Third Lake Passage WI397
On July 20th, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, Black Hawk led about 700 Sac, Fox and Kickapoo Indians past this point and through the "Third Lake Passage," the juncture of the Yahara River and Lake Monona. By sunset, the military also reached the passage but abandoned their chase at nightfall to camp in this vicinity.

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Trail Discovery WI409
On July 18th, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, Little Thunder -- a Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Indian guide to the u.s. Militia -- discovered Black Hawk's Band crossed the Rock River in this vicinity. After receiving the news, Gen. James D. Henry and Col. Henry Dodge and the militia also crossed the river and followed the band's trail west.

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Black Hawk War Encampment 'burnt Village' WI407
A large Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Village dating from the 1700s once stood in this vicinity. Just before the 1832 Black Hawk War, the village was burned during an intra tribal battle. On July 6th and 8th, the United States Military camped at this site in their pursuit of Black Hawk and named this place Burnt Village.

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Black Hawk War Encampment WI408
During the Black Hawk War of 1832, General Atkinson camped near this location on two occasions. On July 7th, Atkinson led his entire militia, including future President's Abraham Lincoln and Zachary Taylor here. On July 19th, Atkinson returned briefly with a smaller contingent, but left soon after he heard that General's Henry and Dodge had located Black Hawk's trail.

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Lorine Niedecker WI303

Fish

fowl

flood

Fish
fowl

flood

Water lily mud

My life

in the leaves and on water

My mother and I

born

in swale and swamp and sworn

to water

Larine Niedecker (1903-70) lived on Black Hawk Island most of her life and celebrated

the sights and sounds of this place in poems ranked among the 20th

Century's finest. She lived first in the log sided house and later in the house near

the river from 1947-70.

Nobody, nothing than time

ever gave me unless light

greater thing and silence

which if intense

makes sound

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Black Hawk War WI159
In the spring of 1831, the Sauk Indians led by Chief Keokuk left their ancestral home near the mouth of the Rock River and moved across the Mississippi, to fulfill the terms of a treaty signed in 1804. On April 6, 1832, a dissatisfied faction led by Black Hawk returned with 400 warriors and 1200 women, children and old men. Why he risked this return to "my towns, my cornfields, and the homes of my people" in the face of certain opposition is not clear, but Black Hawk probably hoped that other Indians would join him in resisting further white settlement. When this hope failed and the Illinois militia was called up, Black Hawk sent messengers to negotiate for peaceable removal across the Mississippi. One of his messengers was shot by the excited and poorly-disciplined militia and the war was on. The Indians briefly took the offensive and scalping parties attacked isolated communities of white settlers. The exact route taken by Black Hawk as he retreated through southern Wisconsin toward the Mississippi is difficult to trace, because both pursued and pursuers were traveling unfamiliar terrain and their later accounts varied. Major engagements took place at Wisconsin Heights and at the Bad Axe, where the war ended August 2, 1832.

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Soldiers Grove Origin WI405
In late July, during the Black Hawk War of 1832, Sac Indian leader Black Hawk led his starving followers through this area in their escape from the General Henry Atkinson and his military forces. After Black Hawk's brilliant delaying tactics at the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, he fled with his band towards the Mississippi River. On August 1st, in their pursuit of Black Hawk, about 1,300 United States army and militia, including notable future leaders, Col. Zachary Taylor, Col. Henry Dodge and Albert Sidney Johnson, encamped in this vicinity, known then as Pine Grove Village. Weary from their trek through the rugged terrain of western Wisconsin, the soldiers rested; their exhausted and hungry horses, who were unable to find food for days in the jagged terrain, foraged in the grass here. Because this military encampment became widely known throughout the territory, Pine Grove Village was renamed Soldiers Grove.

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Dodge's Grove and Fort Union WI403
Arriving in Dodgeville in 1827, Henry Dodge, later renowned as a Black Hawk War military leader, territorial governor and state senator, began his Wisconsin career as a miner. In circa 1830, Dodge established living quarters and a large two-furnace smelting and mining operation at this site, a few miles south of Dodgeville. Bringing his family, slaves and about 200 miners to work at this location, Dodge constructed many log dwellings and a stockade, later known as Fort Union during the Black Hawk War.

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Troop Encampment WI401
According to local tradition, on the night of July 29, 1832, during the Black Hawk War, General Atkinson's troops camped at this location. The next day, the troops proceeded up the West Branch of the Pine River, only to abandon their supply wagon in this rough terrain.

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Decorah Peak WI81
The rock-crested hill to the east was named after One-Eyed Decorah, a Winnebago chief who, according to tradition, took refuge in a cove near the peak after being wounded in a Chippewa attack on his village. He remained in hiding throughout the bloody engagement and then at nightfall made his way down the Black River to another Winnebago settlement. The next day he returned, surprised the celebrating Chippewa and routed them. With other Wisconsin chiefs Decorah signed a treaty with the United States at Prairie du Chien on August 19, 1825, establishing a tribal boundaries in the hope of securing "a firm and perpetual peace." He achieved his greatest renown after the Black Hawk War when he accompanied the defeated Black Hawk and the Prophet to Prairie du Chien, where on August 27, 1832, the two Sauk leaders surrendered.

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