Point of Beginning - Hazel Green, WI - Wisconsin Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The marker reads:
"THE POINT OF BEGINNING

Late in 1831, when Wisconsin was still in Michigan Territory, Lucius Lyon, U. S. Commissioner on the survey of the northern boundary of the State of Illinois, set a post and erected a mound of earth 6 feet square at the base and 6 feet high, at a point 1/2 mile east of here to mark the intersection of that boundary and the 4th Principal Meridian. The Wisconsin public land surveys were begun here in 1832 and were completed "up north" in 1867. Lyon surveyed 16 townships in S. W. Wisconsin in 1832-33, which opened this Territory for settlement. In 1833 Michigan Territory honored this veteran surveyor by electing him their Delegate to Congress. The post and mound he erected at this point were obliterated by fence and power line construction long ago, but the point is now preserved by a new concrete surveyor's monument. Every section corner monument in the state; the boundaries of each county, city, village, township, farm and lot; the position of roads, lakes and streams, all were surveyed and mapped from this Point of Beginning.

Erected 1970"

The informational sign reads:
"Lead Fever
The Making of the Badger State

Lead fever struck in the early 1820s. That's when lead prices soared and eastern and southern entrepreneurs came here to mine lead deposits. Lead helped fuel the growth of a new nation, and it got Wisconsin started. Lead was used to make shot for guns, pewter, printing type, and especially paint.

In southwestern Wisconsin, lead veins appeared at the surface in dolomite outcrops and were easy to mine. Native Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) and other Indians had been mining these deposits for years before the first nonnatives began mining just 1/2 mile east of here on the Fever River.

Hard Scrabble was one of these early settlements. It was later moved and renamed Hazel Green. By 1829, lead fever was in full force with about 10,000 people in the region. By 1831, this influx prompted the land survey here in 1831 at the "Point of Beginning."

Many of the first miners simply dug, like the animal the badger, into the side of a hill and called it home. That's how Wisconsin got its nickname the "Badger State."

In 1849, gold fever replaced lead fever, and many miners left to seek bigger riches in California. While the last lead mine closed in the mid-1970s, this region remains steeped in lead mining history. Visit historic Hazel Green or a lead mining museum, or try a meat-filled pasty while you're in southwestern Wisconsin - the Point of Beginnings Heritage Area."

The informational sign reads:
"Creating a Patchwork Quilt
The Public Land Survey and the Point of Beginning

From above, southwestern Wisconsin looks like a patchwork quilt composed of neat rectangular farm fields. But it wasn't always this way.

Prairie grasses once waved in the breeze and oak trees stood guard. Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) camped along nearby streams. All this began changing in the early 1820s, when southern and eastern entrepreneurs started lead mining in southwestern Wisconsin.

Eventually these newcomers all wanted the same thing - to purchase land and settle here. But they couldn't. Before they could, the Ho-Chunk had to sell their land, and the U.S. government had to survey and divide it.

In 1829, extreme pressure from lead miners and the U.S. government prompted the Ho-Chunk to relinquish their land. Once done, the Public Land Survey began just one-half mile east of here at the "Point of Beginning" in 1831. The first land was sold in 1834 and by 1848, Wisconsin acheived statehood.

The "Point of Beginning" is the benchmark from which all lands in what would become Wisconsin were measured. With this benchmark in place, survey crews began laying out the first rectangular townships, each containing 36 one-mile square sections of 640 acres.

The map below shows the complete grid. It remains the foundation of our modern land system - a patchwork quilt of farm fields, towns, forests and wetlands."

County: Grant Location: Wayside MarkerID: 172

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