While a shovel will actually help you find artifacts underground at Crossroads at Big Creek in Sturgeon Bay, archaeologists are looking up to see where to go down next. Archaeologists working at the dig site near the Cove Estuary on Thursday received assistance from Mary De La Garza, a research technology director from the Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa. With her drone flying about 400 feet above the estuary, De La Garza will be able to identify possible other sites for archaeologists to find other artifacts from the area’s indigenous population from over 1,000 years ago. By surveying the site from above, principal investigator Randy Dickson says they could potentially find hints of where other people may have settled, waiting over a millennium for their stories to be told.
Thursday marked the last day of the Fall Archaeological Dig that allowed students and their parents to see people uncover the area’s past right before their eyes. Crossroads at Big Creek holds archaeological digs in the fall and spring with the goal of introducing students to the process.
