The Old Military Road was built in 1835-36 to connect Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien and Fort Howard at Green Bay by way of Fort Winnebago at "The Portage" between the Fox-Wisconsin rivers. The section from Prairie du Chien to Fort Winnebago was built by soldiers from Fort Crawford under the command of Colonel Zachary Taylor, later president. The road was crudely constructed two rods wide, with corduroy over marshy places. Recalling travel over the road in March 1855, Herbert Quick wrote of oxen, cows, mules, horses, coaches, carriages, blue jeans, corduroys, rags, tatters, silks, satin, caps, tall hats, poverty, riches, speculators, missionaries, land-hunters, and merchants, calling it a nation on wheels and an empire in the commotion and pangs of birth.