Newport Steakhouse The Setting

Newport Steakhouse: The Setting

Lost City of Newport

Newport Steak House is erected on the remnants of the “lost city” of Newport, WI. First settlements of Newport were made in 1849. A group of early settlers began laying plans for the new city of Newport. Negotiations began with Byron Kilbourn, president of the Milwaukee and LaCrosse Railroad, to have the railroad cross the Wisconsin River in the new town of Newport. A charter was obtained for the building of a bridge and dam to cross the river. Newport was surveyed and platted for ten thousand people. Once word of the railroad crossing got out, people quickly started buying land and building homes and businesses in the new town of Newport. Hopes were that Newport would become the largest inland center in Wisconsin. Newport’s expansion ended quickly, when it was discovered that under the cover of night, engineers had surveyed the bridge two miles up river in the new city of Kilbourn and not Newport. Most people took the loss and packed up their belongings and moved to Kilbourn City which later became Wisconsin Dells. Wisconsin is an Indian word that means “dark rushing waters” and Dells comes from a French word “Dalle,” meaning “flat layered rock.” Today Newport has a population of approximately 690 people.

Kingsley Bend Indian Mounds

Just south of Newport Steak House lies the Kingsley Bend Indian Mounds. The mounds of this group are a fairly representative sample of those built by the people of the Effigy Mound Culture between A.D. 700-1000. It has been through excavation of other burial mounds quite similar to these that archeologists have learned most of what they know about the people who built them. These people lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild vegetable foods. They practiced little if any agriculture. There was usually only a single burial in mounds such as these, but in some mounds upwards of a dozen burials have been found. Artifacts such as flint tools and clay pots were seldom included with the burials. Archeologists have not yet accurately determined the significance of the various animal and geometric shapes in which the mounds were built. The mound builders usually built their mounds on overlooks of rivers and lakes.