Lac Vieux Desert, where the Wisconsin River rises, was a crossroads of travel and settlement long before the first map of the lake was published in Paris in 1718. French traders and Indians passed here in moccasins, followed later by loggers, early settlers, the Army, and tourists. Jean Baptiste Perrault wintered here in 1791, and Capt. Thomas Cram, a surveyor, parleyed with Chief Ca-sha-o-sha in 1840. In the 1850's the Drapers built the first white settler cabin, and Leonard Thomas, who married Draper's daughter, built the first summer resort in 1884. The Wausau-Ontonagon road crossed here in 1860, later joined by the Military road from Green Bay, and Indian trails, canoe and mail routes, log drives, and oxen hooves made this place a hub of pioneer activity. Also known as Kat-ik-it-i-gon and Old Planting Ground, this beautiful body of water came to be accepted by its French name, Lac Vieux Desert.