protect their interests and halt construction. In
recent days, divers announced the discovery of
a 150 year old shipwreck in Lake Michigan. The Lac La
Belle steamer ship sank in 1872, in Madison.
Historical underwater discoveries date much, much
older. Of the 16 ancient canoes found in Lake
Mendota, the oldest is 1200 years old, dating back to
indigenous water travel "Here& Now", and ICT
reporter Erica Ayisi tracks their discovery and
preservation. >> Here you can see how the
contour lines are a little bit flatter. We made it to
this turnaround and that's where the canoe was. Lots
of cool stuff you can find in the lake. Just got to go
look. >> Tamara Thomsen maritime
archeologist for the Wisconsin Historical
Society, went on a recreational dive to the
bottom of Lake Mendota in 2021 to collect fishermen
debris and told a colleague she saw a long slope
exposed through 24ft of water.
>> You know, I really think that was a dugout canoe. I
don't think that that was that was just a random
piece of wood on the bottom. But we should get another
tank and we should go out. And I think I can find it
again. >> But only the top portion
was exposed. So the bottom was still covered with silt
and it was just pristine. And it was so nice that I
thought, well, it can't be old.
archeologists pulled the canoe from the lake and
through radiocarbon data analysis, found it to be
1200 years old or Jung two Moore very, very ancient
canoes were found a year later.
>> One ended up being 3000 years old, which is
recovered in in the tank. And then we found another
one next to it, a little bit shorter, 2000 years old.
>> Thompson says the canoes are at least 15ft long and
made of cottonwood, elm and oak.
>> Red oak is very porous, and so they they would have
had to understand how to seal that cellular
structure in the canoe when they were building it, in
order to make the vessel watertight.
>> A total of 16 canoes were found in Lake Mendota
between 2022 and 2025. The oldest is 5200 years old.
>> To put yourself in that place and think what were
what were these people like? What were they doing in
these canoes? And then why are all these canoes in
this one spot? >> So at what point in this
did you start reaching out to Wisconsin's native
nations? >> Before any of the canoes
were recovered? There was consultation with with the
native nations of Wisconsin. >> Lawrence Plucinski,
Tribal historic preservation officer for
the bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, helped
with the preservation process. When the second
canoe was pulled from the lake, he says his ancestors
used inland waterways as transportation between one
side of the lake to the other to harvest, hunt, and
fish. >> You couldn't carry much
because they weren't like the total dugout type
canoes, you know, some were more leveler.
>> So what does that mean? The fact that they didn't
carry and take them with them, they were left there.
>> The canoes were not owned by each individual or
whatever. It was like a community.
>> There are no plans to move the remaining 14
canoes that are sitting here at the bottom of Lake
Mendota. In a decision made collaboratively between
Thompson and Wisconsin's native nations with the
goal of responsible stewardship.
>> We're not in the business of bringing up the
canoes, especially the shape that they were in.
They were they were broke apart in your hand if you
brought them up. >> The two extracted canoes
are sitting in a makeshift tank filled with
polyethylene glycol at the State Preservation Facility
in Madison to stabilize the fragile but heavy wood and
then freeze dry them. >> Any water that's left in
the cellular structure will be taken off.
>> One canoe will be stored at the preservation
facility, and the other will be on display at the
upcoming Wisconsin History Center, where Plucinski
says their indigenous history can be preserved.
>> Let our knowledge be told, you know, let our our
history be told of how we traveled.
>> In Madison. I'm Eric >> In Madison. I'm Eric