Minnesota's oldest dwelling found on a former island

The hill here used to be an island. People lived and hunted here for 3,000 years before the lake was drained for farmland between 1905 and 1906.

Archaeologists found a round dwelling here that is roughly 2,100 years old. It is the oldest dwelling yet found in Minnesota. The amount of material uncovered on the dwelling site indicated that it had been used for only one winter season, making it a remarkably intact snapshot of life in the Middle Woodland period.

These people lived in relative isolation. They used wide-mouthed pottery with cord-wrapped paddle marks and stayed away from the big trade routes of the Mississippi River. They might be ancestors of the Crow and Hidatsa people, who eventually moved toward North Dakota.

In the 1970s, the county turned the old island into a park. They built a road and some picnic shelters nearby. You can still walk the undeveloped rise of the hill to watch the birds.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons