I love history, genealogy and cemetery exploration for memorials and fading headstones.
The tree in the photo is a Burr Oak called the Half-Way Tree that was paced off by Native American runners as the half way point between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. It is located on old Highway 81 near Brodhead, WI. My ancestor William Rice lived very near this tree and died in 1857.

In about 1861 some Native Americans that were traveling along this route spoke with a local farmer and told him to never cut down this tree because it marked the midpoint for their journey. So they never did.

Surveys of the tree's location in relationship to it's distance between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan confirms that it does indeed lie very close to the midpoint between these two bodies of water.

I love history, genealogy and cemetery exploration for memorials and fading headstones.
The tree in the photo is a Burr Oak called the Half-Way Tree that was paced off by Native American runners as the half way point between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. It is located on old Highway 81 near Brodhead, WI. My ancestor William Rice lived very near this tree and died in 1857.

In about 1861 some Native Americans that were traveling along this route spoke with a local farmer and told him to never cut down this tree because it marked the midpoint for their journey. So they never did.

Surveys of the tree's location in relationship to it's distance between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan confirms that it does indeed lie very close to the midpoint between these two bodies of water.