Kakaling

Kakaling named the rapids and canoe portage at present-day Kaukauna on Wisconsin's Fox River. Early descriptions sometimes extended the name to the river itself, but the difficult passage was its particular geographical reference. Rocks, swift water and falls forced travellers to carry canoes and cargo around obstacles, making this a significant point on the water route through the region. Menominee people maintained a substantial village here. French traders Charles de Langlade and Pierre Grignon established a semi-permanent post nearby in the 1760s, and Dominique Ducharme built a trading house at Cacalin in 1790. His land purchase in 1793 became Wisconsin's earliest known recorded deed. Augustin Grignon moved here in 1813 and acted as an interpreter in trade and treaty negotiations. The 1836 Treaty of the Cedars, by which the Menominee ceded millions of acres, opened the surrounding country to broader American settlement. At the end of this period, a place shaped by Indigenous river travel and the fur trade was entering a different landholding economy.