Sinsinawa is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Grant County, Wisconsin

Grant County, Wisconsin

Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 49,597. Its county seat is Lancaster. Estimates for 2008 show a population of 49,238...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The community is in the Town of Jamestown

Jamestown, Wisconsin

Jamestown is a town in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,077 at the 2000 census. The census-designated places of Kieler and Sandy Hook and the unincorporated communities of Fair Play, Louisburg, and Rutledge are located within the town; The unincorporated community of...

, and the Town of Hazel Green

Hazel Green (town), Wisconsin

Hazel Green is a town in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,043 at the 2000 census. The Village of Hazel Green is located partially within the town. The unincorporated community of Prairie Corners is located in the town...

, one mile north of the border with Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. The community is 7.5 miles east of Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

 and 6.5 miles west of the village of Hazel Green, Wisconsin

Hazel Green, Wisconsin

Hazel Green is a village in Grant and Lafayette Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,183 at the 2000 census. The village is located mostly within the Town of Hazel Green in Grant County; only a small portion extends into the Town of Benton in Lafayette...

. The town is best known for being the mother house of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters

Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters

Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Order of Preachers is a Catholic religious order for women. The mother house is located in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin in the Diocese of Madison.-Overview:...

.

History

The community's name means either "rattlesnake

Rattlesnake

Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...

" or "Home of the Young Eagle

Eagle

Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...

" in Sioux

Sioux language

Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit and Ojibwe.-Regional variation:...

. The first white settler in the area was George Wallace Jones

George W. Jones

George Wallace Jones , a frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first two United States Senators to represent the state of Iowa after it was admitted to the Union in 1846...

, who purchased land for a lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 smelter in 1827. He soon sold the land to Samuel Mazzuchelli, who subsequently built a men's college in 1846. Mazzuchelli founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters in 1847. This religious order founded a women's college and high school in Sinsinawa in 1865.

Sinsinawa Mound

Sinsinawa Mound is a cone-shaped hill in the area, from which the area gets its name. Sinsinawa Creek runs along the hill south towards the Fever River in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

The Sinsinawa Mound raid

Sinsinawa Mound raid

The Sinsinawa Mound raid occurred on June 29, 1832, near the Sinsinawa mining settlement in Michigan Territory . This incident, part of the Black Hawk War, resulted in the deaths of two men; a third man survived by seeking cover in a nearby blockhouse. In the aftermath of the raid, Captain James W...

 of June 29, 1832, part of the Black Hawk War

Black Hawk War

The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....

, took place near Sinsinawa Mound.

External links

• Sinsinawa, the word Sinsinawa and Sinsinawa Mound from the Dictionary of Wisconsin History, published by the Wisconsin State Historical Society