Birders! Mississippi Valley Conservancy needs your HELP! We are seeking volunteers to look and listen for birds to help determine presence or absence of declining bird species on different sites throughout southwest Wisconsin. Volunteers essentially would go to a site in early morning and make a list of any birds seen and/or heard. Sites vary between MVC nature preserves or private lands MVC is working to protect. These bird lists provide invaluable information will help to guide our restoration activities and prioritize sites with breeding populations of declining birds. If interested, email Abbie Church, MVC Conservation Director at achurch@mississippivalleyconservancy.org with your preference for habitat (forest, wetland, grassland); geographical interest (La Crosse County, Monroe County, anywhere, etc) and availability. We’re hoping to schedule site visits throughout May. Sites include woodlands, grasslands, and pastures in Trempealeau, La Crosse, Jackson, Monroe, Crawford, and Vernon Counties.
Some 2-3 weeks ago we were are out along the Mississippi and marveled at the number of fishing boats clustered below the dams. I’m starting to see pix that explain the boats! Apparently at this time, with higher water, the perch have cooled, So walleye and sauger are more common. But it sure IS tantalizing!! For updates on fishing, please check our fishing category or the Genoa fishing barge. Photos courtesy Mark Clements.
Our farm lies perched above a broad wetland valley. Back in the mid-80s I heard something we had never heard before, the unison calls of a pair of nesting sandhill cranes. When it was verified by our local conservation warden and by the University of Wisconsin, we could claim to have reported the first nesting pair of sandhill cranes in the La Crosse area in a very long time.
Since then, our neighborhood has maintain a spring “Crane Watch.” Some of those dates and comments appear below. For more recent years, please use the SEARCH button to see stories about the cranes! The quote at the end of this piece is one of my favorites from Aldo Leopold.
3/2/2011 “Eight Sandhill Cranes arrived TODAY, making their earliest arrival in our records. Ground is still frozen with several inches of crusty snow. ”
March 15, 2009 “Bitter cold night as late as 03/13/09. So cranes waited until we hit the 50 degree mark two days later.“
March 12, 2008 “3 Sandhill cranes fly over Goose Island near La Crosse.
March 13, 2008 A Single crane flies, calling, over Coon Creek near Stoddard. Lots of melting snow in the valley. Temp of 56.7 degrees. ”
March 11, 2007 “Sandhill Cranes on the islands off Goose Island Park south of La Crosse. Temps in upper 40s, two weeks after record snowfalls in Western Wisconsin, so lots of snow on the ground. March 12 the cranes are reported along Coon Creek and other valleys off the Upper Mississippi River.”
Feb 23, 2005 (a good two weeks earlier than normal!) March 15, 2003 March 13, 2002
March 13, 2001
March 16, 1999 March 1, 1998 March 10, 1997 March 13, 1996 March 18, 1993 April 4, 1992 March 9, 1988 March 17, 1987
Excerpt from A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
“The sadness discernible in some marshes arises, perhaps in their once having harbored cranes. Now they stand humbled, adrift in history.
“Someday, perhaps in the very process of our benefactions, perhaps in the fullness of geologic time, the last crane will trumpet his farewell and spiral skyward from the great marsh.
“High out of the clouds will fall the sound of hunting horns, the baying of the phantom pack, the tinkle of little bells, and then a silence never to be broken, unless perchance in some far away pasture of the milky way.”
The 50 degree day this weekend made for a great trip along the river. We found the downstream sides of the Locks to be crowded with fishing boats. 38 below the Genoa dam.
Bald Eagles clustered… sometimes as many as 12 in close proximity… fishing along the edge of melted ice sheets. My guess is that as the ice melts, fish carcasses are released to make an easy meal for our favorite scavengers! At one spot, I quickly counted 12 eagles and then left uncounted a much larger cluster of fishing and flying eagles just beyond.
Prairie du Chien had their annual Eagle Days this coming weekend, March 5, .Ferryville offers theirs. Eagle days are an excellent time for visitors to have access to expert guides in accessible spots in our small town communities!
It was hard to imagine that our Sandhill Cranes would let a 50 degree day slip by without making a run for Wisconsin, so we made it home by 5 to form a welcoming committee. Sure enough, a single crane came in by 5:15 pm. Like the last crane to leave the valley in October, this first arrival was mostly focused on finding out who might already have arrived. Its calls were constant as it moved eastward from the river, but no responses as yet. By March 13, most of our local birds will be settled in and claiming their nests.
I have to say this was the first time in 15 or 20 years of crane watching that I have been so confident the cranes would show up that I have literally set up a lawnchair to wait for them!! What a wonderful river valley to call home! You can find a HISTORY of Sandhill Crane arrival dates I’ve recorded in a near-by post. Use the SEARCH option to find previous posts on Eagles, Pelicans, and Sandhill Cranes along the Mississippi River!
Anyone out to enjoy the last vestiges of fall color along the Upper Mississippi River might enjoy keeping a pair of binocs handy. Some of our larger raptors and waterfowl are on the verge of departing the area and it is a great opportunity for viewing relatively large congregations of Egrets, Great Blue Herons, American White Pelicans. Small groups of Tundra Swans are filtering onto pool 8 and likely pool 7 already. Please comment as to where you are seeing swans.
Eagles are also abundant as the summer and winter Bald Eagles make the winter switch. Our summer residents are soon leaving for permanently open water closer to the mouth of the Ohio, Eagles from the north are moving down to their hunting snags located at the pools. Are you seeing a Golden Eagle? It’s possible!
Saw 14 Eagles flying between Hwy 35 and a bluff top near Genoa on 10/29/15. Others have also reported seeing large and small clusters. Listen for their chittery calls as they interact!
Please use the Search option at the top of the page to read more from our RAMBLIN’ ON Blog about Tundra Swans and Eagles on the Upper River.
Perfectly gorgeous Fall weather…with day-time highs in the lows 60s… should continue for another week and a half into October. Get out and enjoy! Color will make a steady march south for the next several weeks. Hardwoods (hickories, maples, and finally, oaks) have begun to illuminate the bluffs! Red, and sugar maples (yellow), love the southeast facing slopes near Lansing and Mc Gregor, Iowa.
Check out the march of color in the next post. Call hotlines ahead or check online for best color in the 10 Mississippi River states!
A few bright yellow aspens and birch still have their leaves, and hickories are sporting some orangish brown. The last leaves to drop are the oaks, so once the bluffs turn a rich uniform brown, we know the color season has nearly ended. Softwoods in the river bottoms are steadily losing leaves that never become really brilliant.
Additionally, Hummers are gone, and Sandhill cranes departed our valley. Pelicans have gathered up along the river and look like heavy clumps of pure white snow. Egrets and Great Blue Herons are still on the backwaters. Duck hunting is in full swing and adult American Bald Eagles are abundant! Color is great, but lots more to see along your route!
It’s fall and few locations in the country offer the same natural beauty as the easel-like bluffs of the Mississippi River Valley. We’ll keep you posted on color hot-spots as the season progresses, but you will also find the following sites and hotlines of interest. Peak color periods for each state are noted in paragraphs.
Arkansas. 800-628-8725; www.1800natural.com (late October to early November)
And don’t leave home without the indispensable guides to Mississippi River and Great River Road travel!
Every volume of DISCOVER! America’s Great River Road is filled with a variety of fascinating Mississippi River fact and lore. Photos, maps, charts! All Volumes contain info on birding, wildlife viewing hotspots. Each highlights Geography, interpretive history and natural history attractions along the Great River Road.SAVE $10!!! Purchase ALL FOUR VOLUMES of Discover! America’s Great River Road… St. Paul, Minnesota, to Venice, Louisiana, individually signed by the author. Four guides for $62.
Bellevue State Park, near Bellevue, Iowa, just south of Dubuque, is located atop a 300-foot high limestone bluff with panoramic views of the Mississippi River valley and Lock & Dam 12. It also shelters the largest Butterfly Garden in Iowa.
The Garden Sanctuary for Butterflies contains over 100 separate plots, each featuring plants which provide nectar for adult butterflies and/or host plants for caterpillars. Pathways allow visitors to enjoy the wide variety of butterflies and flowers. An area has been established next to the garden to allow close-up viewing of the butterflies.
According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, butterflies found in Iowa are either in the process of migration or are completing one of the various stages of their life cycle. Approximately 60 species of butterfly can be expected to make their appearance at the Butterfly Garden each year. Host plants for butterflies include wild aster, ragweed, goldenrod, lamb’s-quarters, daisy fleabane, milkweed, cottonwoods, wild cherry, hackberry and willows.
ALMANAC, August 3, MONARCHS IN THE CEDAR TREE
c Pat Middleton. May not be reproduced or used in any format without permission.
beautiful monarch cluster DAVE COLLINS IMAGE
The gentle shift to fall is palpable around us. The sun sets southward, over the neighbor’s pathway, rather than behind the northern bluffs. Geese fly from cornfield to cornfield in great flocks. 64 degrees today, 40 tonight. We gather firewood.
For the second year in a row, a swarm of Monarch butterflies have set up camp in the old cedar in the side yard. They hang motionless from the branches–like dull brown seed pods–until a late-comer flutters by. Then all gently beat their orange-colorful “hello” and “where’ve you been” until the traveler, too, is accommodated comfortably to its own berth for the night.
September 6, 2015 Each night this week we have had a single Monarch roost in the old Cedar tree and we remember how we once saw 100s. It takes our nightly guest a long time to settle in… perhaps it too “remembers” that there should have been more of his fellows here…
Along the Mississippi by Ruth Nissen, Wisconsin DNR
Monarchs Ready to Head South
About this time of year we begin to notice more monarch butterflies fluttering in the wind and congregating (or staging) in areas where bountiful supplies of nectar are available.
But what isn’t readily apparent is that those butterflies are moving with a purpose and direction. Every year, in late summer and early fall, millions of monarch butterflies from the Eastern United States and Southern Canada find their way to Central America. This is a journey of more than 2,000 miles from the Upper Mississippi River.
The monarchs are heading to the Transvolcanic Mountain Range, located west of Mexico City, to spend the winter. They gather there in huge colonies of tens of millions of butterflies, literally hanging from fir trees in clusters so thick they look like bundles of dead leaves.
The butterflies arrive in November and remain largely inactive until undertaking the return trip north in mid-March. How they find their way is a mystery because the monarchs that leave Mexico in spring are at least three generations removed from those that will make the journey back in the fall.
Monarchs leaving the wintering areas migrate 800 miles to the Southern United States, where they lay their eggs. The next generation on monarchs continues the northward migration to the upper United States and Canada. This continued movement north is necessary because southern milkweed plants die out in June. Two to three more generations are produced during the summer before the monarchs begin to flutter their way back to Mexico.
About 12 wintering sites have been identified in this mountain range of central Mexico. The monarchs are attracted to the high altitude fir forest of these sites because the combination of temperature, humidity, and wind velocity create the conditions essential to their survival. The canopy of the fir trees also protects them from large temperature fluctuations and winter storms.
Unfortunately, monarch experts say bad weather is not the greatest threat to the butterflies. As is the case in other forested areas, habitat destruction by humans is a much more serious concern. A monarch reserve has been created by the Mexican Government, but the reserve on includes five of the known wintering sites. In addition, logging pressure is heavy on 75% of the reserve area. Logging affects the microclimate to such an extent that either the monarchs may not use the site, or if they do, their survival over the winter is dramatically impacted.
In order to insure that the phenomenon of migration doesn’t disappear, it is very important that humans find some way to work together to preserve the livelihood of the local people in the wintering sites, which in turn would lower the economic pressure on the monarch reserve.
###
Along the Mississippi is an ongoing series related to the Mississippi River. Articles are prepared by officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and comments can be directed to the DNR office in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
DESTINATION MEXICO!!
We’ve recently added this section for those who wish to follow the Monarchs to Mexico. The most visited sanctuary is El Rosario, and the best place to base yourself is the town of Angangueo, an old mining town. Seeing the butterflies, so thick that they sometimes BREAK tree branches (!) will require hikes of up to three hours, though it is not a strenuous hike. It is recommended that visitors hire a local guide or travel with a guided tour group.
If you travel independently:
If you approach from Brownsville, the first important city you will reach will be Ciudad Victoria, capital city of the state of Tamaulipas. By continuing on south you will cross the Tropic of Cancer at Jaumave, and at every mile you will notice more and more butterflies which often take the attention of even the disinterested tourist. At CiudadMante you will be at the very foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental range. Just south of Ciudad Mante the highway divides — one route goes to Tampico on the coast; the other veers southwest into the mountains towards Mexico City. Be sure to choose the latter route for best butterfly viewing. This route takes you to Nuevo Morelos and CiudadValles, and there is good butterfly viewing all the way from here down to Tamasunchale.
Our guided tour itinerary will give readers and idea what to expect from a journey. Looking for a good organization to travel with? Search the Internet and also have a look here.Natural Habitat World Wide Tours offers tours (you guessed it!) world wide.
Rosario / Angangueo
From Mexico City, travel through the central highlands to the picturesque mountain village of Angangueo. The nearby Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary offers your first encounter with the king of the butterflies. The path is groomed, but sometimes fairly steep, trail with convenient benches for occasional rests. At the epicenter of millions of monarchs cover the tall oyamel and fir trees! Mexico’s sanctuaries may be the only places in the world where you can actually hear butterflies’ wings beating. Many Mexicans still hold the Aztec belief that the souls of the dead are reborn as monarchs. Chincua / Angangueo
The Chincua Butterfly Sanctuary offers a second memorable experience with the monarchs. For those who choose, horses are available for this excursion. As Carlos Gottfried, president of Mexico’s Monarca A.C., says, “When you stand in a monarch sanctuary, your soul is shaken and your life is changed.” In Chincua, we ride our horses most of the way then walk down into the area of high butterfly density.
Piedra Herrada Sanctuary / Toluca / Mexico City
Relax in luxury at the luxurious Hotel Avandaro Spa & Resort in Valle de Bravo. A visit to the Piedra Herrada Sanctuary is the newest spot opened for viewing the monarchs. Once again, horses take us most of the way and we then walk, often through thick vegetation, to the spot where the butterflies are located. This area is “wilder” than the other two sanctuaries and often provides a more remote nature experience. During your return trip to Mexico City, stop in Toluca, originally an Indian settlement dating back to the 13th century.
Information:The El Rosario Sanctuary is accessible from either Angangueo or Ocampo. Angangueo is approximately 115 kilometers from Morelia and 205 kilometers from Mexico City.
Click BLUE LINKS with your cursor to explore or purchase historic maps from Mississippi River border states. (Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and all southern states!) Moving your cursor over the map image with allow you to STUDY the image in extreme detail.
Mention treasure hunting at the River Road Cafe in Stoddard, Wis., and eyes light up all around the room.
Kathy knows of a sheltered cave with many initials dating from the 1800s. Dean’s friend found a scrimshaw whale’s tooth inscribed with the word “Dakota.” Randy knows of a ring valued at $1,500 found with a metal detector.
Perhaps it is a case where “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but for the last 2500-3000 years the Mississippi River Valley has supported intense human activity. This makes it a particularly historic area, rich in Indian relics. Additionally, relics from the French, English, Spanish and American adventurers who have explored the area since the 1600s are still being found today. Antiques from the first settlers, dating back to the 1760s, are sought by dealers from throughout the country. All of this adds up to great prospecting for the treasure-hunting hobbyists using metal detectors who are active in the area.
Roger Toner (not his real name) owns a snowmobile/cycle shop in the La Crosse area, but his real love for the last 15 years has been treasure hunting. Roger suggests that most hobbyists go “shooting” with metal detectors much as another individual goes fishing – for relaxation.
A good find is an old coin, a bit of jewelry, an iron relic or an Indian artifact. The success of a hunter will likely depend less on luck than on the amount of time spent researching his sites and how well he can use the metal detector.
The big questions for the would-be searcher might be: where to start looking? what equipment will I need? what sort of treasures can I realistically expect to find?
For Roger, the hunt usually starts while snow is covering the ground.
“I find it much easier to visualize how soldiers or hunters might have used the land when all I have to study is the smooth snow-covered earth,” he says. “I think to myself that a particular hump looks out of place or especially convenient. Or that this high flat bench might have made a good camp ground. Then I come back to search in the spring when the frost has forced new artifacts to the surface.”
Some of Roger’s best finds have come while “puddling” in the mud of a river bend. “Again, I work in the spring. The water and mud are very cold, but I’ve found perfectly preserved tomahawks, still wrapped in leather. A green stone figure I found has been certified as a Mayan carving in jade.”
The United States Treasure Atlas by Tom Terry provides an introduction to the places treasures are most likely to be found and makes available the data from his years of treasure-hunting research. Reputed treasure sites and ghost towns are listed on a county-by-county basis for each state. A quick glance at any river valley county listings is likely to be enough to whet the appetite of the most cynical.
Old state and county maps are also available in our Shopping Cart which will indicate old roadways, railroad beds and ghost towns. Terry suggests these historic roadways as preferable to modern roads as it is far more likely that valuable coins and relics may be found. Modern parks and roadsides often contain more trash than treasures.
The library and reference librarians are also helpful in tracking down local histories and out-of-print books that might provide the serious seeker with leads. Old newspaper stories provide leads on some of the earliest caches. An article from 1909, for example, details a search of bluffs and s
horelines for a money cache dating from the 1700s thought to be buried near present-day Osceola, Wisconsin, after English adventurer William Snow was attacked by French soldiers. The cache was not
recovered.
Native artifacts are abundant along the Mississippi River shores of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.Government forts were established in the early 1800s along the entire length of the Upper Mississippi River. Riverboat captains, soldiers, pioneers, adventurers and traders traveling between the forts often carried large sums of gold or silver coins for payroll or trading purposes, as well as supplies.
The Upper Mississippi River valley is rumored to be heavy with the unrecovered treasure caches of river pirates, gypsies and horse thieves. Indian hostility was rampant until the Battle of Bad Axe north of Prairie du Chien ended the Black Hawk War in 1832. Upon attack (whether from Indian, outlaw or river pirate) valuables were hidden to avoid theft. Often, the transporter was killed and there remained no one who knew just where the treasure had been buried. Victims might be left too short-handed to retrieve the valuables, or natural disasters occurred, such as flood, earth slide or memory lapse.
According to the United States Treasure Atlas, rumors persist that $80,000 was buried in 1832 “on the highest bluff across from Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in four piles of $20,000 each” during an Indian attack. The soldiers who buried the treasure were ambushed before returning. The treasure was never recovered.
Treasure hunting along the MN, IA, WI shores.
Buried money, jewelry and other treasures are likely to be found wherever people lived; banks were often far away and distrusted. An old home foundation might conceal a “private” bank in the floorboards, or savings might be stashed in a nearby fence posthole or a tin can beside the silo. Dollar bills have been sewn into and under carpets, into linen, drapery, stuffed behind wall-boards and under floorboards and in false air ducts.
The steamboat era has left many relics along the Wisconsin and Illinois shores of the Mississippi River. The great wooden boats that changed the course of commercial history along the Mississippi had a life expectancy of only five years and usually met with an untimely end in sudden fires or sinkings.
Steamboat wrecks have provided authorized divers with a steady stream of antiques, relics and personal belongings. The prized safes from many wrecks remain unrecoverable, including the War Eagle safe off the riverfront in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Coins found with metal detector.According to Roger Toner a typical treasure
hunt (say in a small cave) would involve the following steps: 1) Take photos of the site before doing any searching. Often things can be seen in the photo which are not apparent to the eye. 2) Use a metal detector to pinpoint any possible coins, jewelry, iron relics. A fork or other very small tool might be used to find the item. A whiskbroom and sifter might be used to search for other relics. If anything of interest is located, make detailed notes of where it was found, as one good find usually means more to come.
Tools other than metal detectors are inexpensive: a fork for making small holes, a sifter, a whisk broom and a probe that looks similar to a giant hatpin. Note that a shovel is not standard equipment. Too often a shovel will simply damage the fragile relic.
The cardinal rule among treasure hunters is get permission before searching on any private or public land. State parks and monuments, national parks and sites and some local parks and monuments are off limits to seekers with metal detectors, as are state-and federally-owned property under the protection of the conservation departments, the Army Corps of Engineers, wildlife refuges, etc. Written permission must be obtained from authorities before removing any relics.
Today’s treasure hunter is made from the same mold as the prospector of old. He or she is a dreamer, an optimist, full of curiosity and appreciation for things past. The thrill is in the search, the chance that the next find will be the big one. Like the gambler, he develops an “itch” to try out the next hot spot.
Roger would rather talk about his hobby than anything else. Terry has been sharing his knowledge with others for the past 10 years. Our farm was settled in 1858 – and I can’t wait for the ground to thaw!
Our brand new Upper Mississippi River travel guidebook, Discover! America’s Great River Road, Volumes 1-4 by Mississippi River author and lecturer, Pat Middleton.
“Orma Remembers Nelson, Wisconsin”
(excerpted from Volume 1 of DISCOVER! America’s Great River Road
“The bluffs were full of caves and I remember wiggling through some of them on my stomach, they were that small. I know people spoke of rattlesnakes, but I never saw one. There was a rumor of treasure buried by soldiers in the bluffs. Often, people just went up and dug around in their spare time hoping to find it. I never heard that any treasure was ever found.” Click here to see ALL our books and antique maps featuring the historic Mississippi River.
Ribbon Map of the entire Mississippi,
including Lake Glazier, MN. 1887
Drawn by Willard Glazier
This ribbon map was drawn by Captain Willard Glazier to “prove” his premise that the True Source of the Mississippi was Lake Glazier rather than Lake Itasca. Many modern-day towns are included in this survey, including Point Coupee in Louisiana. Many towns noted on the map…such as Waterproof… no longer exist!
“Mississippi
River Ribbon Maps”
from an article by Bob Mullen, for The Paddlewheel newsletter.
Imagine a map of the Mississippi River that shows all of the cities and towns along the river and all the landings where a steamboat might stop. Make the map about three inches wide and in one continuous strip showing the entire river from the Gulf of Mexico to its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. If you imagined correctly, you would have a map that is about eleven feet in length, like a long streamer or ribbon. Now roll up the map to a couple of inches in diameter and put into a cylindrical container that can easily fit into your pocket!
Such maps do exist. In 1866, Myron Coloney and Sidney B. Fairchild patented and published a map like this in St. Louis. In 1887, explorer Willard Glazier produced another ribbon map that included a lake he called Lake Willard, which he believed was the TRUE source of the Mississippi River. The 1866 map was sold commercially in St. Louis and along the river for a number of years. The maps were housed in a wooden cylinder with a rounded wooden cap at each end. On the side, a slot was cut where the map could be pulled out to give people a way to grasp it when pulling the map from its case. The patent granted the inventors was for “the idea or design ofmaps upon strips of any material,” as stated on the map itself. Glazier’s 1877 map was folded and printed with the guide to his canoe trip from Lake Willard in Minnesota to the Gulf. It includes most of the river villages we know today, as well as many which have since been washed away by Mississippi River flooding.
These maps both show considerable detail, but could never be used by a steamboat pilot for serious navigation. The river was much to complicated with islands, tricky bends, wing dams, and other obstacles to fit on a map like this. The ribbon map must have been made for the tourist or other traveler on the river who had enough expendable money to pay for such a souvenir. While the boat’s pilot had a detailed map to follow (often only in his memory), these ribbon maps served the traveler with a way to keep track of the boat’s progress on a long trip. It even pointed out a few points of interest. A notice in the July 10, 1866 Missouri Republican stated, “To the traveler, it will be an exciting guide and companion, and will furnish him with more information at a glance than he can secure from a constant questioning of the officers of the boat… to say nothing of avoiding a short answer from, or an immensity of annoyance to, these monarchs of our Mississippi River palaces.”
Only a handful of original ribbon maps exist today, scattered in museums across the country. The Smithsonian has one and the Missouri Historical Society of Missouri owns three Mississippi River ribbon maps. Each of these is extremely fragile and can no longer be handled. One of the maps at MHS is about eight inches wide, and has all the detail a riverboat pilot would need. Housed in a larger wooden box with a glass window, the map winds from a roll on one side of the window to a box on the other side of the window. The map in the window only shows an area some 30-40 miles… new scrolls could be set in place as the pilot traveled the length of the river.
In the 140 years since the first ribbon map appeared, nearly every one has disappeared. The Willard Glazier Reproduction here on www.greatriver.com is the only ribbon map we know of that is still available for sale to the public. Each map is either hand-stained to a sepia tone and parchment feel or is exquisitely hand-painted for framing.
Click here to see ALL of our beautiful antique Mississippi River maps online. Email or phone 888-255-7726 for more information!!
5×7″ notecards with portions of the painted maps are available for $4.95 each. Call for information or to request a certain map portion that is meaningful to you.
site in early morning and make a list of any birds seen and/or heard. Sites vary between MVC nature preserves or private lands MVC is working to protect. These bird lists provide invaluable information will help to guide our restoration activities and prioritize sites with breeding populations of declining birds. If interested, email Abbie Church, MVC Conservation Director at achurch@mississippivalleyconservancy.org with your preference for habitat (forest, wetland, grassland); geographical interest (La Crosse County, Monroe County, anywhere, etc) and availability. We’re hoping to schedule site visits throughout May. Sites include woodlands, grasslands, and pastures in Trempealeau, La Crosse, Jackson, Monroe, Crawford, and Vernon Counties.![IMG_1087+%25281%2529[1]](http://www.greatriver.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_10872528125291.jpg)
see stories about the cranes! The quote at the end of this piece is one of my favorites from Aldo Leopold.
relatively large congregations of Egrets, Great Blue Herons, American White Pelicans. Small groups of Tundra Swans are filtering onto pool 8 and likely pool 7 already. Please comment as to where you are seeing swans.
om the 1800s. Dean’s friend found a scrimshaw whale’s tooth inscribed with the word “Dakota.” Randy knows of a ring valued at $1,500 found with a metal detector.
which will indicate old roadways, railroad beds and ghost towns. Terry suggests these historic roadways as preferable to modern roads as it is far more likely that valuable coins and relics may be found. Modern parks and roadsides often contain more trash than treasures.
The library and reference librarians are also helpful in tracking down local histories and out-of-print books that might provide the serious seeker with leads. Old newspaper stories provide leads on some of the earliest caches. An article from 1909, for example, details a search of bluffs and s
The steamboat era has left many relics along the Wisconsin and Illinois shores of the Mississippi River. The great wooden boats that changed the course of commercial history along the Mississippi had a life expectancy of only five years and usually met with an untimely end in sudden fires or sinkings.
Ribbon Map of the entire Mississippi,