Before Potosi was Born

      Ten thousand years ago, there was a period in our history called the ice age.  At that time, huge glaciers, large pieces of air, water, rock, and ice,  traveled over the land surfaces of the continent.  Our area was missed by those glaciers.

    Back in the early 1800's, there were no buildings here, only the beauties of nature.   During the ice age,  glaciers slid through many other areas and flattened the land, but this part was not touched.  For some reason, the glaciers went around us leaving rolling hills and bluffs along a mighty river, the Mississippi River, instead of the flat, plains in Iowa.  This was the home of the Native Americans then.  The Winnebago tribe and the Kickapoo Indians both called this area their home.  This peaceful life was soon to change though, with the arrival of the European settlers who were ready to make this new land, their home!

A Winnebago Chief

    In 1644, a French man, named Nicholas Perrot was born.  He was born to explore, and in1685, he began to explore Wisconsin and other areas nearby.  He went all the way from Green Bay to Dubuque, and even farther along the Mississippi.  It is documented that he visited Snake Cave in 1690.  He was one of the first people to discover deposits of mineral ore from lead.  Perrot was a man of peace and he made friends with the Fox Indians of the area.  They gave him the right to mine and investigate the sources of lead ore he could find.  They became known as the "Perrot Mines".  He was told that he could mine for lead, but he was not considered the owner of the mines.  

European Settlers Find a New Land

    In 1788, a French Canadian man named Julien Dubuque came to this area as a trapper, but while he was here, he found another treasure.  That treasure was LEAD.  Lead was something of great value back then.  It was used for many things, and people who could find it hidden in the rocks could become very rich.  Julien Dubuque was given permission by the Fox Indians to open some lead mines in the area.  He got a grant from the Spanish in 1796, and his "Mines of Spain" made him a wealthy man.  In 1810, when Julien Dubuque died the Native Americans decided that they wanted the land and mines back.  

Julien Dubuque and his Native American wife, Potosa

Map of Dubuque area mines

    In 1753, the British became unhappy with the French and Spanish people for claiming lands that they felt belonged to them.  So, the French began building forts along the rivers.  The French and Indian War began and lasted until 1763.  In the treaty that was signed at the end of the war, Great Britain was given all of the land east of the Mississippi in North America.  The Native Americans had helped the French, who had now lost their battle for the land.  

     The Native Americans had lived quite comfortably in this area for a long time, but as the settlers continued to come here problems continued to brew.  The European settlers wanted the land that the Native Americans had always called home.  In 1804, the Native Americans were tricked into signing an agreement, called a treaty,  that the white men had made.  The Native Americans  really didn't understand what this Treaty of 1804 said, but the white men convinced them to sign it.  The treaty was a promise that the Native Americans would move off of any land east of the Mississippi in exchange for a few little presents.  When the white settlers came and demanded the land,  the Indians had to move west. Once the Native Americans figured out what they had been tricked into signing, they became very angry with the settlers. 

Many times the Native Americans were tricked into agreeing to things they didn't understand.

    The Native Americans were not willing to give up.  They had heard that the British were coming to help them get the land back, so they began to now help the British.  Soon the War of 1812 broke out with the Native Americans fighting with the British to take the land away from the settlers.  This made the settlers very angry with the Native Americans!   The British, however, lost their fight, and because of the treaty of 1804, the Native Americans lost their lands as well.

.

     .    The Arrival of the St. John Family

    Word spread to many places that lead and wealth had been found by Julien Dubuque in a place near the Mississippi River, and soon other people came to the new world to try to find some of that wealth.  In 1825, a man named John St. John and his two sons, Willis and Andrew, came to mine for the lead that had been found by Julien Dubuque.

    After a couple of years of working in the Galena area, Willis St. John decided he was ready for an adventure.  He left his father and brother to traveled north.  He found a beautiful area with Native Americans who were kind to him.   He saw them wearing shiny rocks around their necks, and he quickly knew that they had found lead.  The Indians showed him the cave where the lead had been found, and Willis St. John knew he had found a treasure all his own.  He went back home to tell his family and friends, and knew that some day he would come back to this spot next to the mighty Mississippi River!

                                                            More Trouble Again

      In 1827, there was another war called the Winnebago War.  This was led by the Winnebago tribe and their chief, Chief Red Bird.  He was angry that their people had been forced off of their lands and they were not willing to accept the Treaty of 1804.  They decided to fight for their land.  They fired upon white settlers near Prairie du Chein, and other settlers along the Mississippi, and they even struck the mines in Galena.  Soldiers were rushed in to help the white settlers and the war ended in August of 1828 with the Winnebago Indians signing a treaty agreeing to give up their lands.

Chief Red Bird

    Then in 1828, a group of Native Americans from the Fox and Sauk tribes ran into trouble with the white settlers once again.  They had left their settlements to go out for a winter hunt.  When they came back, they found a group of white settlers living in their homes!  Because of the treaty of 1804, the Native Americans were told that they had to move.  This really made the Indians mad.  One Indian chief named Keokuk said that they should move to keep things peaceful, but another chief named Blackhawk said that they shouldn't be forced to leave their homes. Blackhawk believed that the British would come to help him in his fight against the settlers.   The British did not come though. The Winnebago Indians agreed to help him until they were told that the governor of Illinois said that they either had to leave or he would send in the army.  In 1831, Blackhawk turned back and began to lead his people toward Iowa.

    It was a very hard winter though, and the Native Americans had moved on to land that wasn't very rich.  Their crops had failed and they were starving.  Blackhawk decided to send some of his best messengers to their old home land, to ask the settlers if they could please have some food, and to cross over into Wisconsin to seek help from the Winnebago Indians.  The white settlers saw the Indians riding toward them and shot and killed them. They had not understood what it was the Native Americans were coming to ask.   Now, Black Hawk was really angry!  This was the beginning of The Blackhawk War.  The war was very short.  It began in in April of 1832 and ended in August of 1832, with Blackhawk being captured at the Battle of Bad Axe near Prairie du Chein.  A treaty was signed by the Fox, Sauk, and Winnebago Indians, and they agreed to surrender their land for $270,000, and moved west into Iowa.  Blackhawk was taken prisoner, and the Native Americans continued to move toward the West.

Sauk Chief Black Hawk

Fox Chief Keokuk and his son

Map of the area of the Black Hawk War

Statue of Black Hawk in Oregon, Illinois