Fort Winnebago
After crossing the stream, the location of the commissary building of the fort will be observed a few rods to the left. Goods from boats plying the Fox were unloaded into the building; a fragment of the wall still remains, hidden in the weeds and grass.
The frame house to the right, somewhat modified, was the fort hospital.
The well at the farmstead at the left was in the center of Fort Winnebago when completed in 1830. The portage was made a military post in 1828, Major David E. Twiggs erecting the fortification. During the Black Hawk War the outpost was useful in checking the hostile tribesmen, it remained a garrison until 1845, and was sold in 1853, the nineteen and fifteen-hundredths acres bringing $23.94. The old deed is in the Portage Library.
Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterward president of the United States, visited the fort with Captain Hugh Brady, Indian fighter, in 1836, and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, later president of the confederacy, came with the military force to construct and garrison the place. Judge D. Doty, afterward territorial governor, often was there, while General Lewis Cass, and Captain Frederick Marryat, celebrated English novelist, were among the many noted visitors. Miss Marcy, later the wife of General George B. McClellan, was a child here, the daughter of a lieutenant.