City of the Four Lakes

A platted “paper city” that competed to be the capital for the Wisconsin Territory in 1836. It attracted considerable attention because of its location adjacent to the military road connecting Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) and Fort Winnebago (Portage). It lost out to James Doty’s Madison plat, and later lost the bid to become home to the territorial university. Although it had a trading post and post office, it never developed into a city and reverted to farmland in 1843.