MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ [River]. The other was Mitchell Thebault, Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern mostly Menominee, with a French Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: infusion of blood and name, with his The Chicago Legal News Company, complexion paled to a hue of little lighter 1879, pp. iv-vi than the usual Indian copper tint. Though with the manners and habits, in some …For an excursion, and on a vacation degree, of civilized life, they were furlough, to one of these streams noted for essentially, in nature and native dialect, trout, three Chicago lawyers, in August, Indians. In August of 1877, a second 1875, joined in a party. These were excursion to the Brulé river was made by JAMES L. HIGH, author of the works on the same Chicago party, excepting that MR. “Injunctions,” “Extraordinary Legal FRANKLIN DENISON, also a Chicago Remedies,” etc., JONAH H. BISSELL, lawyer, took the place of MR. BISSELL. complier of “Bissell’s Reports,” and the This volume is an intinerary [sic – writer [JOHN LYLE KING], together with itinerary] or narrative of these excursions. It LORENZO PRATT, a Chicago capitalist. is made up and revised from diaries whose The party sought recreation and mental notes were jotted down on the way. They rest. Other members of the bar had were kept chiefly to vary or to fill up and journeyed some of those regions, in their divert idle intervals, or otherwise vacant vacation freedom, on a tour of rest, sport leisures. The notes were off-hand, and and pleasure. They had found and took the impromptu form and pressure of reported a full and rare fruition of the body of the time when penciled. With enjoyment, in their wanderings to and on some revision, the notes were published the Brulé river. A like expedition, with partly in the Chicago Sunday Times, and identical purposes, following the path of partly in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, and Cook, Campbell, Judge Blodgett and from these journals, with fuller revision others, promised equal and similar delight again, they are now reproduced in this and good. It was a journey and sojourn in volume. Their further publicity is more of open air, made up of canoeing, tenting, the instance [sic – insistence] of others than portaging and roughing generally, with the at that of the writer himself. incidents of shooting and fishing. The outfit and supplies were provided in Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ Chicago, and sent by the Chicago & Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern North-Western railway to Section Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: Eighteen, a station of that road eighteen The Chicago Legal News Company, miles beyond Marinette, Wisconsin. The 1879, pp. xi-xvi other accessories – a team for the land route and the guides – were engaged in The Michigami [sic – Michigamme] advance at Marinette, and met the party at river has its source in Lake Michigami [sic Section Eighteen. The canoes were to be – Michigamme], in the iron and copper procured at Badwater, on the Menominee regions of Lake Superior. Its course is [River], where the water travel began. southeasterly. Its length is about ninety The guides were Indians. One of them miles. Our party struck this river at was George Kaquotash, a full-blooded Republic, reaching there by rail from Menominee, muscular, lithe, active – a Chicago, and coursed it about fifty-three veteran of the woods and of the Brulé miles, making thence overland and water 1 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] routes by Lake Mary, the Paint river, Mud Quiniseck [sic – Quinnesec], about lake, the Trout (known as Sugar) river, twenty five miles. This point can be Lone Grave (or Bass), lake [sic – lake,] reached by rail from Chicago, direct, in and lakes Chicagon [sic – Chicagoan] about sixteen hours. From Quiniseck [sic – and Minnie, to the Brulé [River], a Quinnesec] a new wagon road has been distance of thirty-five miles. With the made to Twin Falls. Between the two falls exception of the Hamilton and Merryman it crosses the Menominee on a fine iron lumbering company’s camp, about bridge recently constructed, and passes eighteen miles above its mouth, the near the south end of Badwater (or Michigami [sic – Michigamme], from the Spread Eagle) lakes to the point where the party touched it, traverses Commonwealth iron mines, thence north- an unbroken wilderness. This can now be easterly, near Fisher’s lake [sic – Fisher reached by team on a supply road from Lake], to Stephenson’s farm on the Badwater, which also extends to the Brulé. From this farm supply roads run to headwaters of [the] Ford river. The points on [the] Paint river, and also a Michigami [sic – Michigamme] flows supply road runs nine miles to Brulé dam, through the richest of forest scenery, and built in 1878. The distance from Quiniseck on its banks are numerous points where [sic – Quinnesec] to this point is about thirty deer may be shot, and, at places where miles. This dam is a mile below small streams come in, trout are found. Chickabiddy Camp. Downward canoeing is a most delightful Quiniseck [sic – Quinnesec] is already experience of trhe rambler on this stream. something of a village, and is the depot of The Brulé, in 1875, also ran its whole several productive iron regions. From course through a complete wilderness. It Vulcan, on the Menominee River was then reached by overland route from Railroad, a supply road runs to Sturgeon Section Eighteen on the Chicago and river, where both good hunting and fishing North-Western Railway, by way of may be had. On [the] Pine river, reached Badwater, on the Menominee [River], and from Twin Falls, there are good fishing and in canoes thence. Since that time, several hunting. From Carney, on the Chicago changes are visible in the few lower miles and North-Western Railway, a road runs of the river. About seventeen miles above due west, crossing the Menominee at the its mouth at the Michigami [sic – Peemenee [sic – Pemene] farm of the N. Michigamme], a dam has been erected, Ludington Company, to the north branch and there is said to be fine trouting at that of Pike river. From the farm, the road point. A mile below that is Armstrong’s traverses a park-like and picturesque Camp, and below the latter two miles is La country of pine plains, Norway pines and Montaigne’s Upper Camp; three miles scrub oak, and is reputed to be an further down is Cauldwell’s farm, and five extremely pleasant and easy route. The miles from the latter is Stephenson’s Brulé trouting on the north branch of the Pike, as farm. Here is the log cabin at which our well as on the main river, is said to be party made a descent on the cook and his superior. Bass fishing and hunting on dog. Caton lakes are very fine. There is a good There is now a railroad, operated by the hotel at Carney, where arrangements can North-Western company, the Menominee be made in advance, for teams and River Railroad, from the line of the former supplies for parties in quest of hunting and at Menominee River Junction to fishing amusement at points and in regions 2 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] accessible from that point. The sportsman watercourses, and interspersed with lakes may also made a fine trip on the Escanaba and lakelets, and by portages, the canoes river, by reaching it by rail to Smith mine, and the outfit of the parties can be and thence down the stream by canoe or transported from one navigating course to boat to the mouth. Trouting and deer another. hunting on this river, [sic] afford most In these regions mink, otter, deer, some excellent sport. bear, and waterfowl, particularly in their In consequence of these recent season, are found. The sportsman who openings up of mining and lumbering ventures through the forests may find in points, and of roads to them, the sporting them and along the water a surfeit of booty realms of forest and stream are made more for his gun or rod. For the most part he is easily and directly accessible. A sufficiency powerless, except when near some of the or abundance of supplies, the necessary points with railway reach recently opened, and proper staples of subsistence, may be to utilize the spoils any more than in obtained at the various logging and mining supplying his camp fare as he passes points. At Marinette and Menominee a along. Only in exceptional instances, and retinue of Indian guides for a journey and usually in limited quantity, his trout, or deer, sojourn in the woods, [sic] may always be or ducks, beyond the needs of traveling had. consumption, must be wasted or left With the exception of the points now behind, neither sufficing for his own mentioned, the regions traversed by the prolonged wants or for gifts to friends at Brulé and Michigami [sic – Michigamme] home. are wholly a wilderness, unsettled, even As well as a canoe to move him, the by Indians. The only landmarks are the traveler must have a tent to house him, and trails or portages, impassable except on such outfit of camping appliances and such foot, and known only to hunters, trappers, store of provisions as may suit his taste, his prospectors, locators, surveyors or capacity of transporting them, the length of adventurous sportsmen on summer the route and the duration of his sojourn. rambles. There is no sort of habitation or Most essential, too, is the guide, his cultivation. Not more than two or three cicerone, the impersonated guide-book of parties, during a season, penetrate these the way, the navigator of the birch-bark, the forests. For such parties the supplies and carrier of the luggage, the tent-builder, the appliances of subsistence must be taken log-heap fireman, the cook, the baker, the along or obtained at the lumber camps, and scullion, in fact the indispensable general must be such as will admit of being utility man and brother. He is, or should be, transported in canoe and packed over the an Indian or half breed, and practically carries. they are the same. The forests are almost impenetrable, from the dense luxuriant growth, Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ undergrowth and fallen and decaying Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern timber. There are trails or portages, as they Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: are indifferently called, between different The Chicago Legal News Company, points, and these are passable only on foot, 1879, Chapter II, pp. 14-22 and most of them with difficulty in that way. The canoe is the means of travel. The About ten o’clock we came to [the] country is threaded in many directions with Sturgeon river, where it flows into the 3 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

Menominee [River]. Fording the former at And when its original wealth of pies had its mouth – it being then from summer been exhausted, the place was abandoned shrinking much down in the mouth – we and relapsed into a dismal waste. But the struck the bounds of Sturgeon, otherwise site desolate in itself, yet afforded an New York farm, which lies there bordering outlook of a charming stretch of river and the two streams. After the density of forest panorama. The guides, with wilderness and naturalness we had something of an eye for the beautiful, had traversed, it opened on us like a told us of the view, and had led us to it. perspective of beauty and a scene of life. High said that within his experience, There are some good buildings of wood on which was one of considerable familiarity the place, a capacious barn, a store-room, with the indigenous of Colorado, Utah and and a large acreage of meadow, the Wyoming, our Indian retinue were the first property of a lumbering company. It is the of the race whom he had known to have a base of supplies and stores of various sensibility to the charms of scenery. kinds, and also the abode of the choppers Kaquotash and Thebault lingered, as we in the company’s winter employ. There is did, in admiration of the vista. Below us an aspect of neatness, thrift, enterprise and was the river bending, a belt or outline of prosperity about the farm. Its chief gleaming silver winding through masses of importance to us, however, was in its verdant forest magically coloring to varying capability of supplying wants already felt. and shifting hues, from the stirring of the We were customers on its subsistence breeze, the shading of a cloud or the full reserves. effulgence of the sun. The blending view of The next point was Dickey’s. Ten miles woodland and stream was much finer than stretched between it and the farm. It was that at Sturgeon farm, and was, really, our not a much more pleasing route than that first vision of the Menominee [River] already passed over. It led up a hill, and picturesque. ran a goodly distance along a ridge of hills, We were tiring of the way, and longing and some if it was comparatively smooth for Dickey’s, where we were to halt for rest and going, while other portions of the road and dining. The plodding along was were rough and broken. We tested wearisome till the proportions of his considerably our pedestrian capacities on cabin, in a patch of clearing, loomed into the way. Huckleberries were plentiful, and sight. Like the few and far between we picked them and mouthed our fill of kindred structures of the woods, it was them. There was much dead timber, with of the rude, primal, wooden style of scattering numbers of skeleton pines and architecture. It is a trading station, hemlocks, and nothing enlivening in the lonely in its isolation as a hermit’s way of scenery to relieve the cheerless retreat, where the scattered few Indians monotony. repair to dicker their furs, skins and We plodded wearily on till we reached a deer, for pork, flour, tobacco, gawdy [sic hill range overlooking the river. There was – gaudy] trinkets and such commodities an open space from which the timber had as suit their primitive wants and tastes. been cleanly stripped, and a deserted Dickey, his cook and dog, were sole cabin then in decay, was the sole vestige occupants of the solitary ranch. It of a former busy logging camp. The ground serves as a domicile, as a store in a was worthless for culture, but had a great rudimentary form, and as a hostelry or apparent capacity for brambles and weeds. inn, in a legal sense, as a place where 4 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] the traveler is furnished with everything when just at my wide I saw High leaning he wants, provided the traveler has against a tree puffing so pleasingly, and as occasion for very little. The little we if impersonating all the beatitudes, and the wanted was a dinner. Our lean and rich burning incense that spread in a glory hungry look was hint enough to the cook of cloud and odor from his amber-tipped to vigorously bestir himself. We heard and ruddy-tinted meerschaum [type of pipe] the clatter of pans and the simmer of the – “O, it came in my nose like the sweet fry, and, in our waiting eagerness, scent that breathes upon a bank of violets, grateful and tantalizing foretastes of the stealing and giving order” – the smoking meal crept into our senses in savory passion sprang from its trance of two years wafts from the kitchen. like smouldered [sic – smoldered] embers While the preparation was going on, leaping into instant, living flame. some of us stretched on the bunks, or I was at once irrecoverably enthralled in blanketed shelves, for ease. Dickey’s the delicious spell, and felt my utter white, shaggy dog jumped up and laid impotency to banish the Satan-tempter to down beside the recumbent, or tried to; the rear. I threw myself headlong, as it and when kicked out, betook himself to were, into the full tide of fruition. Dickey another and offered the same doggish had clay-pipes [sic – clay pipes] and familiarity, but with like results. The yellow paper packages of tobacco with traveling of the day had sharply the Milwaukee trade-mark [sic – appetized [sic] us, so that the trademark] on. Of these I provided a devastation of bread, pork, potatoes, supply; as they were the best in Dickey’s syrup and Oolong [type of tea], bazaar, I was not inclined to be critical surprised, thought satisfying, ourselves, or squeamish. The luxury of that first but disquieted the host. Probably, with after-dinner smoking was a supreme felicity limited supplies in the out-of-the-way indeed. cabin, the exploits of six able-bodied “And the last trace of feeling with life shall appetites in reducing his stores might depart, Ere the smoke of that moment shall pass from easily have inspired some anxiety in my heart.” search of appetites of zest and longing Our prospectus of the journey had unknown to the lagging or dormant noted on it, “canoes at Badwater.” But appetence of the home-stomach. Dickey’s saleable estate included a birch It was here that I gave way to the bark. It occurring to us that as a bird in seductiveness of tobacco. I had long been the hand is worth more than the a cloud-compeller, but for the two years possible or uncertain bird or dozen birds previously was a teetotaler in smoking, and in the bush, a canoe we could secure the delicious aroma of the weed was only to was more valuable and to our purpose me in the vain fruition of occasional than supposed or conjectural canoes up collateral sweets and sideway perfumes, the river, we advised ourselves to invest which changed to be whiffed about by other in the present vessel. Our marine force, smokers. But here, looking forward to days George and Thebault, was dispatched to and nights in the woods, where, of all the river to inspect the offered bargain places, my ancient familiar or genius of the and report. We put the matter in our fume, would be an always readily evoked pipes and leisurely smoked it while they and answering solace and companion, alike were gone. Their report was in the hours of the sun and of the stars, and 5 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] satisfactory. The canoe was first-class, One of us went afoot, in advance, to and ready for instant service. Dickey’s explore the way. Another followed behind figure was twenty dollars. The score to see that nothing slipped or jarred out of was settled. the wagon. We skirted one of the lakelets The Indians returned to the river, and which the Indians had crossed with the soon thence shouldered the vessel to canoe, and soon after, coming to another us, when we saw at a glance that we had sheet, a perilous looking bog or slough acquired a very model and beauty of extended across the way, and there was water-craft. It had dimensions for nothing for us but to risk the treacherous storage. It was staunch and tight’ it was passage. The horses plunged in the graceful and shapely; and when George slough, and at once sank to their bellies, lifted and balanced it on his head, to and pitched forward and fell, one nearly on carry it through the woods, we saw its top of the other. They floundered and good qualities of form, size, grace and struggled a moment. The teamster waded portability, at a glance. It protruded like in, and rapidly unharnessing the animals, an elongated, but seemingly they recovered their legs, and being hitched imponderable, hood of bark, or huge to the tongue and put to their mettle, after fibrous pod. Nothing but Indian sundry hard pulls, they jerked the vehicle experience and patience could have from the mire, out on solid ground. We worked it a way through such woods. were in not a little suspense as to the High went afoot with it and the natives. probability of extricating the wagon, in its It was to be portaged to a point above integrity, from the awkward fix. Twin Falls. On the trail were two small When the route reached the river above lakes. Bissell, Pratt and myself went Twin Falls, Pratt left the team and with the wagon. navigated with High the canoe there The route, or landway, from Dickey’s to launched and awaiting him. There were Badwater was ten miles. It was not really a then five miles of roughing before us. In road, in the sense of that leveling, grubbing, that distance, there were the same, or filling and cutting, which are supposed to be more, obstacles to impede our journeying. implied in the legal conception of a road Fortunately, the horses were of the sturdy where there are supervisors of highways and enduring kind. Their day’s work would about. The ground was of varying grades have worn down common scrubs. and forms of curve; declivities and Evanston was an experienced teamster, acclivities, on spurs of little hills, seemingly and knew his business well. So neither too abrupt for safe teaming, and menacing wagon nor horses had any but trivial constant upsettings. The branches of trees mishaps, though it was almost a miracle had often to be pushed aside; they that we had not been capsized a dozen scratched into the driver’s eyes, and if our times. Towards the close of the day and Norwegian Jehu had been long-haired, like the end of the route, difficulties provokingly his remote barbarous Norse progenitors, multiplied. The timber across the trail there were many obtrusive limbs which appeared to be larger and plentier [sic – might have swung him, like Absalom, by the more plentiful], and the chopping was more locks. The trail was sometimes blocked laborious. with fallen trees, and the barricade yielded only to the axe, or it might be, trees had to Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ be felled to open a detour. Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern 6 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: worthless to go fencing with his more The Chicago Legal News Company, enterprising fellows. Thebault interpreted 1879, Chapter II, pp. 24-28 our overtures to him. He, thinking he was the monopolist of all the present available Small meadows on either side, with paddling force of the hamlet, attempted to five or six rude Indian cabins scattered corner the market on us, and struck for over them, all but one on the Michigan three dollars a day. As in fact the aboriginal shore, were the vista before us, called triumvirate already engaged would well Badwater. A squalid Chippewa, with a suffice, his exorbitant terms were declined. few ragged redskin youngsters, were the When we pushed off, he gazed wistfully at populace that silently and curiously the departing squadron, as if he felt he had hung around. Across was Tom King’s badly overdone the business, and had cabin home. This name was an adopted made himself a too greedy instance of alias. He was really, and of his race, and vaulting ambition overleaping itself. of kith and kin, known as Weawbiny-Ket. Tom King navigated his late canoe, with He was the particular native American High, Bissell, and part of the luggage we wished to hold present imparlance embarked in it. Pratt, myself and the bulk [sic – parlance] with. For further of the outfit, with George and Thebault for advance, another canoe and another polers, were in the larger canoe, which we canoeist were essential. Tom was a sine named the Dickey. We set forth in high qua non [something absolutely feather. This was my own first experience indispensable or essential], therefore, of birth bark navigation. The shapely and and so was one of the two canoes he fragile coracle sat on the water gracefully had. and in feather-like lightness. Its George bawled loudly at the cabin, and treacherous unsteadiness and vagaries of brought out the whole domestic circle, equilibrium were speedily learned, and including Tom himself, and hailed him to demanded a critical and ticklish nicety of cross over. He launched a birch bark, and poise or equilibration quite new to me. We paddled it and himself into our presence. had to bestow ourselves most cautiously, The interview was to the point, and the squatted on our blanket bundles, with our negotiation brief. We could have a canoe legs awkwardly twisted, and cramping and and we could have him. The legal tender bending ourselves low, making it an effort required for the first was fifteen dollars, and and a study to maintain the trim. The the per diem in currency for the services facility of careening, the peril of a heedless was a dollar and a quarter. This was not movement turning the balance, or of tipping hard on the collective exchequer, and we her over, made our probational experiences accepted the terms, the vessel and Tom. and trials in attitudes and positions, for a Finding that this moderate item, in our time, anything but assuring. general expense account, left us a liberal It was curious how fidgety we became margin within the estimate for the trip, we and how often we wanted to shift positions, thought it would not be unthrifty to charter and had irrepressible tendency to motions another Chippewa auxiliary. we ought not to and dare not make. Of The Badwater men of the tribe were out course, my immediate notion was, that the fencing deer for winter venison. The only vaunted perfection of the canoe, as a one at hand was the tawny vagrant we first pleasure boat, and the reputed charms of saw. He, probably, was too lazy or canoeing, were mythical and a tale to be 7 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] told to the marines. To me, the disaster of employ the vacant iterim in prospecting the a ducking seemed too imminent to admit of waters for possible trout. Praff and Bissell any foolishness or indiscretion. Still, High, lazily reclined in the shade, sniffing the who knew the eccentricities of the birches, savoriness of the coming dinner. had told us we would get used to all that … sort of thing. Our Menominees knew their business. Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ One fore and one aft, they poled the canoe Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern along shore, with tireless steadiness, and Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: made it speed, mile after mile, with an ease The Chicago Legal News Company, and uniformity quite admirable and 1879, Chapter VI, pp. 72-77 surprising to us. The Tom King – as we christened our purchase from him – The next objective point was followed closely in our wake. High and Badwater and Tom King’s cabin. Before Bissell puffingly devoted their Chicago we were far afloat, our seemingly inevitable muscle to occasional short paddling, adding and pitiless fate, dark clouds, gathered their by-play of momentum to Tom’s behind and portentously loomed towards pushing. Tom surprised a wild duck us. The boys lustily swung the paddles, napping among the grasses fringing the and the barks sprang and leaped to the shore, and dispatched him with a stroke of strokes, cleaving the water like things of his pole. This took the job off Pratt’s hands abounding life. But the clouds, like a of firing into the unwary water-fowl. By rushing, bannered host, massed and noon we had reached the mouth of the marched rapidly, gaining on us, and, at last, Michigami [sic – Michigamme] river, a few the lighter skirmish van overtaking us, we yards up which are the falls, a cascade of were moderately showered, and, in about thirty feet in hight [sic – height], over moistened plight, we hurried into the cover which the whole stream rushes in one of the sheltering hospice. We were volume – but without any picturesque fortunate in making the refuge of Tim accessories. We ran in for lunch and to King’s castle of pine just in time. The prepare for a portage. showering was a petty overture only to the By overland, the distance is three miles rain-storm [sic – rainstorm] that followed it, to Brulé Falls, while by river it is seven and which, as if all the windows of heaven miles. We purposed sending all the load by had opened widest, poured in torrents. The the Dickey, and to trail to the Paint [River], clatter of the rain on the bark roof was and as that river comes in near the falls, dinning, but it was not unpleasing and would have to be crossed, to portage music. the smaller canoe for ferriage there. We While the storm was wildly driving, two were eager to reach the river of trout drenched and be-draggled [sic – sooner than we could by the water ascent, bedraggled] Chippewas, living across the and besides, we wanted to relieve river, the most abject and forlorn looking of ourselves from the weariness of our redskin ragamuffins, returned from a deer- compressed, and in-the-stocks-like, sitting fencing enterprise, and, with a vociferous in the canoe. The boys – for that was the hullabaloo signaled for a canoe to cross term of designation for the guides among them over. Fencing is an Indian mode of ourselves – having engaged in culinary deer hunting. A line of fallen trees and procedure, High and I mounted our rods to branches, making a rude cheval de fries 8 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

[“horse of the Frisians” – The Frisians, twenty-four lettered word, almost an having few cavalry, relied heavily on such alphabet, was too much for me as a totality. anti-cavalry obstacles in warfare.], is laid I tried it in sections and by installments, with and arranged from east to west, between no better result – it was a poser in orthoepy two points, sometimes several miles apart, [pronunciation: the study of the ways that at intervals of which the hunters are words are pronounced], and beyond my stationed. At the season when the deer power to vocalize. Ojibbwa [sic – Ojibwa] travel south and come to the fence, instead may be a pleasing dialect, but some of its of leaping or forcing through it, they face parts of speech are rather long-drawn-out, bout and pace alongside, and passing the and the syllables, in many words, run too hidden Indian on his watch, are easily shot far tandem to be conveniently rolled as from the cover. This kind of ambuscading sweet morsels of speech under the tongue. supplies most of the winter venison. Such Tom handsomely played host to us. killing seems more a massacre or butchery He was liberal of his plain civilities. He than sport. wanted us to feel we had the freedom of While we were trying our wet clothes, the house. His tawny spouse, in speech, we took a survey of the cabin. There was nothing, if not Chippewa, and had was a good deal of the white as well as nothing to say to us, but performed her of the red-man in the household. Most part in the etiquette of the occasion with of the furniture was of the usual plain a pantomime of features quite as sort. In place of Axminster carpeting or meaning of cordiality and welcome as if drugget, there was an Indian many- phrased in the formulas of the best colored, woven grass matting, laid on society. She certainly won her way to part of the floor, which was smooth, our hearts and stomachs by the glistening neat pine. The bed-covers excellent supper set before us. The fried were a patch-work of the brightest and dried venison was a specially native gaudiest colors. Parts of the walls were dish that seemed to have a flavor and profusely and jumblingly pasted with gaminess and wildness racy of the Harper, Frank Leslie and other pictorial wigwam and the forest. The sauce of prints and cartoons, a maze of wood- raspberries, picked from near-by cuts, the only embellishment or art bushes, and the syrup from the tap of pretension in the room. maples on the hill, were so choice that Tom had a library of sacred literature by a mistake of appropriation, or – the New Testament in English, which thoughtlessly, we quite overstepped the he could not read, and the New etiquette which constrains guests from Testament in Ojibbwa [sic – Ojibwa] emptying a host’s dishes, and not (Chippewa) which he could read, but enough of either was left to serve as a apparently did not. The aboriginal bare hint of what it was. evangel excited my curiosity. I took a shy As Tom King had not caught the at it, to see how the gospels ran in parental usage of many civilized good Chippewa vernacular, and began the families, of turning the children loose in the investigation in comparative philology, with drawing-room to practice their hilarious the first verse, first chapter, of Matthew: infantile diversions and general “Mesu oo otian I Reb-ematizaiani-Mu- boisterousness for the entertainment and zinaugun au Jesus Christ inu dabidum admiration of guests, the juvenile fraction oouisum gaio inu Abrahanyum.” The or fractions [sic – faction or factions] of 9 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] the household were secluded, doubtless irregularly shaped lakelets opening one to temporary exile and silence in the into another – perhaps more than a half- kitchen corner. Tom and his helpmate, dozen of them – said to be called also, themselves occupied that small Badwater from the reputed dark shade apartment for the night. They assigned of the water. The portage to them is a to us the two beds, in what was half-mile, over a steep ridge, and starts chamber, dining and drawing-room, with from the river a mile below Tom King’s their gay butterfly-like overspreads. place. Of course the canoe was These coverlets were light and as bright indispensable, both to carry us on the river and gay as the dream of a tropical flower- and to cruise us on the lakes. Fishing for garden [sic – flower garden]. bass and pickerel was to be merely an Early next morning, Tom saddled a incident, not the purpose, of the excursion, horse, and set out for a trip to Dickey’s, an exploration of the lakes and view of the to procure supplies for our use – scenery being the main intent. possibly, too, for his own. Our pine box pantry told a beggarly tale of emptiness. Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ He had carte blanche to bring us such Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern commodities of sustenance as that Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: limited market would afford. The whole The Chicago Legal News Company, day would be required for the 1879, Chapter VII, pp. 81-83 accomplishment of his mission of food, and was before us for disposal. TOM KING had horticultural With a trout stream only two miles pretensions; and, we had seen, in his distant, of which we had most favorable carefully weeded garden, vines of water- hearsay, High was not the man to lazily melons [sic – watermelons] and dawdle away a good clear angling day in an cucumbers, and other garden stuffs, in Indian cabin. The chance of sport there profusion of healthy flourishing. In the was the more alluring from the fact that a night, a rare August frost, a most premature pale-face angler was said never to have spectral harbinger of winter, strayed form cast a line or his shadow in the petty [sic – the far north, and nipped and blighted by its pretty] stream. High thought, doubtless, it touch the whole abundant plant. In the would very notably feather his cap to be, of morning, a dense fog overhung the river all civilized fly-anglers, the pioneer to the and obscured the sun, but ere long the mysterious and occult water. In the glamor warm radiance dispelled the cloud of mist of his vision of the venture, Pratt, also, as if it were snow melted away magically. It discerned a degree and éclat [brilliance of was then an unclouded heaven and success, reputation] of novelty. Both, dazzling sunny day, and these were hailed therefore, on the directions given by Tom, by us as signs of ended rains, lowering took the trail and the hazard of losing it, and clouds and chilling moisture, and as themselves, too, in the woods. propitious of the favoring skies and Bissell and myself rather preferred prospering airs which would make the enjoying convenient scenery, and, with Menominee voyage a prolonged felicity and George and the canoe, set out on an exhilaration. We had anticipated the excursion to a panorama of the scenery of descent of the river as the crowning delight Badwater lakes [Spread Eagle Chain of of the trip. Lakes]. These sheets are a chain of 10 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

The squaw of the cabin breakfasted he did not win, he would at least deserve us before starting. The trout of the success. He saved his fly and restored the meadow and wood, from their being the fictitious insect to the company of its fellow captives of a hap-hazard [sic – entomological gewgaws, in his fly-book, in haphazard] venture and surprise, and its perfect integrity, for future use. possibly because they were positively the last of the season for us, were Trouting on the Brule River, or Lawyers’ specially relished. After the customary Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern smoking and the loading of the baggage, Wilderness by John Lyle King, Chicago: and after Tom had got an extended The Chicago Legal News Company, furlough, for a day or two longer with us, 1879, Chapter XVIII, pp. 236-240 from his better half, as neither he nor we were desirous of parting then, we The anticipated sensation of the day launched away about nine o’clock. The was our intended and self-invited call on river was unrippled, excepting at rapids; our former Menominee guide, Tom King, and just below those nearest the cabin, the of Badwater. His pagan name is other canoe was hauled form the dockage Weawbiny-Ket. Our Menominees of leaves in which it was left the day interpreted it as Weawbiny, white, and previous, and the crews and the traps were Ket, arm. So his native alias means divided between the two birches. White-arm. Literally, onaccount of his We had by this time familiarized dark coppery complexion, the ourselves with the peculiarities and expression is incongruous and a caprices of the birch-bark, and felt at home misnomer. But we chose to take it as and at ease in it, so that it was no longer a meaning whiteness in the figurative sense precarious or ticklish navigation to us. We of quality, as when it is said of a man that knew now how to shift positions, how to he is white, and, in that liberal interpretative stretch out or to stand erect, and had spirit we were contemplating a reception mastered the niceties of balancing worthy of a man and a brother. It was our ourselves and the canoe. For its ease, cue to descend on him as a surprises party, grace, lightness, quickness and docility of and I intended taking, as is not unusual in motion, the birch-bark canoe is peerless such fashionable and impromptu invasions, and superb among water-craft [sic – refreshments of a cheering and festive kind. watercraft]; and the Menominee we So as we neared Badwater and swung expected to find precisely the stream for into the reach where his cabin was canoe navigation, in its most favorable visible, and knew from the blue smoke conditions. which thinly curled up from the chimney The Twin Falls are three miles apart. that somebody was at home, the While the Indians were transferring the paddles dipped quicker strokes to speed canoes and their burden around the upper us to the place. falls, we scrambled to the foot, and High Nobody, however, appeared to hail ventured a cast of a brilliant red fly in the our coming. In fact, as we drew up at whirl, though it was quite improbable that a the landing place, the open door of the pike or a bass would be enticed by such a mansion was promptly shut with an flaring gawd [sic]. Nevertheless, though all emphatic slam. We failed to observe chances were against him, he whipped the any latch string hanging out. Neither water with the fly just the same, thinking if squaw, papoose or Weawbiny-ket even 11 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings] yet appeared with an eye to mark our We ran across the river, and coming and grow brighter as we came. advanced, in full force, to a cabin there, In truth, the surprise party was a surprised for a supply of pitch. We found there party. When our surprise gave way to one intimidated squaw and three reflection, we concluded that sort of thing papooses, “one little, two little, three was Indian style, for the similarly meaning little Indian boys.” But as to the pitch, formula of good society, not at home. there was not to be had enough to verify However, we thought it would not be too the proverb that whoever toucheth pitch he sensitive, or put too fine a point on it. We is defiled. We left Badwater with our were in serious need of pitch to smear the colors at half-mast, so to speak. Two canoe, and like Falstaff, hiding our honor in miles below was Badwater Crossing, a our necessity, we dispatched Thebault, as ferry established the previous year for bearer of dispatches, on a mission of the road to the logging camp near Brulé inquiry to Madame King, the Weawbiny- falls. This road marks an inroad of kettle of the domicile. He met the matron at civilization, and pioneers the advance of the doorway, and held a threshold pow- man into the domain of nature. wow with her. At the crossing is a pine-log cabin, As the result of his embrassage, our with pretensions to be classed as an inn, envoy informed us that Tom himself was judging from the legend “Montreal absent up the Michigami [sic – Badwater House,” imprinted on a splint Michigamme], and further, that Denison or shake over the main door. It stands and Pratt had invaded her premises, at on a high smooth bluff, in a handsome midnight, during a rain storm, drenched situation, at the convex point of a curve and in a high state of appetite. The in the river. It has several apartments. circumstances enlightened us, and was There was a garden with familiar potato probably the key to the mystery of the vines, beets and cabbages. Paul Miller Weawbiny-kettle cold shoulder shown is the Boniface, and because there was a us. Those famished and inundated bright-eyed, comely woman to mistress gentlemen had possibly laid waste all it, the household was al snug, neat and the provisions in the house, as well as tidy, and had an appearance of home mostly monopolized the family beds and comfort. To support its tavernous blankets, and sent the mother squaw pretentions, it had just had at least one and little Weawbiny-kittens to the guest named on its register. That was kitchen floor to worry away a hapless D.H. Lloyd, of the Chicago Tribune, who night. Possibly, therefore, a second had a few days sojourned there. After apparition of pale faces, just from the satisfying a modest ambition with his rifle in woods, reduced to meager rations, was tapping a deer’s blood and securing the a symbol to her untutored mind of carcass to be sent to the city, he had famine and freezing both. Giving the undauntedly set out on the home return, on accused the benefit of the doubt, then, we a stout pair of shanks, through the woods to wrapped ourselves in our imaginary a point on the new railroad. He had stored mantles of charity, and, in a benignant here a gem of a birch-bark canoe, nearly frame of mind, we were prepared to go on tiny, pretty and light enough for a fairy craft our way, forgiving and forgetting our – not much larger than a Manitoba snow- metaphorical and vicarious slap in the face shoe, and fitted only fort a crew of one. on account of Denison and Pratt. 12 MENOMINEE RANGE HISTORY – EXCERPTS FROM TROUTING ON THE BRULE RIVER –1879 [Compiled and Transcribed by William J. Cummings]

Here we found a package of Chicago journals, and letters from those who had something sweet and domestic to tell of home, forwarded by Arthur T. Jones of Marinette. We appreciated the civility and attention of this gentleman. He is himself a devoted and skillful brother of the angle, and is one of those of whom it is said, in the words of the milkmaid’s mother, in the Complete Angler: “All anglers be such honest, civil, quiet men.” For his kindness to us we would wish fortune to “set him in a shower of gold, and hail rich pearls upon him.”

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