Chippewa Valley White Pine WI199

Here and northeast of here lies the vast Chippewa Valley. At the start of lumbering in Wisconsin, it held one-sixth of the nation's white pine. Surveyors estimated the total pine stand in the State at 136 billion board feet of prime lumber. Lumbermen considered the supply inexhaustible.

Chippewa Valley white pine helped build the homes and cities of the corn belt, the great plains, Chicago after its fire. This valley made strong men, record log jams, tall tales, and prosperous cities, all while wasting 60 percent of its pine in stumps, slashing, culls, sawdust, slabs, and fires. The harvest here that began in 1838 with 5-foot diameter trucks 160 feet high ended 80 years later taking 5-inch logs.

Today the Chippewa Valley is green again with farms and pine. Reforestation began before 1920. Early plantings are now merchantable timber. In time the Chippewa Valley will again stand with mature pine.

---

Lake Pepin WI35
This beautiful lake is twenty-two miles long, varies in width from one to two and a half miles, and covers about thirty-eight square miles. It was caused by the delta of the Chippewa spreading across the gorge of the Mississippi at the southeastern end of the lake. Because of its steeper grade, the smaller Chippewa was able to bring in more glacial debris than the Mississippi could carry away. This delta provided a natural dam and as the water backed up, Lake Pepin was formed. State Highway 35 hugs Lake Pepin along most of its Wisconsin shore and has been called one of the most scenic drives in America. One of Lake Pepin's admirers was William Cullen Bryant. He praised its natural scenery and declared the area "ought to be visited in the summer by every poet and painter in the land."

---

The Battle of St. Croix Falls WI132
Here at the head of St. Croix Falls in about 1770, a war party of Chippewas led by Chief Waub-o-jeeg prepared for battle against their traditional enemies, the Fox and Sioux. The two parties met on the portage below this point in a fierce and valorous fight. As each side advanced all fell back, the dead and wounded warriors littered the crags and crevices of the dalles where the St. Croix River forces a passage through the narrow rocks. Many others plunged to a watery grave in the boiling floods below. "The voices of the war chiefs resounded above the rattle of musketry and yells of their warriors, as they urged them to stand their ground," according to Indian tales of the battle. First confident, finally desperate, the Fox and Sioux were routed. This was the last tribal battle of the Fox Indians. The few survivors retreated far to the south, their tribal fire extinguished, and begged to be taken into the Sac tribe. In the Battle of St. Croix Falls, the victorious Chippewas secured this territory, making it safe for the white settlers to come.

---

John Deitz 'Battle of Cameron Dam' WI316
In 1904, John F. Deitz and his family purchased a farmstead on the Thornapple River about 2 miles south of here. Deitz soon discovered that Cameron Dam-one of many logging dams on this important tributary of the Chippewa River-lay on his property. He thereupon claimed that the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co., a Weyerhaeuser affiliate, owed him a toll for logs driven downriver. For four years he refused to permit logs to be sluiced down the Thornapple, defending "his" dam at gunpoint and successfully resisting attempts to arrest him. At least one deputy and two of Deitz's children were wounded in confrontations. In becoming an outlaw, Deitz also became a folk hero with a nationwide following. In October 1910, a large sheriffs posse surrounded his house. In the ensuing gun battle, Oscar Harp, a deputy, was killed. John Deitz surrendered, stood trial for murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He served 10 years, but public pressure eventually convinced Gov. John J. Blaine to pardon him in May 1921. Deitz died in 1924. Cameron Dam has long since disappeared.

---

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.

---

Namekagon River WI162
Here on the Great South Bend of the Namekagon was a natural camp-site, home of a band of Chippewa Indians and long used by explorers, missionaries, and fur-traders traveling the Namekagon route between the St. Croix and Chippewa rivers. In 1767 Jonathan Carver passed this way, downstream on his way from Prairie du Chien to Lake Superior via the Namekagon, St. Croix and Brule rivers. Henry Schoolcraft passed here in 1831 en route from Lake Superior to the St. Croix. During the 1870's, ox teams hauled logging supplies on the tote road from Stillwater to Veazie Settlement, located two miles up river where the great Veazie Dam impounded water for log drives down the Namekagon to Stillwater.

---

Yellow River WI164
The Yellow River was called the "River Jaune" by early French explorers because of the bright yellow sand on the bottom of Yellow Lake through which it flows. Located in the heart of the "Folle Avoine" or wild rice country, it was one of the first tributaries of the St. Croix to be occupied by the Chippewa who (ca. 1700) in bloody battles drove out the Sioux and established permanent villages on Clam and Yellow Lakes. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, rival fur-traders for the Northwestern and the XY Companies competed fiercely with rum, trade goods and credit for the fur-trade of the Yellow River, Namekagon, Clam, and St. Croix bands of Chippewa Indians. Indian mounds indicate the residences of aboriginal Indians (ca. 300 AD.) along the Yellow River and on Spooner Lake, two miles northeast of here. Succeeding the Sioux, the Chippewa maintained permanent villages on this lake from the early eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

---

Butte des Morts (Hill of the Dead) WI40
In 1730 the French government decided to destroy the Fox village on the shore of this lake because of the depredations of the Foxes on the fur traders. Capt. Morand came up the river with a large force of French soldiers and Menominee warriors. The soldiers were concealed under canvas until they were opposite the Indians gathered on the shore. Then they rose and fired into the crowd. The Menominees, meanwhile, attacked the village from the rear. The village was destroyed and its inhabitants slaughtered. The bodies were piled in a heap and covered with earth, forming the Hill of the Dead. In 1827 Governor Cass held a council here with the Winnebago, Chippewa, and Menominee tribes to fix their tribal boundaries. At this council Oshkosh was made chief of the Menominees.

Erected 1955

---

First Milwaukee Cargo Pier WI131
Here at the head of St. Croix Falls in about 1770, a war party of Chippewas led by Chief Wau-bo-jeeg prepared for battle against their traditional enemies, the Fox and Sioux. The two parties met on the portage below this point in a fierce and valorous fight. As each side advanced and fell back, the dead and wounded warriors littered the crags and crevices of the dalles where the St. Croix River forces a passage through the narrow rocks. Many others plunged to a watery grave in the boiling floods below. "The voices of the war chiefs resounded about the rattle of musketry and yells of their warriers, as they urged them to stand their ground," accoring to Indian tales of the battle. First confident, finally desperate, the Fox and Sioux were routed. This was the last tribal battle of the Fox Indians. The few survivors retreated far to the south, their tribal fire extinguished, and begged to be taken into the Sac tribe. In the Battle of St. Croix Falls, the victorious Chippewas secured this territory, making it safe for the white settlers to come.

---

Menominee Reservation WI69
When Nicolet in 1634 stepped ashore not far from the present site of Green Bay, the Menominees were living in peace with their neighbors on both sides of the Menominee River, on the present sites of Menominee, Michigan, and Marinette, Wisconsin. Language and legend stamp them as Algonquians. Their name was bestowed upon them by the Chippewa and means "The People of the wild Rice." As white settlers encroached on their lands and treaties were made with the u.s. Government, the Menominees moved reluctantly from one place to another. By 1831, they had transferred to eastern Indians half a million acres at 4 1/2 cents per acre and another half million acres to the Government at 5 1/2 cents per acre, the money to be paid in annuities. When Wisconsin became a Territory in 1836, they were compelled to sell 184,320 acres through the Fox River Valley for settlement and lumbering at 17 cents per acre, and they had to move again. In 1848 the Government sought to move them to the Crow Wing country of Minnesota, but this time the Menominees under the leadership of Chief Oshkosh refused to move. In 1852 they moved up the Wolf River where in 1854 they were granted ten townships, the present Menominee Indian Reservation.

---