The Trempealeau County Virtual Museum
Welcome to the Trempealeau County virtual museum. Trempealeau County is located in west central Wisconsin and was created in 1854 by using land from both Buffalo and Jackson County. George Gale was instrumental in maneuvering the formation of Trempealeau County.
The name, Trempealeau, (pronounced Tremp-a-low) derives from a French phrase for "mountain in the water". Trempealeau Mountain is just that - a bluff totally surrounded by the waters of the Mississippi, the Pine and the Trempealeau River. This island bluff was a well known land mark for early explorers and travelers on the Mississippi.
To learn more about the County of Trempealeau and it's ancestors, go to our website at
www.trempealeaucountymuseum.com.
"Whistler Pass is one of the remarkable geographical formations of the
ReplyDeletecounty. The winds from the northwest sweep through it with great force,
and with a whistling sound that has caused many to make an incorrect guess
as to the origin of the name. It has been said that Selfus Spain, an early
settler of Cross Township, in Buffalo County, and later a resident of Foun-
tain City, gave the name. He and his family crossed the pass in 1856,
having to chain all the wheels to get his wagon down the bluff. He camped
at the foot of the bluff on the north side, and during the night noted the
moaning and whistling of the wind in the depression of the hill over which
he had just passed. However, the name of Whistler's Pass had been given
some time previous. Reese Whistler had filed on a claim in section 14 in
1853, but so far as is known did not then settle there. In 1855 Martin
Whistler settled in Pine Creek Valley and opened a trail over the hills into
a branch of Tamarack Valley to meet the road leading to Trempealeau, his
market-place. This trail became the main road into the upper part of
Pine Creek Valley and later was the main road from Trempealeau to
Arcadia. The portion over the divide toward Whistler's place was known
as Whistler's Pass. Ichabod Wood, also an Englishman, came and settled
near Whistler within about a year. Of the unusual scenery in this vicinity
Dr. Pierce has said : 'Last August we drove up the west side of Tamarack
Valley and over Whistler's Pass. It was a lovely day, cool and refreshing,
and breezy, and the farmers were busy in the spreadiflg harvest fields cut-
ting grain. From Whistler's Pass it was a beautiful sight down the Tama-
rack, and off on Trempealeau Prairie. Field after field of yellow grain
spread out over the country and here and there the grain was shocked. On
the stubble fields the red wild buckwheat showed its gaudy color. Far
across the prairie the Trempealeau bluffs loomed green against the blue
sky. Then we turned and on the other side of the Pass, in Pine Creek
Valley, a new panorama opened to view with broad fields of golden grain
and green meadow lands. What scenes one encounters along the country
road, among our cozy Wisconsin hills in the summer time. Strange-shaped
bluffs peering down with their green slopes adorned with grazing herds of
cattle, rocky peaks with their white limestone, and then the little valleys,
the woodland haunts and waving grain and rustling cornfields.'"
Curtiss-Wedge, Franklin. 1917. "History of Trempeaeau County, Wisconin." Edited by Eben Douglas Pierce. Chicago, Winona: H.C. Cooper, Jr., & Co..