Local archaeologist digs for answers to alleged Native American burial mound
Apr 01, 2026
In Horicon Wisconsin, the intersection of Barstow and Rich looks like any other street corner.There's a Kwik Trip, a Super Suds Car Wash, and hundreds of cars driving by every day.But archaeologist Kurt Sampson sees something el
se.Something buried a long time ago."I certainly believe its is a burial mound for a number of different reasons," Sampson said.Sampson, who is the director of the Dodge County Historical Society, has studied burial mounds most of his life, and has been to nearly 800 burial sites all around the Midwest.He says that the mound in Horicon is likely a grave."Along central Horicon in the big bend in the river, down by the Kwik Trip in town, there was one of the most prominent mound groupings in all of northeastern Wisconsin," Sampson said.WATCH JACK PORTER'S FULL BROADCAST STORY HERE: Local archaeologist digs for answers to alleged Native American burial moundSampson says that because the mound is not cataloged with the state historical society, it needs to be inspected and verified."Uncatalogued mounds are invisible mounds," Sampson said. "If they are not in the database, then they are not readily known to the archeological community.Sampson says the next steps to determining the status of the mound is to bring in ground penetrating radar."We have to rely on non invasive types of inquiry to see if we can figure out if its a mound or not," Sampson said. "The GPR will go a long way at helping us determine whether there are internal features in that mound."Sampson says that he is in communication with the Ho-Chunk Nation and they are planning to bring gear out to the site within the coming days to determine if it is in fact a burial site.
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