Historical Significance:
Fort Winnebago Surgeons Quarters (FWSQ), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, overlooks the site where Louis Joliet and Father Marquette left the Fox River to portage to the Wisconsin River in 1673. The area of land connecting the waterway was called "wauona" by American Indians in the area, and "le portage" by the French.
The Surgeons Quarters was originally the home of Francois LeRoi, a Metai (half French and half American Indian), and was built between 1816 and 1819. The building is a French post and log construction made from tamarack logs. LeRoi operated a portaging and fur trading business between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers along the same waterway where US Army soldiers would later build Fort Winnebago in 1828.
In 1938 the Wisconsin Society Daughters of the American Revolution purchased the cabin (that would formally be called the "Surgeons Quarters"), as it was the only surviving building of Fort Winnebago. They worked with many groups to restore it to its original form using plans found in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Thus, Fort Winnebago Surgeons Quarters opened its doors as a historic tourist site in 1954. The cottage that houses the Heritage Gift Shop was later built in 1958.
Today visitors can enjoy touring the Surgeons Quarters which is stocked with many interesting period documents and artifacts, including: medical equipment, books, blacksmith items, clocks, corckery, whale oil lamps, glassware, early children's toys, and more. (Source: http://www.fortwinnebagosurgeonsquarters.org)
Form submitted by Wisconsin Society Daughters of the American Revolution orginally 2012 - updated Feb 27, 2018
