According to Indian belief, many years ago the Great Spirit, in the form of a snake, created the Dells by forcing its huge body through a narrow opening in the rocks. Geological studies, however, show that the Dells were formed some fifteen thousand years ago after a glacier turned the Wisconsin River into a new channel through the center of a sandstone plain. French-Canadian traders used their word “dalles,” meaning a trough or narrow passage, for this section of the Wisconsin River. Wind, weather, and the river combined to create the seven miles of chasms, cliffs, pillars, and columns that form part of the many scenic features of the world-famous Dells.