe, which could have been made from basswood or a walnut tree, two common woods used for dugouts during that time frame.

Dugout canoe
Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist who discovered the Native American dugout canoe in June in Lake Mendota, celebrates the recovery Tuesday with Jim Skibo, Wisconsin's state archaeologist. The canoe was placed in an enclosed trailer for its trip from Spring Harbor Beach to the State Archive Preservation Facility on Madison's Near East Side.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
“This is extraordinarily rare,” said Rosebrough. “We really don’t have anything like this from Wisconsin. We have found pieces of dugouts before in various lakes (but) nothing this intact and nothing intact this old. It’s a fragile piece.”

Wisconsin is home to hundreds of shipwrecks in lakes Superior and Michigan. Many occurred in the 1800s and early 1900s and have led to a Maritime Trails initiative that encourages divers, snorkelers, boaters, maritime enthusiasts and tourists to visit wrecks in lakes. There’s also the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, a 962-square-mile area that protects 36 shipwrecks between Port Washington and southern Kewaunee County. Another 59 wrecks have yet to be found in the sanctuary.