Aztalan State Park protects the remains of a Native American town beside the Crawfish River in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources describes it as one of the state’s most important archaeological sites and a National Historic Landmark. What makes the place compelling is not a single building but evidence of a community that connected local Woodland traditions with the wider Mississippian world between roughly AD 1000 and 1200.
The park’s name is a later misunderstanding, not the ancient name of the town. Nineteenth-century observers believed the earthworks were connected to the Aztecs, and the mistaken association gave the site the name Aztalan. Archaeological research instead links many inhabitants and cultural practices to the Mississippian center of Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, while also documenting the presence of local Woodland people. The name endured; the interpretation changed with evidence.