Yellow Thunder Park

Yellow Thunder Memorial was erected by the Sauk County Historical Society and the Twentieth Century Club of Baraboo in 1909 to honor Chief Yellow Thunder, a member of the Thunderbird Clan of the Ho-Chunk tribe. In 1828 he was part of a delegation of 15 Ho-Chunk chiefs and one Ho-Chunk woman who were escorted on a tour of the eastern United States which culminated with a visit to the White House to meet with President John Quincy Adams. The trip was meant to impress upon the Ho-Chunk chiefs the might and power of the United States. The one woman who was on the trip was She Who Follows, the wife of Chief Yellow Thunder. After the trip she was often known as Washington Woman.

In October of 1837 Yellow Thunder was part of a Ho-Chunk delegation that was invited to Washington under the pretense of speaking with the President about their homeland in Wisconsin. After they arrived though, they were repeatedly pressured to sell all remaining lands east of the Mississippi. With winter approaching and no means to pay for the return trip home if they didn’t cooperate, the delegation, including Yellow Thunder, finally signed the treaty.

Over the next few years the Ho-Chunk were slow to move to the reservation west of the Mississippi. By 1840, white settlement was putting pressure on federal officials to move the Ho-Chunk. Yellow Thunder was already known as one of the leaders of the treaty-resisting faction that refused to move. In May of 1840 Yellow Thunder was invited to Fort Winnebago to get provisions but when he arrived, he was incarcerated along with his wife. He was released after promising to bring his band to the fort for removal to lands west of the Mississippi, which he did. After a few years Yellow Thunder was back in the Portage area and was rounded up again in 1843. Late in 1846 Yellow Thunder returned to Wisconsin once more only to be rounded up again and deported in 1848. 

In 1849 Yellow Thunder tried a different tactic to remain in Wisconsin. He purchased forty acres in the Town of Delton which made him a legal land owner. His property, known as Yellow Thunder’s 40, became a haven for other Ho-Chunk Indians. Yellow Thunder died in February of 1874 near the Wisconsin River and was buried near his wife.

The Yellow Thunder monument was originally placed along County Road A, south of Shady Lane Road. Due to the widening of County Road A in 1965, the marker was moved north, to where it stands today. Yellow Thunder Memorial is owned by the Sauk County Historical Society and managed by the Sauk County Parks and Recreation service area. The site is a cataloged burial site monitored by the Wisconsin Historical Society. There is no entrance fee required at this park.