Living history buffs can imagine themselves walking the same paths as the early settlers by taking a trip to Heritage Hill State Historical Park. This 50-acre living history park is beautifully nestled on the banks of the Fox River. Visitors are invited to explore the church, the farm and 23 other historic buildings representing four centuries (1600s to 1900s) of Northeastern Wisconsin’s rich heritage. Costumed guides throughout the park assist visitors in fun, like making butter at the farm, or designing an 1872 calendar in the print shop.
Fur Trade history is shared at the park with information about how the locaiton between the Mississippi and the Saint Lawrence Rivers made “LaBaye” a logical place for a fur trader to settle down. By the 1720’s bands of voyageur canoes set out each spring from Quebec, the capital of New France, bound for the Northwest with a cargo of French trade goods. Iron pots, axe heads, knives, needles, mirrors, and other metal goods were popular with the woodland tribes who had only used wooden and bone implements. Flintlock muskets, gunpowder, and shot helped to hunt animals for food, while Indians snared the fur bearing animals whose pelts made fine felt hats back in France. A trader at LaBaye could exchange last year’s cargo of metal, guns, cloth fabric, and blankets for a boatload of fine furs which he would take to the “rendezvous” at Mackinac. There in early summer traders from the great Lakes would meet the Montreal brigades who would take their furs back to Quebec in exchange for another winter’s worth of trade goods. The French fur traders were reliant on the native groups for food, a trade route, hunting grounds, pelts, and companionship. Out of this companionship grew the Meétis culture, a mingling of French fur traders and the Indian culture.
There is a cabin for you to see from circa 1800. This cabin was actually discovered when a house was being torn down in order to construct the Tilleman Bridge. It is constructed in the French style of piece-on-piece, meaning one log upon the other. There are grooved upright logs set in the ground at the corners, dorrs, and windows. The cracks are chinked to give it a tight fit.
Location: 2640 South Webster Ave., Green Bay Wisconsin 54301
Phone: 920-448-5150 (office hours are Monday – Friday 8 AM – 4:30 PM)
Email: info@heritagehillgb.org