The Spokesrider

September 9, 2004, continued. This is state highway 35, maybe 3 miles north of DeSoto, Wisconsin (on the upper left of the map below). I would have taken highway 35 south to Prairie du Chien, but I think I was scared off by some of the discussions about highway 35 that had taken place on [...]

Sept 9, 2004, continued. By the time I got back to the campground at Blackhawk Park, the fog was gone entirely. Now I was able to get some clear shots of the river. This one is looking north. Black Hawk’s people were trapped on the bank on the right, in between the steamboat “Warrior” which [...]

If so, this would be in the near vicinity of the main path along which Black Hawk’s warriors were retreating and along which Henry’s militia forces were advancing, from right to left. Quite a few warriors were killed, as well as a few of the militia. But the real killing took place when the Sauk people reached the river and could go no further.

September 9, 2004, continued. It took me a long time to ride the two miles back down Battle Hollow road, because I made a lot of photo stops. It was still a foggy morning. On August 2, 1832, the soldiers were roused and on the march before sunrise. They knew they were getting close to [...]

September 9, 2004, continued. After two miles of gravel, I came to the end of Battle Hollow Road. I met only one car, apparently some high school kids on their way to school. At the end there were a couple of residences. I took this photo facing northwest. According to one diary, this hollow was [...]

This is one of the old historical markers that marks the last events of the Black Hawk war. I wanted to visit Battle Hollow. It was one mile by crow from this sign, but a little farther by road.

I had planned to do just the one post from the Black Hawk war zone and then get back to posting about the day I spent in Nate Shaw’s backyard. But now I’m distracted by the other photos I took on 9 September 2004. That was the summer we decided we were getting a bit [...]