Sauk County, Wisconsin - Chapter 6: Traces of the Native Races, 1918 (part 2 of 2)

It may be added to the record of the archaeological survey as made by Mr. Stout that a bear mound was located on the edge of the ravine where the ferry crossed the Baraboo River at the time Garrisonvillc flourished. The mound is near the home of H. II. Porter in the northwestern part of section 26, Town of Greenfield.

On the east fork of Skillet Creek, southwest part of section 14, Town of Baraboo, there is also a group of several effigy mounds discovered after the survey was completed. One or two in a field have been obliterated but the others in the woods are well preserved.

The western half of Sauk County is not as rich in Indian earthworks as the eastern. There are but few mounds or other evidences of Indian occupation.

Near the center of the southwest quarter of section 17, Town of LaValle, there were several oval mounds on land once owned by P. .1. Milbauer. The group was west of the Chicago & Northwestern track and has been obliterated by cultivation.

There are seven conical mounds on a high bluff south of the residence on the farm of the late R. C. Robson, northwest quarter of section 3, Town of Spring Green. The mounds occupy a fine commanding position on the bluff and can be seen for a considerable distance.

In the southwest quarter of section 4. Town of Spring Green, there were a number of effigy mounds in pioneer times but they have yielded to the advance of civilization.

If the reader has considered the details presented in the foregoing pages he will have decided that the remains, both of prehistoric life and those of somewhat doubtful origin in Sauk County go to prove the general statements made in the introductory matter - that all the primitive peoples of North America hovered along and around the streams and the lakes, iu making the choice for their homes, their hunting grounds and their hahitat as a whole. The same may be said of their highways of travel ; the forerunners of the iron and steel ways of the white man.

How long the natives of the soil, as found by the first white men who invaded it, had been using the beaten trails along the streams, through the valleys and the easy grades of the land, is perhaps more difficult to determine than the age of some of the prehistoric mounds, as no such data is available as soil deposits and tree growths. In the case of the trails, all is a matter of pure, or rather blind, conjecture. It is simply known that neither memory nor tradition runneth beyond the time when the correlated valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were not well worn passageways between the (Jreat Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. The southern part of Sauk County was a central link in that superb chain.

The commencement of the great Wisconsin River Trail was Portage, whence the main route was to Dekorra, which was a favorite point for crossing the river. At that point the trail branched, one line passing to the south of the Wisconsin to the Galena lead region, and the other following the valley in a general way to Prairie du Chien. This, which was generally considered the main route, cut across what is now the southern part of Sauk County. In Merrimack it passed over the rolling land between the bluffs and the river. In Prairie du Sac it left the Wisconsin and crossed the prairie to the valley of Honey Creek which it followed for some distance. In Prairie du Sac the trail has been definitely located where it cut off the southeast corner of section 26, and the northwest corner of section 35, and passed almost diagonally through section 34.

Several other trails, besides that of the Wisconsin River, centered near the Honey Creek Valley. One of these passed diagonally from southeast to northwest across sections 8 and 9, thence in the same general direction, through Westfield and Ironton townships toward LaCrosse.

The Indian trail from Sauk Prairie to Baraboo Rapids crossed the South Bluff in nearly the same course as does the present West Sank road. South of the bluff it evidently led to the villages about Honey Creek, near the site of Lodde's Mill of today, although in earlier times it may have led to the Sauk village. In a letter to Mr. Canficld ('-Outline Sketches of Sauk County") C. O. Baxter says: "Some time in October. 1839, five of us crossed the bluffs over to the Baraboo Valley. The trail led us over the bluff's immediately back of what is now known as the

Teal's Place, the highest peak, I think, in the center range between the prairie and Baraboo. The trail led us directly to the Baraboo River at the place where Maxwell's Mill Dam now stands. Here we forded the river and entered the Indian chief's (Caliminee's) village."

Several Indian trails followed the general trend of the Baraboo Valley between the bluffs; one wider and more pronounced than the others met them all, like a trunk line, at the Baraboo Rapids. Thence it followed along the foot of the north range to the ford at Garrisonville, whence several trails radiated. Another trail connected the same points, but followed closer to the river bottoms. Still another from the Rapids extended along the base of the south range, through the Palmer Village site, up Rowley Creek and so on to Dekorra. From the ford at Garrisonville, an important trail led up the ravine north of the residence of Samuel Brown to the upper slopes of the quartzite range; thence, in almost a direct line, to Dekorra. Possibly this trail joined with the one from Jackson Creek. From the ford another trail led through the Lower Narrows on the east side of the river to Portage.

Two important trails led north from the Baraboo River - one from the Baraboo Rapids and the other, from the Qarrisonville Ford. They met on Yellow Thunder's Forty, a leading rendezvous of the Winnebagoes in the extreme eastern part of what is now the Town of Delton. The trail from the Rapids still shows quite distinctly about forty rods east of the public road and nearly opposite the residence of Edmund Calvert. The trail from Garrisonville Ford passed through the Lower Narrows on the west bank of the Baraboo River, followed the upland bordering the Big Marsh, crossed near the Leach Creek Group of mounds, and led almost directly to Yellow Thunder's Forty. This trail may be easily traced on the Thomas Farm, northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 7, in the southwestern part of the Town of Delton. There is also said to have been a southern trail from Garrisonville Ford to the Merrimack region.

The Dells and Portage Trail followed the Wisconsin River along the northeastern corner of Sauk County. It crossed Dell Creek near the Newport Mounds and passed close to the lower Dells Group. There, on the Baton property, the trail is well defined for a distance of nearly half a mile. Hence it passed to the lower lands through the Herwig Village site along the Wisconsin River Group of mounds and on through the Stage Road Group, meeting other trails near Yellow Thunder's Forty. In its course along the river from this point the trail passed through the Poison Group, and for several miles in Fairfield Township substantially followed the public road. Between that highway and Chapman's Lake the trail still shows plainly. In the northeast corner of Fairfield it led to the edge of the river opposite Pine Island, which was a favorite camping site of the later Indians. Thence the trail followed the river to Portage.

The trails noted, and doubtless others, were used by the WTinnebagoes and the pioneer whites. As a rule, and the map upholds the statement, the trails followed the easier routes of travel, led for objective points and passed through many important groups of mounds. It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that they were used in part by the original builders of the mounds, and that the natives who came after them continued to use the main lines of travel established by their forefathers. After the establishment of Fort Winnebago that point of special interest to the Indians of this section and, as noted, many of the trails led toward that place. But the Sauk Village on the Prairie and Yellow Thunder's Forty, with the numerous and remarkable region of prehistoric mounds in Eastern Sauk County, have tended to set apart this section of the state as an area of sacred ground for the red man and of absorbing scientific and speculative interest for the white man.