Archaeological and Geomorphological Investigation
Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Transportation proposed to expand Trunk Highway 169 to four lanes within the next five years. The area has been known to contain numerous prehistoric archaeological sites. With this in mind, Foth and the Minnesota DOT worked together to identify where planned construction could impact the selected area.

Archaeological Investigation
Foth was retained to conduct an archaeological investigation along the Mille Lacs Lake area. The Minnesota DOT modified the construction limits to preserve the sites until further archaeological investigation could help determine the significance of these sites at a later date.

Benefits:

• Foth geologists helped to put the ancient Mille Lacs Lake shorelines into a temporal (time) and spatial context for the archaeologists to use in their site identification and interpretation.
• The archaeologist conducted a detailed literature search and standard Phase I investigation of a 20-mile long corridor. The archaeologists gained access to multiple privately-held tracts of land where the landowners were often less than pleased to have a highway crossing their property.
• Hundreds of cultural artifacts were collected during the investigation. These artifacts were cleaned, labeled, and rated, and a report was compiled documenting these materials and the sites where they were located.

Challenges:

• The field work deadline was critical to ensure significant cultural resources were identified.
• The Minnesota DOT proposed to expand TH169 to four lanes within the next five years. In the meantime, the highway accident rate needed to decrease. MnDOT proposed to resurface the highway and add some right-turn lanes and passing lanes within one year as a temporary improvement until the 4-lane highway was constructed.