HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
An early map of Wisconsin made by French explorers identifies this property as one of the larger and more important trading posts in the 1700s and early 1800s. It was a busy center of Native American life during this time. The trading post was established here because of the large spring on the property and its close proximity to one of the main trails in the area–later known as the Green Bay Portage Trail (or the Butte des Morts trail)–which ran from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago at Portage.
The trading post was named after James Powell, a trader who took the post over from the French sometime after the Revolution. Powell became the first European settler to occupy the land around 1833 and had a cabin on the property around 1835 when the township was surveyed. Powell was here a number of years prior to Anson Dart, the founder of Dartford (later named Green Lake). The post was abandoned around 1838, after most of the Native Americans had relocated west of the Mississippi and land speculators had arrived, purchasing the land through the government office in Green Bay.
NATURAL RESOURCE
Powell Spring is a critical natural resource for supplying water to Green Lake. It is among the largest natural groundwater springs in the area. The spring discharges from a fractured rock aquifer, so the quality of water it produces is representative of groundwater quality in the entire catchment. Recharging of the aquifer occurs at points near and far from the spring. Because it is an oxygenated coldwater spring, it was once a source for Green Lake’s native trout and is still very important to its coldwater fish population.
Powell Spring is the headwater and primary water source to White Creek, a major tributary flowing into Green Lake. This property creates a natural funnel of agricultural land to the lake so it is crucial for monitoring phosphorus loading (and subsequent weed growth) into the lake. As a Conservancy property we will be able to better monitor the spring’s water quality and work with our lake management partners on conservation practices to improve water quality downstream.