"»iga»v;aagtaa»wsifB3:» ISSN 0043-6534 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 61, No. 2 • Winter, 1977-1978 '"-•m^ \ S^,. —i "j^irc HF. ^,^^^^0%^ -"^rf^i »"*• "- THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM HUFFMAN, President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNFY, Secretary ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President Board of Curators Ex Officio MARTIN J. SCHREIBI R. Acting Governor of the State EDWIN YoiiNt;, President of the Unixiersilx DOUGLAS ]. LAFOLLLITF., Secretary of Stale MRS. L. PRFNTICK EAGER, JR., President of the Women's Auxiliary CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Term Expires, 1978 JOHN .ANDERSON JOHN C. GEILFUSS LLOYD HORNBOSTEL, JR. FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA, S.J. Cable Milwaukee Beloit Milwaukee E. DAVID CRONON MRS. R. L. HARTZELL ROBERT H. IRRMANN J. WARD RECTOR Madison Grantsburg Beloit Milwaukee ROBERT A. GEHRKE MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES JOHN R. PIKE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Ripon De Pere Madison Stevens Point Term Expires, 1979 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. PETIR D. HUMLEKER, JR. CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON Eau Claire Fond du Lac Hubertus Appleton NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Madison Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee E. E. HOMSTAD MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Black River Falls Madison Wauwatosa Cassville Term Expires, 1980 ROGER E. AXTELL MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Eau Claire Madison Madison REED COLEMAN MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Madison Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander PAUL E. HASSETT WILLIAM HUFFMAN WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Madison Wisconsin Rapids Nashotah Baraboo Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women^s Auxiliary MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville, President MRS. A. PAUL JENSEN, Madison, Treasurer MRS. GUSTAVE H. MOEDE, JR., Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, Madison, Ex Officio MRS. JOHN C. WILSON, JR., Milwaukee, Secretary ON THE COVER: Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior, photographed around the turn of the century from the bluffs near Washburn, Bayfield County. Art essay on the mystique of lite North Country begins on page 91. [WHi (X3) 32065] Volume 61, Number 2 / Winter, 1977-1978 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of The Long Lost State of Superior 91 Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Charles E. Twining Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual member­ ship, $10, or .157.50 for those New Orleans and the River Trade: over 65 or members of affiliated Reinterpreting the Role of the Business Community 112 societies; family meniljcrship, 512.50, or .¥10 for those over 65 or Lawrence H. Larsen members of affiliated societies; contributing, ,U25; business and professional, .1550; sustaining, Therese Schindler of Mackinac: $100 or more annually; patron, Upward Mobility in the Great Lakes Fur Trade 12.5 $500 or more annually.) Single numbers from Volume 57 John E. McDowell forward are .$2. Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, 300 The Riddle of the Little Bighorn: North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, A Review Essay 144 Michigan 48106; reprints of \'olumes 1 through 20 and most Merrill J. Mattes issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Book Reviews 149 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Book Review Index 163 Society does not assume responsibility for statements Accessions 164 made by contributors. Second- da.ss postage paid at Madison The Society's New Director 167 and Stevens Point, Wiscon,sin. Copyright © 1978 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Proceedings of the One Hundred and Thirty-first Paid for in part by the Maria Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society 168 L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Contributors 176 Burrows Fund. PAUL H. HASS EDITOR WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOHN O. HOLZHUETER ASSISTANT EDITOR WHi (X3) 18981 Duluth, Minnesota, about ihe lime of the Civil War. 90 The Long Lost State of Superior By Charles E. Twining RIDE of place is doubtless as old than three hundred years ago the French ad­ as man. Whatever and wherever venturer Pierre-Esprit Radisson called it "a the origin of the species may have been, ear­ terrestrial paradise," a region "most delight­ liest Homo sapiens must have looked with spe­ ful and wonderous, for its Nature that made cial feeling upon the familiar environs of their it so pleasant to the eye, the spirit, and the own gardens of Eden. And the passage of time belly."! Incredibly, the contemporary visitor has apparently done little to diminish this ten­ is still able to share much of Radisson's de­ dency, for even "restless Americans" have not light and wonderment, for many intervening been immune to local loyalties. Indeed, generations of Europeans and Americans have Americans seem only to have more, and more failed, despite their best efforts, to alter the various, localities about which to be proud fundamental nature of the North Country. than most. Though we may not share Willa Thus today's tourist from Milwaukee or Chi­ Gather's enthusiasm for a particular corner cago is, in a sense, going as many years back­ of her beloved Nebraska, we can all understand ward in time as he is miles northward in dis­ something of her feelings upon crossing the tance. Missouri River, where "the very smell of the But regardless of the attraction of the Lake soil tore me to pieces." Superior region to visitors old and new, those Excluding such special provincialisms, it who make their homes and try to make a liv­ can still be asserted that some places do ing in the region view their condition with elicit a more generalized and more universal some ambivalence. Their dilemma seems a appeal. Thus, while Garden City, Kansas, will spatial variation of that confronting current be considered by most of us to be little more advocates of an alternative life style, desirous than a rest stop on the way to somewhere else, at once of the best of the old ways in some com­ a Mount Rainier is the somewhere else: the bination with the advantages of modernity. destination. When one is within sight of such In any event, residents of the region have long a mountain, its dominating presence simply felt burdened by a yoke of discrimination, ex­ cannot be ignored. Similarly, there are towns ploited by those closer to the centers of wealth in the South that demand the visitor do more and real power. As a result, for almost 150 than simply observe. He must become in­ years expressions of regional self-conscious­ volved; must, to a degree, become Southern. ness have been sufficiently strong and cohe­ So too it is with the Lake Superior region, sive to support a movement which speaks of and so perliaps it has always been. It is not just the lake and the land; the very air is dif­ ' Arthur T. Adams (editor), The Explorations of ferent, and the light, and the ambiance. More Pierre Esprit Radisson (Minneapolis, 1961), 120, 122. Copyright @ 1978 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsit All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 91 S..<|C"'»,1'4 '0:0j{ ••-»i,)r.- l>>:r^- f?*;^. i&*'P. <•: J % «-J" '^;,V*i''#'^ WHi (X3) i^y Hardwood forest, Florence County, photographed in 1895 by H. J. Perkins of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture. separatism. Often quaint and always quixotic, Peninsula of Michigan, the northern half of the movement has had for its ultimate objec­ Wisconsin, and, occasionally, the Lake Supe­ tive the creation of a separate "State of Su­ rior counties of Minnesota from their down- perior," although recently the more common state portions, organizing in the process a new cry has been simply for a "51st State."^ But state, and one which would be specially sensi­ "51st" or "Superior," it has generally involved tive to the needs of this North Country. the same cause: the separation of the Upper Now it may be correctly inferred that there is nothing unusual or unexpected about all of this. Regionalism has been a factor through­ ^ It is at least humorous, if not important, to note the reaction in January, 1977, to President Gerald R. out tlie nation's history.'' The thirteen main- Ford's proposal that Puerto Rico be given serious and early consideration for statehood. In the Upper Penin­ ' There are, of course, several sources on the general sula there was the obvious and immediate problem of subject of .American regionalism, among which are what could be done with thousands of stickers bearing Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of Sections the "51st State" inscription. Apparently there were in American History (New York, 1932); Howard Odum some residents of the Upper Peninsula who viewed the and Harry E. Moore, American Regionalism: A Cul­ President's position as something approaching breach tural-Historical Approach to National Integration (New of faith, especially since it involved one who was him­ York, 1938); Merrill Jensen (editor), Regionalism in self a Michigan native. See, for example, the Ironwood America (Madison and Milwaukee, 1965); and William Daily Globe (Michigan), January 7, 1977. B. Hesseltine, "Regions, Classes, and Sections in Amer- 92 TwiNiNt;: STATE OF SUPERIOR land colonies which declared themselves in­ strength and to act in unison with each other." dependent of England two hundred years ago Although at the time Madison must have were also independent of each other. Al­ been at least partially correct, there would though tliey occasionally co-operated in the soon be occasions when issues seemed so criti­ course of their war, to many of these rebels cal that diversification and continual mixing this co-operation was a reluctant effort at no longer sufficed.