On April 10, I ventured to Ferry Bluff State Natural Area to see if the whippoorwills had returned. I reached the top of the bluff at about 7:30 pm and waited until dark for the whippoorwills to start singing. They didn’t, so I assume that they must not be back yet. That’s okay. The …
On September 19, on the eve of the full moon, and just days from the autumnal equinox, I headed to Ferry Bluff State Natural Area to see if the whippoorwills were still singing. They were. I’ve been visiting Ferry Bluff all summer to hear the whippoorwills and I have to say that I’m more than …
In the spring of 1989, I sat down to talk with Donald “Buzz” Chamberlain and his wife Betty at their downtown Boscobel antique store. It was one of my first interviews and I was a little nervous about whether people would talk to me. I didn’t need to worry though. People were more than happy …
Gladys Pinfold Sanger spent summers as a teenager at a cottage that once stood on the Crawford County side of the Wisconsin river just west of the Boscobel bridge on highway 60. She also took toll on the bridge when she was a teenager in 1919 for a few years. In 1873, the State of …
Taking Toll and Summering on the River In Boscobel Read More »
The view from the overlook at Ferry Bluff State Natural Area in Sauk County Wisconsin is beautiful at any time of year, but it is especially beautiful on a summer evening when the whippoorwills start to sing. Then, things get magical. On a mostly clear night on July 8, I was with a small group …
Between the 1850s and 1880s, the Wisconsin River was a primary transportation route for riverboats and lumber rafts. That’s why all of the bridges on the lower Wisconsin River had movable spans or sections that could be lifted or rotated. The “free” Muscoda Bridge, built in 1929, was a great example of a bascule bridge. …
Bridges play a vital role in connecting residents to communities in the river valley. Without a bridge, a community would likely not be able to survive. In 1947, the middle span of the Blue River bridge (County Highway T) failed, sending a tobacco trunk into the water. The bridge was built in 1904. Jack Kinney, …
The plants of the lower Wisconsin River valley have stories to tell us. Are the soils sandy, fertile or wet? Are they rare or endangered? Is the plant edible or possess special properties? Michael Nee, a retired botanist from Richland Center, wants to tell these stories by cataloguing the flora of the lower Wisconsin Riverway. …
Botanist Records the Plants of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Read More »
White pine are native to the Badger state, but they are not native to the sand prairie in Blue River or anywhere along the lower Wisconsin River. That’s why a group of nine volunteers are removing the pines on the western edge of the Blue River Sand Barrens State Natural Area. The pines have slowly …
The lower Wisconsin River Valley is home to numerous mound groups, but their locations are not so easy to find. That’s why I attended a tour of four mound groups. The tour was led by Mark Cupp, the president of Cultural Landscape Legacies, Inc., a organization dedicated to the education, protection and preservation of the cultural heritage of indigenous people who left their legacy on the landscape of the upper Midwest.