This story was originally published by PBS Wisconsin and ICT, a nonprofit news organization covering Indigenous issues and communities.
“We found something,” Tamara Thomsen said. “Here — you 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!”
Thomsen is a maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society. She went on a recreational dive to the bottom of Lake Mendota in 2021 to collect fisherman debris, and told a colleague she saw a long slope exposed through 24 feet of water…