History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.

              HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
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angles and every part with great attention, and have often blamed myself since for not encamp¬ ing on the spot, and drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this description is not the off¬ spring of a heated imagination, or the chimeri¬ cal tale of a mistaken traveler, I find on in¬ quiry since my return, that Mons St. Pierre, and several traders, have, at different times, taken notice of similar appearances, on which they have formed the same conjectures, but without examining them so minutely as I did. How a work of this kind could exist in a coun¬ try that has hitherto (according to the general received opinion) been the seat of war to un¬ tutored Indians alone, whose whole stock of military knowledge has only, till within two centuries, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose only breast work even at present is the thicket, I know not. I have given as exact an account as possible of this singular appearance, and leave to future explorers of these distant regions to discover whether it is a production of nature or art. Perhaps the hints I have here given might lead to a more perfect investiga¬ tion of it, and give us very different ideas of the ancient state of realms that we at present believe to have been from the earliest periods only in the habitations of savages.
"The Mississippi below this lake flows with a gentle current, but the breadth of it very uncertain, in some places being upward of a mile, in others not more than a quarter. This river has a range of mountains on each side throughout the whole of the way, which in par¬ ticular parts approach near to it, in others lie at a greater distance. The land betwixt the moun¬ tains, and on their sides, is generally covered with grass, with a few groves of trees inter¬ spersed, near which large droves vof deer and elk are frequently seen feeding. In many places pyramids of rocks appeared, resembling old ruinous towers; at others amazing preci¬ pices, and what is very remarkable, whilst this scene presented itself on one side, the opposite side of the same mountain was covered with the
finest herbage, which gradually ascended to its summit. From thence the most beautiful and extensive prospect that imagination can form opens to your view. Verdant plains, fruitful meadows, numerous islands, and all these abounding with a variety of trees that yield amazing quantities of fruit, without care or cultivation, such as the nut-tree,the maple which produces sugar, vines loaded with rich grapes, and plum trees bending under their blooming burdens; but above all, the fine river flow^- ing gently beneath, and reaching as far as the eye can extend, by turns attract your attention and excite your wonder."
It was nearly forty years subsequent to Car¬ ver's visit before the Mississippi was ascended by any one who left a record of his journey. In 1805 Major Z. M. Pike made a reconnoi- sance up the river. We give his description of what he saw as he passed from a point just below the mouth of the Wisconsin up to "a prairie called. La Cross:"
"September 4th, 1805, Wednesday.—Break¬ fasted just below the mouth of the Wisconsin, Arrived at the Prairie Les Chiens about 11 o'clock; took quarters at Capt. Fisher's, and were politely received by him and Mr. Frazer.
"September 5th, Thursday.—Embarked about half past 10 o'clock in a Schenectady boat, to go to the mouth of the Wisconsin, in order to take the latitude, and look at the situation of the adjacent hills for a post. Was accompanied by Judge Fisher, Mr. Frazer and Mr. Woods, We ascended the hill on the west side of the Mississippi, and made a choice of a spot which I thought most eligible, being level on the top, having a spring in the rear, and commanding a view of the country around. A shower of rain came on which wet us, and we returned to the village without having ascended the Wisconsin as we intended. Marked four trees with A, B, C, D, and squared the sides of one in the center. Wrote to the General.
"September 6th, Friday.— Had a small council with the Puants and Winnebagoes; and a chief