Aztalan State Park
A National Historic Landmark
County Highway Q, east of Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Aztalan state park contains Wisconsin's most important archaeological site. It showcases an ancient Middle-Mississippian village that thrived between A.D. 1000 and 1300.

Some of the ancient mounds and stockade have been restored.
Photo © Daniel Seuer

Archaeologists say that the occupants had cultural traditions in common with Cahokia, a large Middle-Mississippian settlement near East St. Louis, Illinois. The people who settled Aztalan built large, flat-topped pyramidal mounds and a stockade around their village. They hunted, fished, and farmed on the floodplain of the Crawfish River. Portions of the stockade and two mounds have been reconstructed in the park.

Park map [PDF 65KB]

A Guide at Your Side

• Listen to an Aztalan 'Guide at Your Side' Tour [AUDIO Length 37:17]
• Save as a podcast -- download aztalantour [MP3 35MB]
  [To save file: Windows users, right click and select 'Save As...' or 'Save Target As...'; Mac users hold the command key down while clicking the link.]
• Aztalan State Park Video [VIDEO Length 08:42], produced by Wisconsin Public Television for the Friends of Aztalan State Park.

Things to Do in the Park

The park is mostly open prairie, with 38 of its 172 acres in oak woods. It has an accessible, reservable picnic shelter; wells; and vault toilets.

You can canoe, boat, and catch northern pike, catfish, and walleye in the Crawfish River, but the park does not have a boat launch.

The park is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. A vehicle admission sticker is required.

Aztalan Museum

The Aztalan Museum [exit DNR], operated by the Lake Mills-Aztalan Historical Society, Inc., is just north of the park. It includes two pioneer church buildings and other structures from the 19th century and displays of pioneer life. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays from mid-May through late September. Fees are $3 for adults, $1 for children, free for those under age 7.

The Aztalan Historical Society sponsors a festival on the museum grounds each year on the Sunday closest to July 4, celebrating Aztalan's pioneer past.

For more information about Aztalan Museum:

(920) 648-4632
(920) 648-4496

In the Area

Southeast Glacial Plains Landscape

For information about accommodations, activities, events, dining, events, and more, see:

Lake Mills and Cambridge [exit DNR]
Johnson Creek [exit DNR]
Jefferson [exit DNR]

How to Get There

The park is in the Town of Aztalan, on the east side of Jefferson County Highway Q, just south of County Highway B. Coming from the west on Interstate Highway 94, reach County B by going south on State Highway 89 to Lake Mills. Coming from the east on I-94, take State Highway 26 south to Johnson Creek to Highway B.

Geographic coordinates are 43° 4' 6.1" N, 88° 51' 48.7" W.

More information about Aztalan State Park

• "Who were they and why did they leave?" Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine.
• Friends of Aztalan State Park [exit DNR]
• Milwaukee Public Museum Aztalan Collection [exit DNR]
• Aztalan Ceramics [exit DNR]
• Master Plan

Contact Information

For more information, ask:

Sarah Bolser
(920) 648-8774

Mailing address:

1213 S Main St
Lake Mills WI 53551