John Lewis Dubay, a French Canadian is given the honor of first discovering Portage County, Wisconsin. Although full of wilderness, the land was also home to many Native Americans. Dubay spent the winter of 1790 at an Indian village, learning about Portage County and the surrounding areas. Although Native Americans were first upon the land of what soon would become New Jordan, they were few in numbers. The aboriginal culture of Native Americans consists of constant movement, over vast land masses, following the seasonal cycles of wild animals, as a food source. Hunting was the primary source of food for the Indians and for many years Indian tribes freely roamed all of central Wisconsin, relying on the landscape to provide their food supply.
