This week in Portage
Nothing on Portage’s calendar for the next two weeks yet.
About Portage
Portage grew up on a narrow strip of marshy land between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, where people carried their canoes from one river to the other; the French called it 'le portage', from the word for carry. Marquette and Jolliet crossed here in 1673, a trader named Laurent Barth set up the first post in 1792, and the Army built Fort Winnebago at the Fox River end in 1828. The town became the county seat in 1851 and a city in 1854, and a canal was later dug to join the two rivers. Today families walk the paved path along the old Portage Canal, which is part of the Ice Age Trail, hunt for painted canoes around town, and swim at Silver Lake Beach in summer.