Bad Axe Site Administration

[Mike Thorson]

Is the Bad Axe site administered by the U.S> Army Corps of Engineers or by a state egency??

[[e-mail]]

I believe the site is administered by the Corps of Engineers. I say this only because the majority of the site is occupied by a camp ground park for R.V.s and such that, as according to the signs, was set up by the Corps of Engineers.

Two years ago, I was on a road trip looking at BHW sites, mostly following the old series of marble markers, the same ones updated by the State Historical Sociey. When I came upon Bad Axe, I discovered the park.

To say that my visit was surreal is an understatement. I visited the park in July, at the height of the tourist season. As I drove through the camp ground, I saw hundreds of happy campers enjoying a lovely if not humid afternoon. When I reached the bank of the Mississippi, deep inside the park, I found the well worn whte marker noting the site of Battle Island and detailing the horrifying chaos of the the battle. I heard the screams and sound of people thrashing in the water.

Then I looked up.

About 50 yars away the park had established a beach. The very site where the Sauk Fox were driven into the water is now a place where people can enjoy the cool back waters of the mighty Mississippi. It was apparent to me that no one there outside myself even had a clue as to what happened on the very site they were playing.

I suppose one could look at the site in a more philosophic light. Is it or is it not fitting that a place like Bad Axe, a place where truely horrifying events took place, is now a place where people come and relax and enjoy the outdoors?

I don't know.

In any event I did not mean to ramble on like this. In answer to your question I think the Corps of Engineers runs the place. But I  may be wrong.  

Pete

[Robert Braun]

Indeed, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has jursidiction over the waterways portion of the site.

www.mvp.usace.army.mil/project_info/blackhawk_park/


Other lands like Battle Hollow, and the generall approaches to the beach areas used by the British Band and later by Atkinson's troops are nearly all in private hands.