Pierce County

Brief History of Pierce County, Wisconsin

Native Americans were the first people to live in what is now Pierce County. The Diamond Bluff area has many extensive burial mounds that mark the Native American settlement. French explorers began coming to the area in the mid-to-late 1600s, including Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut—for whom Duluth, Minnesota, is named. He was one of the first to investigate the area, traveling down the Saint Croix River in 1680 past the future site of Prescott. American explorer Zebulon Pike camped on that same Prescott site in in 1805.