The Lost City Under Lake Huron – Michigan’s Oldest Known Hunting Site

Beneath the waters of Lake Huron lies one of the oldest known hunting grounds in North America. In this episode of End of the Road in Michigan, we explore the discovery of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge—a submerged prehistoric land bridge once used by Ice Age hunters to track caribou.

Archaeologists uncovered stone structures over 9,000 years old, reshaping our understanding of ancient life in the Great Lakes. We also examine the Indigenous stories that may align with this site’s hidden history.

Read the story at The Lost City Beneath Lake Huron – Michigan’s Oldest Known Hunting Ground

Episode Transcript

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You're listening to End of the Road in Michigan, a podcast that brings to light the overlooked

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corners of Michigan's past.
Today's story starts underwater beneath a deep, cold blue of Lake Huron.
In 2007, researchers surveying the Lake Floor made a startling discovery.
Using sonar, they found a series of rock formations more than 100 feet below the surface,
off the coast near Alpina.
These weren't random piles.
They were organized, aligned, constructed.

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It turned out to be one of the oldest known human-made hunting sites in North America.
But here's the twist, it was built 9,000 years ago.
When Lake Huron didn't exist, in the summer of 2007, a research team led by Dr. John
O'Shea from the University of Michigan was mapping part of the Lake Huron Lake bed.
The project focused on an ancient glacial formation called the Alpina Amberley Ridge, a kind

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of submerged land bridge that once connected modern day Alpina to Ontario.
As sonar equipment traced the contours of the Lake Floor, the scientists noticed something
strange, lines of rocks forming what looked like funnels, barriers, and stacked enclosures.
These weren't natural features, they were deliberate.
Human.
What they had found was a prehistoric hunting structure, now more than 100 feet underwater.

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These stone arrangements formed caribou hunting blinds, strategically designed to funnel
animals into kill zones.
The ridge had served as a seasonal migration path for caribou, and ancient people used
the natural geography to their advantage.
It was, in effect, an ice age freeway, traveled not by cars, but by game, and the hunters who
track them.
Dr. O'Shea would later describe the find as a complete game-changing discovery.

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It pushed back the known timeline of organized hunting in the Great Lakes and showed just
how sophisticated these early communities were.
To understand what the Alpina Amberley Ridge once was, you have to roll back time, way
back, about 9000 years, to the early Holocene period.
The glaciers were retreating, what we now call Lake Huron didn't yet exist, instead, a

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dry plain stretched across the basin.
This exposed land created a vital corridor for both animals and humans.
Caribou, in particular, migrated through the area in large herds, and the people followed
them.
These weren't primitive bands of hunters, the site shows signs of detailed planning.
Rose of rocks were stacked to guide caribou toward ambush points.
Temporary shelters and campfires were likely scattered along the ridge.

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This wasn't just survival, it was strategy.
Archaeologists believe the hunters likely traveled in small, mobile groups, setting up seasonal
camps and returning to the ridge each year when the caribou passed through.
Over time, they left behind clues, stone tools, bone fragments, charcoal, and the rock alignments
that eventually revealed their presence.
The structures on the ridge are now considered the oldest known surviving examples of large-scale

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hunting architecture in the Americas.
They're older than the pyramids, older than Stonehenge, and yet, until just a couple
decades ago, no one knew they were there.
Studying a prehistoric site is hard enough on land.
Underwater?
That's a whole different challenge.
The Alpina Ambroli Ridge site sits beneath more than 100 feet of cold, dark water.
Visibility is limited.

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Conditions are unpredictable, and preservation is a top priority, meaning no digging, no disruption.
Everything must be documented as is, using non-invasive methods.
The team relied on a combination of side-scanned sonar, sub-bottom profiling, remotely
operated vehicles, and deep water divers.
One sonar image at a time, they mapped the ancient landscape, stone by stone.

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They found alignments that match known hunting patterns, ambush structures, drive lanes,
and even isolated boulders that may have served as lookout points.
What makes this discovery even more remarkable is the preservation.
Lake Huron's deep, oxygen-poor environment acts like a time capsule.
Without sunlight or strong currents, even organic materials like wood or bone may survive

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for millennia.
That opens the door for future research, possibly even DNA analysis or carbon dating of early
human activity, we will be right back after this message.




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Welcome back, let's continue with our story.

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This underwater side is rare not just in Michigan, but globally.
It's one of the only places in the world where I say hunting structures have been preserved
in their original context, and it's rewriting what we thought we knew about early human
life in the Great Lakes.
Long before Sonar and science mapped the ridge, the people of the Great Lakes told
stories, about migrations, ancestors, and the old ways of life, some of these stories may

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align with the ridge's history.
Researchers have begun working with tribal nations, especially the Saginaw Chippewa, to
connect archaeological findings with oral histories.
The goal isn't just academic, it's recognizing that these stories belong to living cultures.
Many Anishinabe traditions speak of ancient migrations over great distances, across land
that no longer exists.

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The idea that a ridge once served as a seasonal hunting path doesn't contradict those accounts,
it supports them.
Today, there's growing recognition in archaeology that Western science alone doesn't hold
all the answers.
Collaborative research with indigenous communities brings new context, deeper insight, and cultural
grounding to discoveries like this one.
The ridge isn't just a side of scientific interest, it's part of a larger narrative, of

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people, tradition, survival, and memory that stretches back thousands of years.
The Alpina Ambrilay Ridge isn't just a remarkable archaeological site, it's a reminder of how
much we still don't know about the land we live on.
In an era where climate change is once again reshaping coastlines and displacing communities,
this submerged world shows how early humans adapted to shifting environments, they followed

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the herds, learned the patterns, and used the land until it disappeared beneath rising
waters.
It also tells us that the story of the Great Lakes didn't begin with fur traders, French
missionaries, or early American settlers, it started thousands of years earlier, with hunters
and families who lived, worked, and thrived in places now hidden beneath the waves.
This discovery is a rare convergence of science, history, and indigenous knowledge.

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It opens the door to new research and new conversations.
Because when we talk about ancient America, we're also talking about modern identities, cultures,
and the deep roots that connect them.
Thanks for joining us on End of the Road in Michigan.
Please journey took us deep beneath Lake Huron, to a place once filled with life, now silent
and submerged.
If this story sparked your curiosity, please share the episode, leave a review, or explore

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more Michigan history at thumbwind.com.
You'll find articles, images, and other podcast episodes that bring the past back to life.
Until next time, keep your eyes open.
You never know what's hidden just beneath the surface.