THE ROLE OF LOCAL BUILDING STONE IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HISTORIC LEAD-ZINC MINING DISTRICT OF SOUTHWEST WISCONSIN

The “lead region” of the upper Mississippi Valley was added to the United States by a treaty with the Sac and Fox in 1815. Miners arrived in large numbers in the 1820s and began to settle the region as they developed the shallow lead deposits. The first miners lived in log cabins and in “badger holes”, primitive roofed dugouts which ultimately gave Wisconsin the name Badger State.

As the area became settled, local Middle Ordovician carbonates of the Galena and Platteville Formations were quarried for building stone. Silurian carbonates and silicified Middle Ordovician St. Peter sandstone were also used locally. Many early buildings reflect the architectural styles familiar to the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, and Italian miners. Local stone was replaced by lumber, brick and imported stone in the late 19th century, but a large number of early stone houses, churches, and commercial buildings survive in southwest Wisconsin and adjacent areas of Illinois and Iowa.

The lead boom was essentially over by the end of the Civil War, and zinc mining finally ceased in 1979. There is little evidence of lead-zinc mining activity left in the region, and there is no significant dimension stone production today. We are fortunate to have a rich cultural history preserved in the stone architecture of the region.