Editing Ozaukee County, Wisconsin (section)

===Precolonial===
The Hilgen Spring Mound Site is one of the oldest-known sites of human habitation of Ozaukee County. Located near [[Cedar Creek (Wisconsin)|Cedar Creek]] in the eastern part of the City of [[Cedarburg, Wisconsin|Cedarburg]], the site consists of three conical burial mounds constructed by early [[Woodland period]] [[Mound Builders]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin: Central Lake Michigan Coastal Ecological Landscape |url=https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landscapes/documents/1805Ch8.pdf#view=Fit |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landscapes/documents/1805Ch8.pdf#view=Fit |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources |access-date=February 13, 2020}}</ref> In 1968, archaeologists from the [[Milwaukee Public Museum]] found human burials and artifacts, including stone altars, arrowheads, and pottery shards, during an excavation of one of the mounds. [[Radiocarbon dating|Radiocarbon samples]] from the excavation date the mounds' construction to approximately 480&nbsp;BCE, making it one of the oldest mound groups in the state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Searching for the 'Spirit of the Place'|date=May 17, 2016 |url=https://shepherdexpress.com/arts-and-entertainment/visual-art/searching-spirit-place/|publisher=Shepherd Express|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hilgen Spring Mound Site Revisited: Lecture|date=May 26, 2016 |url=https://www.localeben.com/2016/05/26/hilgen-spring-mound-site-revisited/|publisher=Localeben|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref>

In the mid-1800s, [[Increase A. Lapham]] identified a group of circular mounds in the [[Saukville, Wisconsin|Saukville]] area and found a stone ax. In his writing, Lapham did not speculate about the age of the artifact or the mounds.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lapham |first=Increase A. |date=1855 |title=The Antiquities of Wisconsin, as Surveyed and Described by I. A. Lapham, Civil Engineer, etc., on Behalf of the American Antiquarian Society |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Antiquities/antiqC01.html |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]  |chapter=Chapter 1: Ancient Works in the Vicinity of Lake Michigan |isbn=}}</ref> An additional artifact of the early Native American presence in the Saukville area is the Ozaukee County [[Bird stone|Birdstone]], discovered by a six-year-old farm boy in 1891.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beer |first1=James R. |date=2003 |title=Ozaukee County Birdstone Stays Home in Wisconsin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43143792 |journal=Central States Archaeological Journal |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=39–42 |jstor=43143792 |access-date=June 27, 2021}}</ref> While the exact age of the Ozaukee County Birdstone remains uncertain, many birdstones date from a period ranging from 3000 BCE to 500 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15980 |title=Birdstones |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= January 24, 2019|website=wisconsinhistory.org |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |access-date=June 27, 2021 |quote=Birdstones are pre-contact abstract stone carvings that seem to our 21st Century eyes to represent birds. The majority appear to have been made between 5000 and 2500 years ago.}}</ref>