Wildcat Mountain State Park occupies three thousand six hundred forty-three acres in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area along the Kickapoo River, where steep sandstone bluffs and deep valleys reflect a landscape shaped by erosion rather than glaciation. People used the valley for thousands of years, from early Native hunting camps to the Meskwaki, Sac, and Ho-Chunk, before forced removal in eighteen thirty-seven. Logging, settlement, and farming later reshaped the land and water system. Beginning in nineteen thirty-eight, donated and acquired land formed the modern park. Today it protects distinctive river scenery, wildlife, old-growth forest on Mount Pisgah, and a broad range of year-round recreation.