Note I-53 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

This is not very definite—perhaps Pike forgot to wind up his watch after the Sioux affair. But we shall be about right to set him down at Brownsville, Houston Co., Minn.; this is below Root r., which he passes to-morrow, and within convenient reach of the place, 3 m. beyond La Crosse, to which he comes on that rainy day. Starting from the State line, as already said, he first rounds Bad Axe bend, at the mouth of Bad Axe r., and then comes to the town of Genoa, 8¼ m. above Victoria. Genoa used to be called Bad Axe; but they do not seem to have fancied the name, or perhaps the Victorians crowed over them, and told them stories about George Washington and his little hatchet, so it was changed. Bad Axe r. is also found with the F. name Mauvaise Hache: e. g., Beltrami, II. p. 178. A mile above Genoa the river divides in two courses, inclosing an irregularly oval cluster of islands 6½ m. long; that on the Minnesota side is Raft channel, which runs part of the way under bluffs; the one on the Wisconsin side, which is or was lately the steamboat way, is Coon, Raccoon, or Racoon slough, with a creek of these names coming in about its middle, 3 and 2 m. above Britt's and Warner's ldgs., respectively. The hills are some miles back on this side, with a break where Coon cr. comes in, and so continue all the way to Prairie La Crosse. Brownsville is at the mouth of Wild Cat cr., 1½ m. above the place where the two courses of the river reunite, or rather begin to separate; and this town is 21 m. by the river-channel above Victoria—for Coon slough is very crooked. Britt's ldg. became the site of a place called Bergen; and one by the name of Stoddard is on the slough a little above Coon cr., about opp. Brownsville. The Wisconsin county line between Vernon and La Crosse comes to the river between Stoddard and Mormon creeks.