SIX
Aztalan State Park
It is appropriate that Wisconsin should have at least one park that features as the primary attraction the prehistory of the state.
—W. C. McKern, Milwaukee Public Museum, 19461
Standing at the quiet center of Aztalan State Park today, one has little trouble imagining the past. Except for a small kiosk on the southeast knoll, a few small signs, and small segments of reconstructed stockade, there is hardly a modern structure in sight. Even restrooms are discretely hidden from view along a tree line. Hawks routinely crisscross the parkland skies searching for prey on the same territory where falcon-warriors once kept watch. The serenity of the place is the result of long preservation efforts by many individuals, organizations, and institutions.
Figure 6.1. Aztalan has been designated as a National Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors to Aztalan can enjoy quiet walks enhanced by self-guided tour brochures and interpretive signs.
The significance of Aztalan to Wisconsin history and the need to preserve the remarkable site was recognized from the very start. Nathaniel F. Hyer, who in 1837 brought Aztalan to public attention, wrote in the Milwaukee Advertiser of his determination to “preserve these ruins from ruin” in the face of the settlement that he predicted would take place in the area.2 There is also a story of an unsuccessful effort made the following year to withdraw the land from public sale. In 1855, Lapham took up the cause for preservation in The Antiquities of Wisconsin, noting that a wheat crop was already growing on the great south wall of the ancient town.3
Settlement did creep west. Everywhere newly arrived settlers cleared forests and drained swamps, preparing the land for cultivation. In the mid-nineteenth century, farmers returned to Aztalan, this time carting away the burned remnants of Aztalan’s clay walls, plowing down mounds, and planting modern fields of corn over the ancient town. Relic hunters also had their field day. Eventually, many of the surface features of the town, so carefully mapped by Lapham, disappeared.
Excavations by the Milwaukee Public Museum renewed interest in preservation in the 1920s. The Wisconsin Archeological Society and Wisconsin Historical Society formed a “Save Aztalan” committee, spear-headed by Publius Lawson, an industrialist from Menasha. In 1928, with the support of many organizations and individuals, even money collected by local school children, the Wisconsin Archeological Society raised sufficient funds to purchase land around the eight surviving ceremonial post mounds overlooking the ancient town. It became a popular local park.
After the Great Depression, pleas were made to the National Park Service to make Aztalan a national park. The National Park Service made a favorable assessment, especially if the site could be reconstructed, but for economic reasons this never materialized.4 However, stimulated by activities of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the Lake Mills-Aztalan Historical Society (formed in 1941), the Wisconsin legislature directed the State Planning Board to study Aztalan as a possible state park. Authorized by the legislature, the State Conservation Commission purchased Aztalan in 1948 on behalf of the state of Wisconsin. The state purchased a total of 120 acres surrounding the site, encompassing the small earlier park. In 1952, Aztalan State Park opened, operated by the Department of Conservation, now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. That year also witnessed the continuation of major archaeological excavations by the Wisconsin Archaeological Survey—the first major study of the site since Barrett published Ancient Aztalan.
Recognition of the importance of the site led to its listing as a National Landmark in 1964 by the U.S. Department of Interior and subsequently it became one of the first archaeological sites in Wisconsin placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wisconsin Historical Society led another period of archaeological investigations during an attempt by the state to create interpretation facilities at the park. However, lack of funding for park staff that could guard reconstructions and outdoor exhibits led to the destruction of these by vandals.
Lack of funding continued to plague the state and the park was threatened with closure. In 1981, the Department of Natural Resources divested itself of several other state archaeological properties. Lizard Mounds Park, the site of a unique effigy mound group, for example, was turned over to local authorities. In the case of Aztalan, however, the local township stepped up with the offer to maintain the site if it stayed in state hands. For many years the people of Aztalan Township maintained the park, keeping it open for visitors to enjoy. Hyer would have been proud to know that over one hundred and fifty years later, the people of his township were still determined “to preserve these ruins from ruin.”
The Historic Sites Task Force created in the late 1980s began to change the fortunes of the park. Together, the Wisconsin Historical Society and Department of Natural Resources focused on Aztalan and some other state historic sites to enhance their futures. The task force noted that Aztalan was a special concern because of its potential for research, public interpretation, and tourism: “Housing one of the largest and significant archaeological treasures in the state of Wisconsin, Aztalan contains enormous historical and cultural value for Wisconsin citizens.”5 As a result of task force recommendations, the first permanent employee for the park was hired.
Public interest in Native American history and archaeology grew dramatically at the end of the twentieth century and also added to renewed interest in Aztalan State Park. Archaeologists returned to the site, further stimulating public interest in Aztalan and the Mississippians. Each year, tens of thousands of people visited the park despite lack of advertising and interpretation. A Friends of Aztalan State Park group formed in 1994 to assist the Department of Natural Resources with fundraising, tours and other park programs, and an advisory board of experts was created to guide the park in research matters.
Between 1997 and 2002, the Department of Natural Resources developed the first long-term plan with input from archaeologists, Native American nations, and the public at large. As a part of this process, Lynne Goldstein and students at Michigan State University assembled all information pertaining to the site, producing base maps that show the significant features and the extent of previous archaeological work.6 Among other things, the state master plan recommends building an interpretive center so that the dramatic story of Aztalan can be told. In 2004, proposed budget cuts forced the Department of Natural Resources to again consider eliminating funding to the park, but local legislators and an outpouring of public support convinced lawmakers to continue modest state support. Adequate funding for the state park remains a problem, but park supporters are confident that increasing public interest in the story of Aztalan will guarantee its accessibility for generations to come.
Figures 6.2a and b. Aztalan State Park attracts thousands of visitors and schoolchildren for special tours and programs. Art Shogonee (Potawatomi/Menominee) demonstrates Native American powwow dances during a special program at Aztalan.
At Aztalan, limited archaeological work also continues, but with renewed caution and respect. As with modern communities, Aztalan includes graves and remains of the many people that lived there over several generations. Wisconsin law now protects such gravesites as it does for ancient and modern tombs throughout the state. A sense of respect for the lives and resting places of the ancient Indian inhabitants should also accompany visitors as they tour the fascinating site.
THE FUTURE
The name Aztalan poignantly reminds us of a time when Euro Americans refused to acknowledge that the native population was capable of such wonders or even that North American Indians had a deep history that connected them to the land. The name also now symbolizes a fascinating and important time in Native American history that molded much of what was to come later. Indeed, the legacy of the Mississippians and Woodland people can be found around us today in the form of corn agriculture. Wisconsin still derives its identity from this crop, and it appears prominently on the state quarter issued in 2004. In this light, Aztalan can be recognized as the state’s first farming town.
Through archaeological and historical work, many of the mysteries of Aztalan have been solved. However, many other questions remain. For example: what lies beneath the surface in the plaza area, the mysterious southwest enclosure, and between the platform mounds in the elite precinct? What is the meaning of the ceremonial posts overlooking the town? There are also larger questions: Why did the Mississippians come to Aztalan and why did they leave? What was the relationship of these people to others such as the Late Woodland effigy mound builders and the later Oneota? What caused the collapse of Cahokia and who are its Mississippian descendants in the Midwest? Needless to say, these questions are much on the minds of archaeologists and other scholars, and almost every year new discoveries in Wisconsin and elsewhere in North America are made that add important data. This continuous and exciting flow of new information greatly contributes to the ever-unfolding story of Aztalan, the northern outpost of the Mississippian Indians.