Yankee Southern Transplants in the Upper Midwest

We were looking for something to do on a questionable-weather Sunday to get out of the house and enjoy some touristy stuff despite the iffy rain forecast. Our first choice got nixed due to a 10K race that would have made it way too busy to hike the trails, so we settled on taking a picnic lunch up to visit Copper Culture State Park in Oconto about 30 minutes northwest of Green Bay. It's a small state and city park that we have passed a few times and wanted to check out.

To summarize the story behind this park, "Copper Culture" refers to the ancient peoples who lived in this area about 4,000+ years ago. The were known as the Copper complex of people because of their significant use of copper to make tools, ornaments, and jewelry among other things. In fact, some of the copper found in this area was sourced all the way from Isle Royale National Park through their trade system. Absolutely amazing that it could travel that far so long ago, including across a decent run of Lake Superior.

Copper Culture State Park protects an ancient burial site for these peoples. It used to sit at the mouth of the Oconto River at the time (the mouth is further out/east now), so it was ideal for a revered burial site. Unfortunately, the site was unknowingly quarried in the early 1900s and most of the burial areas were destroyed. In the 1950s, a boy playing at the then-closed quarry found some kind of artifact that then led archaeologists to find and excavate what was left of the site in 1956. Based on that small percentage left (~20 burials), they believe hundreds of people were actually buried there, often with copper tools, toys, and other artifacts. Now the grounds include several walking trails, picnic area, access to the Oconto River, and a museum located in an old farmhouse.

The museum was only a few small rooms, but very well done and informative. We were given a token piece of copper upon entry, which we figured meant that we should give a small donation to the free museum (we did). After the museum, we took a couple of short walks on the some of the trails down to the burial site and river, but the mosquitoes were pretty bad so we opted for the open bluebird trail instead which was much better. It started to rain again just as we got back to the car. An interesting historical perspective on a (mostly) nice day.