Growing Up on the Saint Croix ― 1867

The Saint Croix River is now under the protection of the National Park Service but in 1867 when Fred Wilcox came with his parents to start a new life and farm along its banks, this country was primitive and undeveloped. It was the perfect opportunity to explore a new world full of adventures and challenges. Along the way he learned the advantages of having a family and friends and developed into an explorer that would lead him out west to the Black Hill like most of the country did in 1874 to the gold field of South Dakota.A lot of changes were taking place in the world and the forests of Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Fred did what other children of his time wished they could do. The river and woods was his passion and he explored every inch of it to learn its secrets and the skills he needed to make it in the new world.Join Fred and his friends as they grow up on the St. Croix and develop the Valley into their homes, farms, and a way of life in the 1860s and 1870s.