Note VII-9 — Chapter VII · GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VII-1]

Formerly Lac des Puans or des Puants, Stinkers' l., etc. This is the large body of water in Winnebago, Calumet, and Fond Du Lac cos., 35 m. long, 9 to 14 m. wide, and 12 to 25 feet deep, thus being an extensive overflow of Fox r., which enters at Oshkosh, Winnebago Co., about the middle of the W. side of the lake, and leaves by Neenah and Menasha, at the N. W. corner. The distance between these points, which was the usual canoe traverse, is 15½ m. There is a small island in this distance, known by the name of Garlic, which Featherstonhaugh calls Hotwater, from a droll incident he describes, I. p. 174. The Puant village which Dickson mentions as being at the upper end of the lake was at or near present Fond Du Lac, the county seat, and one of well known places in Wisconsin. Dickson's midway "Fols Avoine" village was the Menomonee settlement on the E. side of the lake, in Calumet Co. (Stockbridge and Brotherton Res.). Lake Winnebago conveniently divides Fox r. into the Upper Fox, which runs into it, and the Lower Fox, which runs out of it into Green bay; it also acts as a sort of reservoir or regulator to prevent freshets in the Lower Fox. The western shore is now skirted with railroads all the way from Menasha to Fond du Lac, and various towns are strung along this distance. Just before Fox r. falls in, it suffers dilatation into what was and is still called Lac Butte des Morts, the head of which is about 7 m. from Oshkosh; town of the same cheerful name there now. In this vicinity Loup or Wolf r. falls into the Upper Fox, after passing through an expansion known by some such perversions of the Chippewa name as Pawmaygun, Pauwaicun, Poygan, etc.