Editor’s Note: The first installment of Menominee Range Memories, a series of articles by William J. Cummings, Menominee Range Historical Foundation historian, focuses on the Badwater Indian Village. Full stories will be available on the Dickinson County Library’s website.

IRON?MOUNTAIN?-Located in the SW 1/4 of Section 29, T41N of R30W on the Menominee River, Captain Thomas Jefferson Cram’s report verifies the Badwater Indian village’s existence in 1840, but how much earlier a Native American settlement was located at this point is unknown.

The inhabitants were part of the Ojibwe tribe, often referred to by English writers or speakers as Ojibwa or Chippewa. Capt. Cram’s description from his field notes includes his impression of the Badwater Indian village.

This 7-page initial installment of Menominee Range Memories also contains firsthand descriptions of 1867 visits by Dr. Raphael, the famed German explorer, and F.W. Hyde, another early explorer from Wisconsin.

An excerpt dated May 23, 1879, from pioneer Iron Mountain druggist George Frederick Seibert’s journal includes a detailed description of how a wigwam he inspected on his visit was constructed.

Reports regarding activities at the Badwater Indian Village or its residents appeared sporadically in the columns of contemporary newspapers. A number of early reports found in The Florence Mining News and the Iron Mountain Press between 1884 and 1910 provide insight into the village and its inhabitants.

Today’s reader needs to be mindful of the attitudes of many area residents at the time these articles were written and the frank editorial comments often inserted in these contemporary newspaper articles which would no longer be acceptable.

Read the rest of this story on the Dickinson County Library’s website (www.dcl-lib.org). Regular installments will be added to the library’s website and on the library’s local history research computer.