New Glarus Woods - New Glarus, WI
N 42° 47.192 W 089° 37.726
16T E 284987 N 4740461
The New Glarus Woods State Park is a 411 acre recreational area south of New Glarus Woods at W5446 County Highway NN.
Waymark Code: WM5J0T
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 01/11/2009
Views: 3
South of New Glarus State 69 crosses a valley to the New Glarus Woods 20.1 m., a 40-acre tract of oak forest set aside as a State roadside park (camping and sanitary facilities; picnic tables, fireplaces, and good drinking water). In the center of the park at 20.5 m. is the junction with County H; a monument here commemorates this road as the Old Lead Trail (see Tour 12), early route to the lead and zinc mines of southwestern Wisconsin. In 1832 General Henry Dodge and his rangers passed along this route in their pursuit of Black Hawk; 13 years later the first band of Swiss colonists followed the same path to their new home at New Glarus.
---Wisconsin, A Guide to the Badger State, 1941
Today the park has been turned into a 411-acre State Park. Unfortunately, I could find no trace of the Old Lead Road monument mentioned. I would have liked to waymark it.
From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources web site:
"New Glarus Woods is a 411-acre state park offering camping, hiking, picnicking and snowshoeing. The park also offers direct access to The Sugar River State Trail, a 23-mile, 265-acre, State Park trail surfaced with compressed limestone screenings, for bicycling, hiking, snowmobiling and, in some areas, hunting. Take advantage of the many opportunities for recreation or relaxation in the area."