The ground you will walk was once, and still is by many, considered Sacred by the Ojibway. Tread lightly and treat the area with RESPECT. And please leave the area looking nicer than when you got there.
In the Blue Hills of Western Wisconsin lies a legendary quarry where the ancient Ojibway extracted the soft red stone from which they formed the peace pipe. A finely grained stone running from a rich red to purple in color, pipestone is soft and easily carved once fresh from the earth. Once exposed to the air for a period of time, it turns rock hard. According to legend, pipestone is said to be stained red by the blood of the Creator himself.
The Blue Hills pipestone quarry is on the National Register of Historic places. Noone knows when this quarry, a humble pit in the side of a hill and about as deep as a person is tall, was first tapped for it's stone, but pipestone from the Blue Hills has been in use since 3000 BC. North America has very few pipestone quarries. There is the famous monument in Minnesota and one near Lac Courte Oreille in WI, but few others and all are considered sacred. Located about 50 ft. from the quarry is a small circular area where the trees don't grow; only some brush and a few saplings are beginning to emerge. Known as the "peace circle", supposedly many generations of moccasined feet of the ancient indians padded the ground during a ceremony that would be performed here. After many centuries, the vegetation is now just beginning to grow on this trampled piece of land again.
On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
Gitche Manito(u) the mighty,
he the Master of Life descended,
on the red crag of the quarry.
This is a verse from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha". Many believe, including the Walt Disney Co. who inquired about the site back in 1948 while planning an animated film about Hiawatha, that the Blue Hills pipestone quarry was the site referenced in Longfellow's epic poem. The Chamber of Commerce was skeptical but the studio reps. were convinced along with many others who studied the Song of Hiawatha. Whether it was this site or the one at Pipestone, MN we will never know but it's fun to think about an area right in our own backyard with so much history!
This site near Rice Lake is not easy to find. It is not overly publicized or advertised and is kept rather hush hush for various reasons. It is listed as being on private property on the National Registry of Historic Places even though it is on public property and directions to the quarry are purposely vague, and for good reason. The site is vulnerable to theft and vandalism and the theory is that the fewer people who know about it, the less the threat to vandalism there will be. Again, please be respectful while searching for the cache. Finally, I will add a quote from an Ojibway elder in reference to the quarry near Lac Courte Oreille; "We ask that you go there with good thoughts and memories of our ancestors, and that you would respect this land as you would any other church or spiritual place. Do not visit these sacred grounds with a bad heart."
Information from Wisconsin West magazine and Rice lake Chamber of Commerce.