Name/Title
Histories, History of WaupunDescription
History of Waupun: Unknown author, unknown date (after 1971). Page 1.
Did you know that you are residing in Madrid--or even Waubun? 'Tis true. Waupun's founder, Seymour Wilcox first named our city Madrid after his native New York village, but James Duane Doty, Wisconsin Congressional delegate, named the Post Office Waubun. The surveyors were careless in their spelling and when the official papers returned from Washington, D. C., the name was "Waupun."
The Indian legend of our city's name is intriguing. Waupun, or "Waubun" means the rising sun in the east, or dawn.
Waubun was the son of Mudjekeequris. The legend tells that Waubun "was young and beautiful, and when he came from east in the morning, his breath was fresh with the perfume of flowers and he painted the sky with streaks of crimson and gold. Waubun woke the deer and called the hunters and chased the dark over the hill and valley.
"Waubun was lonely in the sky and although the birds sang to him and the rivers and forests shouted at his coming, he longed for a friend to be with him always. One day when a fog lay on the river, he looked towards the earth and saw a slender maiden walking alone, along the meadow. She was gathering water flags and bulrushes which grew along the margin of the river and he eyes were as blue as two blue lakes. Waubun loved the graceful maiden for she was alone on the earth and he was alone in the heaven, so he drew her to his bosom and changed her into a beautiful star and they are still found together in the easterly sky, Waubun and Waubun Annung, the east wind and the morning star."
As we look back into the history of Waupun, it is only fitting that we delve into the history of our streets -- and farther back, into the wilderness that became Waupun."
Briefly, from 1673 on for about 150 years, the Fox-Wisconsin waterway was Wisconsin's only traveled highway from east to west--our state's first Main Street. It was in 1673 that Marquette and Joliet set forth on it to find the Mississippi River.