Lake Park, Hwy. 151, 0.9 mi W of I-43, just W of Manitowoc, Manitowoc County

Many modern highways follow routes marked out long ago by Indian people. The Winnebago Trail across central Wisconsin became the general course of Highways 151 from Manitowoc to Fond du Lac, 45 from Fond du Lac to Oshkosh, 21 from Oshkosh to Sparta, and 16 from Sparta to La Crosse. When European contact occurred in the first half of the 1600s, the Winnebago [Ho-Chunk] had their permanent village and garden area in the Green Bay to Lake Winnebago region, ranging out seasonally to hunt and gather wild produce. In response to the fur trade, they extended their territorial claims and established villages throughout western Wisconsin as far north as the headwaters of the Black River and south along the Rock River nearly to its mouth on the Mississippi in Illinois. On occasion they crossed the Mississippi to hunt. Over 3,000 Winnebago people still reside in their old territory in Wisconsin.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]