Document Type

Research

Abstract

In the fall of 1936, members of a C.C.C. Company engaged in excavating a ditch, uncovered the partial remains of several extinct bison in Interstate Park in Northwestern Wisconsin, about 40 miles northeast of St. Paul. The site, located in Polk County and known locally as Mountain Meadow, was a former peat bog situated in an area of drift deposited by the Grantsburg sublobe of the Keewatin ice sheet. The drift has been mapped as Mankato. The find was reported immediately to Dr. Alonzo Pond, an archeologist formerly of Beloit College, who at the time was connected with the National Park Service. Recognizing the possible importance of the discovery, Dr. Pond established an archeological dig under very difficult field conditions. The site was subject to an inflow of water which required the use of hip boots and pumps. Approximately 300 odd bones were discovered at a depth of three to four feet in the peat and close to the bottom of the bog. Three artifacts were also uncovered during the excavation. Unfortunately, they were discovered and removed during Dr. Pond's absence and against his standing orders, apparently to save them from abnormal floodwater conditions.

Publication Date

1954

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

Issue

First Page

313

Last Page

319

Copyright

Language

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Palmer, Harris A. (1954) "A Review of the Interstate Park, Wisconsin Bison Find," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 61(1), 313-319.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol61/iss1/36

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A Review of the Interstate Park, Wisconsin Bison Find

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