The drama of American Indian struggles typically brings the American West to mind, but the Midwest had its share, and it wasn’t pretty.
In the summer of 1831, the U.S. military forced the formidable Sauk warrior, Black Hawk, and his followers, from their ancestral home of Saukenuk (Rock Island, Ill.). They were pushed west across the Mississippi and warned never to return.
In April 1832, Black Hawk (Makataimeshekiakiak), then retirement age at 65, with 500 warriors and another 1,000 women, children and old men, crossed back into Illinois in a futile effort to continue their way of life. They entered Illinois at Oquawka (which means yellow banks) and almost immediately were pursued by Illinois militia. For more than four months they were chased along the Rock River to the area they knew as “the four lakes” (Madison, Wis.), then pressured back across the Mississippi.
Following Black Hawk’s trail today is an adventure through the back roads of history while learning the tale of this mysterious man whose name seems to grace as many places — and one professional hockey team — in this region as Lincoln’s.
Blackhawktrail.com offers good information on sites important during the war. Occasionally you might find a road sign indicating a “Black Hawk Trail,” but creating a tour becomes more of an adventure by going from site to site where known battles occurred. It’s best to decide what historic sights and markers a traveler wants to see, then find your own route. Just remember; the Indians tended to follow the rivers.
Day 1
I begin my search taking Interstate Highway 88 from its beginning on the West Side of Chicago to its end at Illinois Route 5 in Black Hawk State Historic Site (blackhawkpark.org) in Rock Island. There the Hauberg Museum offers an easily digested glimpse into the early 19th century interaction between white settlers and Native Americans and a perfect introduction to Black Hawk’s route.
The museum offers a miniature model of Saukenuk, where Black Hawk was born in 1767 (the original site is just down the road). His life mask, tomahawk and two of his pipes hang near replicas of the villages’ bark-covered domiciles. Alas, there is no photograph — he died in October 1838, a year before the birth of the medium.
Following the Rock River brings travelers to Prophetstown, 59 miles back toward Chicago. The city is named after Sauk and Winnebago chief Wabokieshiek, or White Cloud, also known as “The Prophet.” He joined Black Hawk’s band as it moved east and north along the river. Soon after, a company of soldiers burned one village to the ground. The commander was a 23-year-old captain named Abraham Lincoln.
Last summer in Prophetstown State Park, the site of the original villages, a chainsaw artist attacked a 14-foot buroak stump, reshaping it into a powerful standing Wabokieshiek.
Black Hawk continued northeast, camping at Dixon’s Ferry and dining in the home of ferry operator John Dixon, who advised him to scoot back to Iowa. Today in Dixon ( Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home), a plaque at First Street and Peoria Avenue marks where Dixon lived and met with Black Hawk.
Charming Oregon, 16 miles north along the river, presents a dozen full-size teepees colorfully painted by local artists. Two miles farther, jutting above a tree-lined bluff overlooking the river, stands an impressive concrete sculpture titled The Eternal Indian. This 48-foot standing Native American, erected in 1911, was created by famed Chicago sculptor Lorado Taft and inspired by Black Hawk, who stood 5-foot-5.
A few more miles brings you to Stillman Valley, the site of Stillman’s Run, the first battle (and major militia blunder) of the Black Hawk War. Black Hawk had sent three warriors with a white flag to meet several hundred pursuing militiamen. Instead of accepting the truce, two were killed.
At dusk Black Hawk sent 50 warriors in reprisal. The silhouettes of shrieking Indians seemed like hundreds to the undisciplined and terrified militia, wrote Kerry Trask in the “Black Hawk, The Battle for the Heart of America” (2005). Had the soldiers accepted the gesture of peace, Black Hawk and his followers, many of them exhausted and hungry, might have returned quietly to Iowa and been just a footnote in history. Today a monument and 12 militia graves mark the spot. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it represents the beginning of the only American war named for an individual.
Kellogg’s Grove, the scene of the last Indian battle in Illinois, is near Kent. There are no directions to the lonely battle site in the tiny town. But half a mile south is a huge monument, with attending graves, overlooking the nearby grove and rolling fields in Stephenson County.
The last battle of the war, Bad Axe, occurred on the Mississippi River north of Prairie du Chien, Wis. The location is either in what is now Blackhawk Park campgrounds or a few miles north where the Bad Axe River swoops down. The precise location has never been determined.
A precise location for my night’s sleep, however, is easier to ascertain. The Great River Roadhouse, 9660 Wisconsin Route 35, DeSoto, (608-648-2045), offers motel suggestions along with bourbon. My choice for the night is The Big River Inn, 500 Main St. in Genoa (pronounced Ja-KNOW-ah) (608-689-2652). This Spartan hunter’s motel provides a refrigerator and two beds for 45 bucks. Deal!
Day 2
Starting a dawn pilgrimage to Blackhawk Park, I ruminate about where the last battle happened at this exact moment, 5:15 a.m., 178 years ago in perhaps this exact place on the Mississippi. In this early morning quiet, interrupted only by the soft chirps of waking birds, I try to imagine the shrieks of slaughter. At water’s edge, a tombstone-like plaque describes the massacre.
A year later, in 1833, two enemies published their war experiences:
Black Hawk: “Early in the morning a party of whites, being in advance of the army, came upon our people, who were attempting to cross the Mississippi. They tried to give themselves up — the whites paid no attention to their entreaties — but commenced slaughtering them! … Our braves, but few in number, finding that the enemy paid no regard to age or sex and seeing that they were murdering helpless women and little children, determined to fight until they were killed!”
Maj. John Wakefield, Illinois militia: “During the engagement we killed some of the squaws through mistake. … It was a horrid sight to witness little children, wounded and suffering the most excruciating pain, although they were of the savage enemy, and the common enemy of the country. It was enough to make the heart of the most hardened being on earth to ache.”
Three weeks after the battle, Black Hawk, dressed in splendid white leather and accompanied by The Prophet, surrendered to Col. Zachary Taylor at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien. The military hospital is all that remains, plus a single prison cell window.
However, you can experience a taste of what Black Hawk endured in the basement of Crawford County sheriff’s department, still in its original 1843 limestone headquarters. A police escort leads you down to the “the dungeon” and its dark, claustrophobic cells of 5-by-7-by-7 feet.
Needing sustenance before the long haul home, I find Simply, 204 W. Black Hawk Ave., Prairie du Chien (608-326-7467). It’s a voluminous coffee shop that offers robust sandwiches and to-drool-for pastries.
Then it’s U.S. Highway 18 to Wisconsin Route 60 and a winding drive through the spectacular hills of the Driftless Area. The final stop of my journey is Wisconsin Heights, south of Sauk City, on U.S. Highway 78. It was the second to the last battle of the war. Now a fenced marker on a hill commemorates the100 Sauk and one militiaman who died.
My trip was an intense 900 miles in two days. However, as a favor to heart and mind, a minimum of three or four days is important. Although the Black Hawk War went from April to August, if you hurry, there’s still enough fall left to accent this journey with some spectacle of color.
