Sometimes when squinting at an old document your eyes decide to take the easy route and see what you expect to see. So, when I first saw this cryptic entry on a 1874 map of Chippewa County Wisconsin I jumped to the obvious conclusion...
But when you look very closely at it the name actually seems to be Dewels Rock. Old atlases are a great source of obscure history. Often they record little bits of pioneer lore that have since been lost. I've lived in the area most of my life now and had never heard of this place. So of course I had to have a look.
I think this is the spot. It's the east bank of the Yellow River at about the right spot. And perhaps that is an impressive enough rock to have its own name.
Consulting local histories and all available maps I can find absolutely no evidence that anyone named Dewel ever lived in the area. It's an odd sounding name. I suspect a typo.
So was it actually Devil's Rock? Probably not. But there did seem to be a family named Deuel that lived in the general area in the 19th century. Perhaps there was a connection going back as far as the 1870s.
I have to report that I did encounter one other small mystery. While tramping about in the woods I found something odd perched on a little rock all by itself. A baseball trophy from 1971. Who carefully set it up in the middle of nowhere, and why?
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