The Native American tribes that once lived here, and later the European traders and settlers, took advantage of the lowlands between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers as a natural "portage".

[7] In May 1673, Jacques Marquette joined the expedition of Louis Jolliet, a French-Canadian explorer, to find the Mississippi River.

From there, they were told to portage their canoes a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River.

Later, French fur traders described the place as "le portage", which eventually lent itself to the name of the community.

Portage emerged at this place because of its unique position along the one and a half mile strip of marshy floodplain between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.

By the end of the 17th century, the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, linked at the Portage, served as the major fur trade thoroughfare between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien.

[8] In 1828, the federal government recognized the strategic economic importance of The Portage and built Fort Winnebago at the Fox River end.

After 15 years of controversy, Winnebago settlement (now Portage) won the county seat in 1851.

The buildings now in the city's downtown were once part of a bustling, urban commercial center serving a large region across north central Wisconsin.

The building of the city paralleled its commercial prominence between the end of the American Civil War and the second decade of the 20th century.

[14] The location of the town at the split of the Wisconsin and Fox river is what gives it the name "Portage", which means carrying a boat and its cargo between two navigable waters.

Today, the streets of the outlying city are contorted as a result of the many marshes and lowlands that run through much of Columbia County.

In the summer of 2007, the Portage Canal was cleaned up and now features a bike path that runs alongside part of it.

Historical landmarks of the city include the Museum at the Portage, the Indian Agency house, and the Surgeons Quarters.

Three rural elementary schools serve three of the towns in Columbia County: Lewiston, Fort Winnebago, and Caledonia.