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Trail History Native Americans, Explorers, and Trails - Miners and the Military Road - Farmers and the Railroad - The New Trail

Native Americans, Explorers, and Trails (back to top)

Before Europeans arrived, most of the Military Ridge area was prairie oak openings (savanna), with scattered tracts of heavy timber. The oak openings had burr oaks, black oaks, and white oaks, but grasses and herbs dominated. Cedars grew on the steep slopes. American bison, who favored trails with the least grade, used to lumber along the ridge. There also were panthers, bears, elk, and wolves. Billions of passenger pigeons (extinct since 1900) darkened the skies during their annual migration.

The first people in the area were the Iowa tribe, for whom the county was named. They were followed, at one time or another, by the Illinois, Fox, Winnebago, and Sauk. Early peoples mined lead in the region for use in weights, beads, ornaments, and animal effigies.

French explorers were the first European people to come to the area. France claimed the area from 1665 to 1760. In 1786, Jonathan Carver explored the Wisconsin River. He wrote in his journal: “I ascended one of the highest of these (the Blue Mounds) and had an extensive view of the country. I saw large quantities of (lead) lying about the streets in the towns belonging to the Saukies, and it seemed to be as good as other produce of other countries”. The Native American mines were crude, but their smelting process more complex.

Miners and the Military Road (back to top)

The U.S. Army needed lead for shot and so controlled the mining lands. The Army had leased mineral lands from Indians and, beginning in 1822, leased lots to anyone who would agree to be taxed and to sell only to licensed smelters. It was against the law to farm any land that had evidence of lead.

Lead mining brought the first heavy influx of settlers. Lead was widely used for weights, windows, bullets, pipes, type metal, pewter utensils, and paint.

The mining area included Dodgeville and Blue Mounds. The first mines looked more like potholes than mines.

Most of the lead was hauled in wagons to the Mississippi River, where it was shipped in flat boats to St. Louis and the Gulf of Mexico. Some was hauled along a crude, meandering trail, in huge wagons drawn by eight to ten yoke of oxen, to Milwaukee, where it was shipped east via the Great Lakes. Some was taken to Helena Shot Tower (now Tower Hill State Park, between Spring Green and Arena), where it was made into ammunition pellets.

A depression hit in 1828. In the winter of 1827-28, a barrel of salt pork cost ten tons of ore. Early in 1830, many miners turned to farming. By an 1829 treaty, the Winnebagos ceded one-fourth of their land in Wisconsin, including land in Iowa County, to the United States government.

Judge James Duane Doty, later a territorial governor, made annual trips from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien during the 1820’s. He grew tired of the canoe trips, so in May, 1829, he struck out by horseback from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien with lawyers Henry S. Baird and Morgan L. Martin and a Menomonee guide. The trip, following well-trod Indian trails, convinced Doty that an overland route was possible. He helped Green Bay pioneers draw up a petition to the federal government.

In support, Samuel Stambaugh, Indian agent at Green Bay, wrote that “at the close of the last war, the Indians had marched from a place called Pine-bends, 30 miles beyond Mineral Point, to Garlic Island in Winnebago Lake, about 20 miles below the Fond du Lac river, in two days”.

At first, the federal government wasn’t receptive. The government had moved the Oneidas from New York state to Wisconsin, and wanted Wisconsin’s interior to remain an Indian preserve. Also, the treasury was exhausted, and the administration opposed general internal improvements except for military purposes.

An accumulation of infringements on Indian rights led to the Blackhawk War, from April to September, 1832. The war awakened federal authorities to the advantages of a road across Wisconsin. Soldiers with farm background saw good land in the state and wanted to homestead.

Father Samuel Mazzuchelli and Judge Doty made an eight-day trip by horseback from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien in September, 1832. Mazzuchelli, an Italian, was the only priest west of Lake Michigan. His parish extended to Iowa, Minnesota, and northern Illinois. He later founded the Sinsinawa Dominican order.

In 1832, Congress appropriated $5,000 for laying out and opening a military road to link Fort Howard (Green Bay), Fort Winnebago (Portage), and Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien). The western section of the road passed mainly on the ridge, a strategic route because the views to north and south gave military control of southwest Wisconsin. It connected with roads to Galena, Illinois, which had been opened by the lead miners. Doty and Lt. Alexander Center of the 5th Infantry surveyed for the road in 1833-34. The Military Road was built from Fort Crawford by troops from the fort under Col. Zachary Taylor, while troops from Fort Howard built the northeastern end and those from Fort Winnebago the center section.

Companies averaging 40 men each were assigned in rotation to prepare stretches of about 15 miles apiece. Each company camped out on the job, moving on as work progressed. Each probably spent about four to six weeks in the field. The work served as training for the troops in camping, cooking, and marching. They kept combat vigilant, even though Indians were never a problem.

The troops cleared brush two rods wide, plowed two furrows to mark the 30-feet roadway, and put crosswise logs, called corduroy, over marshy spots. Small trees were cut off close to the ground, and larger stumps were left one foot high. Rough bridges were built over some streams. Other streams just had their banks cut so travelers could splash through. This endangered the teamsters with oxen-drawn wagons in the spring. Without drainage, the road was impassable in rainy weather, rutted, and dusty in summer. It sometimes was “as slippery as noodles on a spoon”.

On December 8, 1835, the President relayed to Congress the Quartermaster General’s report that the western section of the road had been completed on August 1. It was feared troops wouldn’t be able to finish the eastern section, which had more woods and swamps, by the end of the year.

On December 19, 1836, the Wisconsin territory asked Congress to improve the Military Road and to extend it to Milwaukee. “It is still in unfinished condition, and not to be traveled over either by wagon or carriage without very great inconvenience,” the petition read. The petition said a road between the lead region and Milwaukee could save 30 to 40 percent in the time and 25 percent in the cost of transporting lead. On July 7, 1838, Congress voted $10,000 for a road from Milwaukee to Dubuque via Madison and $5,000 to complete the Green Bay to Prairie du Chien road.

In 1839, Capt. Thomas Jefferson Cram of the U.S. Army asked for more funds. “Between Madison and the Mississippi, nature has done so much towards providing a good road that an expenditure of about $10,000 in bridging the streams, ditching, and grading would be sufficient,” he wrote. Despite Cram’s request, no more appropriations were made until 1845. In the late 1830’ and 1840’s, the Wisconsin territory built many roads linking Madison and other points on the Military Road with other communities.

The Blackhawk War had briefly interrupted the lead mining region’s prosperity. Production regained a high level soon after the war, and another influx of miners came, this time from Cornwall, England. The Cornish dug the first underground mines. By 1840, Wisconsin produced more than half of America’s lead, and the Wisconsin-Illinois-Iowa lead region produced 85 percent of the world’s lead. The road attracted settlers who, out of necessity, helped to maintain it. In 1836, the first census showed that almost half the Wisconsin territory’s 11,583 white people lived in Iowa County, the lead mining district. The lead boom peaked in 1845-47 and declined rapidly after 1850. Lead production spurted briefly and zinc production began in 1860. Zinc production peaked in 1918, with a secondary spurt in 1926-27.

Farmers and the Railroad (back to top)

Farming became more important in the area in the 1830’s and 1840’s. A two-horse stage line was put into operation between Mineral Point and Madison in 1838. The stage stopped in Blue Mounds so passengers and horses could eat and drink. The government legalized the sale of land in the region in 1847. From 1870 to 1900, the emphasis in Wisconsin was on building railroads rather than roads.

Officials of the Chicago and Tomah Railroad were the first to consider a railroad along the Military Ridge. In 1876, they proposed a narrow-gauge line, which would cost less to build and operate than standard gauge. The railroad expected landowners along its route to donate land for the tracks and depots and to help pay the cost of the line. But when farmers along the route refused to cooperate, the project was dropped.

The Chicago and Tomah line, which was bought out by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, operated a narrow-gauge line in southwestern Wisconsin. In 1880, plans were made to link that line, which extended to Montfort Junction, with Madison by means of a 60.84 mile standard gauge line.

The railroad asked communities along the line to invest varying amounts in the railroad in exchange for promises to build and maintain depots there. The proposition carried with a boom and work began in July, 1880. Construction brought busy times to communities along the line. West Blue Mounds streets were crowded with new arrivals, the most conspicuous being “110 mules which have been entertaining the crowds with free music of the most melodious character”. A little north of the village, 75 teams with 120 men were working busily.

The 9.45 miles from Madison to Verona were completed by the end of the year. Completion proceeded westward during 1881. The first train, with its small wood-burning engine and oversized smokestack, traveled the line in the fall of 1881. Chicago and Northwestern directors were among the first passengers. Following the Military Ridge, the line was said to include the longest stretch of track in Wisconsin without bridges.

The October, 1882, schedule showed a passenger train daily except Sundays leaving Montfort (with connections from Galena and Fennimore) at 10:05 a.m. and arriving in Madison at 1:05 p.m. and Milwaukee at 4:30, and one in the opposite direction leaving Milwaukee at 11:25 a.m. and Madison at 2:40 p.m., arriving in Montfort at 5:45 p.m. There also were one freight and one mixed train each way daily except Sunday.

President McKinley made a whistle-stop tour along the line on October 6, 1899. Crowds numbered 1000 in Dodgeville, 500 in Barneveld, and 2000 to 3000 in Mount Horeb. For many years, there were two passenger trains and two or more freight trains each way daily. The “Cannonball”, a freight train pulling one passenger coach, left early in the morning from Lancaster and returned late at night from Madison.

Tourists and Highways
Meanwhile, the 20th century brought renewed interests in roads. Between 1911 and 1917, unofficial promotional organizations marked routes for travel. One of the first routes was from Milwaukee via the Military Ridge to LaCrosse. Promoters were most interested in collecting subscriptions from cities and villages along the routes.

This was carried to such an extreme that the State Highway Commission asked the Legislature to prohibit laying out or marking any route without the Commission’s approval. In 1918, the State Highway Commission laid out the now familiar system of numbered state trunk highways. The road from Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien by way of Madison, Verona, and Dodgeville was Highway 18. When the federal highway aid system was set up in Wisconsin in the 1920’s, the Madison-Prairie du Chien highway was included as a primary highway.

In 1933, a 100-feet right-of-way was purchased for Highway 18 between Dodgeville and Ridgeway using federal funds. The highway was planned with a 20-feet strip of concrete, plus 10 feet surfaced on each side. This stretch was selected because the old road was badly worn and dusty, while that between Ridgeway and Blue Mounds had been given a light tar treatment.

As highways were improved, use of the railroad declined. In the 1940’s, there was one passenger train each way daily except Sunday. It left Madison for Lancaster in early morning and returned in the afternoon.. Freight trains included two to six extras a week carrying sand and gravel and livestock every Sunday. Early trains were all steam powered. During the late 1940’s, the railroad also used a “hootenanny”, a rail motor car that carried passengers and express.

In January, 1950, the Chicago and Northwestern asked permission to discontinue passenger service on the line. It said that the train cost almost twice as much to run as it received in revenues. Only 6700 passengers a year rode the train. “The fact remains that habits of riding have changed during the years and where rail passenger service, in some instances, was once a vital necessity to a community, it has now become an alternate or emergency mode of travel for short distances” the Public Service Commission concluded on November 29, 1950. The commission allowed the railroad to drop its passenger train between Madison and Lancaster on the condition that it continue to take passengers and express on its freight trains.

The last passenger train traveled this way December 30, 1950. After that, a coach was added to the freight train for the few passengers and express, and mail was carried by highway routes. Bus companies served the same route. The freight train took nearly 12 hours to go the 85.7 miles from Lancaster to Madison, so it’s not surprising that only about two passengers a month rode it. On July 1, 1954, the Public Service Commission said the railroad could discontinue the passenger service. The railroad converted from steam to diesel freight engines on the line in about 1956.

The New Trail (back to top)

The Chicago and Northwestern first petitioned for abandonment of the “Ridge Runner” line west of Mount Horeb in May, 1971. The condition of the line deteriorated so that in 1976 the speed limit was ten to fifteen miles per hour. Other railroad lines had been abandoned in Wisconsin, and some had been converted to recreational trails, beginning with the Elroy-Sparta Trail. Wisconsin was a pioneer in this reuse of abandoned rail lines. In March, 1976, the Department of Natural Resources completed a feasibility study for a trail along the line between Klevenville and Dodgeville.

On December 1, 1979, after a hard-fought legal struggle, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the railroad’s petition to abandon the line west of Mount Horeb. After negotiations with the railroad, the department of Natural Resources established the 23.5 mile Military Ridge State Park Trail between Mount Horeb and Dodgeville on May 29, 1981.

In May, 1982, the Chicago and Northwestern announced plans to abandon the 16.1 miles between Fitchburg and Mount Horeb. There was little public protest to this abandonment, since only 161 cars of freight moved over the line in all of 1981. The abandonment was approved, effective August 20, 1982. The Natural Resources Board approved the purchase on January 25, 1983, and the trail master plan, calling for bicycling, hiking, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing, was approved on August 24, 1983.

Crews immediately began working on the trail. they cut brush the entire length, fenced about ten miles to keep cattle off the trail, planked and railed the 48 trestles, surfaced the trail, erected signs, and built parking lots at Verona and Dodgeville. This was one of the first three projects of the Wisconsin Conservation Corps (WCC), established by the Legislature in 1983. The dedication of the completed portions of the trail was held May 19, 1985 in Barneveld.

- Photographs by: Doug Wollin -