Old Council Tree

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"A very remarkable instance of this kind of tree, Council Tree was the so-called "Treaty Elm" that stood at the extremity of the point of land jutting into Lake Winnebago from the inlet of the Fox River, now a part of Riverside Park at Neenah. This elm was of immense size and girth, and was used as a guide by steemer pilots on Lake Winnebago. It was under this elm that the famous colloquy between the Minnebago chief, Four Legs, and Col. Henry Leavenworth is supposed to have occurred, probably in the year 1819. The incident is thus related by Col. Thomas H. McKenney: "When Gen. Leavenworth, some years previous to 1827, was ascending the Fox River with troops, on his way to the Mississippi, on arriving at this pass Four Legs came out, dressed in all his gewgaws and feathers, and painted after the most approved fashion, and announced to the General that he could not go through; 'the Lake,' said he, 'is locked.'" "'Tell him,' said the General, rising in his batteau, with a rifle in his hand, 'that THIS IS THE KEY, and I shall unlock it and go on.'" "'The chief had a good deal of the better part of valor in his composition, and so he replied, 'Very well, tell him he can go.'" "The Neenah Council Tree stood until 1890 when in widening the channel of the river it became necessary to cut it down. A good photograph of this elm is in the musem of the State Historical Society, and a slab from its wood forms a large table top in the old log cabin of Governor Doty, which is preserved at Neenah as a relic of olden times."