At this site approximately 4,500 years ago, Wisconsin Indians gathered to bury their dead. Because of their use of copper tools, weapons and ornaments, this group became known as the Old Copper people. They fashioned spearpoints, knives and fishhooks from pure copper nuggets that may have been transported from mines as far away as Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Through a process of heating and hammering, the nuggets were made into tools and various other objects.
Old Copper people lived by hunting game, fishing, and collecting plant foods. They interred some of their dead in graves and cremated others in pits. Implements of copper, stone, bone and shell were buried with them.
This particular site was excavated in 1952 by the Wisconsin Archaeological Survey and the Oconto County Historical Society.
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