The Cardy Site in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is a Paleo-Indian campsite, and the oldest known archaeology site on the Door Peninsula. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.[1]
Cardy Site | |
| Location | 322 W. Spruce Street, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| NRHP reference No. | 10000197 |
| Added to NRHP | April 19, 2010 |
History
editAround 11,000 years ago, just at the end of the last ice age, migrating Paleo-Indian hunters camped at this site, probably following large game in the tundra-like zone near the retreating glacier.[2] At this location they chipped chert brought from as far as Moline, Illinois into fluted points and other tools.[3]
In 1878 the Cardy family began farming that spot, and began turning up chipped stone implements. In the 1950s a young Daniel Cardy, studying at UW-Madison, realized that the points the family found looked like Clovis points. Archaeologists at Madison told him this was unlikely, since Door County was still covered by an ice sheet at the time of the Clovis culture. In 2003 archaeologists excavated sample pits the Cardy property, turning up more chipped stone tools and discarded flakes. The tools had Gainey points, closely related to Clovis, placing their creation around 9000 BCE.[4]
As the city of Sturgeon Bay expanded, part of the site was developed and due to the disturbance of the soil is no longer considered useful for archeological research.[5][6] The remaining, undeveloped portion of the site was protected by the Cardy family beginning in 1960, added to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places in 2009, and today belongs to The Archaeological Conservancy. It is open to the public[7] and listed as a point of interest near the Ice Age Trail.[8]
Further reading
edit- Pushing Back Time in Wisconsin, Mammoth Trumpet, Volume 19, Number 1, December 2003, pages 15–18 (pages 16–19 of the pdf)
- Life During The End Of The Ice Age: The Cardy site could inform archaeologists about how humans dealt with a challenging environment., American Archaeology Vol. 14, No. 3, Fall 2010, page 46 (page 48 of the pdf)
- Late Paleo-Indian Period Lithic Economies, Mobility, and Group Organization in Wisconsin by Ethan Adam Epstein, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, December 2016, page 52 (page 66 of the pdf) and pages 156–164 (pages 156–178 of the pdf)
- Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies, edited by Brian Adams and Brooke S. Blades, Hoboken, New Jersey: Blackwell, 2009, Chapter 20: "Clovis and Dalton: Unbounded and Bounded Systems in the Midcontinent of North America" by Brad Koldehoff and Thomas J. Loebel, section on "Clovis: unbounded land use", part 10. Cardy, page 277
References
edit- ^ Weekly List of Actions Taken On Properties, National Park Service, April 30, 2010, (Archived December 10, 2016)
- ^ Display at Sturgeon Bay Maritime Museum
- ^ Koldehoff, Brad; Loebel, Thomas J. (2009). "Clovis and Dalton: Unbounded and Bounded Systems in the Midcontinent of North America". In Adams, Brian; Blades, Brooke S. (eds.). Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies (PDF). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 277, 283. ISBN 978-1-405-16837-3.
- ^ "Interpretive sign at Cardy site". Sturgeon Bay Historical Society. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
- ^ Chapter 15, Northern Lake Michigan Coastal Ecological Landscape. from The ecological landscapes of Wisconsin: An assessment of ecological resources and a guide to planning sustainable management. Madison: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 2015. PUB-SS-1131Q 2015, p. Q-53 (p. 63 of the pdf)
- ^ The Paleo-Indian Tradition in Wisconsin, National Park Service, page 20
- ^ Cardy Site on the Door County Web-Map and Cardy Paleo-Indian Site, Sturgeon Bay Historical Society
- ^ Ice Age Trail Guidebook 2014, Points of interest: Cardy Paleo-Indian Camp Archaeological Site, p. 353 (p. 6 of the pdf)