Wednesday Nite at the Lab

media release: On Friday April 14 Amy Rosebrough, staff archeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, will give a Special Friday Night Edition of Wednesday Nite @ The Lab, starting at 7:00 pm CT.   This is part of UW Science Expeditions Campus Open House April 14-16.

Special Location:  We’ll have the talk in the Auditorium of the Wisconsin Historical Society on Library Mall.

Title:  “Fire, Shipwreck, and Cheese: Wisconsin’s Lost Coastal Communities”

Description:  In the mid to late 19^th centuries, dozens of small communities sprang up along the eastern shores of Wisconsin, each with its own lake pier and general store. The owners of the piers shipped forest and farm products to Chicago, and supplied incoming settlers with the income and goods they needed to survive.

A Wisconsin Historical Society initiative is exploring the submerged and onshore remains of these lost ports, and tracing the histories of the people and ships that called them home. In the process, a forgotten chapter of Great Lakes history is coming to light. The lost ports tell stories of catastrophic fires, dangerous shoals, runaway horses, gossip columnists, eavesdropping clerks, and lots and lots of cheese. Most importantly, the story of Wisconsin’s lost coastal communities is the story of how Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan’s shoreline was transformed from timberland to today’s farms and cities.

Bio: Dr. Amy Rosebrough is a Staff Archaeologist with the Office of the State Archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, she has long had an interest in burial monuments and archaeology. She is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she received her doctorate for region-wide re-analysis of Wisconsin's effigy mounds and mound builders. She has worked as an archaeologist in the academic, private, and public sectors. In her current position at the Wisconsin Historical Society, she manages archaeological and burial sites data, assists Wisconsin's citizens with archaeological questions, and serves as a subject matter expert.