The Painted Turtle Boutique is located in Edgerton, Wisconsin and situated where the mouth of the Rock River flows into a reservoir known as Lake Koshkonong (aka Lake Kosh). The Lake Koshkonong area was founded in the early 1800’s by the Potawatomi, the Fox, the Black Hawk, and the Winnebago Native American Tribes.
It is rumored the Winnebago Tribe were the first to give the lake her name and its meaning reflects “The Lake We Live On”. Many of these tribes used and worshiped the area for its bountiful provisions of food, abundance of hunting, and its absolute beauty. Although many have now been destroyed, there were nearly 500 effigy mounds constructed by the Winnebago’s during this era. There are still a few that remain today scattered along the Rock River, in Fort Atkinson Newville area, and located inside the Mallwood Subdivision.
The mounds were constructed and used to create foundations for their homes, but also in ceremonial religious purposes as sacred burial grounds. They were often shaped into clan symbols to offer protection to their families and were used as markers of their individual boundaries and territories from other tribes. The French; British settlers were some of the first to arrive into the area, but learned to live in harmony with the Native people. They made trade with them, shared in their peace pipe rituals, and were even allowed to take some of their Tribal women as their wives. The French British settlers were mostly only interested in the fur trade. However, when the US Govt. discovered the Lake Koshkonong area and the land around it, they were not so kind or civil to the Natives. As the land around the lake was extremely attractive. Surrounded by woodlands, it was beneficial for building materials and offered direct access to the Rock River. It was an invaluable source for transporting crops to other area ports located along the Mississippi River. They did not respect the boundaries or rituals of the Native people, and would stop at nothing until they took it all from them.
By the Spring of 1829 the lake was successfully succeeded to the US. All but for one tribe remained known as the Black Hawk. Black Hawk and his people lived along the Rock River, down by the Rock Island, IL area. Chief Black Hawk and his people had no desire to leave and had made several attempts to surrender to the US Army. When all but a few of his people were massacred in an attempt to cross the Mississippi River, they retreated up north, along the Rock River, and into to the Lake Koshkonong area. By the summer of 1832, only a small group of Natives belonging to the Black Hawks remained and lived in the area, where the camp resided. Black Hawk and his people desperately tried to protect their ever shrinking plot of land, their families, and defend their way of life passed down by their ancestors, but would eventually be driven out by the US Govt. Today, near the mouth of the lake, by the Newville area their is an island named in his honor – Black Hawk Island. To this day, Chief Black Hawk still has a strong presence throughout Southern Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Iowa with businesses, hiking trails, and national parks to honor him and his people.
(For more history info, see link below)