Mille Lacs Kathio State Park

Mille Lacs Kathio is a state park with dense forests of oak, maple, birch, and pine, mixed with multiple lakes and glacial formations shaped by ice age geology. The landscape covers several thousand acres and combines woodland, water, and archaeological remains into one continuous environment.

Humans worked with copper in this area thousands of years ago, showing a long history of settlement and craftsmanship in the region. Different peoples occupied and shaped this land across many centuries, each leaving behind burial sites and tools.

The park contains nineteen archaeological locations with burial mounds where Dakota and Ojibwe peoples lived across many centuries. You can walk among these mounds today, surrounded by forest, and feel the long history of human presence in this place.

The park is accessible through hiking trails that wind through forests and past archaeological sites, making it easy to explore on foot. An observation tower at a central location helps orient yourself and offers views across the entire landscape.

The park holds copper tools and craft sites that are far older than other known archaeological finds in the region, stretching back multiple millennia. This early metalwork shows that the area was a center of craftsmanship and trade long before European contact.