Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1912-03-21
ARTICLE "
BarabOo

Whence came the word Baraboo? 1t
was first applied to the river then the
rapids, town and city. There are many
conjectures and uncertainties surround.
ing the appelation and tits very doubt
full if the mystery will ever be cleared.
In w. IL. Canfield's Outline
Sketches of Sank County published in
1878, he says:
"John De la Ronde, a frenchman
who settled at Fort Winnebago, May
5, 1928, and now living with bis Winnie
bago wife upon the banks of the Bara-
! boo river, six miles from Portage, says
the river received its name from a Cap
tain Barebeauy, who was in Moran's
expedition against the Indians, and
who wintered at the mouth of the
stream.
/ "On a 'Sixpenny mapo of the United
States brought from Glasgow in Scot
land, by John Dickey, in 1912, a river
bearing the name OF Belle Chase, oc-
cupies a position nearly where the
/ Baraboo river is situated. Mr.. Dickey
thinks the map was published in 1917.
Its English would be beautiful chase,
fine hunting grounds.
"Upon Farnum's map of the Terri
tories of Michigan and Ouiscon sin,
published in 1880, it is called Boni-
beau's Greek.
Upon the map of Longs Second
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains
in 1928, it is called Mahlenak.
"Morse & Brees' Map of Wisconsin,
published in 1874, is the first to call it
Baraboo."
The Winnebago Indian name is
Ocoohery, signifyirg "plenty of fish. "
The information is sometimes given
that there was once large sand bar
in the Wisconsin river at the mouth of
| the Baraboo and that at that time the
latter stream was known as "Beau" or
something of that nature. This word
preceded by the word bar makes Bar
beau which is easily expressed as Bar
aboo.
A citizen says that Baraboo was so
named from an incident in an early
day. Two residents were roaming
through the woods when one of them
shouted, "a bear" to which the other
replied "boo", hence Baraboo.
According to an article by William
Hill in the "History of Sank County,
published in 1880, Baraboo is derived
from a Fren CHI surname. Aside from
the mythical old Frenchman
"Barabeau," to whom legend assigned
a shanty al the mouth of the river in
days prior to the settlement Of the val
ley, a mum Der of names Of real per
sonages give hints of the name Baraboo.
The Barbou family was, perhaps, the
most celebrated printers of France
from the sixteenth to the eighteeth
century. The same author hints at the
name being given in honor OF Lieu
tenant General de la Barre, of the
eighteenth century and Colonel Isaac
Barre who was friend of Wolfe and
saw him die at Quebec.
At the time the county history was
published Professor Henry of the
Smithsonian Institution said that it
might have come from French Berbue
cat tish-a not uncommon designa-
ton of rivers and creeks by the early
voyageurs; or from Barbeau-carp or
sucker. What is now Putnam's creek
in Essex county, New YORK, was
Riviere a la Barbue Of the French and
is so set down on M. de Levy's map of
1748, and in Pouchet's Memoir of the
war Of 1850. Other examples are
given and he says that the tram
sition from Barbue 10 Baraboo is easy.
Mr.. Hill found that the term bar
beau was Synonymous with Barbe', a
large coarse fresh-water fish having
several barbs or beardlike feeers