Pentoga Parks Ojibwa History

In October 1851 U.S. surveyor Guy H. Carleton came to the old Indian village at Chi-Cau-Gon lake. From his description their village began where the ceremonial bowl is and extended along the eastern shore of the lake for a distance of 575.5' and their cornfields were seen for some distance along the lake. They cleared many of the timbers in the surrounding area to build their scattered tepees. Undoubtedly, at various times they had quite a population. As illustrated , over one hundred years the Ojibwa warriors would assemble and recount the glory that was theirs, the wars, the feasts, and the sorrows.

The Ojibwa or Anishinaabe, are also called Chippewa. They lived in various places throughout the area according to seasonal food source cycles. Local Indians were linked by marriage and culture to those at L'Anse, Lac Vieux Desert and nearby Wisconsin.

The main village, in the Iron County area, was located at the present park site on the southeastern shore of Gaa-namegosikaag, today know as Chicagon Lake.

The local tribesmen were peaceful in their relations with the settlers and made regular trading visits to the new mining towns to secure provisions and sell their venison, blueberries and moccasins. However, with the development of the iron mines, the Indians began to disperse to more isolated areas.

Chief Edwards, last ruler at Chicaugon Lake, received a patent for the land in 1884. He then sold it in 1891 and moved to the Lac Vieux Desert area.

Only a few burial houses and a brush fence remained of the ancient village by the year 1903. Iron County engineer Hebert Larson, Sr. convinced the county to buy the property and restore it as a park honoring the area's first inhabitants, the Native Americans. It was dedicated in 1922. Making it one of the first County parks in Michigan.

The park was named Pen-to-ga in honor of chief Edward's (Mush-Quo-No-Ns-Bi) wife, whose name was Biindigeyaasinokwe, shortened to Biindige and mispronounced by the newcomers as Pen-to-ga meaning bullhead. Pen-to-ga was not an Ojibwa Indian, but rather a member of the Oneida's. She was born in New York State and migrated to northern Wisconsin where a portion of the Oneida's, members of the great Indian confederacy of the 5 nations, were transferred  west by the U.S. Government. The Chippewa's made their headquarters at the upper end of the lake. The territory tributary to these waters was a hunter's paradise. They called this lake Ga-no-na-co-si-kag (trout) Sa-ka-egon (lake). Thus trout lake of the big trout like those in Git-chi-gum-e (Superior). The modern name Chi-cau-gon was probably derived from Sa-ka-e-gon due to a misunderstanding on the part of the surveyors who spelled it Chi-gau-gon.