San Damiano Park

Cycling

5.0

(1)

Save Share

Location: Monona, Dane County, Wisconsin, United States

Tips

October 9, 2025

Cycling

San Damiano Park in Monona, Wisconsin is a peaceful 10-acre lakefront property with over 1,000 feet of shoreline on Lake Monona, offering stunning views of the Madison skyline. Once the …

UrbanExolorer_Mando

October 9, 2025

Cycling

Lake Monona ( mih-NOH-nə) is a freshwater drainage lake in Dane County, Wisconsin, surrounded on three sides by the city of Madison, Wisconsin, and on the south east side by the city of Monona, Wisconsin. It is the second-largest of a chain of four lakes along the Yahara River (also including Mendota, Kegonsa, and Waubesa) in the area and forms the south shore of the isthmus that forms downtown Madison. The name 'Monona' is a word believed to mean 'beautiful', although the lake was originally named by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) 'Tchee-ho-bo-kee-xa-te-la' or 'Teepee Lake'.

UrbanExolorer_Mando

October 9, 2025

Cycling

Long before it became the Frank Allis estate, the San Damiano site was a gathering and ceremonial place for Indigenous peoples, especially the Ho-Chunk Nation. The land sits along a natural rise overlooking Lake Monona—part of a sacred landscape once lined with effigy and burial mounds. One of those mounds still remains within the park today, protected and marked off from foot traffic. It stands as a quiet but powerful reminder that this shoreline was not just scenic, but spiritual ground long before Monona existed.