Potawatomi Area Council BSA Historic Trails Guide
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Potawatomi Area Council BSA Historic Trails Guide The Boy Scouts of America has more than 200 approved historic trails throughout the nation. Each of these trails is unique and possesses some sort of historical significance. Scouts who camp and hike along one of these trails for two or more days and become aquatinted with the trail’s historical significance and who help restore and or preserve historic features are eligible for the Historic Trails Award, a distinctive Scout patch that may be sewn on pack or jacket. Application for this award must be made on the official Historic Trails Award Application form available at your Potawatomi Council Boy Scout Office. Historic Background of the Southern Kettle Moraine Region 1 The archaeological evidence indicates that the first Native Americans arrived in this area about 8,000 years ago. The dominate Native American group that the white settlers encountered when they came to the Kettle Moraine region as early as 1670, were the Prairie Potawatomi. These Native Americans were only one of a number of Indian nations to live in this area since the last glacier left our region. The Potawatomi were good farmers and grew crops like corn, beans, pumpkins and gourds. They hunted game in the forests and fished the many waters of the Kettle Moraine region. These Indians were skilled in the use of bows, arrows, seines, fish lines and traps. Fish were smoked or sun dried for later use. Ripe berries and roots were collected from the woods for food. Dugout canoes were made with primitive tools from basswood or white oak trees. In their villages they constructed round, bark covered wigwams or lodges, as high as ten feet and twelve to twenty feet in diameter. In the center of these lodges was a pit like fireplace lined with stones. Today, many local people in the Kettle Moraine region still retain their Potawatomi names. The high hill in the Southern Kettle Moraine known as Bald Bluff is thought to have been a Potawatomi council grounds and a signal hill as well as a place where ceremonial dances were held. The woods of the Kettle Moraine region once contained many animals that are not found here today. Black bear, bobcats, timber wolves, elk, wood buffalo, passenger pigeons, wild turkey and prairie chickens once inhabited the area. Changes in habitat and the increasing population by settlers drove these animals out or doomed them to extinction. In recent years wild turkeys have been successfully reintroduced to the region. On September 26 and 27, 1833, a treaty was signed in Chicago between the Potawatomi and the Federal government that ceded their lands in the Kettle Moraine to the United States of America. They were given three years to leave and enter a reservation in Iowa along the Missouri River. In 1846 these Indians were again displaced by the government and sent to a reservation in Kansas. A number of the Potawatomi refused to leave Wisconsin and a number returned to the state at a later date. These Native Americans continued to live peacefully among the white settlers of the region well into the early 1900’s. The region west of Waukesha, Wisconsin, now called The Kettle Moraine, has only born this name for a relatively short period of time. Other 2 names have been applied to the region over the years, for different reasons. Old records indicate that a French map drawn in the 1820’s referred to this region as the Smoky Mountains When viewed from the western side of the region it is easy to understand how the French determined this name. Even today, a haze occasionally blots out the view, creating the impression of smoke. In the 1830’s and ‘40’s, the settlers of the region called the Kettle Moraine the Bluffs, which referred to the steep sided moraine on the western side of the region. A local stream was also called Bluff Creek and Bluff Road and still retains the name to this day. The highest hill in Jefferson County is named Signal Bluff. It is located just off the Ice Age Trail. Because the hummocks and hollows of the region reminded the early settlers of the great kettles they used to boil down ash lye, during the production of homemade soap and ash cakes, they named the region Potash Kettle Range. A state Geologist of the 1870’s, T.C. Chamberlain, finally attempted to provide an accurate scientific description of the region by naming it The Kettle Interlobe Moraine. This mouthful proved to be too much for the average resident and the name soon became shortened to Kettle Moraine. The first European to visit the Kettle Moraine probably arrived here sometime in the late 17th. century. Jesuit missionaries such as Father Jacques Marquette came down the west shore of Lake Michigan and he is known to have erected crosses on the tops of high hills in the state. When the white settlers arrived at what is now known as Holy Hill, they were told by Potawatomi and Menomonee Indians that a white men in a black robe came from what we now know as Lake Michigan and erected a great cross on the top of the hill. We do not know for sure if it was Father Marquette who visited the Hill. and erected the cross, but it may have been the famed Jesuit. During most of the 18thand 19th centuries, The Northwest Fur Company and The American Fur Company conducted operations in the Kettle Moraine region. We know there were trading posts located at Mukwonago, Waukesha, Oconomowoc and at a site near the shores of Lake Koshkonong. A number of well known individuals were involved in the fur trade. Among these were Sieur Morin, Pierre La Port, Thiebeau, 3 Jacques Vieau, Jean Baptist Le Tendre, Solomon Juneau and Amable Vieau. In 1835 the United States Government hired a surveyor by the name of John Brink to carry out a survey of the region we now call the Kettle Moraine. He and his crew of five men explored the area and mapped the prairies, marshes, rivers, lakes, Indian trails and any other important landmarks they ran across. From this information settlers were able to learn the lay of the land and find specific places in which to settle or buy property. At that time, the Federal Government sold the land for $ 1.25 an acre to settlers. The first settlers to reach the Southern Kettle Moraine were largely from the New England states, Ireland, Wales and England. The lands found within the Northern Kettle Moraine were settled by Germans, Scotch and Irish populations. Increase A. Lapham, a native of Oconomowoc, and an early state naturalist, studied the Kettle Moraine in the 1840’s. He described the plants and animals of the region in a book that he published in 1846. Lapham also drew maps of the region identifying the major geological features as well as other phisiographic entities of interest. It was at Lapham Peak that Lapham conducted experiments with the help of the Army Signal Corps that eventually resulted in the founding of the United States Weather Bureau. Lapham Peak is 1,233 feet above sea level and is the highest point in Waukesha County In the 1800’s a man named Charles Hanson built a 20 foot observation tower on top of the peak. He charged the public a fee to climb the tower or to picnic on the crest. He later increased the tower height and built a restaurant. This site became a popular tourist destination in the 1800’s. Some of the peak’s early names were, Stony Hill, Prospect Hill, Government Hill and finally Lapham Peak/. The hill was named after Increase A. Lapham. In 1907, the State of Wisconsin purchased the peak as a site for a health sanitarium. It was transferred to the State Conservation department in 1939 and it is now a unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. North Prairie Another community in Waukesha County that has a close relationship to the Kettle Moraine is North Prairie. This region was once part of a vast 4 and beautiful natural prairie covered with a heavy growth of tall grass. Early settlers made hay from the grass they cut here and used it to winter their livestock. A similar prairie was located about two miles south of North Prairie so that one became known as South Prairie. Joseph Smart and Thomas Sugden is credited with the name. They settled here in 1836. The village of North Prairie however did not thrive until the railroad came through the region in 1851. Eagle The town of Eagle in Waukesha County is located in the middle of the Southern Kettle Moraine district. In 1836, a group of prospectors or surveyors were crossing a section of prairie when they saw a large Bald Eagle rise above them. The men were Thomas Sugden, John Coats and a Mr. Garton. They decided to name the area Eagle Prairie. Later a settlement was started here it was called Eagleville. Then the name was changed to Pittman, after a man who recorded the plat. Finally in 1850 the railroad came through and the town became Eagle Center. and now is simply referred to as Eagle. Eagle is also famous for another reason. Near this community in 1867, a light-yellow diamond was found in glacial drift, while some men were digging a well on a local farm. It weighed 15.3 carats and was later sold to a Milwaukee jeweler for one dollar by the farmer’s wife who thought it was a topaz.