Rock Island II Site

Rock Island II Site, on Rock Island at the mouth of Green Bay in Wisconsin, is one of the best-preserved Great Lakes sites for studying early contact between Native communities and Europeans. Intensive investigations from 1969 to 1973 linked it to the historic “Island of the Pouteouatamis” or “Island of the Hurons” and identified four occupation zones tied to Potawatomi, Huron, Petun, Ottawa, and Wyandot history. Excavations uncovered buildings, pits, palisade trenches, a cemetery, and about 80,000 artifacts, including Native-made objects and European trade goods. The site has been crucial for tracing displacement during the Iroquois Wars, cultural continuity, and Native survival and exchange in the upper Great Lakes.

Ellison Bay, Wisconsin · United States