Tiger Cape
Mystery on the Upper Mississippi
A low but sturdy prominence on the outer bank of a major turn on the Upper Mississippi River, directly across from towering bluffs of the Paleozoic Plateau. This Prairie La Crosse landmark — Tiger Cape — was noted during a trip up-river in June of 1836 by French “topographical engineer” Joseph N. Nicollet. A map created from Nicollet’s astronomical and barometrical observations was completed after Nicollet’s death in 1843 and published by order of the U.S. Senate. Tiger Cape is one of several landmark names on Nicollet’s map which have passed into obscurity.
Tiger Cape lies on the western shore of the Mississippi, across from the mouth of the Hokah R. (Root R.), just above Racoon R. and below Prairie a la Crosse R. and the three mouths of the Sappah or Black R.: Old Mouth, Broken Gun Chan., and New Mouth. Above Sappah or Black R. is Mountain Island R. with its titular prominence unnamed but drawn as a circular landmark embosomed by the Mississippi.
Along this stretch — below Lake Pepin from Buffalo R. to Prairie a la Crosse R. — the Mississippi courses on a southeasterly flow. Across the channel from the Old Mouth of Sappah or Black R. an elevation is noted at 1214 feet above sea level; this may be what today is called Queen’s Bluff, a half-dome prominence reaching nearly 600 feet from river to ridge. At Tiger Cape the river turns to flow due south, past Racoon R. and Bad Axe R., where The Battle of Bad Axe site is marked. On the western shore, below the central fold of the original map, the Upper Iowa River meets the Mississippi above Cape Winnebago C. and Cap a’ Lait C. Here, the bluffs are noted as 1013 feet above sea level.
The “where” of Tiger Cape is easier than the “what.” Geographically, the location seems to align with the lower end of present-day Isle la Plume and near a bay noted on some digital maps as a Northern Pike hotspot. But what is Tiger Cape? I have asked around (and asked knowledgeable friends to ask knowledgeable friends) but, so far, no one knows.
One suggestion, given its proximity to the fishing hotspot, is that Tiger Cape may have been a notable location to find what today are called Tiger Muskie, the sterile hybrid of Northern Pike and Muskellunge. But this is pure speculation. The answer may hide in the Martha C. & Edmund Bray papers, housed at the Minnesota Historical Society. Martha Coleman Bray published The Journals of Joseph N. Nicollet: A Scientist on the Mississippi Headwaters with Notes on Indian Life, 1836–37 in 1970 and translated many of Nicollet’s notes from French to English.
While place names of old may fade into obscurity, they can offer insights into the complex dynamics of settler incursion into the Upper Midwest and subsequent erasure of older names and meanings. Tiger Cape is just one of many examples. Have a clue to solve this mystery? Drop me a line! Have another place name you are curious to know more about? Let’s talk!
— Originally published in Ocooch Mountain Echo, Vol. 5, Spring 2023.
