Anthropological field Study coming to the Saxonia house Summer 2026!

Field Study at the Saxonia House

The Department of Anthropology at Wisconsin Lutheran College will conduct a Phase 1B

archaeological study of the Saxonia House historic site in Fillmore, Wisconsin. The property that stands at the center of this fieldwork is a German half-timber homestead built in the mid-1850s. Students and staff of Wisconsin Lutheran College will study the site to locate and document several structures

associated with the homestead and its role in the lives of migrant families from Saxony who

relocated to the American Midwest in the late 1840s.

Research Design

During a summer field school course (ANT 467), the Department of Anthropology at Wisconsin

Lutheran College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) will provide the State of Wisconsin with an archaeological

assessment of a portion of the property associated with the Saxonia House/Saxonia Inn (National

Register of Historic Places Listing #114614). The northern portion of the property will be the focus

of the proposed Phase 1B research.

The goal of this research is to determine the footprint of a structure originally built onto the c.1855

home and to identify the location and condition of a variety of structures associated with the

historic farm and brewery. It should be noted that in the Fall of 2025, the Friends of the Saxonia

House (the current owners of the site) proposed a legal restructuring of the southern and eastern

portions of the historic parcel, requesting that this section of the property be removed from the

register. These areas are slated for the inclusion of rescued and renovated historic structures, along

with parking and public educational facilities. The Phase 1B research and the GPR surveys

proposed here will be conducted within the section of the parcel slated to remain on the register;

however, the study will not compromise the parcel’s or the historically preserved home's integrity.

The methods proposed for the Phase 1B survey of land associated with the Saxonia House site will

include surface scraping, shovel testing, the excavation of 1x1 meter excavation units, planar

mapping of the site, and a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) scan of select portions of the parcel. The

home and the surrounding land are listed on the NRHP; however, the ASI/ARI does not list a

catalogued site anywhere within the NRHP boundaries. For this reason, the methods used during

this field school were selected for the initial site study. The aim of these methods will be to locate

buried features, subsurface anomalies, and artifact scatter. Additionally, care will be given to

locating the foundation of an attached structure that is described in oral records from 1866 (this

structure and the associated house are important to Criterion D, being described as housing a

community dance hall, a local meeting hall, and a store that served residents of historic

Farmington/Filmore). The proposed research will address the land-use history of a 663-squaremeter

portion of the parcel's northeastern corner.

The project has received approval from the Wisconsin SHPO office's compliance personnel. The

Office of the State Archaeologist (Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin) was

presented with a project proposal that included a project timeline, a discussion of the field

methods to be used, the legal parameters for the work, and a date range for the submission of a

final report of findings. The current field school will be conducted during an 8-week period between

June and August of 2026, with additional fieldwork slated for the summer of 2027. The data

collection plan for the project will incorporate both workstations onsite (for the initial collection,

and documentation of archaeological data), and work in the anthropology laboratory housed within

Generac Hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). The report of findings will be

submitted to the State of Wisconsin within 90 business days following the completion of field work.

We look forward to welcoming Ned Farley and his students to the property!