Midway site facts for kids

The Midway Site (also known as 47LC19) is an ancient place in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, where people from the Upper Mississippian Oneota group lived long ago. It's found about 10 miles north of La Crosse, close to where the Black River meets the mighty Mississippi River. This site helps us learn about the lives of Native Americans who lived in this area hundreds of years ago.

Exploring the Past: Digging at Midway

Archaeologists are like detectives of the past. They dig carefully to find clues about how people lived long ago. The Midway Site has been explored many times.

Early Discoveries

The first digs happened in the early 1920s. Dr. A.H. Sanford from La Crosse State College led these first explorations. Later, in 1929, W.C. McKern from the Milwaukee Public Museum continued the work.

New Finds in 1964

More important excavations took place in 1964. Guy Gibbon, from the University of Illinois, led this effort. During these digs, they found many interesting things. These included ancient artifacts, special pits, animal bones, plant remains, and even a burial.

What We Found at Midway Site

The 1964 excavations helped us understand a lot about the people who lived at Midway. They found different kinds of pits and many items that show how daily life was back then.

Pits and Structures

Archaeologists found 15 pit-like features at the site. Most of these (14) were from ancient times. They were mostly "refuse pits," which are like ancient trash cans. These pits held animal bones, stone tools, pieces of stone left from making tools (called debitage), pottery pieces, and charcoal from fires. They also found one human burial and a large pile of mussel shells.

Animal and Plant Clues

The animal bones found at Midway tell us what people hunted and ate. They found bones from deer, beaver, porcupine, dog, bear, elk, bison, mussels, catfish, and bowfin. Some of these animals, like dogs and bears, might have been part of special ceremonies, not just food.

Plant remains also give us hints about their diet. They found parts of maize (corn), beans, acorn and hickory nut shells, and plum pits. This shows they grew some of their food and gathered other plants. They also found oak wood charcoal, meaning oak trees were in the area.

Amazing Artifacts: Tools and Pottery

The items found at an archaeological site are called artifacts. They are like puzzle pieces that help us put together the story of the past.

Pottery: A Window to the Past

Pottery is super important for archaeologists. It's often found in large amounts, and the way it was made and decorated can tell us about the culture, time period, and even where people came from.

At Midway, they found over 3,000 pieces of pottery! Most of it (98.3%) was made with crushed shell mixed into the clay. A small amount (1.7%) had grit (sand or crushed rock) mixed in. The grit-tempered pottery might be from an earlier time, the Woodland period.

The pottery pieces suggest the people made round pots with narrow openings. They had smooth surfaces and rims that curved outwards. Sometimes, the pots had handles. People often decorated the rim and the upper part of the pot. They used patterns like zigzags (chevrons) and dots (punctates).

Three main types of pottery were found:

• Allamakee Trailed: This was the most common type at Midway. It has the features described above, with straight or diagonal lines.
• Red Banks Punctate: This pottery has groups of diagonal lines with dots in between them.
• Koshkonong Bold: This type has bold, finger-drawn designs on the shoulder area of the pot.

Other Cool Artifacts

Besides pottery, many other tools and items were found. These tell us about daily tasks, hunting, and even what people wore.

• Chipped Stone Tools: These include 24 projectile points (like arrowheads for bows and arrows), 13 knives, and many scrapers for preparing hides or wood. The small triangular "Madison points" were the most common type of arrowhead.
• Ground Stone Tools: These are stones that were shaped by grinding. They found abrading stones (for smoothing things), a grinding stone, and pieces of catlinite, a special red stone used for pipes.
• Bone Tools: People also made tools from animal bones. They found a bison scapula hoe (shoulder blade hoe) for farming, and worked bones from a swan and a deer.
• Copper Items: A ring, a tool for making holes (perforator), and pieces of sheet copper were also found. Copper was a valuable material.

Here's a closer look at some important non-pottery artifacts:

Material	Description	Image	How Many?	What was it used for?	Interesting Facts
Chipped stone	Small triangular points (Madison points)		24	Hunting, fishing, or fighting	These are often called "arrowheads." They were likely used as tips for bows and arrows. Using bows and arrows became more common during the Late Woodland time, possibly because of more conflicts.
Chipped stone	Biface blades/knives		1 whole, 12 broken pieces	Cutting and daily tasks	These knives are often found at Upper Mississippian sites, especially those of the Oneota people.
Chipped stone	End scraper		92	Working with wood or animal hides	These tools are also common at Upper Mississippian sites. At Midway, they found many more scrapers than arrowheads!
Stone	Arrowshaft straightener		4	Straightening arrow shafts for bows and arrows	These tools are typical at Upper Mississippian sites, showing how important bows and arrows were.

The Orr Focus: A Special Oneota Group

The Midway Site belongs to a group of ancient cultures called the Orr focus. This group is part of the larger Upper Mississippian Oneota cultures. These groups lived across the American Midwest in the late prehistoric and early historic times.

How They Lived

Like most Upper Mississippian people, the Orr focus people were mainly farmers. They grew crops like corn and beans. But they also hunted, fished, and gathered wild plants to get enough food.

Unique Pottery Styles

The Orr focus is special because of its pottery. Their pottery often has straight-line designs instead of curved ones. They also frequently notched the lip (rim) of their pots. This type of pottery was first found at the Upper Iowa River Oneota Site Complex and is called Allamakee Trailed.

Interestingly, pottery from the Huber Phase (found near Chicago) looks very similar to Orr focus pottery. Both have straight-line patterns, notched lips, and similar pot shapes. However, there are small differences. For example, Orr pottery usually has rounded lips, while Huber pottery can have rounded, flat, or slanted lips.

When Did They Live?

Both Orr focus and Huber cultures existed from the late prehistoric period into the early historic period. Some Orr focus sites have even found European trade goods, like glass beads. However, no European goods were found at Midway. This suggests that the Midway Site might be a bit older than some other Orr focus sites. Experts believe people lived at Midway around A.D. 1500.

Connecting Past to Present

The areas where Orr focus sites are found are the same places where early French explorers and fur traders met the Ioway Native American tribe. Archaeologists generally agree that the Orr Phase pottery was made by the ancestors of the Ioway tribe, and also the closely related Otoe tribe. This helps us connect ancient cultures to modern Native American groups.

Why Midway Site is Important

The Midway Site is a significant place for understanding the late Oneota culture, especially the Orr focus. The pottery found here helps us see how the Orr focus pottery changed over time compared to earlier Oneota styles. Earlier pottery had curved patterns and wider lines, while Orr focus pottery has fine, straight-line designs on smooth surfaces.

Based on the plant and animal remains, and especially the bison scapula hoe and cultivated plants (corn and beans), archaeologists believe Midway was at least a semi-permanent village. This means people likely lived there for a good part of the year, possibly even year-round, growing their crops and hunting.