Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-06-16
THE INDIAN TRAIL.
Once it Was the Only Means of Access
Into This Country.

Once it Was the Only Means OF Access
Into This Country.
Although numbering operations had
been carried on in this part of the
country for many years prior. it was
not until the war of secession had
closed, and its battles and campaigns
had ceased forever, and the mighty
armies had melted into the peaceful
paths of life, that the pine forests of
Northern Wisconsin fairly begun to
attract the sttention of the commercial
world. And it was good many years
later before a railroad entered Wausau
For great many years before the ad-
vent OF the railroad wagon road from
this territory to Stevens Point, Berlin,
and other points was used over which
TO haul supplies, as every old settler
knows. Before the wagon road was
built the Indian trail was the only high
way through the unbroken forests, and
it invariably followed where there was
| the least resistance.
The inspiration which furnishes these,
lines was brought to US by the recent
tracing of several of these old trails
over a large territory of Marathon
county. Two lead out from the old
Indian village in the town of Bergen,
and after diverging met again at Little
Bull falls, or where the village of Mosi-
nee now stands. Another starts from
Rockville, where there was another
Indian village, and crosses the country
eastward and also ends at Mosinee.
Although these trails have not been
traversed in many years, they can still
be traced. One can follow them
through the woods until he strikes a
clearing and again pick them up on the
opposite side.
No one man laid out these primitive
paths-they are the joint judgment of
generations of men. They ere the pro-
duct of centuries of travel by the SIM
pie child of the forest, who camped in
the tracKless wilderness and who, for
ought anyone knows, spent days and
weeks in finding route most suitable
to his needs from one point to another
location.
Almost every river, lake or ravine of
Northern Wisconsin has its Indian trail
forgotten perhaps by both the whites
and Indians of this generation, and
only trod by wild animals. The whites
in the employ of the American Fur Co.
and Hudson Bay Fur Co. followed the
Indian trail, the civil engineer followed
the trader and the palace car came in
its turn. Thus the white man outgrew
the trail. The advent of the railroad
opened up pine forests for the lnmber-
man and hardwood lands for the alert
homesteader and settler, and thus
Northern Wisconsin grew.
Some of the older people of Wausau
remember how the Indian trail was
used in an early day to transport mail
from this section to lake Superior
points. Men traversed them on foot in
summers and by dog team in winter.
Only men accustomed to the wilderness
and familiar with wild frontier life
were employed in this service. They
seemed equal to any emergency and
when it became necessary, on account
of the deep snow, to abandon the dog
team, they would put on snow shoes.
strap the mail sack to their backs and
make the balance of the distance in this
way. Darkness, storm, cold or hunger
had no terrors for them. They were
young men whose love of adventure
led them away from the haunts of civil
ization, and whose nature found zest
and enjoyment in the dangers and
excitement of wild life.
Month after month, and year after
year, the pioneers trod the Indian trail.
But eventually the iron horse came and
the trails became grass grown and
abandoned, and they now appear,
where found, like the ghosts of other
days.
Nearly every stream of Northern
Wisconsin had two Indian trails run
ming parallel with it, one on either
side. These afterward proved invalua-
Bile to the riverman in log driving, who
was forced to go up and down stream
in breaking rollways or jams, sacking
rapids, etc. One of those leading out
from the town of Bergen runs along
the Eau Pieine river for some distance
and then strikes off northeastward
toward Little Bull falls, which point
was evidently rendezvous for the
silent man of the forest. Its present
condition is in harmony with the silent,
sluggish waters of the Eau Pleine. The
one which started eastward from Rozell-
vile crossed the Big Eau Pleine river
near the southeast corner of the town
of Cleveland, at what is now known as
| the Indian forC-one of the most pic
turesque spots in Marathon county. As
several burying grounds are located
not far from this ford and great many
stone implements of war have been
picked up in that locality, one is led to
believe that this trail was the scene of
many an ambuscade and bloody battle.
If the stones along its path could talk
manv interesting tales would be told
The Indian has passed from that terri
tory forever and the trails will soon be
blotted from the face of the earth.