Old Military Road
The entrance to a section of the old Military Road can be traversed just behind the BP gas station across the street from FWSQ. Military Road was financed by Congressional action in 1832 and built by the US Army between 1835 and 1857. Remains of the road still in existence are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Military Road connected three forts: Fort Howard in Green Bay, Fort Winnebago here in Portage, and Fort Crawford near present-day Prairie du Chien. It started at Fort Howard and extended southward along the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago toward Fort Winnebago, and from there carried on southwest to Fort Crawford. Troops at Fort Winnebago constructed the section of the road between Poynette and Fond du Lac.
In the 1973 book The History of Wisconsin the road is described as "little more than a lane through the timber and a pathway over the prairie; with streams bridged and swamps ditched, the road was crude and often impassable, but it nevertheless filled the important objective of a way to communicate and transport supplies and men when the river system was frozen from east to west in the Wisconsin Territory." The cost of the initial construction of the 234-mile road was $12,000.
Military Road connected three forts: Fort Howard in Green Bay, Fort Winnebago here in Portage, and Fort Crawford near present-day Prairie du Chien. It started at Fort Howard and extended southward along the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago toward Fort Winnebago, and from there carried on southwest to Fort Crawford. Troops at Fort Winnebago constructed the section of the road between Poynette and Fond du Lac.
In the 1973 book The History of Wisconsin the road is described as "little more than a lane through the timber and a pathway over the prairie; with streams bridged and swamps ditched, the road was crude and often impassable, but it nevertheless filled the important objective of a way to communicate and transport supplies and men when the river system was frozen from east to west in the Wisconsin Territory." The cost of the initial construction of the 234-mile road was $12,000.
