By Mary Fairchild Maquoketa River Trail; 6/15/14. In June my two daughters joined me for a river clean-up and local archaeology paddle on the Maquoketa River with Iowa archaeologist Elizabeth Reetz. There are two forks of the Maquoketa River that meander through Jackson County for about 50 miles and meet up just north of the…
Category: Wisconsin
Mirror, Mirror, on the Water: A Tranquil Paddle at Mirror Lake State Park
By Mary Fairchild Chelsea Boots appreciates the serenity of Mirror Lake as she quietly discovers the oak/pine forest reflection before her for the first time. …there is rarely a wind-stirred ripple on the water’s still surface— Mirror Lake is a narrow river-like waterway between tall cliff-sided gorges that is about 4 miles long. An impoundment of Sauk County’s Dell…
Giant Fiberglass Statues: Do You Know the Wisconsin Dell’s Muffler Man?
By Mary Fairchild (updated 10/2015) Until recently, this Muffler Man had been behind the Mobil Station near the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Now he’s all groomed, repainted and stands “all lit up” by the Buffalo Phil’s Pizza & Grille. These giant fiberglass statues were designed to draw the attention of tourists in the latter half of the 20th century when the West opened…
Nestled Deep in Wisconsin’s Woods: A Rustic Wedding at Mirror Lake State Park
By Mary Fairchild The bride with her flower girls; Mirror Lake State Park Amphitheater, 10/25/14. Picture by John Nicholls. An outdoor wedding in the woods can be an incredible experience especially in the fall as the cooler days and cooler nights begin to open and reveal more and more of the landscape. The playfulness of crisp falling…
Kayaking the Apostle Islands: Kennedys, Native Americans, Religion, and Myth
By Mary Fairchild Paddling around Eagle Island, 2009; the island is protected by Critical Species Natural Area. Last fall, on September 24th, Chequamegon Bay JFK Day marked Kennedy’s visit to the Apostle Islands area thirty years ago (Sept. 24, 1963). Chequamegon was applied to the region by traders and missionaries which derives from a Chippewa(Ojibwe) word, shagwaumikong, meaning soft beaver dam….
Wisconsin’s Glacial Mounds
By Mary Fairchild Known as the “Driftless Area,” southwestern Wisconsin escaped glaciation. A low plateau deeply cut by stream valleys, it is an old landscape whose rougher surface contrasts with ice-formed topography. Astellated buttes, spires, and pinnacles were sculpted by Glacial Lake Wisconsin breaking on sandstone outliers of the Driftless Area. This is a view…