Supple's Marsh

Supple's Marsh formed with Lake Winnebago after a glacial ice sheet retreated from the region 10,000 years ago, depositing gravel and rocks that blocked ancient northward-flowing drainage systems and created Glacial Lake Oshkosh; centuries later, part of that lake became Lake Winnebago and its adjacent marshlands. Thereafter, the marsh became a haven for fish and game, where the Winnebago Indian fished and hunted long before white settlers appeared, and later white hunters and anglers used the marsh for profit, sport, and food. On March 25, 1929, Mathias Supple purchased the marsh from Wisconsin Central Land Co., the holding firm for the Soo Line Railway. The Supple family began a fur farm there in 1932 and harvested as many as 6,000 muskrats in one year. In 1967, the City of Fond du Lac acquired the 240 acre marsh from the Supple family, and with hunting and trapping now banned, Supple's Marsh has become a nature conservancy for all to enjoy.

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin · United States