Martin Torkelson, born in Jackson County, served the State of Wisconsin for more than fifty years. He was a pioneer in the development for both land and air transportation. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1904, Torkelson worked for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural history Survey, which was the forerunner to the State Highway Commission. His recommendations to the legislature in 1917 led to wisconsin being the first state to set up a numbering system for its highways. Torkelson's work was not restricted to highway improvement. As Secretary and Executive Officer of the Wisconsin State Park and Planning Board, he published a recreational plan in 1939 to set aside land for public enjoyment. His report on airport development, published in 1945, provided the foundation on which the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has continued to build. Torkelson believed that adequate transportation was vital to commerce and that neither agriculture nor industry could flourish without it.

This large isolated hill is a famous site where prehistoric Indians gathered to quarry a particularly attractive quartzite for the manufacture of chipped stone tools. Several aboriginal quarries are scattered along the rimrock of this mound. Thousands of tons of waste rock from these pits indicated that quarrying was carried on selectively over many centuries. Fields surrounding this mound are littered with quartzite fragments and flakes which accumulated during the process of making and shaping trade blanks for transportation to outlying areas. Stone spearpoints, knives, and scrapers made from this colorful material have a wide distribution throughout Wisconsin and portions of nearby states. It is known that the earliest Indians who migrated into the midwest, perhaps 10-12,000 years ago, made many spearpoints and knives from rock quarried here; thus the site is one of Wisconsin's oldest archeological monuments. History relates that the first white explorers mistakenly thought that the Indians were mining silver. Hence the name "Silver Mound."

Mushy sections of Jackson, Monroe, Wood and Clark counties produce large quantities of Sphagnum moss, providing a major but little known state resource. The ability of Sphagnum to hold 20 times its weight in water makes it invaluable for keeping plants and nursery stock alive in shipment. It is also used in hydroponic gardening, for air shipment of flowers, and because it is sterile it is used in surgical dressings and in seed germination to prevent fungus attack in seeds. Sphagnum replaces itself in the central wetland marshes after harvest and is ready to be pulled again every three years. Harvest seasons run from spring until marshes freeze in the fall. Over 300,000 bales are pulled annually for shipment all over the world. No other state produces Sphagnum commercially.

White pine trees were growing here when Columbus made his voyage to America. In 1819 the first attempts to saw lumber were unsuccessful, but in 1839 Jacob Spaulding founded Black River Falls by erecting the first permanent sawmill and setlement on the Black River. This valley contained the largest pine trees, some of them up to six feet across at ground level, and the most pine trees per township in the state. Before logging ended in 1905, more than fifty sawmills had been in operation in Jackson County. Accurate records kept over a period of forty years reveal that enough lumber was sawed to have built a plank road nine feet wide and four inches thick around the world. Iron ore was smelted at Black River Falls in 1856 and again in 1886, but the old process proved to expensive and was abandoned. The Jackson County Iron Company, a subsidiary of Inland Steel, built a modern processing plant in 1969 that ships 2800 tons of taconite pellets every day of the year to its blast furnaces in Indiana. The mine buildings and open pit mine are visible from the overlook on top of this scenic Bell Mound.

Wisconsin Vietnam beterans provided leadership for the establishment of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of the state who served America's 20th century conflicts. In 1985, the Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project acquired property near Neillsville, northeast of here. The site contains a strikingly beautiful elevated panoramic vista overlooking 500,000 acres of countryside. The site was soon dubbed "The Highground" by the veterans. During 1987, the veterans successfully attracted donations to support improvements and transformed The Highground into a memorial park. A national competition led to the choosing of Robert Kanyusik of Rhinelander as artistic designer. A Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1988 along with The Highground park. The memorial plaza and the associated art works evoke a sense of healing and hope. The Highground is designed to recognize the experiences of Wisconsin veterans and serves as a reminder of their sacrifices.

Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his courageous action in battle between U.S. troops and Chinese Communists near Chonghyon, Korea, Nov. 5, 1950. Red Cloud's Company was entrenched beside Hill 123. Early in the morning a large enemy force bore down upon them. Red Cloud shouted a warning and started shooting. In the exchange fire, he was wounded, but dragged himself up and, supporting himself by a tree, continued firing and gave his company time to reorganize before he was killed. Red Cloud was one of Carlson's Raiders in World War II, and was descended from a family of warriors. Chief Winneshiek, his grandfather, with others of his tribe, refused to be resettled in Nebraska and returned to this region. This marker is near Red Cloud's birthplace and adjoins the site of Winnebago powwow grounds. To the northwest 1.5 miles is the Indian Mission and Old Decorah Cemetery, where he is buried.

Huge flocks of passenger pigeons once roamed North America. Larger than the mourning dove which it resembled, the passenger pigeon derived its name from an Indian word meaning "wanderer" or one who moves from place to place. Flying at a normal speed of sixty miles per hour, the pigeon moved hundreds of miles in migration and 50 - 100 miles a day during the nesting season, searching for food. The largest nesting on record anywhere occurred in this area in 1871. The nesting ground covered 850 square miles with an estimated 136 million pigeons. John Muir described the passenger pigeons in flight. "I have seen flocks streaming south in the fall so large that they were flowing from horizon to horizon in an almost continuous stream all day long." Many reasons have been given for the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Each year millions were trapped, clubbed or shot for food and pleasure. The last known passenger pigeon died in a Cinncinnati zoo in 1914.