After the War of 1812, the U.S. government concluded it had to do more to protect its resources in the Northwest, especially routes used by American fur traders. Garrisons were therefore posted and forts built at Detroit, Mackinac, Chicago, and elsewhere in the West, including at three crucial locations along the Fox-Wisconsin waterway.
Shortly after the British withdrew from Prairie du Chien's Fort McKay in 1815, three permanent military outposts were established in Wisconsin: Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien (1816), Fort Howard at Green Bay (1816), and Fort Winnebago at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers (1828). Besides... more...
| An early Yankee settler recalls Prairie du Chien's infancy. |
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| The surveyor that laid out Madison recalls his days in the field in 1837. |
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| John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders. |
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| A missionary travels 1,500-miles among the Ojibwe and Sioux in 1838 |
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| Girlhood and motherhood on the Wisconsin frontier, 1824-1860. |
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| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
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| Governor Philipp reflects on his childhood in Sauk County, 1920 |
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| An 1886 visit to the Menominee community of Keshena |
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| An officer's daughter recalls her girlhood at Fort Howard, 1824-29. |
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| A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s. |
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| A teenager comes to Green Bay as a new bride in 1824. |
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| A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857. |
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| Henry Dodge brought his slaves to Wisconsin |
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| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
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| Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events |
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| Recollections of Wisconsin slaves by pioneer settlers. |
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| Memoirs of a Fox River Homesteader |
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| A Yankee Childhood in Dodge County |
| A mid-1800s birchbark maple sugar container |
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| The oldest toast in Wisconsin |
| Increase Lapham describes territorial Wisconsin for new settlers. |
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| The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac |
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| Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary |
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| Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown |
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| A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771 |
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| The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857 |
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| An 1875 history of the Chippewa Valley |
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| A teenager's diary of coming overland from Ohio in 1846 |
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| A guide to the Mohican language, 1789 |
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| A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874 |
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| The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley |
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| The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722 |
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| Descriptions of Wisconsin disasters and catastrophes, 1848-1948 |
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| Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892 |
| Oneida Chief Daniel Bread in 1856 |
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| Stockbridge Indian leader Austin E. Quinney, 1849 |
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| Madison's first white woman settler |
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| Early Wisconsin settler and Madison Promoter James Duane Doty |
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| Wisconsin's first Territorial Governor, Henry Dodge |
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| Stockbridge Chief John W. Quinney in 1849 |
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| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
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| A photograph of Augustin Grignon near the end of his life. |
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| Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856. |
| James Doty explores Lake Superior in 1820 with Lewis Cass |
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| Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930 |
| States and territories created under the Northwest Ordinance. |
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| The rectangular survey gets underway in Wisconsin, 1835. |
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| A member of the party maps the Cass and Doty expedition of 1820. |
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| The imaginary capital city that its chief promoter envisoned, 1836. |
| Plough Inn in Madison |
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| Stonefield, home of Gov. Nelson Dewey and the State Agricultural Museum |
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| The first capitol in Belmont |
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| Northwest and XY Company Trading Post |
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| Henry Schoolcraft's account of the 1820 Cass-Doty expedition. |
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| An 1847 travelogue by a visiting British geologist |
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| Collected historical documents from the Wisconsin Historical Society |
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| Recollections of northern Wisconsin by Henry S. Baird |
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| A historical, documentary, and descriptive history of Wisconsin to 1854 |
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| Henry Schoolcraft's Personal Memoirs (1812-1842) |
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| Maj. Zebulon Pike travels up the Mississippi, 1805-1806 |
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| Father Goldsmith travels to parishioners in Flambeau in 1881 |
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| Daily operations of the Prairie Post trading post at Chippewa Falls |
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| An officer's wife recalls Fort Winnebago, 1829-1834. |
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| An artist and writer travels Wisconsin's rivers and lakes in 1846 |
| Biographical sketches and writings of some Wisconsin pioneer women |
