February 2018 Program

Location: Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium 816 State St
Madison, WI 53706

Speakers: Ryan Howell, Cardno

Title: Archaeology of the Upper Mississippi River Fur Trade

Abstract: The early village that became today’s modern town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin was the site of a deep and complex pre-historic and historic period occupation. At various times ruled and populated by Native Americans, the French, the British, the Spanish and then only by Americans, the village appears to have been a neutral ground/trading center going back well before pre-European times. Early French outposts begin as early as the 1680’s and the Creole “Valley French” remain a significant portion of the population in the town to this day.

Always at the outskirts of political and military control of its supposed European and Early American “owners”, Prairie du Chien’s historic residents constituted a unique collection of French voyageurs and explorers, Scots-British fur clerks and Lairds, dense Native American and Metis communities, as well as Spanish priests and former African and Native slaves. The arrival of the “Yankee Americans” in the Lead Rush of the 1820’s added but one more thread in the thick, early ethnic tapestry that was historic Prairie du Chien.  

This diverse “outpost culture” managed to find their own ways to live  and work together and adapt to each other’s cultures, economics and religions for nearly 200 years. As such, their history has much to teach our present as we struggle with such issues of cultural diversity, cultural identity and boundaries of tolerance in our own society today.

This lecture explores the general history of the village and the unique archaeology and artifacts of the village that represents the physical remains of the Early French/Terminal Native American through Terminal British periods left in the area from A.D 1675-1815.