ALL ABOUT THE LAKE

Koshkonong is a name of Indian origin, and there are many interpretations of the name. Historical records have it spelled “Kishkanon”, “Kushkawenong”, and Coscoenage”. It’s meaning varies from “what he kept for himself”, “the place where we shave”, “place for gulls”, “a sheltered place behind a windbreak”, and the most logical explanation, “the lake we live on”.

The Buckhorn is located on Charley’s Bluff. Charley’s Bluff was named after Alexander Charles Vieux, an early French settler and fur trader.

Indians have been in this area for many years. Paleo Indians inhabited the Koshkonong area as long as 12,000 years ago. Mound builders might have lived on the shores  of Lake Koshkonong as early as 2500 B.C. They were joined by the Winnebago, Potowatomi, Sauk, Fox and Menominee. The first white settlement on Lake Koshkonong appears to have been some fur traders at a place now known as Thiebeau’s Point, in the late 1700’s. Thiebeau’s Point, is the point of land you see to your right as you look out our windows at the lake.

Historical records reveal that in the fall, “wild rice literally covered the entire surface of Lake Koshkonong. It looked like a vast meadow. From far and near, the Indians depended largely on the rice the gathered for their winter food; and the ducks (no one can tell of half describe the varieties) came in millions and millions to feed upon the great field of rice of which the seemed so fond. They would land down all over the vast rice fields and feed on the unlimited quantity till they were fat from the delicious food. It was only a question of ammunition one would use. When a gun was fired, there followed a sight to behold. The noise of the gun would stir them up and they would rise out of this field of rice in such quantities that the roar was like distant thunder. The atmosphere overhead would be filled until the sun at times would be almost “darkened”.

The Indianford Dam, Which backs up the Rock River into Lake Koshkonong, was raised 6-7 feet in 1846. This rise in the level of the lake drowned much of the wild rice.