12 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. III. 



THE BUFFALO LAKE REGION 



Buffalo lake is a section of the Fox river in which the water has 

 been impounded by means of a dam at Montello 5 , thus producing a 

 lake about twelve miles long and from one-sixth to one-half a mile 

 in width. It is located in Marquette county, in central Wisconsin, 

 and is a relatively shallow body of water which still shows certain 

 of the characteristics of the old landscape, plate I, fig. 2, and plate II. 



Formerly this was a great wild rice marsh, with a relatively 

 small stream meandering through its middle and flanked on either 

 side by fairly high banks. These immense fields of that important 

 Indian food of the Great Lakes region, the wild rice, together with 

 the fish and water fowl, which formerly abounded in the stream and 

 marsh, as well as the limitless game in the adjacent forest, must 

 have produced aiood supply sufficient to provide an easy and abun- 

 dant living for a very large population. These favorable condi- 

 tions allowed ample time for an elaborate ceremonial life and for 

 the construction of the great earth works which we now find. 



Furthermore, the Fox river was probably in those days, as in 

 early historic times, one of the principal lines of communication be- 

 tween the Mississippi Valley tribes and the copper mines of north- 

 ern Wisconsin and the Michigan peninsula, Along such a thor- 

 oughfare should be found many remains of former occupations, both 

 of resident tribes and probably traces also of visiting tribes or dele- 

 gations enroute for purposes of trade, to attend inter-tribal coun- 

 cils, or on religious pilgrimages. This conclusion is borne out by 

 the presence all along the shores of this former marsh of camp 

 sites, village sites, work shops, pottery making sites, fields, and es- 

 pecially of hundreds of mounds. In fact it is doubtful if there is 

 any other like area, at least in Wisconsin, where so many mounds, 

 and of such diverse forms, are found 6 . These and the numerous 

 sites are associated in such a manner as to show at least two and 

 possibly a larger number of more or less distinct occupations, prob- 

 ably extending over a long period of time. 



5 This dam was started by the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company in 1856. It was 

 abandoned by that company in 1857 and nothing more was done with it until 1868, when 

 it was finally completed by the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal company. On Sept. 18, 

 1872, it was purchased by the federal government and now forms part of the inland water 

 way system connecting the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river. 



6 There is now in preparation a detailed surface survey of the aboriginal remains along 

 the shores of this lake. 



