Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Governor Dodge State Park (888/947-2757, wisconsinstateparks.reserveamerica.com ,
$10; campsites for non-residents are $17 and up; $10 daily admission) has over 250 camp-
sites. Six backpack sites are also available. Reservations are a good idea.
Afteradayspentbikingallthelocaltrails,nothingbeatsthebarbecueat Bob's Bitchin'
BBQ (233 N. Iowa St., 608/930-2227). For dessert, try the only old-fashioned soda foun-
tain (206 N. Iowa St., 608/935-3661) in the county, at the Corner Drug Store.
The Lead Zone
There's gold in them thar hills. Well, not precisely gold, but wealth of a sort. The hills
around these parts were the first reason any white interloper who wasn't seasonal or a sol-
dier stayed for long. Natives had forever scavenged lead deposits in the area. These de-
posits were so rife that lead littered the topsoil. The earliest European to cash in on the
ready-made ore, Nicholas Perrot, started bartering with the Natives around 1690. A cen-
tury later perceptive, homesteaders quickly turned mining opportunists and wound up as
the first “Badgers.” Mines were hewn into the sides of hills every which way one looked.
Accidentallyformingthefirstcohesiveregioninthestate,theseearlypioneerssolidifiedan
economy of sorts and in many respects got the state on its feet.
Theresultswerestaggering.Theregionpouredforthahalf-millionpoundsoflead.Only
200 intrepid miners populated the region when the federal government began to stick it to
the Fox, Sauk, and Miami Indians. By 1830 that number had grown to almost 10,000. It's
no surprise, then, that the resident Native Americans suddenly felt they had been cheated
and no longer agreed to cooperate. The resulting Black Hawk Wars flared on and off until
theU.S.ArmyslaughteredBlackHawk'sbandattheBattleofBadAxenearPrairieduChi-
en.
Settlers then poured in and made the region the United States' largest lead producer, yet
by the mid-1840s railroads had stretched far enough to transport cheaper lead from other
areas, and the mining petered out. The Swiss and Germans, along with Irish and Yankee
settlers, helped the area bounce back with the dairy industry.
MM MINERAL POINT
Only 2,500 friendly souls, yet what a huge place Mineral Point really is, in many ways the
heart and soul of the state's heritage. So important was it—and still is—that the National
Trust for Historic Preservation called it one of America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations.
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