A Weekend in Wisconsin - Day 1

You have a three day weekend coming up and you want to spend it in Wisconsin. Where will you go? What will you do?

There are certainly a lot of choices depending on what you like, what part of the state you are in, and even what time of year it is. For simplicities sake we will talk about a summer weekend in Southwest Wisconsin. This is a vacation for those who want to take it easy and slow. If you want big entertainment and excitement this is probably not the place for you. This will be a journey based primarily on scenery and history.

Southwest Wisconsin is an area often called 'Hidden Valleys'. This can encompass an area from the Illinois border, north about a hundred miles to La Crosse, and from the Mississippi River to about fifty miles, or two counties, deep. That is a lot of territory to cover so again we will keep it simple and stay, mostly, below the Wisconsin River. The county in the most Southwestern corner of Wisconsin is Grant. Grant County is about thirty miles deep at the top along the Wisconsin River, though only ten miles deep at the bottom along the Illinois border.

We need a starting point, so we will start at the bottom corner, where Dubuque, Iowa is just across the Mississippi bridge and Illinois is just a half mile to the south. Enter the "Gateway to the Hidden Valleys" and take highway 11 east for about 2 miles, then right on county road Z. In about 3 miles you will see Sinsinawa Mounds on the left.

To the native Sioux, Sinsinawa meant "Home of the Young Eagle". Father Samuel Mazzuchelli bought land there from a lead miner in 1846, and built a men's college. In 1847 he founded the Dominican Sisters. Today the Motherhouse of the Sinsinawa Dominicans sits upon an outcrop of Niagara Dolomite overlooking miles of Wisconsin and Illinois countryside.

Tours of the complex can be arranged by appointment, but stop by just to look at the buildings, buy some fresh bread from the bakery or shop in the book store.

After leaving Sinsinawa Mounds turn right on highway 11 and continue to Hazel Green, where one of the Grant County tours has its beginning. Just south of Hazel Green is the spot where the fourth principal meridian crosses the Wisconsin/Illinois border. From this Point of Beginning, government surveyor Lucius Lyons began the statewide survey of Wisconsin in 1831. Lucius and his crew built a mound six-feet tall by six-feet square and hammered an oak post deep into its heart. Every town, every village, every farm in Wisconsin has been surveyed from this benchmark. A remnant of the original oak survey marker from the Point of Beginning can be found at the Cunningham Museum in the county seat at Lancaster.

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