Copper Culture State Park

The 42-acre Copper Culture State Park is on the north side of the Oconto River on the west side of the City of Oconto. It was the site of a prehistoric cemetery of the Old Copper Complex people who occupied the northern Midwest about 2500 B.C.

You can fish from the shore of the Oconto River at Copper Culture State Park.
DNR Photo

The park has a picnic area, ball diamond, grass, brush, and a few groves of trees. A road leads to a plaque describing the prehistoric importance of the property. The park is for day use only.

An independently-operated museum in an old farmhouse details the life of the Copper Complex. The museum is open from from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

Copper Culture Park is in Wisconsin's Northern Lake Michigan Coastal Landscape.

History

During the 1920s, a gravel company removed much of the cemetery and perhaps the entire living area.

The Excavations

The archaeological site was discovered by 13-year-old Donald Baldwin while digging in the abandoned gravel quarry in 1952. Archeologists soon learned about the discovery, and Reuben La Fave and George Hall of the Oconto County Historical Society began informal test excavations. When this initial investigation revealed burials and copper artifacts, Robert Ritzenthaler and Arthur Niehoff of the Milwaukee Public Museum became interested and began formal excavations as part of the Wisconsin Archeological Survey.

These excavations revealed 21 burial pits, about 45 individuals. If the parts of the cemetery destroyed by the gravel quarry had the same concentration of burials, Ritzenthaler estimated that the site may have contained as many as 200 individuals.

Associated with the burials were numerous artifacts. Those made of copper include 7 awls, 4 crescents, 3 clasps, 1 socketed-tang point, 1 fishtail tang, point, 1 ovoid point with broken tang, 1 fishhook, 1 bracelet, a section of tubing spirally coiled, a rivet, a spatula, and 4 small unidentified pieces. Two points and a triangular scraper were the only chipped-stone artifacts found with the burials. Four other points and ten more copper awls were found in the sand layers above the graves. Bone artifacts in the burial pits include a whistle made from a swan liumerus and an awl from a fish mandible.

Pond snail beads, a fresh water clam whose nearest present source is the Mississippi, and a whelk shell native to the Southern Atlantic Coastal States illustrate the use of shell and the presence of trade in order to obtain certain materials. Two lumps of hematite, and some turtle and duck bones were also unearthed. Many of these artifacts are now at the Oconto County Historical Society Museum in Oconto.

Although the site is mainly a cemetery, numerous post molds were recorded and mapped during the excavation. Two contained fragments of charcoal.

This was the second recorded Old Copper Complex site. As such, it helped to establish the characteristics of this cultural complex in greater detail. The Old Copper Complex is considered a Late Archaic (hunting and gathering, pre-pottery, pre-agriculture) manifestation. The copper tools and the technology of hammering and annealing represents some of the earliest examples of metalworking in the world..

Oconto also provided radiocarbon dates of 5600 B.C. and 7500 B.C. for the Old Copper Complex. Although these dates have since been discredited, they stirred up a great deal of interest during their time. The most recent dates from Oconto and other similar sites, indicate that the Old Copper Complex people inhabited the area about 3000 to 2000 B.C. The copper artifacts of the northern Midwest have attracted a great deal of attention because their abundance was such a unique phenomenon in North America.

Note: Cultural heritage sites on public lands (including archaeological sites) are protected against disturbance, including artifact collecting, under provisions of applicable federal, state, and local laws. Burial sites are protected against unauthorized disturbance on both public and private lands.

How to Get There

From U.S. Highway 41 in Oconto, take State Highway 22 (Main Street) west. Take the first left onto Mott Street, and then a slight left on Mill Street. Continue straight into the park. Geographic coordinates are 44° 53' 13.2" N, 87° 53' 55.2" W.

More Information

Master Plan [PDF, 168KB]
National Register of Historic Places Nomination [Exit DNR, PDF, 374KB]
Oconto County Historical Society [exit DNR]

For more information, ask Maggie Kailhofer at Governor Thompson State Park, N10008 Paust Lane, Crivitz, (715) 757-3979, or Monette Bebow-Reinhard, museum curator, (920) 826-7304.