For most of the history of humans living along the Wisconsin
River, waterways were the main method of travel. Before
highways were built, railroads laid down, or even dirt paths
cut through the woods, the Native Americans were navigating
the lakes and rivers of the Pinery in birchbark canoes. When
European explorers and fur traders traveled deeper into
North America, they quickly adopted the means and
techniques learned from Native Americans.
Portaging was one such technique that was important to
use when navigating the Wisconsin River by canoe. When
approaching a stretch of river impassable by water, travelers
would carry their canoe overland to a point where they
could continue forward.
The word “portage” can be used to refer to both the act of
transferring overland, as well as the place where you would
do the transferring. It was adopted by English-speaking
lumberjacks and fur traders, from the French word
“porter” or “to carry.” Of course, travelers in birchbark
canoes would refer to a portage by other words, too.
A portage might be described by a Chippewa traveler as
an “onigam” or by someone from the Ho-Chunk as
“wawa-ája.” Whatever words are used to describe it, the
act of portaging was necessary for anyone traveling along
the Wisconsin River.
As it turned out, the places where rapids and falls made
travel dangerous enough to force travelers to portage were
quite often also very good locations to harness the power
of the stream for a mill. During the second half of the
1800s, many such locations became home to lumbering
communities that would grow into the places we know today.
By the end of the 1800s, people generally abandoned
birchbark canoes in favor of other forms of transportation
along the Wisconsin River. By that point, most of the
treacherous rapids and dangerous falls on the Wisconsin
had been removed when the river was “improved” (usually
with dynamite) to more easily float pine logs to downriver
markets. But for travelers paddling the Wisconsin River
today, the portage is still a necessary way around modern
obstacles like dams.
