UW-La Crosse MVAC

05/28/2026

Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society

05/28/2026

This 500-year-old Oneota garbage pit represents a time capsule in which material was dumped within a brief period, perhaps as short as a week. The pit might have been dug initially to store food crops but once the food was removed, it was reused to dispose of village refuse. The pit contains broken pottery, flakes, a turtle shell, mussel shells and other artifacts. A volunteer is excavating one level of the feature, using trowels, picks, brushes, and bagging samples of soil for flotation. The garbage pit was excavated in the early 1990s from a site in the La Crosse area.

05/21/2026

Courtesy La Crosse County Historical Society

On this date in 1870, the Steamboat War Eagle burned and sank at dock on the Black River just north of Riverside Park.

These bottles are part of a collection of 700+ objects that were recovered from the War Eagle wreck.* LCHS's collection of War Eagle artifacts is unique. No other sunken steamboat from the Upper Mississippi River is represented by this many artifacts. These items are a treasure for the historian and the community, forming a time capsule from 1870.

All of these bottles and other artifacts from the War Eagle are currently on display at the La Crosse Area Heritage Center.

*Today, it is illegal to salvage materials from this or any other historic submerged boat wreck on inland waters.

More information about the War Eagle collection: https://www.lchshistory.org/the-war-eagle/

05/21/2026

The Mississippi and smaller rivers and streams provided many fish, with freshwater drum, catfish, northern pike, suckers, gar, bowfin, bullheads and sturgeon popular. Fishing techniques have been suggested from the nature of some of the artifacts recovered. They can also be suggested from the nature and size of the fish. Large fish may have been speared. Nets and seines would have been the most efficient way to harvest schools of smaller fish in the shallow backwaters. Even crayfish and turtles were eaten. Pictured is a bone harpoon (left) and two netsinkers (right).

05/14/2026

MVAC Volunteer Field Survey Results

For 2026, the MVAC Volunteer Field Survey headed to the Black River Falls area and a lovely wooded patch of land overlooking the Black River. A total of 29 volunteers, including UWL students and the public, excavated shovel tests to identify cultural materials. There were lots of flakes in several holes, particularly nearer the river, but we also had a number of sterile units, allowing us to draw boundaries around the new site.

We also found a nice Steuben Expanded Stem and some flakes within one corner of the project area. This may relate to a previously reported site that had little information recorded before we got into the field.

So, beautiful weather, lots of good archaeology, no mosquitoes and only a few ticks-what more could you ask for? Thanks to the landowners for letting us test their property. We hope to regather at MVAC this summer to wash the material.