Near this site in 1961, archaeologists from the Aboriginal Research Club and the University of Michigan uncovered evidence of an early Paleo-Indian settlement. About 11,000 years ago, some of the first prehistoric dwellers in the Great Lakes region lived here on a lake shore. Artifacts and bones show that the Paleo-Indians hunted Barren Ground caribou for food, a species suited to the tundra-like terrain of that era. As the environment changed, these people were forced to adapt to new ways of living. Different climate and food sources required modified tools and methods of subsistence, and the Paleo-Indian pattern of life developed into the culture of the Early Archaic people. Holcombe Beach remains a reminder of basic changes in Michigan's physical and biological environment over the ages.