Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-08-13
BADGERS TRACE
NIC0LETS STEPS
TABLET MARKS THE SPOT WHERE
FRENCHMAN FIRST LANDED
IN WISCONSIN.
STATES HISTORY REVIEWED.
Historian Thwaites Gives Vivid Account
Of Winnebago Indians Meeting with
First White Man.
DISCOvERER EXPECTS CHINESE.

GREEN BAY. Wis. Aug 12.-[Spe-
cial. l-Red Banks was the center of to-
days historical celebration. tablet
marking the landing place of Jean Nico-
let being unveiled by Miss Rachael Orig
non, granddaughter, fifth removed, of
Charles Delanglade. Wisconsin's first
permanent white settler.
Ruben Gold ThWaiteS, superintendent
of the Wisconsin Historical society, de
hvered an address Wednesday night
commemorative of NicoIet's discovery of
Wisconsin III 1854.
DR.. Thwaites said that Wisconsin is
particularly fortunate in that her his
tory begins with one of the most pic
tureSque if not dramatic events in Amer
lean history. 1t was picturesque III its
conception, in its movement, ami in its
scene.
Motives Were Various.
France then foremost among Euro
Dean nations in enterprise and enlighten-
ment. had planted in the wilds of lower
Gus motives had contributed to the estab-
,ishment of New France. The King,
Jealous Of the attempts of England to
cOlOnize the new world, was moved by a
passion for territorial conquest. The
church Of Rome, then dominant in
France, was eager, at any hazard OF
martyrdOm, to convert the heather saw
ages of America. 1t was Il time when
furs were eagerly sought as wearing
apparel by the rich and luxurious classes
Of Europe. Merchant explorers were
everywhere seeking them, and found III
America an abundant harvest of peltries.
1t was a time, too, when the area of the
known world was being rapidly enlarged
by the explorations of Europeans, and
in, ciy-i1i1Ol land a.
ton was readily kindled by travellers
tales. Seized by the lust of noble adj
venture, hundreds of young Frenchmen
hailed with enthusiasm the fondlng of
New France and were not slow to cast
their lot in the new dominion over seas
Eicolet set out FROM Que6ec Y com 9? n
p9ny with some Jesuit missionaries l[, re,
ron country. Here he engaged seven
Huron indians to paddle bis large ca
noe and in due time found the strange
tribe on Red Banks, a cliff of red clay
rising sharply for somewhat over hun
dred feet above the water, on the east
shore of Green bay, twelve miles north
Of the present city of Green Bay. Think
ing to engage their favor, i'll case they
proved to be Cinnamon, NicOlet had at
tired himself in a long, flowing gown OF
China damask. decorated with birds and
flowers. and advanced up the beach at
the foot of the cliff, firing off the two
pistols which he held in his hands.
Found Only Winnebagoes.
The strange tribesmen proved, how
ever. to be only naked Winnebago In
dams. an outcast branch of the Dakota
stock, most of whom lived then, as now,
west of the Mississippi river. Their
name was derived from the word Win
uipeg.
But although they were only Winnie
bagos, attired in breech clouts, they
made Nicolet welcome at the Red Banks
fort and he tarried for some weeks
among them, attending feasts and
dances given in his honor, and making
with their chiefs treaty of peace.
Some thirty-ive years after Nicolet's
coming Il Jesuit mission was established
at Depere, the French fort at Green
Bay soon followed, and Wisconsin his
tory has ever since been u vivid and
moving picture.