PRAIRIE DU CHIEN

This article appears in Volume V22, Page 251 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: POL-PRE

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN , a city and the county-seat of Crawford county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the east bank of the Mississippi river about 3 M. above the mouth of the Wisconsin, about 98 m. W. of Madison. Pop. (1890) 3131; (1900) 3232; (1905) 3179; (1910) 3149. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railways. The city has a fine location, its natural attractiveness and

mineral

MINERAL

springs in the vicinity combining to make it a summer and health resort. It has an excellent artesian water-

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

. Among its buildings are the Crawford county court-

house

, the city hospital and a sanatorium. It is the seat of St Mary's Academy (1872; R.C.) for young women, and the College of the Sacred Heart (1880; R.C.) for men. Among the manufactures are beer, wagons, wool, and pearl buttons, and the city is a centre of the fresh-water pearl fisheries along the Mississippi. Prairie du Chien is one of the most interesting places, historically, in Wisconsin. The first white man known to have visited the site was Father Hennepin in 1680; later in the same year the trader Du Lhut (or Duluth) was here. In 1685 Nicholas Perrot, the French commandant in the West, built Fort St Nicholas near the site of the present city. After the close of the French and Indian War, British authorities assumed possession, but no garrison was regularly maintained. In 17791780 Prairie du Chien was the scene of plots and counterplots of American and British sympathizers and of the activities of Godefrey Linctot, the agent of George Rogers

Clark

. About 178o--1781 a permanent settlement began to grow up around the post. Prairie du Chien was formally surrendered in 1796 to the United States authorities under the Jay treaty, and by them Fort Shelby was erected. On the 17th of July 1814 a force of British, Canadians and Indians under Major William McKay captured the fort, and renamed it Fort McKay, but abandoned it in May 1815. In 1816 Fort Crawford was erectedit was rebuilt on a different site in 1829and in 1820 one of the principal depots of the American Fur Company was established here. Here in 1823 Judge James Duane Doty (17991865) opened the first United States court in what is now the state of Wisconsin. At the time of the Red Bird rising in 1827,

Governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

Lewis Cass of Michigar
Territory made Prairie du Chien his temporary headquarters. During the Black Hawk War (1832) Zachary Taylor, then a lieutenant-colonel, was in command of Fort Crawford, and to him Black Hawk was entrusted after his capture. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railroad was completed to Prairie du Chien in 1857. The city was chartered in 1872.
PRAIRIE-MARMOT, a zoological emendation for the American name " prairie-dog," applied to a small North American rodent allied to the squirrels and marmots, and technically known as Cynomys ludovicianus (see MARMOT). In a great degree prairie-marmots, of which there are several species in North America, ranging as far south as

Mexico

, are intermediate between marmots and sousliks (see SousLix), having the cheek-pouches much smaller than in the latter, and the first front-toe, which is rudimentary in marmots and sousliks, well developed. The cheek-teeth are more complex than those of marmots, and the two

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

converge behind. In their slender build and small size, prairie-marmots are much more like sousliks than marmots. In habits these rodents are very like marmots, the typical species inhabiting the open prairies, while the others are found in mountains. The prairie species (C. ludovicianus) makes a raised, funnel-shaped entrance to its burrow. All feed on the roots of grass; and when disturbed, like marmots, utter a whistling cry. Rattlesnakes, owls and weasels are commonly found in the burrows; but 'their presence is no indication of the existence of a kind of " happy family " arrangement, the

snakes

SNAKES

, at any rate, preying on the young marmots. The hibernation of these rodents is only partial, and confined to seasons of intense cold. (See RODENTIA.)

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