Mark Schachtner was diving in a Wisconsin lake when he spotted a 17-foot dugout canoe that experts say was likely intentionally sunk centuries ago
Ashley Vega
Fri, October 2, 2026
Dugout canoe found in Pewaukee Lake in southeastern Wisconsin by diver Mark Schachtner
Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society
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Diver Mark Schachtner discovered an ancient dugout canoe submerged in Pewaukee Lake in southeastern Wisconsin
Radiocarbon dating indicates the 17-foot white oak canoe was likely used around 1,000 years ago
Experts believe the canoe was intentionally sunk for storage, and it will remain underwater out of respect for Native Nations and their ancestors
A Wisconsin diver who is used to finding old bottles at the bottom of lakes has made a discovery that predates them by centuries.
Mark Schachtner was diving in Pewaukee Lake in early May when he spotted what he believed was an ancient dugout canoe, according to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR). Radiocarbon dating has since revealed that the 17-foot vessel is around 1,000 years old.
"I found a fossil once in one of the other lakes … but this is the oldest manmade thing I've ever found," Schachtner told WPR.
Schachtner, who has been diving for about a decade, typically searches lake beds for old embossed glass bottles with the Four Seasons Dive Club.
This time, however, he recognized that what he was looking at could be something much more significant.
Schachtner had previously worked with Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society who has discovered 16 ancient canoes in Madison's Lake Mendota.
Dugout canoe found in Pewaukee Lake in southeastern Wisconsin by diver Mark Schachtner
Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society
Within days of his discovery, Thomsen joined him at Pewaukee Lake to document the vessel, collecting measurements, images, video and wood samples.
The canoe remains intact on the lake bottom and is filled with sediment — something Thomsen said offers a clue about why it ended up underwater.
"It's a classic look for a canoe that had been cached, something that had been intentionally sunk," she told WPR.
According to Thomsen, Indigenous people would sometimes deliberately sink canoes and fill them with sediment for storage before returning a season or two later to retrieve them, dry them and put them back into use.
Analysis determined that the newly discovered canoe was made from white oak. Radiocarbon dating found a 70% probability that it was in use between A.D. 992 and 1049, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The vessel also retains signs of the work that went into making it. Researchers observed char marks on its bottom and evidence of scraping, likely from stone tools or shells used to shape the wood.
Jon Greendeer, president of the Ho-Chunk Nation, told WPR that the discovery falls within the nation's territory and said he was "extremely excited" about the find.
"What we were told, a lot of these were crafted from carving vessels from fire," Greendeer said. "All I can say is it took a lot of time. … You can imagine how much work went into each one of these."
The canoe dates to Wisconsin's Late Woodland period, when communities in the region built effigy mounds. Canoes could have played a role not only in transportation but also in everyday work, including carrying fishing nets and weights used to harvest food, according to WPR.
The vessel is one of about 130 known dugout canoes found on lake bottoms and in collections across Wisconsin. State archaeologists and volunteers have examined 88 of them, Thomsen told the outlet.
Despite its age, the Pewaukee Lake canoe isn't Wisconsin's oldest. A roughly 5,200-year-old canoe previously discovered in Lake Mendota is the oldest known boat found in the Great Lakes region.
And the newly identified vessel won't be coming out of the water.
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The Wisconsin Historical Society does not plan to recover it after Native Nations, including the Ho-Chunk Nation, expressed a desire for it to remain in place out of respect for their ancestors. The site is protected under Wisconsin law, and divers are prohibited from removing artifacts.
Keeping it submerged also helps preserve it: Without intensive conservation treatment, the ancient wood could disintegrate after being exposed to air.
For now, the canoe will remain where Schachtner found it — resting on the bottom of Pewaukee Lake roughly a millennium after it was likely placed there.
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