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Article: Sauk Prairie
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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SAUK PRAIRIE
SAUK PRAIRIE.
A broad, fertile region of central Wisconsin, Sauk Prairie is found along the north banks of the lower Wisconsin River. The combination of its geology, climate, and Native American field burning created fourteen thousand acres of prairie and oak savanna at the time of European arrival to the region beginning in the 1670s.
The name originates with the Sac tribe, who moved into the region in the eighteenth century, pushed by war, disease, and other conflicts farther east. They shared Sauk Prairie with the Ho Chunk tribe (formerly known as the Winnebagos). The New England writer and explorer Jonathan Carver noted a large Sac village when he traveled down the ...