More than 120 dugout canoes reported from Wisconsin range in age from 81 to over 5,200 years old. Three-quarters of these canoes have been found in or near water, including a number of dugouts in Lake Mendota in Madison. The Madison area has been a significant dwelling place for Indigenous people for more than 12,500 years in archaeological terms, and since time immemorial for the Ho-Chunk and Menominee people. Watercraft played a principal role in the area's transportation network. The Lake Mendota canoes are found in three clusters near the southern shore of the lake, each in front of a gully that cuts through the bluff on the adjacent shoreline. These gullies would have provided easier access to the bluff top and trails in active use into the 1800s that lead to Lake Wingra, a spiritually significant spring-fed lake that was densely occupied by Ho-Chunk peoples and other tribes.