CHAPTER IV. 



ANCIENT WORKS IN THE BASIN OP THE NEENAH, OR FOX 

 RIVER OP GREEN BAY. 



This important river rises in Columbia and Adams counties, in two small 

 streams that unite a few miles north of Fort Winnebago. Thence it has a 

 sluggish current and crooked course, expanding into broad shallow lakes, or wind- 

 ing through rice marshes, until it enters Lake Winnebago. At a place known as 

 Butte des Morts (or Mound of the Dead), it receives the waters of Wolf river, 

 which is larger than the Neenah itself. Between Lake Winnebago and Green bay 

 the river has a descent, over numerous rapids, of one hundred and seventy feet. 



The public surveys not having all been completed, the area drained by this river 

 cannot be exactly stated; but it is estimated at about 6,700 square miles. 



At a place on the east side of Green bay, called the Eed Banks (township 

 twenty-five, range twenty-two), as we are informed by Hon. Morgan L. Martin, in 

 his annual discourse before the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, delivered in 

 1851, there are traces of ancient cultivation, still distinct, over a tract of several 

 hundred acres, now overgrown with forest-trees of a large size ; the product, accord- 

 ing to computation, of five centuries. The remains of an embankment inclosing an 

 acre or two of ground, occupy an elevated position in the immediate vicinity. 



No other aboriginal works about Green bay have come to my knowledge, though 

 they may have existed and been long since destroyed ; for settlements have ex- 

 isted there since a period nearly or quite as far back as the year 1665. 



Fio. 25. 



Little Butte des Morts, as seen across tlie Lake. June 14, 1851. 



Nor do we find such traces along the rapids below Lake Winnebago. The 

 advantages of water power had no attraction for the natives. The gently flowing 

 stream and placid lake were more favorite places of resort. Hence, we perceive 

 no indications of ancient mounds till near Lake Winnebago; the first one in 

 ascending the river being on the west side of Little Lake Butte des Morts, a 

 name indicating the existence of the mound, and the purpose for which it was 

 erected. (See Fig. 25.) 



