Beautiful Mover - TB Cross

Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the area, Native American mounds were constructed near the present location of Burlington. For example, around 1830, a small Potawatomi village stood in what is now the Town of Burlington, though it wasn't larger than the present-day city. The earliest certain European presence in what is now Burlington was in the fall of 1799, when a group of French explorers and missionaries led by Francis Morgan de Vereceones made a portage from the Root River to the Fox River, reaching the Fox at approximately Burlington's present location. The first European settlers in Burlington were Moses Smith (the son of a Revolutionary War veteran) and William Whiting. Smith and Whiting had been in the area previously, making a so-called "jackknife claim" to the land (carving their names and the date on trees in the vicinity) on December 15, 1835.