Paul Walter, Executive Director of the Sauk County Historical Society, will give a map presentation on February 9 at 7:00 pm at the Historical Center, 900 2nd Ave., Baraboo. People, February 16th.
Jonathan Shipley
Jacques Marquette didn’t have a smartphone to give directions. So did his fellow explorer, Louis Jolliet. They didn’t even have internet. They had neither Rand McNally’s Atlas shoved in the back of the car nor his neatly folded AAA map north of the Mississippi River Valley in the glove box.
Indeed, this was 350 years ago. But they didn’t have a map. In fact they had to create it.
Marquette was the first to map the details of the Sauk County area. He and Joliet were the first Europeans to explore the full extent of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and to travel down the Mississippi.
Paul Walter, executive director of the Sauk County Historical Society, is thrilled with details like this. “Maps can record our past, show us our present, and influence our future,” he said.
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The first map of the area was made by Jacques Marquette 350 years ago.
Jonathan Shipley
Wolter will give a presentation titled “Maps of Sauk County” in person at the History Center at 900 2nd Avenue in Baraboo on February 9th at 7pm. Present online for those who cannot attend in person. , 16 February. Online event requires registration.
Mapping Wolter’s progress in creating her next presentation is a roundabout way. He peruses hand-drawn maps, land surveys, travel maps, and the latest in his LiDAR maps. LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method used to probe the Earth’s surface. This includes lasers, scanners and GPS receivers. This is something the old Marquette never dreamed of.
“I want to highlight all map resources,” Walter said of his upcoming presentation “related to Sauk County.” We want to make clear how we can help people who are interested in where they are.
In 1766, Jonathan Carver mapped the area. As captain of the Massachusetts Colonial Corps, he explored the northern Mississippi Valley and the western Great Lakes region. The publication of his maps and his travelogues brought great interest to the area.
He finds a Sauk village on the map. He was one of the first to take notice of what is now the Baraboo River. He turned his attention to lead mines. White settlers took note.
By the 1840s and 1850s, Sauk County was established with printed maps.
Jonathan Shipley
By the 1840s and 1850s, fully detailed maps of Sauk County were produced. His one of the most famous of them is his 1859 map made by William H. Canfield.
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“It’s beautiful,” said Walter. “It’s detailed. It shows the points of interest.” While not strictly a map, this map includes the names of more than 1,700 of his landowners, as well as various landmarks such as the sawmill, the school, and the mound of statues. is shown. “It’s mind boggling how they made this map,” he said.
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Once formed in extensive archives, the digitization of maps has been a boon to researchers like Wolter. Wolter hopes to share his knowledge soon.
What will maps look like 350 years from now? We don’t know, but we can take a quick glance at Marquette’s old maps and see where we came from and where we’re going.
