A Standard History of Waupaca County, Wisconsin. An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development.

              HISTORY OF WAUPACA COUNTY 5
the Keshena Reservation, where it roars, hisses and falls through gigantic granite formations. Between its source and Shawano it is used in vari¬ ous places for water power.
The extensive forests which bordered its banks were mainly of pine, oak, basswood, birch, ash and elm.
Upon inspecting some of the earliest maps made of the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi, we find the Wolf River. One of the nearest correct of early maps is that of Marquette published in Paris in 1681. This is supposed to have been drawn in 1673 or 1674. The river is also recognized on Joliet's map of 1674. And is on Hennepin's map of 1698. Father Allouez was the first white man of whom there is any record who explored the river, which was in 1670. He only went up to about the vicinity of the Cutoff, where he established a mission among the Indians. These early maps may have been made from the reports of the Indians. It was considered a branch of the Fox and we have no record that it bore a name other than that Father Allouez mentions it as the ''River of the Ouestatinong" (Outagamies).
The first steamboat that tested the waters of the Wolf was the Black Hawk in 1843. The best was brought from Buffalo. It was about ten years later when they commenced regular trips.
The first government postoffice on the banks of the Wolf was estab¬ lished at Mukwa in 1851, C. E. P. Hobart being the postmaster.
The first white woman to travel the upper Wolf was Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks, who made the trip from Fremont to Shawano in 1853.
The first bridge across the river was that at New London in 1857.
In early days, before the white settlers reached this part of the country, the river was called " Muk-wan-wish-ta-guon," the accent on the first and third, and half accent on the last syllables. Muk-wan sig¬ nifies Bear, the whole word, Bear's Head. The early settlers substituted the name Wolf.
The Wolf for many years was the commercial highway of this section of the state. All the freight and passenger traffic was on the river. Perhaps its most important use was that of the transportation of logs from the forest to the markets for the use of mankind.
The luster and nobility of the formerly important river have departed; its glamour remains bright and undying in the memories of those who, with remembrance eye, still can see it as it was fifty years ago. Its luster was apparent in the flood which then flowed throughout the season, scarcely diminished by summer heat; its nobility, in the great commerce which floated upon its bosom that led to the development of this section of our state, and the beginnings of numerous important set¬ tlements.