Baraboo, Dells, and Devil's Lake Region Part 15

After reaching the village of Spring Green, the road to Helena, the location of the old shot tower, crosses the Wisconsin River and deflects to the left. This shot tower was erected in 1833 as a result of the production of lead in Wisconsin and at the time diverted much of the business from St. Louis to Milwaukee. The enterprise prospered until 1861 when it fell into decay, the land being sold for taxes.

Later the location became the site of the Tower Hill Congress and school directed for many years by the late Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of Chicago.

It was here that the American forces crossed the river in the Black Hawk War.

A short distance west of the road which crosses the river near Spring Green is the location of Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's 'love bungalow'. Here on Sat.u.r.day, August 15, 1914, Julian Carlson, a negro servant, killed seven people with a hatchet, wounding two others. The dead:

Mrs. Mamah Borthwick, a woman, like the owner of the bungalow, with unconventional ideas.

Mrs. Borthwick's son and daughter, John and Martha Cheney, aged 11 and 9 respectively.

Emil Brodelle, aged 30, an architect.

Thomas Brunker, hostler.

Ernest Weston, aged 13.

David Lindblom, gardener.

The injured were William H. Weston and Herbert Fritz, the latter escaping with a broken arm and cuts.

With gasoline the negro set fire to the building and as the occupants attempted to escape through a door and window, one by one, he struck them with a hatchet. The murderer was found in the firebox of the boiler in the bas.e.m.e.nt and died later in the Dodgeville jail as a result of taking muriatic acid soon after committing the crime.

Some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. "All that was left of her" was buried at Unity Chapel, the Cheney children were cremated in Chicago, the body of Ernest Weston was placed in the Spring Green cemetery, Emil Brodelle was interred in Milwaukee, David Lindblom was lowered in a grave at Unity Chapel and Thomas Brunker sleeps at Ridgeway.

The owner of the property was in Chicago at the time of the tragedy, returning soon after. The building was partly destroyed and later rebuilt along more pretentious lines.

Taliesin was a Cymric bard, whom Welsh legends a.s.sign to the 6th century.

Frank Lloyd Wright is an architect of note, having designed the Imperial Hotel in Tokio and other artistic structures.

The return from Spring Green to Baraboo may be made over the scenic route to Plain, thence to Loganville, the County Farm, and Ableman Narrows.

Gibraltar Bluff

Gibraltar Bluff is reached by crossing the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac and proceeding along the highway or by leaving the train at the village of Okee and walking a little more than a mile west. Not only does the climb to the top of this imposing eminence give the refreshment and delight bred of an extensive view but the active exercise necessary for the ascent is guaranteed to produce a keen appet.i.te. When the day is fair the climber is rewarded, when he reaches the crest, by a charming outlook which includes a wide expanse of forest, farm and fell, with Lake Wisconsin half-hidden in the distance.

The bluff is a well known haunt of the pasque flower or Badger.

The geologists have recently changed the names of some of the formations which are exposed one above the other. The names as given in the "Geology of Wisconsin," Vol. II, 1873-1877, and the more recent ones are as follows:

Old names--

1. Soil and drift.

2. Lower Trenton limestone.

3. St. Peter sandstone.

4. Lower Magnesian limestone.

5. Madison sandstone.

6. Mendota limestone.

7. Potsdam sandstone.

New names--

1. Soil and drift.

2. Black River dolomite.

3. St. Peter sandstone.

4. Lower Magnesian dolomite.

5. Jordan sandstone.

6. St. Lawrence dolomite.

7. Mazomanie sandstone.

Pine Hollow

About a mile east of Kings Corners, almost opposite a rural school and cemetery, the buildings of a farmstead appear to hug a fringe of wood, high bluffs forming the sky line in the immediate background of the picture. Leaving the car at the home of the owner, Walter Welch, a short walk through a grove brings the visitor against the beetling bluffs; solid, silent, eternities of rock. Pine Hollow is hidden away from the dust of hooting cars, and is a delightful spot wild and perfect in its quietude. One may wend his way almost a mile up the sylvan slope along a stream purling in its rocky channel.

Reedsburg and Ableman

A picturesque drive of some forty miles is the one to Reedsburg, the County Farm, and return. Trunk Line 33 climbs the terminal moraine about a mile west of Baraboo and from this ice-deposited ridge one obtains an extensive view of the upper portion of the Baraboo Valley.

When the ice blocked the elongated depression between the two ranges of Baraboo Bluffs, a lake filled the cavity between the hills to the west.

Following the retreat of the ice the water cut a gap in the moraine, draining the area covered by the shallow lake.

As one swings along, occasional glimpses of the Baraboo River is obtained; rounding a sharp curve a horse-shoe bend is traversed; and two miles farther, at Ableman, the Upper Narrows of the Baraboo River crowd the sky line. As with the gorge at Devil's Lake and the one at the Lower Narrows, this was cut by a stream in ancient geological times, filled with sandstone when the sea intruded, and later was again eroded. Like the remnant of a drift of snow in the late spring, in the gorge is a bed of sandstone deposited by the intruding sea. Along the crest on the opposite side of the river as one rides along, conglomerate may be seen, seeming almost ready to topple to the base below. The cement pebbles tell of waves beating on a far-off sh.o.r.e. On the right of the road, near the upper end of the gorge, stands a picturesque rock resisting the elements, an attractive land mark, carved by the eternal sculptor.

As Reedsburg is neared, fox farms are pa.s.sed. The wily animals are grown for their valuable pelts.

Just after crossing the Baraboo River in Reedsburg, swing to the left, climb the winding road, coast down to the County Farm, turn to the left, drive across Narrows Creek Valley, entering Ableman just after pa.s.sing through the gorgeous gorge which corresponds in geological history with those of Devil's Lake and the Baraboo River.

Merrimack to Prairie du Sac

Take the launch at Merrimack for a river ride to the hydro-electric plant at Prairie du Sac. Down this river went Joliet and Marquette, the first white men in this region, in June, 1673. Duluth and Hennepin were the first to come up the stream in 1680. Down the waterway went a French force in 1727 to erect a Fort on the Mississippi, and along this course retreated, in 1760, the last French garrison of Machinac, seeking the Illinois country.

Other adventures and expeditions have disturbed these waters in times past and in the middle of the last century a procession of rafts plowed southward. Prior to the advent of the railroad a few river steamers dodged the sandbars as often as they could, but today naught but small craft course the stream.

The boatman may show you the location of Rosalietown, near where the river bends southward, a pioneer hamlet of which nothing now remains.

The little cemetery has been eaten away by the river.

Anacher Hill

A vast and pleasing prospect is obtained from Anacher Hill in Caledonia. From Baraboo the elevation may be reached by driving to the Welch Church on Trunk Line Highway 33, going to the right about two miles, to the left a mile and again to the left a mile. The place may also be reached by driving past Pine Bluff or through Dog Hollow.

From the elevation return to the east and west road, then go east about a mile, not descending the bluff. North of the Scherbath home a few rods, the quartzite is seen to outcrop. In the hard rock may be seen a number of pot holes, similar to those at Devil's Lake. As to whether they were made by a waterfall during glacial times or before, geologists have not determined.

A fine view may be obtained from this outcrop or from the land back of the Scherbath house.

Two or three miles west of Anacher hill, a short distance north of the road extending east of Pine Bluff, is another elevation, the Clifford Capener farm, affording a rare outlook.