Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-06-06
I'm THE HISTORIC REGION
4 VISIT TO THE HOME OF PRESIDENT
GRANT.
View Of Wisconsin'S First capitoi-Dowr
in Deep Mine-NOtes on
Days Travel.

III = AyCGR on q
Days Travel
On a recent bright May day when all
of the attachses of the state depart
ments were having 8 legal holiday, the
writer in company With an enthusiast
and promoter, made trip to southwest
Wisconsin and Southern illinois, the
mining sections which are the scenes of
wonderful activity. The trip was made
from Madison over the northwestern
reilroad to Galena, returning by the IL
lnois Central road IL was remarka-
bly, fine day, and our start was at eight
o'clock q. M, returning at $40 in the
evening. IL one has never traversed the
boundless prairies of the region covered
he has indeed missed much In pleasure
and glory of sightseeing. II the AL
mighty has framed fairer landscape
than Ia presented there at this season OF
the year have not beheld it in my trav-
els in the east or the far west or the
north. am lead TO ask why any man,
except to secure cheaper homes and
land, should leave that garden spot of
| Wisconsin.
Leaving Madison the Northwestern
takes MS out onto the high lands, mostly
prairie, dotted generally by artificial
groves. Mt. Horeb is the first town of
any size. This village of thousand
souls Is high and rolling like Viroqua
Soon we arrive at the famous Blue
Mouads, one of the highest points of
land between the Allegheny and Rock
Mountains. From this point of vantage
the expanse of country viewei and the
| beauty of the seene'are entran.ing. The
| thought came to me as ! passed. this re-
markabie point of interest that our state
made grievOus mistake when it per-
mitted the location elsewhere than here
of the hospital or home for its people af-
ficted with tuberculosis, Natural
young groves, ine springs of pure wat
er, isolated by distance from town and
| congested population, nothing could
have added to the desirability for loca-
ton of such state institution for the
| white plague.
At q high altitude the Northwestern
takes us along the military ridge follow.
cd by the famous Bisckhawk, winding
1 to the right and left, more crooked
road with abrupt curves one has never
traversed, passing the villages and cities
of Ridgaway, Dodgeville, Platteville,
Rewey. Benton, and other towns. view.
ing the famous old peaks of Platte
Mounds, not far from Plstteville, which
mounds gave the city its name. At this
latter place two of the most productive
zinc mines in the United States are To-
Gated The production of ore is phe-
nominal in quantity and riebDess, aud
people who two years ago were
straining every financial nerve to keep
up assessments, are now sffiuent and
promise to be numbered as millionaires
in the not distant future IL one hears
ANYTHING talked of except mining and
mines, In this part of Wisconsin, he
must be there at different season from
this. They have no time or disposition
| to be otherwise interested. Along the
lines of Iowa, Grant and Lafayette
counties one will see drilling crews near
ly every mile These ars boring and
prospecting for minerals. They are at
work in valley and on hill, in fields and
village, and there are now said TO be en-
gagged in that section no less than three
hundred crews of workmsn at that ser.
vice. Steam and gasoline power are
used. At numerous points one sees min
ing camps with full complement of
machinery taking the ore from mother
earth and running it through the mills
that crush the rock and separate the
mineral Besides the mines at Platte
vile and Highland there are other
places where pay ore is found and good
plants are established.
At old Belmont. in Iowa county, saw
from the railroad, the first territorial
and state cspitoi The old building
stands there little changed, we are told,
from territorial days. Ii is an unpre-
tentious frame building, unpainted, on
| good stone basement. some distance
from the roadway in field on an eleva-
tion that gives 1t some prominence. AT
old Benton, the next station, one of the
first mining camps in the then great
west, the writer's father did mercan-
tile business in the early fifties. and in
one of the not distant old villages, Wio-
ia, my mother and my three older sis
ters were bern. SO, to me, ii seemed
like sacred ground, this old section so
rich in mineral products and historic
renown in the early days of our now
great commonwealth. Everywhere in
this section the earth in the early days
was worked for lead ore, which was
then largely surface finds, and the land
shows signs of pre- historic digging
A few minutes run from Benton,
down the valley where courses the ia
nous Fever river, brings us to old Ga
lena one Of the most historic towns in
the great west. In the early days Ii
wss the great commercial and whole
sale town Of the vest, rivaiing Chicago
| mll the fiftiss. Most of the merchant
1 i,e aud all other supplies for Wisconsin,
I5ya. Minnesota and further west was
wholesaled from this old town Then
the Mississippi river packets, dozens of
them at time, were anchored along
tie levee, where now row boat. can
scarcely be hoated They came up the
fever river from the Mississippi three
,r four miles distant Now, except
perhaps ia times OF high water, no boat
lof any dimensions pretends to make it.
Tho old town however. retains its
standing as q government port of entry
I The old wharves and many of the great
warehouses are still intact, ana it
1 makes one sad to witness the decay
4 from the days Of pioneer life. At one
Il time Galena claimed population OF
twenty five Thousand, now 1t has seven
thousand. Three railroads that enter it
are the Northwestern, Illinois Central
and branch Of the Burlington. These
have reduced the necessity for water
transportation and the city has retro.
graded Still II Is romantic residence
town, most of the inhabitants residing
in the high hills, the uppermost places
requiring two hundred steps from the