The Story of a Wisconsin Dells Landmark (No Markup)
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LOUIS’ BLUFF THE S TORY OF A W ISCONSIN D ELLS L ANDMARK as revealed in glimpses of its history, geology, and wildlife, and some of the characters that shaped its neighborhood FRANK A. W EINHOLD (c) Copyright 1993, Frank A. Weinhold All Rights Reserved ` PREFACE This booklet was prepared for those who visit or live at Louis' Bluff, or whose family history is somehow linked to this corner of southeast Juneau County, Wisconsin. My aim was to describe what can be found in neighborhood of the bluff, and how it came to be — to convey a "sense of place" of this noteworthy landmark. The story of an isolated landform may seem to stretch the notion of "local history" to an absurd extreme. However, events at Louis' Bluff were often linked to general developments throughout the region and the state. Thus, the author hopes that the reader may find in this booklet some anecdotes of broader interest relating to characters and events that touched Louis' Bluff and contributed to the colorful history of the Dells region. I have attempted to assemble a factual account of events at Louis' Bluff, often at the expense of extravagant tales spun for the benefit of tourists aboard the Dells tour boats. In this, I have relied on archival and published materials (see Bibliography) as well as oral history from many sources, particularly Helene Blaser and other descendants of the Dupless family. My thanks go to all who generously shared with me their knowledge, recollections, and cherished mementos; in addition to others cited in the text, kind assistance was received from Ray and Clara Blaser, Virginia Bogenshutz, Herb Campbell, Lee Clayton, Ross Curry, John Dixon, Rick Durbin, Morton G. Eberlein, Harold J. Funmaker, Bill Gartner, Bud Gussel, Buck Hacker and other "Hacker clan" members, Jack Hanson, Mrs. Robert Prokapec, Jean and Ollie Reese, Renee Spott, Jim Stoltman, Bernadine and Randy Tallmadge, and staff members of the State Historical Society, Milwaukee County Historical Society, and Milwaukee Public Library. As I have tried to indicate in the text, the line between authentic history and persistent (but unverifiable) local lore is sometimes blurred, especially with respect to events long past. But it seemed important to preserve fragile recollections pertaining to the bluff, particularly those that appear to be consistent with the historical record and to convey the color and texture of actual events, even at the risk of occasionally mixing some chaff with the historical wheat. For this revised edition, many new materials have been added concerning Byron Kilbourn and his manipulative schemes. Bud Gussel graciously provided access to long-lost records of the Wisconsin River Hydraulic Company (see Appendix) that were invaluable in illuminating this area. May this little booklet add to the reader's appreciation of the natural beauty of the Wisconsin Dells and the rich texture of Wisconsin life and landscape. FRANK A. W EINHOLD Madison, Wisconsin July, 1993 ` CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The sandy plains of the central Wisconsin River valley are punctuated by a number of remarkable rocky mounds, stubborn survivors of geological forces that ravaged the surrounding region. Louis' Bluff is prominent among these sandstone monoliths, lying at the southerly edge of the plain about two miles above the point where the river "turns on its edge" to cut through the famous Wisconsin Dells. Each year, thousands of sightseers aboard the Dells boat tours are greeted by the view of Louis' Bluff as their boat nudges out of the gorge between Sunset Rock and Prospect Point at the head of the Dells. James E. Jones, the editor of the Kilbourn Mirror-Gazette, described the scene aboard the steamer Apollo "sunset cruise" in 1918: "At Steamboat Rock a guide announced through a megaphone that 'around the next point would be visible sunset.' Everyone was on the qui vive, and when the glory of that view came like the lifting of a curtain a volume of admiring ejaculation burst involuntarily from more than a hundred lips ... As the steamer glided on toward the sinking sun, through a path of golden light that stretched like a gilded path onto the bright orb of the declining day, the shadow-crested form of Louis' Bluff rising like a huge animal from the wide expanse of darkening water, the crowd sat spell bound, travelers over many lands declaring it the most magnificent view they ever saw." The rocky promontory was doubtless known by many names to the successive peoples who lived in its shadow. The name "Fox Mound" was preserved in local Indian traditions long after this once-powerful tribe (also known as Outagamie or Reynards, to themselves as Mesquakie) had been driven from the region in the genocidal Fox Wars of the 18th century. To the Winnebago (Ho-chunk-rah) Indians who were occupying the region throughout the time of white settlement, it was also called Hay-wa-kha-chunk ("Sacred Mound"), home of the water spirit, a sentinel outlook and ritual site for tribal assemblages at the nearby Stand Rock ceremonial grounds. To the early lumber rafters and landlookers, it was known as McEwen's Rock (or McCune's Rock, McEuen Bluff, etc.), probably for a pioneer lumberman who cleared timber at this site. But to the region's residents for the last century and more, it has become known as Louis' (or "Louie's") Bluff, named for the French pioneer Louis Dupless who came here in 1847 and lies buried in the small cemetery at the foot of the bluff. ` Louis' Bluff is one of the more recognizable features of the Dells landscape. Upper Dells tour guides often regale sightseers with stories about this curious fixture of the upriver landscape during the transit from Witches Gulch to Stand Rock. Tourists carry home souvenir photos and descriptions of Louis' Bluff in Dells guidebooks, brochures, and postcards, just as their ancestors did a century ago. A recent Wisconsin State Recreation Guide featured the cover photo, "Incomparable Beauty of Wisconsin Dells", showing the view of Louis' Bluff from the entrance to Witches Gulch. Yet, Louis' Bluff retains an aura of mystery and remoteness even for many old-time residents of the Dells. As a prominent sentinel point along the principal waterway of the state, Louis' Bluff was often brushed by people and events that shaped the development of central Wisconsin. From the earliest times, a succession of voyageurs, explorers, geologists, and other bypassers paused here to gain the vista from the rocky castellations at the summit, as Indians had for millennia before. In historic times, the panorama of everyday life near Louis' Bluff shifted successively from pastoral scenes of hunting and the fur trade to the boisterous traffic of raftsmen and the lumber trade, the speculative frenzy of railroad construction and town settlement, the boom and bust of agricultural development, and eventually the glitz of tourism for which the region is best known today. Noteworthy too were events that shaped the natural environment at Louis' Bluff, affecting (sometimes subtly, sometimes catastrophically) the plant and animal communities that shared this unique site. The story of Louis' Bluff thus offers a glimpse of Wisconsin's history and the life and lore of the Dells region from the vantage point of one of its prominent geographical features. This is the story of Louis' Bluff. ` CHAPTER 2 GEOLOGICAL ORIGINS Lawrence Martin's classic book, The Physical Geography of Wisconsin, describes the geological origin of Louis' Bluff (page 351): "On the western side of the Dells are Louis Bluff, Stand Rock, and several other interesting natural features. These are in the Driftless Area and seem to be chiefly due to preglacial weathering and wind work. Here the gorge of the Wisconsin broadens out into a wide valley, containing isolated rock hills such as Louis Bluff and the sandstone mounds to the north. These mounds and the Elephants Back mound east of the Wisconsin are outliers, left behind in the recession of the Magnesian escarpment." The conspicuous "Magnesian escarpment" * of which Louis' Bluff was formerly a protrusion now rises about five miles to the west, the "scenic bluffs" of the Elroy-Wonewoc region bordering the western Wisconsin valley. Near the deeply indented forward edge of this escarpment, one can recognize that erosional forces are still dissecting the soft sandstone ridges into isolated bluffs, most prominently in the weirdly castellated region near Camp Douglas. Remarkable is the number of these outlying bluffs that have survived out to great distances from the parent escarpment, while surrounding areas were eroded to a featureless plain. The longevity of such outliers is apparently due to the physico-chemical properties of the iron- rich sandstone of which they are composed, similar to the mural sandstone exposed in the cliffs of the Dells. This material is extremely soft when first exposed, as will be apparent to anyone who cracks open a sandstone rock and crumbles the inner core material to sand in his fingers. But the surface hardens upon further exposure to oxygen to form a durable building material, probably strengthened by the thin layer of blue-green algae—cryptoendolithic cyanobacteria—that is characteristically seen just beneath the surface in a conspicuous greenish band. A bluff or ridge that somehow survives the initial vulnerable period of rapid erosion thereby acquires a protective shell, gaining a new lease on life once the vigorous stream-cutting action of the main escarpment has receded to a safe distance. The lime ridgetops of the nearby highlands to which Louis' Bluff was formerly attached mark * Martin's "Magnesian" horizon is the base of the modem "Prairie du Chien Group" (Ordovician dolomite) which caps the higher ridge tops.