Mines of Spain

Before we left the campground at Wyalusing State Park this morning, I was finally able to take a picture from our campsite.

The picture kind of flattens the perspective, but we were high-up on a bluff overlooking the Wisconsin River. At night the lights from the little hamlet in the middle right twinkled below us. It was one of the most beautiful campsites we've been in (at night).

As we were leaving we saw the rent-a-goats in their new enclosure chomping away the the dreaded invasive plants. There were probably 50 goats.

One cute little one that came over to see if I would feed it the camera.

We crossed over the Mississippi, from Wisconsin to Iowa, and travelled down the scenic western side of the river. 

We were still in the "driftless" area, not affected by glaciation, so there were rugged areas with lots of ups and downs and curvy roads.

There were also charming little towns with populations in the 200 - 300 range.

We saw lots of harvesting activity. I can't tell you how much better it makes me feel to see all that corn being harvested. I didn't realize that corn was harvested so late.  Iowa sure has lots of corn!

Is this part of the state at least, the countryside is rolling and we found it quite appealing.        

 Cheryl Bartz, you'll have to tell us if the rest of Iowa is anything like the Mississippi Valley area.

About half way through our journey today, we passed through Dubuque. Historic Dubuque -- the Key City of Iowa -- formed a part of what became French Louisiana when Joliet and Marquette paddled by in 1673. France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1762, placing this area under Spanish control. 

Dubuque is a city of many firsts in Iowa -- the first church and the first murder and public hanging (1834), the First newspaper and the first bank (1836). The town was incorporated in 1836. Dubuque, city and county, had 31,164 inhabitants in 1860.

The Dubuque County Courthouse. I do't know if you can see in the picture, but the top of the cupola is gold leaf. Right next door is the historic jail.

The bridge that crosses the Mississippi from Dubuque to East Dubuque, IL - just at the border of Wisconsin and Illinois.

We have many guides to the Great River Road and one of them has places of interest that are right on the river, or very close. One place that was listed was the Mines of Spain in Dubuque. We could not resist finding out what was at this intriguingly named place.

When we arrived it was about 1 pm, time to eat our lunch. There were picnic tables here, but it was too cold to eat outside, or even in the Airstream, so we ate in the car. As we were finishing, Vern Wilson came up to tell us what a beautiful rig we had and how he only has one more year before he and his new wife hope to be doing some traveling. Right now he is a bus driver for the Dubuque County School Department and had brought a group of 5th graders to the Mines of Spain on a field trip.

The Mines of Spain Nature Center.

The history of this area dates back to 5,000 BC, when early Native Americans inhabited what is now eastern Iowa. In the late 1600, French explorers visit the area and one, Nicholas Perrot taught the  Indians how to mine lead here in 1690. In the 1780s, the Meskwaki Indians arrive and establish a village along Catfish Creek, just below present-day Dubuque, and mine the lead that was used during the Revolutionary War. In fact, the British captured the Mines of Spain during the War.

Around 1785, Julien Dubuque, a French-Canadian arrives on the scene and woos Potosa, the daughter of Peosta, a Fox (Meskwaki) Indian chief. Julien Dubuque was known as a charismatic, cultured, and giving person and a clever businessman. He successfully negotiated changing politics and economics for access to the mines and markets. He was outwardly generous and kind to the Meskwaki people who gave him access to their lead mines, which he operated from 1788 until his death in 1810. He knew how to appeal to the Spanish who granted him a claim to the "Mines of Spain" and a significant parcel of the surrounding land. And he came to be trusted as an Indian Agent for the U.S. government. When he died in 1810, the Meskwaki buried him on a bluff overlooking the Mines of Spain. The hey day of lead mining continued until the end of the Civil War and ceased in1950.

In 1980 the Iowa Conservation Commission acquired the property with the assistance of the Iowa National Heritage Foundation and in 1985 the Mines Of Spain State Recreation Area and the Nature Center opened, managed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The park is now a place of diverse wildlife and provides hiking and education as a wildlife management area. The Nature Center has some great exhibits on local wildlife.

A cougar/puma/Mountain Lion.

Frederick by the eagle's nest.

Bobcats are the most common wildcat in the U.S. They get their name because of their stumpy tail. Bobcats are nocturnal and males can travel for 25 miles during their night hunts.

The Ring-necked Pheasant was introduced into North America from Asia.

Red foxes are solitary hunters who feed on rodents, rabbits, birds, and other small game. Foxes will also eat fruit and vegetables, fish, frogs, and even worms. 

Badgers are built to dig! They move dirt faster than any other mammal, including a person with a shovel. Strong shoulders, sturdy claws, and partial webbing between their front toes allow them to scoop soil out quickly.

Our friend, the beaver.

The River Otter is the largest weasel-like mammal. They live along streams and near lake borders. 

We learned that Wood Ducks are called Wood Ducks because they nest in cavities in trees close to water. Unlike other ducks, Wood Ducks have sharp claws for perching in trees.

After leaving the Mines of Spain we quickly travelled to Davenport and crossed the Mississippi again to camp in Rock Island - one of the quad cities of Davenport, Ia, Bettendorf, IA, Moline, IL, and Rock Island.

The bridge from Davenport to Rock Island.

"And they're so darn cute"

When we came into the Wyalusing State Park yesterday, these goats were at the entrance but we couldn't figure out why. Today, when we checked in at the office, we asked and were told that these are rent-a-goats that the State Park is using to chow down invasive species of plants.

These goats looked healthy and friendly. As we were leaving the park, two men were erecting new fencing in a section adjacent to this one. I asked if they were moving the goats to another location and he said, " yes." I told him they were nice looking goats and seemed to be doing a good job of eating the unwanted plants. He said, "Yes, they are a good weed eating machine, plus they are so darn cute." You could tell he really liked these goats.

This is the truck from the farm where the rent-a-goats came from.

Dating from 1673, when Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reached this site, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, Prairie du Chien is the oldest community on the Upper Mississippi River and the 2nd oldest town in Wisconsin. Prairie du Chien became a flourishing fur market soon after the French explorers' visit, attracting Native Americans from the remote upper reaches of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, as well as traders and settlers. From 1685 to 1831 four forts were built and occupied at various times by French, British and American forces. 

Our first stop this morning was at Fort Crawford Museum and the hospital building that remains from the fort that was built in1829-33.  

Hospital ward room where Civil War soldiers were treated.

The layout of the fort where only the hospital wing - the building on the right - remains. The first Fort Crawford was built on a mound on an island adjacent to Prairie du Chien. It was a four-sided enclosure made of squared logs with blockhouses at two opposing corners. 

By the end of the 18th century French from the Illinois Country and French and English speaking Canadians had begun to build their homes on the prairie. Prairie du Chien was a bustling community. Traders, voyageurs, and merchants from Montreal paddled up and down the waterways bringing goods for the spring fur trade and returning with canoes filled with bales of furs. Trading with the Native American forged strong ties. These relationships were so strong that when the War of 1812 broke out between the US and Great Britain, almost all the residents of the upper Mississippi, white and Native American, remained loyal to Great Britain. 

At the close of the War of 1812, the US retained possession of the upper Mississippi, but Congress decided to erect a chain of forts along the Fox-Wisconsin-Mississippi waterway. Fort Crawford is noted because of the important people who served here. Col. Zachary Taylor was in charge of building the Fort and commanded troops during the Black Hawk War. Jefferson Davis, who attended West Point, was stationed at Fort Crawford and married Zachary Taylor's daughter. Dr. William Beaumont was Post Surgeon, and while stationed at Fort Crawford he conducted experiments on the human digestive system. 

For some reason, there are historical surgical dioramas at the Fort. These five miniature scenes were created for the American College of Surgeon's display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933-34. The dioramas were displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry continuously until 1961 when they were donated to the Medical Museum in Prairie du Chien. The dioramas are depictions of some notable events in American Surgery during the 1800's and early 1900s.

A native of Appleton, WI, Dr. Benjamin Murphy was perhaps the most brilliant surgeon of the first decade of this century. Dr. William Mayo called him "the surgical genius of our generation". His interest were broad and restricted to no special field of surgery. He pioneered in many fields of medical endeavor and was a great teacher.

Before 1846, the use of anesthesia (ether) was unknown in the U.S., so patients undergoing major operations must have suffered untold agonies. Dr. Philip Syng Physick, "the father of American surgery", is here depicted amputating a leg in the first clinical amphitheater in America - the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. Note that doctors wore ordinary street clothes, and the absence of nurses.

This diorama shows William Beaumont, M.D. (1785-1853) studying the digestive process of the stomach of Alexis St. Martin, shot at Fort Mackinac in 1825. The wound never healed and this provided an opportunity to conduct careful experiments, many of which were at Fort Crawford where Beaumont was stationed.

Not a diorama, this is a reconstructed pharmacy of the 1890's - for anyone who might be interested in pharmacies.

In Danville, Kentucky, in 1809, the famous frontier doctor, Ephriam McDowell, performed the first successful operation for the removal of an ovarian tumor. Using crude instruments and without benefit of anesthesia, he operated to save the patient's life despite threats of bodily harm by her friends and neighbors. The patient, a Mrs. Crawford, lived for 34 years after the operation.

R. J. Marion Sims, who received his medical degree in Philadelphia in 1835, pioneered in the special medical and surgical needs of women. He had a brilliant career in the field, inventing new instruments, new techniques, and carried his new ideas to Europe, where he taught physicians. 

Finally, things get better when medical history was made in October 1846, when Dr. John Collins Warren, a noted Boston surgeon, performed the first operation in the U.S. on a patient who had been anesthetized by ether. The patient was Gilbert Abbot suffering from a tumor of the jaw. The ether was administered by Dr. William Morton, who had previously used it to prevent pain in the extraction of teeth.

The exterior of the Fort Crawford Medical Museum.

Window from the cell where Black Hawk was held after he surrendered at Fort Crawford to end the Black Hawk Wars.

Next to the Medical Museum was another Museum sponsored by the Historical Society of Prarie du Chien. There was this diorama that depicted the coming of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad on April 15, 1857, which was an important event for Prarie du Chien. The town became an important transshipment point between river-boats and railroads.

This is "Flashlight Peavine" or "Sweet Pea" for short. More than 100 years old, Sweet Pea originally was owned by a harness shop operator. During the 1899's and early 1900's it was common to see large wooden horses placed outside of harness shops exhibiting the latest in saddles, horse collars, and other "horse trappings" for sale. A well-trained, healthy horse was a necessity for the country doctor. During a period when families were separated by huge stretches of land and roads were primitive, the doctor riding on horseback to reach his patients was a familiar sight. Later, when roads improved, carriages were added. After a long day of visiting patients, the doctor would sleep in the carriage whiled his trustworthy horse faithful guided him home.

Bill, more arrowheads from the Prarie du Chien area. 

 After visiting these museums we went over to Feriole Island to visit the Villa Louis which is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Villa Louis was the 19th-century home of the Dousman family, who made a fortune in the fur trade and through timely investments in land steamboats and railroads. Four buildings in the mansion complex are open, exhibiting a collection of Victorian decorative arts original to the property. Restoration has replicated many original wallpapers, textiles and decorative treatments reflecting the design of William Morris and the British Arts and Craft Movement.

This is the Visitor Center at Villa Louis which is built on stilts to protect it from flooding.

Out tour guide, Mary, showed us the high watermark of the Mississippi River.

The exterior of the house. Unfortunately, as in so many other historic houses, photographs are not permitted. We really enjoyed the tour and learning the history of the family.

Finally, this afternoon, we crossed the bridge to Iowa and visited the Effigy Mounds National Monument. Located on bluffs of the Mississippi River there are 206 mounds, some built in the shape of animals and birds, containing the remains of a Native American society that lived in this region between 1,000 and 2,500 years ago.

We took the Fire Point Trail to view a representative sample of the mounds in the Park. Pictured above  are simple, probably early, rounded mounds.

This is a panorama shot of a complex mound - which doesn't show up at all in the picture.

We will be visiting other mounds, so maybe in the future I'll be able to show more defined mounds.

The mounds are located high up on the bluffs. We were able to get this great picture of the Mississippi River.

Crossing a stream into our campground, we use this bridge that has the Great River Road symbol on the four corners.

"The eagles are coming!"

It was an interesting drive south of St. Paul through southern Minnesota; the bluff area along the Mississippi; interesting, historic towns; The National Eagle Center; and, crossing into Wisconsin where we are currently camped. 

All of a sudden, as we were driving through southern Minnesota, instead of being flat, the farmland became quite rolling and the contour of the land was much more interesting.

We drove through the town of Red Wing, Minnesota, where, of course, Red Wing shoes are made. On the outskirts of town there was Red Wing Plant #2; in town was the main Red Wing Plant; and, right next door was this Red Wing shoe outlet.

As we follow the Great River Road we are accompanied by the GRR signs. This one is obviously in Minnesota.

 Between the towns of Red Wing and Wabasha, most of the rugged valley of the Upper Mississippi is filled by this river widening known as Lake Pepin. Long before the European explorer Father Louis Hennepin "discovered" what he called the "Lake of Tears", in 1680, it served as a highway for Indian people of many cultures. Their burial mounds and earthworks can still be found along its shores.

After the Minnesota Territory was opened to settlement in 1849, Lake Pepin saw a brisk commercial traffic generated by lumbering and agriculture. Huge rafts of logs, some 1,200 feet long and 300 feet wide, were towed down the river. Steamboats brought in thousands of new settlers and carried out the wheat and flour produced on the rich land. The lake itself provided resources for commercial fishermen and for clammers who sold the clam shells to be used in button making.

We stopped at a Rest Area at the Lake Pepin widening of the Mississippi River. Here Frederick is contemplating where the logs coming down the river were assembled into huge rafts that were floated  downstream to mills in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Some rafts contained up to 10 million board feet of lumber-- enough to build 500 houses. The largest raft ever recorded, in 1869, covered 3 acres.

Beautiful Rest Area along the Mississippi at the Pepin River.

Halfway between Red Wing and Wabasha, on the Lake Pepin stretch of the River, is the town of Lake City. This yard caught our attention for its spectacular Halloween display.

In the category of "every town is know for something", Lake City claimed to be the Birthplace of Waterskiing.  It is now a resort area, but at one time Lake City and Lake Pepin had an earlier fame as a clamming center. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, more than 500 clammers worked the lake from their flat-bottomed johnboats, using giant combs called crowfoot bars to rake the abundant mussel beds. In this way they gathered mussel shells to sell to the button factories at Lake City.

With thirty-two species in its waters, Lake Pepin was unusually rich in mussels. Many were prized for their beautiful shells and now and then a lucky clammer might land a pearl. By 1898, there were nearly 50 button factories in cities along the Mississippi River. But the industry grew so rapidly that it soon began to exhaust the mussel supply.  In 1914, Lake Pepin yielded eight million pounds of marketable shell; by 1929, the harvest was less than one-twentieth of that amount. Here's an interesting fact, most mussels require the presence of fish to survive. They begin life as parasitic larvae, attaching themselves to the gills or fins of host fish for 30 days or more.

Our main event for the day was a visit to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota. The Center is dedicated to educating the public about these magnificent raptors. 

Wabasha is one of the oldest towns on the upper Mississippi River. Wabasha was named after a Sioux Indian Chief, Wa-pa-shaw. Over the years the local economy has been based on fur trading, the lumber industry, milling and boat construction. Bald eagle sightings are common along the river during early winter and early spring migrations and from nesting pairs in the area. 

When we called the Center about parking it was suggested that we park in a lot under this bridge that connects Wabasha with Tomah, Wisconsin, across the Mississippi River.

Four bald eagles and one golden eagle are the stars of the Center. All the eagles here have been injured in some way and most are unable to fly. Each eagle has a story. 

This is Harriet, the senior eagle ambassador, who is 33 years old and showing signs of aging. An eagle in the wild, if it is lucky enough to survive to adulthood, can liver 20-25 years. At 33 years old, Harriet is definitely an elder among eagles. Eagles in captivity have been know to live well into their 40s. Harriet shows signs of arthritis, cataracts and issues with her balance. These are not unusual issues for an eagle her age.

Was'aka the Center's first male bald eagle, was found as a fledgling in Jacksonville, Florida. He had a tumor on his left eyelid that has since been removed. He's now blind in his left eye. Was'aka means "strength" in Dakota. He has been at the Center since April, 2009.

In July of 1999, Angel was a fledgling hanging out on the ground near the nest in which she probably hatched several months earlier. A bone in her left wing had broken and healed improperly, so she could not fly. She probably survived by eating fish scraps that fell from nearby heron nests. She was taken to the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, but after surgery, her muscles were still too damaged for her to be released. She came to the National Eagle Center in March of 2000.

On December 31st, 2001, Columbia was feeding on a dead deer by the side of the road in Dunbar, Wisconsin, when a van struck her. Columbia's wing was broken near the shoulder, and she was admitted to the U. of M Raptor Center. After surgery and physical therapy (?), she was still unable to fly, so she was transferred to the Center in January of 2003. She was named in memory of the crew lost in the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy.

Donald, a golden eagle, was hit by a car near the town of Placerville, California, where Frederick's parents lived. His right wing broke in two places. The California Raptor Center couldn't mend his wing for flight so now he's been at the National Eagle Center since January 2008.

This is Jerry who has been volunteering at the National Eagle Center for almost 14 years. He is a very calm man who obviously has a lot of respect for and knowledge of these magnificent birds.

From time to time the birds will become excited and make loud cawing sounds, ruffle their feathers and stand upright. This is Columbia settling down after such display.

Frederick standing in a life-sized replica of an eagle's nest. Eagles will use the same nest year after year, adding more sticks each year.

There was also this display case with some of my favorites - owls. Remind you of any room at the library?

The National Eagle Center had a display of Indian artifacts that were donated by Wabasha V, the grandson of Wabasha III, who signed the 1851 & 1858 treaties that ceded the southern half of Minnesota to the U.S. This began the removal of this band of Indians from Minnesota to various reservations in the Dakotas and Nebraska. 

A woman's saddle, medicine bag and a peace-pipe/axe.

Warrior shirt, moccasins, hat, and Three Feather band of Indians blanket.

Bill, you might like the following -

Arrowheads

Axes

More arrowheads.

During courtship a male and female eagle swoop, call and chase each other. Their most dramatic behavior is cartwheeling. The eagles fly high and lock talons before plummeting to earth. They release their grip just before hitting the ground, only to soar up and cartwheel again.

This behavior may strengthen their bond as well as engage them in playful flirtation.

Most surprising today was the terrain along this portion of the Mississippi. It is called the Blufflands, composed of tall bluffs, dramatic valleys, rivers and majestic rock outcroppings. A beautiful landscape. The glaciers that covered most of Minnesota were enormous ice sheets up to two miles thick that moved slowly across land masses creating lakes, filling in valleys, forming hills, flattening, scraping and pushing millions of tons of rock and soil. But here in the Blufflands, glacial impacts were indirect. The land was affected by erosion and meltwater and also by a swollen Mississippi River, but the last glaciers did not move over the Blufflands. The Blufflands are what all of Minnesota looked like before the Ice Age. 

This area is known as the Driftless area, an area without glacial drift. Drift is the rocky debris left by glaciers. It is an area encompassing approximately 15,000 square miles in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.The landscape features sheer rock cliffs, steep valley walls and rolling upland hillsides. Meltwater from the retreating glaciers carved the steep valley walls and the flowing streams that bisected the steep hillsides and contributed to the great Mississippi River. 

Typical view along the Mississippi River today.

We are beginning to see some color in the trees as we move south. This is in Rollingstone, MN.

A lone sentinel outside of Winona, Minnesota.

These two bluffs are called the King's and Queen's Bluffs of Great River Bluffs State Park near Winona, MN.

We crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin on Interstate 90, near La Crosse, WI, where there was major bridge construction.

Lovely spot in Wisconsin, looking across the Mississippi to what is now Iowa.

Great River Road in Wisconsin.

This is Jack who was fishing with his Dad at Genoa, WI. He had caught a string of sauger (I had never heard of this fish that is similar to a walleye).

This is Lock and Dam No 8 at Genoa, set on a foundation of sand, gravel and broken rock. It has a 110 foot wide chamber and an 11 foot lift from the lower to the upper pool. This dam is one of 29 locks and dams built by the US Government to improve transportation from Minneapolis to the mouth of the Missouri River. The project, approved by Congressional Act on August, 30, 1935, was largely completed by 1938. In the next fifteen years river traffic increased from 458 to 2,636 million tons.