It is fall, so it is time for the popular event sponsored by the Prairie du Chien Historical Society. Visiting Our Ancestors is a tour of Prairie du Chien’s six historic cemeteries.
On Saturday, Oct. 1, there will be a guided tour of Prairie du Chien’s six historic cemeteries, beginning at 1 p.m. at the Fort Crawford Museum. All will gather at the museum, then board vans to travel to the cemeteries, beginning with the Old French Cemetery and ending at the Brisbois Cemetery high above on the bluffs. At each cemetery, the costumed host of the tour will give a short history of the burying grounds and then she will introduce the resident.
The French Catholic Cemetery is the oldest cemetery still in existence in the state of Wisconsin and may be the oldest cemetery in the upper Mississippi Valley. Few of the graves are marked but much is known about the people who are buried there, beginning in 1816.