Histories: Trempealeau County Historical Accounts:
"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":
Chapter 14:
Geographical Landmarks
-As transcribed from pages 277 - 279
Chapultepec Peak is named from Mount Chapultepec, Mexico, at whose
base, two miles from the City of Mexico, the Battle of Chapultepec was
fought Sept. 12 and 13, 1847. Charles J. Cleveland, whose father
was a veteran of that battle, was an early settler of Big
Tamarac. In the spring of 1856 he located at Big Bend, in charge
of the lumber and rafting business of Thomas Douglas. In one of
his trips to La Crosse in 1856, he purchased a rifle, and instead of
returning home by the usual route, he sent his team by a hired man, and
returned by way of McGilvray's Ferry, traveled through Galesville, up
along Beaver Creek, and crossed the divide into Trempealeau
Valley. He observed a mountain on the top of that valley, which
appeared to him to resemble the description of the Mexican mountain
described by his father. He therefore called it by the name of
Chapultepec.
Chimney Rock is a towering, ragged pile, caused, as other similar
formations in Western Wisconsin, by the erosive action of the wind,
snow, frost and rain, wearing away the surrounding formations and
leaving the rock in its present shape and condition. The work of
erosion is still going on. The rock is the highest point in the
vicinity. It was originally called Devil's Chimney and was a
landmark to guide the traveler of the early days. The rock is now
obscured by trees.
Decorah Peak was named from the Indian dynasty of Decorah, of which
extended mention is made in the Indian chapter in this work. The
name is variously spelled, the form "Decora" being possibly in more
general use in Trempealeau County than the form "Decorah" used in this
history. Charles E. Freeman writing to Stephen Richmond on Jan.
21, 1912 (manuscript in the library of the Trempealeau County
Historical Society) says: "I remember quite distinctly a visit my
parents made to Decorah's encampment at the mouth of the Little
Tamarack, when I was very small. My father saw him and tells me
that he was lying down, resting upon his elbow. He was naked to
the waist, and was the finest specimen of manhood he ever saw, tall,
big-muscled and having the appearance of a bronze statue. He was
nearly blind and was very old. There is a legend that a battle
was fought on the Black River, just south of Decorah's Peak, and that
after Decorah's warriors were beaten he hid himself in a cave of the
peak until it was safe for him to make his way to Prairie du
Chien. In confirmation of this, Bert Gipple, editor of the
Galesville Republican, tells me that when a boy attending Gale College,
he, with several others, accompanied a man from Washington, D. C., over
to the Peak and was there shown a photo where Indians had been
buried. The boys dug into the mound and found a confused mass of
many skeletons in a very mouldy and decomposed condition. One
skull, however, was well preserved. This they took home and gave
it to the Winona High School to place in their museum. This mound
is about 40 rods south of the Peak. Mr. Gipple says he looked for
the mound some years after this and found it only with the greatest
difficulty." The Prairie was originally called Scotch Prairie,
but gradually assumed the name of the Peak.
Oak Openings, or The Openings, was the name applied by the early
settlers to a stretch of land embracing parts of Caledonia and
Trempealeau townships. The name is self-explanatory. The
fall and spring fires since the earliest time had swept down the
valleys and the bluffs and over the Prairie from the northwest, dying
out when they reached the southern part of the Prairie, where they
encountered the region of sun-dried and wind-swept sands. Thus
safe from fires, and protected by the Mississippi and Black rivers, the
timber made a struggle for life in what was a small desert, converting
it into a desirable tract for agricultural endeavor.
Trempealeau Prairie is one of the distinctive geological features of
the county. The causes that have made the Prairie are explained
by George H. Squier elsewhere in that work.
Whistler Pass is one of the remarkable geographical formations of the
county. The winds from the northwest sweep through it with great
force, and with a whistling sound that has caused many to make an
incorrect guess as to the origin of the name. It has been said
that Selfus Spain, an early settler of Cross Township, in Buffalo
County, and later a resident of Fountain City, gave the name. He
and is family crossed the pass in 1856, having to chain all the wheels
to get his wagon down the bluff. He camped at the foot of the
bluff on the north side, and during the night noted the moaning and
whistling of the wind in the depression of the hill over which he had
just passed. However, the name of Whistler's Pass had been given
some time previous. Reese Whistler had filed on a claim in
section 14 in 1853, but so far as is known did not then settle
there. In 1855 Martin Whistler settled in Pine Creek Valley and
opened a trail over the bills into a branch of Tamarack Valley to meet
the road leading to Trempealeau, his market-place. This trail
became the main road into the upper part of Pine Creek Valley and later
was the main road from Trempealeau to Arcadia. The portion over
the divide toward Whistler's place was known as Whistler's Pass.
Ichabod Wood, also an Englishman, came and settled near Whistler within
about a year. Of the unusual scenery in this vicinity Dr. Pierce
has said: "Last August we drove up the west side of Tamarack
Valley and over Whistler's Pass. It was a lovely day, cool and
refreshing and breezy, and the farmers were busy in the spreading
harvest fields cutting grain. From Whistler's Pass it was a
beautiful sight down the Tamarack, and off on Trempealeau
Prairie. Field after field of yellow grain spread out over the
country and here and there the grain was shocked. On the stubble
fields the red wild buckwheat showed its gaudy color. For across
the prairie the Trempealeau bluffs loomed green against the blue
sky. Then we turned and on the other side of the Pass, in Pine
Creek Valley, a new panorama opened to view with broad fields of golden
grain and green meadow lands. What scenes one encounters along
the country road, among our cozy Wisconsin hills in the summer
time. Strange-shaped bluffs peering down with their green slopes
adorned with grazing herds of cattle, rocky peaks with their white
limestone, and then the little valleys, the woodland haunts and waving
grain and rustling cornfields."