By Mary Fairchild
(Rocky Arbor State Park)
“Hidden History of the Wisconsin Dells Area,” is available at Book World, Brews Landing, H.H. Bennett Studio Museum Store, and by special order at Books N Beans in Portage. Contact Ross M. Curry with any inquiries at rcurrysr@Frontier.com .
When my grandfather, Joe Curry, sold his north 40 acres… a virtual Indian settlement grew up around the church that was built there. There were houses and wigwams on at least 16 different locations that I can recall… Ross M. Curry
“While writing ‘Kilbourn Klippings’ Curry was asked by the editor Lonni Lown if he could write some other history stories. The town attorney, Hans Helland, then encouraged him to have the history stories put together in a book and was the first person to purchase some copies. Most of the stories in all three Dells Area History volumes have previously ran in the Wisconsin Dells Events. Next was Dells Area Indian History which has gathered together all the Indian stories he has written into one volume…. “
“If you’re gonna write, you have to write something you know something about,” he said. “So I started writing about some of those old-time people my dad told me about, because he was an old-timer, you know. He knew H. H. Bennett.” Curry’s direct link to early settlers stems from his grandfather coming here in 1849 as a young child. “It was so wild here that my great-grandmother wanted to turn around and go back to Ohio,” Curry said. (9; Portage Daily Register.)
After purchasing Ross’s books, I found it most interesting that while mounds can be found throughout North America, Wisconsin claims the largest concentration. At one time, there were 10,000-15,000 mounds in Wisconsin and about 1,000 were in the Wisconsin Dells alone. Curry writes, “It may come as a surprise to some people to learn that the Dells area was once in the center of what might be called a lost civilization.” http://rosscurry.jvlnet.com/
It is important to note today, that, although the Ho-Chunk are taking responsibility for mound preservation, no legends or traditions concerning these mound builders survive even though many Wisconsin Native Americans still build simple mounds [picture below on graves at Indian Baptist Church cemetery today.(p. 10,”Dells Area Indian History III”)
The mound builders where a copper culture group. Their effigy mounds are found almost exclusively in Wisconsin, northern Illinois and eastern Iowa and Minnesota. Although there is no proof of relation, this is also the same area that would be later claimed by the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk). Sometimes they buried their dead in these mounds. The artifacts found in these mounds had implements and skill not known to Indians of early historic times. They were hunters, fishers and gatherers rather than farmers. The mounds were believed to represent clans. The mound builders disappeared before the white men arrived.
This is Ennis Lake which is the location of John Muir’s childhood home. It is a 30 acre kettle lake in ground moraine. Ross and I started hiking together in 2008.
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- Wisconsin Mounds.com
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- Local Native Americans Buried in Blue Wing Cemetery by Ross M. Curry
- Wisconsin’s Indian Mounds
- SRAC–River Rocks and Time
- Hidden History of the Wisconsin Dells by Ross M. Curry
- Portage Daily Register article on Ross M. Curry’s book Hidden History of the Wisconsin Dells. Craig Spychalla; 1/7/11.