Im not surprised, just a bit north of there the Keeweenaw Peninsula in Michigan has the largest deposit of native copper in the world and would have been fairly prosperous in that era trading copper and copper objects across the midwest and beyond among natives. You can literally dig solid copper nuggets out of the ground there. Just busting up random rocks from the area will show you bright shiny copper bits inside. Any area nearby would itself gain a lot of prosperity from the trade and have decent populations which incentivizes a lot of native farming to feed everyone.
I love research like this. If you are interested in this kind of history, book Dawn of Everything by David Wengrow and David Graebier is an amazing book and imo completely destroys the unscientific narrative of human history they teach us. It's incredibly well researched where 1/4th of the pages are just citations. In other words, probably the most scientific account of human history ever written.
Archaeological evidence of intensive indigenous farming in MI's Upper Peninsula
(science.org)81 points by anyonecancode 9 June 2025 | 14 comments
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wiping out everything else if not tended to every year,
I find it very hard to believe that we can find evidence of intensive cultivation after 3,600 years in such a wet area.
Could be true, but I find it hard to believe.