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MANITOWOC COUNTY, WIS.
        HISTORY
   FROM THE BEGINNING
       By J. G. Johnson
  From 1673 to 1898 in the set-
tling of Manitowoc and Two Riv-
  ers (Courtesy January 1948,
        "Mixing Bowl")
First court house and jail at Manitowoc Rapids, 1840-9
  There was a forest since the
time before history-a dense pine
and  hemlock   growth, w i t h
boughs intertwined, holding the
sun's rays from the ground. The
leaf-carpeted ground  was the
home of countless animals-deer,
bear, wolf, and lynx, in addition
to small game. Indians found
their food and clothing in the
forests around  their  villages,
from the rivers rolling to the
great lake.
  And then, a strange incident.
Two men of pale complexion,
wearing strange clothing, came
out of the distance in their
canoe. They were exploring the
coast of the immense water, they
said, and were called Marquette
and Joliet.
  Though there is no record that
Marquette and Joliet stopped at
Manitowoc or Two Rivers, they
must have landed at many spots
along the Wisconsin coast. It was
in the year 1673 that they set
out to map the shoreline from
Green Bay to Illinois and it
seems probable that they picked
camp sites near rivers such as
at "Mundeowk" and "Twin Riv-
ers." They were the first white
men to see the sites of Manito-
woc and Two Rivers.
      First Written Record
  The first written record   of
Manitowoc county    was made
more than a hundred years later
in a book called "A Voyage on
Lake Michigan," written by Sam-
uel Robertson, a trader. He spoke
of an Indian settlement at "Twin
Rivers," some distance north of
Milwaukee.
  A few   years later, in 1795,
Jacques, sometimes known as
Jean Vieau described    another
town which he called "Mune-
dowk" where the Indians speared
whitefish at the mouth of the
river.
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STORY OF A CENTURY