The Land First Capitol Historic Site lies in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, where glaciers bypassed the region and left soft sandstones and limestones intact, creating the varied landscape seen today. Belmont Mound to the east, a one thousand four hundred-foot mound for which Belmont was named, is a reminder of the last Ice Age and was first known as "Belle Monte," meaning "beautiful mountain." When the legislature met here in 1836, tall grass covered the area. Governor Henry Dodge chose Belmont for the first legislative session, a decision that prompted speculation about his relationship with Belmont's owner, John Atchison, though Dodge said Belmont's location in the lead mining region, the center of the territory's population, justified the choice. Residents of rival towns attacked the decision and complained even before the session began about Belmont's poor accommodations, with the Dubuque Visitor on November 2, 1836, warning that hungry legislators would not make good laws. Yet council member Henry Baird of Brown County wrote on October 24, 1836, that he was agreeably surprised by Belmont's handsome setting on a high prairie near the mound and by its six or eight neat framed buildings, though he still saw the lack of wood and water as its greatest drawback.