2-8 Lake Koshkonong - Black Hawk's Island

February 17, 2014

Lake Koshkonong - Black Hawk's Island

Fort Atkinson, WI

“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

On the upper end of Lake Koshkonong there is a low, flat, swampy delta formed by the centuries of sand and clay brought down the Rock River and deposited in an ever-lengthening spit jutting out onto the lake. To the north of the river is an uninhabitable mosquito-infested wetland whose dominant feature is named ‘Mud Lake’. To the south, an equally uninviting bog, unfit for anything other than a designation as a wildlife area. On the edges of the river, however, and on the edge of the lake itself, clings a narrow band of land and trees suitable for passage. Doubtless there is an explanation as to how or why such a strip of land forms, similar to the explanation of how rumble-strip ridges form on remote gravel roads, but the explanation for both phenomena eludes me.

Mud Lake Area in summertime

It is to this tiny strip of land that Black Hawk led his band of people, still over 1000 strong. Though the conditions in these swampy forbidding areas must have been all but intolerable with heat and mosquitoes, it was suitable for at least two important reasons. First, such an area provided excellent cover in which to hide, and it was easy to guard. Second, such a landscape, though inhospitable in many ways, is rich with readily harvestable foods, from fish and turtles to cattails and tubers. Black Hawk used this land as a base from which to continue his raids, stealing what he could, and fighting when necessary.


We drove out lonely, snow-covered Blackhawk Island Road on the north shore of the river, shaking our heads at the invasion of ramshackle houses dotting the length of the road on every inhabitable inch of land. Most were vacation homes, shut up for the winter, but a few chimneys poured forth smoke in defiance of the cold. Mostly what I felt was the oppression of decrepitude, poverty, failure, and desperation. This was not a place where the wealthy come to own prestigious lots along the waterfront. This was a place where even the trees fail to thrive, and where catastrophe is only one flooded rainy season away.

There is also evidence which indicates that part of the tribe camped at the southern end of the lake, near present-day Newville. In any case, Lake Koshkonong became their sanctuary while the army and militia forces searched in vain. I find it hard to comprehend how so many people, some of whom were on horseback, could have eluded discovery for so long, when so many others were looking for them..."Hunting for Black Hawk was like hunting a shadow."

The probable reason his people were able to stay here, undetected, for a period of weeks was because Black Hawk had organized and ordered raids in distant areas to the west and to the south, in order to draw military forces away from the women and children. In places as distant as Kellogg’s Grove and Apple River Fort, over 100 miles to the West, and in similar raids to the south, attention was successfully diverted from the Koshkonong area. 

Atkinson was not completely fooled, however, and following an unsuccessful trip up the Bark River, returned to a spot within 4 miles of the Sauk camp and built Fort Koshkonong, later named Fort Atkinson. The fort was little more than a hastily raised set of upright logs around four block houses, and was abandoned almost as quickly as it was built. Less than a month after it was constructed, the soldiers set out again in a final push to overtake Black Hawk and end their war once and for all. The fort would never see use again, except that the logs, still standing, would later be used by the first settlers in the area for home construction, raft-building and firewood.

Fort Atkinson
Originally called Fort Koshkonong

I took many pictures as I drove along Blackhawk Island Road, with the Rock River on my left and the Mud Lake area to my right. I was trying to capture the scene as Black Hawk and his people would have seen it in 1832. My guess is that I came very close. When left unaltered, a marshland will change very little over 200 years’ time. The trees, where they will grow at all, will be stunted. The brush will be thick in some areas and sparse in others. The air will be hot and humid in July. The same bird species will flit around from branch to step to reed, as they have been doing for centuries. And there is no direction you can walk safely for more than a few steps without encountering water.

 

Though Blackhawk Island on Lake Koshkonong was not the most awe inspiring location on this part of my journey, I did learn a little more about the brilliance of the leader. The hideaway was a perfect place for the women, children, and elderly to harvest food, for they were a river people and knew how to harvest from this type of landscape. It was, however, an ill-suited location for horses, so they were utilized to spring widely dispersed raids to capture provisions, without drawing attention to the most vulnerable core of his people. It was a land easy to defend – the horse-mounted militia would have little or no means of approaching, and would be easily spotted along the lake, or along the only available land approach. It is this brilliance that gave Black Hawk the name ‘Shadow’ among the whites who pursued him, because not only was he seemingly impossible to find, but he managed to hide over 1000 people in his care.

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak – I am here in Koshkonong, the place named by the ancestors of your Ho-Chunk friends. I have learned that Koshkonong means, ‘The Lake We Live On”. Was this the dream you had for your people? Even now, with your warrior’s blood raging at its hottest, did you choose this place because you hoped that your people would be able to stay there, unmolested, in this land so full of fish, clams, ducks, and wild rice? Did you believe that with the spirits of the mound-builders from thousands of years ago nearby, you might get protection here?

Many say you were defeated by the white men, but in this place you were not defeated. In this place you won precious time for your wounded to heal, your hungry to feed, and your sick to strengthen. In this place you won back, through clever diversion, the dignity and respect you should already have possessed from the white man. In this place you won honor for the Sauk Nation for all time. So great was your achievement that even your enemies, 200 years later, invoke your name to instill bravery among their allies, and fear among their enemies.

War, and fear, and hatred would not allow this to be Koshkonong, The Lake We Live On, for your people. Before you were ready, your people had to leave again, to flee the thousands of men and horses and guns at your heels. I am sorry for what happened to your people. I am sorry that your lands were stolen from you, and that you could not find a home and food for your tribe. I am sorry that you were forced to hide in marshes. I am sorry that the whites would not even allow you to stay there, where no one else would be willing to live. I am sorry. I am sorry. Ah-ho.

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(Key Terms: Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, Black Sparrow Hawk, Black Hawk, 1767, Saukenuk, Pyesa, Rock Island, Black Hawk’s Watch Tower, Black Hawk State Historic Site, Hauberg Museum, Sauk, Sac, Meskwaki, Fox, Rock River, Sinnissippi River, Mississippi River, War of 1812, British Band, Great Britain, Treaty of 1804, Treaties, Ceded Land, William Henry Harrison, Quashquame, Keokuk, Fort Armstrong, Samuel Whiteside, Black Hawk War of 1832, Black Hawk Conflict, Scalp, Great Sauk Trail, Black Hawk Trail, Prophetstown, Wabokieshiek, White Cloud, The Winnebago Prophet, Ne-o-po-pe, Dixon’s Ferry, Isaiah Stillman, The Battle of Stillman’s Run, Old Man’s Creek, Sycamore Creek, Abraham Lincoln, Chief Shabbona, Felix St. Vrain, Lake Koshkonong, Fort Koshkonong, Fort Atkinson, Henry Atkinson, Andrew Jackson, Lewis Cass, Winfield Scott, Chief Black Wolf, Henry Dodge, James Henry, White Crow, Rock River Rapids, The Four Lakes, Battle of Wisconsin Heights, Benjamin Franklin Smith, Wisconsin River, Kickapoo River, Soldier’s Grove, Steamboat Warrior, Steamship Warrior, Fort Crawford, Battle of Bad Axe, Bad Axe Massacre, Joseph M. Street, Antoine LeClaire, Native American, Indian, Michigan Territory, Indiana Territory, Louisiana Territory, Osage, Souix, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Ho-Chunk)