The Driftless Region of Wisconsin is the area below the furthest advance of the glaciers during the last Ice Age and covers most of the southwest portion of the state.. It is home to wonderful, ancient sandstone formations, beautiful parks and great little towns. This area is definitely hillier than much of the rest of the state and ends (at least as far as Wisconsin is concerned) at the Mississippi River on its western border. I had a great time exploring the Driftless, boating through the Wisconsin Dells, walking the State Park trails, driving the Great River Road and exploring the towns I found along the way. I encountered many different European-American traditions along the way including two of Wisconsin’s most famous: beer and cheese. I visited Wisconsin’s first Capital at Belmont, it’s biggest tourist attraction at House on the Rock and some of the state’s mining history at Mineral Point The Driftless is a sprawling region with a diverse culture and a fascinating history. I hope you enjoy these photos from Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, a unique place which I really enjoyed visiting.
Hello Everyone. Greetings from La Crosse, the biggest town on Wisconsin’s stretch of The Great River Road. It’s definitely cooled down a bit this week and the first hints of fall are starting to show up on the edges of the leaves and in the products in the stores. Pumpkins are popping up on farm stands and apple orchards are starting to open. I will hold on to summer as long as I can, but I’m really looking forward to the fall as well. It’s been an excellent and busy week out here on the road, taking me from the middle of the state out across the Driftless Region and finally up along the Mississippi River to La Crosse. I’ve explored some of Wisconsin’s early history and even learned one story about the state’s badger connection. It’s been such a busy week so I better get right to it.
When I left you last week I was on my way out to Devil’s Lake State Park, which was a beautiful lake and a great little park. I enjoyed going for a swim and found a place to recycle my recyclables. I really love State Parks, and Wisconsin’s have been pretty good so far. I spent the night in Baraboo and got up early Thursday morning and went for a delicious breakfast at the Broadway Diner. Then I enjoyed a little walk around Baraboo’s downtown area. As I mentioned last week, Baraboo was the birthplace of the Ringling Brothers Circus and its home for many years. I was happy to see the town has embraced that part of its history without taking it to the weird extreme some towns would have. The Ringlings’ father was a harness maker in Baraboo and he and his family lived above the harness shop downtown. He and his wife had ten children – eight of whom would live to adulthood. Five of those children would found the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1894. They would eventually bring their other two brothers on board and go on to buy Barnum and Bailey’s Circus in 1907 and build one of the largest entertainment dynasties America would ever know. Baraboo’s opulent downtown theater is named for Al Ringling and there are subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the famous family all over town. The centerpiece of Baraboo’s Ringling connecting is Circus World, a museum located on what was once the circus’ winter quarters. I love the thought of elephants being walked through downtown Baraboo streets to get some exercise (and saw the pictures to prove it). This is a good circus museum which I had been to before and houses the largest collection of old circus wagons in the world. They do have live performances throughout the summer, but I arrived just days too late to catch one. It was still fun and when I finished there I headed on south to Dodge State Park. Named for the first governor of Wisconsin, this is a pleasant state park surrounding two little lakes. I went on a nice 4 mile hike through the park and was really taken aback by the incredible fields of goldenrod that were there. It was nice to get out on the trail for a while and I enjoyed my hike and then headed down to Dodgeville for the night.
Friday morning I got up and went back north to check out the infamous House on the Rock. I had heard of the House on the Rock for years, and although I never really understood what was so appealing about it from the descriptions I read (especially at the steep admission cost of $30), I decided to give it a look while I was there. I realized within minutes of my arrival that this place defied description and was a truly magical place. The actual house on the rock was built by Alex Jordan Jr. beginning in 1945. He designed and built the house himself using local materials atop a huge rock formation called Deer Shelter Rock. Working around the natural rock formations and trees, Jordan built room after room in incredibly eclectic fashion with Japanese influences and windows looking down at the forest below. After a write-up in a local Madison paper, people started dropping by to try and get a look at this House on the Rock, and after enough people came, Jordan decided to start charging them admission. He brought in $15 that day, $5,000 that year and $34,000 the next. From there, he was off and running, collecting things, building things and constructing new buildings to house it all. It’s resulted in a world class collection of kitsch, but one displayed in such a brilliant and whimsical way that it’s an immersive experience I can only liken to Alice wandering into Wonderland. The lights and sounds and music are all overwhelmingly fun and so over-the-top that I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying themselves there. The centerpiece is definitely the “World’s Largest Carousel”, featuring 269 characters collected from around the world and refurbished in their workshops. None of the final selection is a horse. I could have sat and watched it for hours. I had a smile from ear to ear for the whole six hours I was at House on the Rock and would definitely go back in a heartbeat. It’s by far the greatest roadside attraction I’ve ever seen. I left feeling overwhelmed and giddy and definitely knew there was no way to follow it up that day. I stopped in Mount Horeb for a quick beer and then boogied on back to Madison. I had a delicious Friday Night Fish Fry at Reverend Jim’s Roadhouse out by the casino and then called it an early night.
I was up early on Saturday and went for a morning workout before heading into downtown Madison. I had tickets to the Penn State-Wisconsin game and wanted to give myself plenty of time to park and get to the stadium. I parked near the Capitol and then wandered down State Street, stopping for a beer or two along the way.
Hello Everyone! September is upon us but you wouldn’t know it here in Wisconsin. It’s been hot and humid in the Badger State this week, but it does look like it’s supposed to be cooling down in the near future. The days are certainly getting shorter which wasn’t helped by the time change between Michigan and Wisconsin. I have had such a great summer, but I’m a huge fan of fall and am really looking forward to cooler temperatures and, of course, the changing leaves. To begin this week, I’m sending prayers and positivity to all of my friends around the country who are facing down storms and wildfires this week. As some of you know, I spent two years of my life helping re-open the public school system in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and it was hard to watch Hurricane Ida making its way towards the Big Easy on the 16th Anniversary of that storm. Of course, as I’ve pointed out to a lot of people this week, Katrina only did minor damage to the city, it was when the levies broke that the real problems began. Thankfully it looks like New Orleans has survived this storm relatively intact and I’m grateful for that. Hoping all of my friends and readers in the region are safe and sound. I also have a lot of friends in the Greater Lake Tahoe region on the California/Nevada border and many of them have evacuated as the fires get closer and closer. You’re all in my thoughts as well. With all of that going on, Wisconsin is a pretty good place to be right now, and I’m grateful for that. Also this week, for those of you who followed my D.C. Chronicles through the pandemic, my mother is watching Mason as he transitions between schools and is enjoying playing big trucks with him in his new house. As for me, I’ve been out exploring Door County and Central Wisconsin this week, so let me tell you what I’ve been up to.
When I left you last week I was in Sturgeon Bay and headed off into Door County which is the peninsula that looks like Wisconsin’s thumb jutting out into Lake Michigan. That day I headed up to a beach just south of Egg Harbor for a swim in Green Bay and then stopped off for a quick beer or two at One Barrel Brewery in town. Afterwards I headed on to Fish Creek which is where I spent that night. After watching the sun go down, I stopped into the Bayside Tavern for a fish sandwich and a beer and ended up meeting a nice lady who was really interested in lighthouses. We ended up talking about lighthouses and travel for a couple of hours which I really enjoyed and it was nice to have some company.
Thursday morning I was up bright and early as I had a lot I wanted to accomplish with the day. After a nice breakfast at FIKA bakery, I gassed up, bought my Wisconsin fishing license and my annual State Park Pass and headed off into Peninsula State Park. Peninsula was Wisconsin’s first state park and one of its best known and most visited. I stopped off at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse and the Eagle Tower, which was just that – a tower built to observe the local eagles from above the tree line but also provided great views out over the water and the park. I was very impressed that they had built probably a quarter-mile ramp up to the tower to make it ADA accessible and there was someone there in a wheelchair and another person with physical challenges who were both using the ramp while I was there. From there I went to the beach…
