Ancient remains found under highway construction - FOX 25/48 - WLAX/WEUX La Crosse & Eau Claire News

Ancient remains found under highway construction

Ancient remains of a 400 - 600 year old tribe are being found under road construction.

As Hwy 35 in Onalaska is being torn up the construction crew is working side by side with archaeologists.

The team is finding animal bones, pottery, and tools that an ancient Native American tribe left behind.  

"We've found more than 400 of these garbage and storage pits from a Native American tribe that lived somewhere between 1300-1600 AD," said senior researcher, Connie Arzigian.

In the 1880's Hwy 35 was built over the remains, and the artifacts are in amazingly good shape considering they had a road built on them says Arzigian.

The name of the tribe has long been forgotten, but archaeologists are calling the culture Oneota. They are the ancestors of the Ioway, Otoe, and Ho Chunk tribes.

The two crews have been working well together to help minimize delays.

"It slows down work, but with a project of this magnitude there are a lot of different areas the contractor can be working," said DOT project manager, Joe Gregas.

The DOT hopes to be able to remove the detour within the next couple weeks.

"We plan to remove the detour and get northbound Hwy 35 back onto Hwy 35 during the week of August 6-10th.

After all the artifacts are analyzed the Mississippi Valley Archeology Center hopes to put them on display for the community.