Mornin' and safe travels to everyone spending time with family and friends today! This is the Wiscampsin Weekly - the email that gets you in the know on the Wisconsin outdoors in 5 minutes or less. New reader? Subscribe here.

This week’s weekly:

• The first WI Thanksgiving 🦃 

• Bowhunter kills cougar 🐈

• Successful elk season 👍

Wisconsin's First Thanksgiving

Everyone is pretty familiar with the story of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth Rock and feasting with the Wampanoags in 1621 - the origin story of the modern-day Thanksgiving we 'Muricans celebrate each year.

But did you know Wisconsin has a bit of its own Thanksgiving story? It sounds a little like that first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Rock (TL;DR: starving explorers/pilgrims and generous natives coming to the rescue).

So before you sit down for Ma's famous stuffing and Dad's holy smokes he didn't overcook it! turkey, take a trip back to 1659 when times were a little tougher for 'Sconnies.

Freeze to death or starve to death

That seemed to be the only option available to French traders Pierre Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law, Médard Chouart Sieur des Groseilliers.

French explorers from Syracuse, the pair would be the first to enter the state in 1659 since Jean Nicolet a few decades prior.

But after plenty of “criminy cripes,” and “would ya look at that!”, the brothers found themself without so much as a single cheese curd by their first winter.

Their journals reveal the pair had resorted to grinding up old bones, digging up previously discarded guts, and even eating their two dogs in an attempt to stave off starvation.

"Finally we became the very Image of death. We mistook ourselves very often, taking the living for the dead and ye dead for the living."

Salvation

Just when the two were about to slap their knees and say "Well, I s'pose I should head out" and literally die, salvation came in a familiar way to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

The brothers, stranded in the Northwoods in what they though would be their final resting ground, encountered a group of exiled Ottawas.

The natives, upon seeing the men, acted fast and prepared a meal that probably saved their lives. Though not a feast enjoyed at the first Thanksgiving, the men were more than grateful for the wild rice and turkey prepared by the Ottawa. Talk about Midwest Nice.

They even performed a ceremony over the men, shedding tears over their heads, displaying the utmost signs of hospitality.

The French explorers gave a speech, thanking the Ottawa's for their act, and spent the rest of the winter with their saviors.

Eventually the men would establish fur-trading posts, later helping the English form Canada's Hudson Bay Company.

And, welp, the rest is history. Get out ‘der and enjoy your Thanksgiving, folks!

Other great Wiscampsin reads…

Wisconsin: Maple Syrup Sanctuary

Reveling in Wisconsin's Night Sky

Earth Day's birthplace

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Wiscampsin Weekly Poll

Watching “Escanaba in Da Moonlight” won simply for the stories and camaraderie for fondest deer camp traditions!

Nuts and Seeds 🌰 

🐈 Bowhunter kills cougar: In what is probably the first time in 115 years, a bowhunter shot and killed a cougar while deer hunting in Buffalo County. The hunter said after trying to scare the cougar off, he felt threatened and decided to shoot the animal instead of risking cat scratch fever. The DNR will keep the body for testing.

🦌 The numbers are in: The DNR has released the preliminary gun deer license and harvest totals from 2023’s opening weekend. Hunters registered 92,050 deer, down from 103,623 in 2022 (down 16%, and 10% below the 5-year average). For the bucks, 51,870 were registered on opening weekend, compared to 56,638 in 2022. Good luck and fill those freezers!

👍 Successful elk hunt: Criminy! The four hunters selected from 21,312 applicants for the first elk hunting season all successfully filled their tags. Josh Spiegel, DNR Wildlife Biologist, said: “Every hunter’s experience is unique each year, and this year’s hunters definitely lived up to that standard.”

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