History of the area:
Surface deposits of lead, zinc, and copper ore led Native Americans to begin mining in southwestern Wisconsin thousands of years before European settlement. As early as 1827, when Michigan Territory still encompassed the region, frontier lead mining began in earnest. Early prospectors continued digging for ore embedded near the surface in the cracks and crevices of limestone bedrock. But beginning in the early 1830s immigrant miners from Cornwall, hardened by years of experience extracting ore deep beneath the surface, began sinking shafts deep into the hillsides in search of rich underground lodes
Cornish miners heard the call all the way across the Atlantic as word spread of a lead strike in the hills of Wisconsin Territory. Leaving Cornwall in the 1830s and '40s, they put down stakes half a world away in Mineral Point – an apt name for a lead-mining boom town. Skilled in using blasting powder as well as mining tools, they took up where earlier miners left off, following rich lead lodes deep underground.
Though a restored prairie now covers much of the original mine hill, it still bears telltale signs of those times, from remnants of abandoned mines to "badger holes" dug in haste for surface ore and shelter – and whence Wisconsin derives its nickname, the "Badger State."
Enjoy!
~The Lil Otter
source:Wisconsin History website