Point Basse refers to both a sharp bend in the Wisconsin River near present day Nekoosa, Wisconsin, as well as to a nearby historic village downstream from the point itself, the village no longer being in existence.

[4] The village site was the location of a shallow river crossing that could be forded with a team of horses and a wagon at low water.

[6] The village became a crossroads of sorts, and for a brief span of years the primary terminus of the pineries road.

In 1836 at the Cedar Point Treaty, the Menominee ceded to the US federal government a strip of land, three miles on each side of the river, beginning at Point Basse and extending to Big Bull Falls (modern Wausau, Wisconsin).

Shortly after the cession was made, the mills on this strip of land grew to become the heart of the Wisconsin River lumber industry.