The Big Rivers

I slept well at the Garden of the Gods campground in Southern Illinois. 

After rising, I went about my morning ablutions, then made a sausage & egg concoction on the camper stove, got dressed and set off in the truck to continue to explore this portion of southern Illinois. I continued southward on the quiet two-lane highway, following the west bank of the Ohio River and eventually came to a town named Golconda, Illinois . This is the seat of Polk County and has a nice looking brick courthouse which was built in 1871. 

There are flood walls that were built around the town many years ago to protect it from being inundated as it had been several times in previous centuries.  I visited in the courthouse and saw old photos of previous floods where the town was submerged. 

Polk County Court House

Court House and Town Flooded

On further reading, it turns out that this is an infamous place where the Trail of Tears  passed through. The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of tribes from the Southeast United States in the 1830s. It brought the Chickasaw, Chocktaw, Cherokee, and other tribes on their forced march from the southeast United States and to their ultimate destination of the Oklahoma territories. The Indians were forced to pause the eastern shore of the Ohio and wait for an the inordinate amount of time for the ferries to be cleared so that the Indians could be transported across. A number of the old and the weak died while waiting for this to occur. Also some of the locals attacked individual Indians and basically murdered them. Then the murderers sued the United States to be paid for the burial of their victims. Grotesque and Evil!

The town itself was interesting to see (only around 700 residents). After looking at the old buildings on Main Street, I drove down to the Shores of the Ohio to view the river. I saw barges being pushed up the river. A fisherman had a couple poles with lines in the water and we struck up a conversation; Tom and I talked for quite a while about the history of the Ohio river. There’s a book I recommended to him titled That Dark and Bloody River; it discusses  the Indian Wars that occurred along all along the Ohio River from above Pittsburgh down to the confluence with the Mississippi. American Settlers were coming down the river in the later 1700s and the Indians were not ready to give up their land without a fight.. It’s a heck of a story and I strongly recommend the book for anyone interested in the deeper history of the area. 

From Colconda  I drove west.  My next destination was Cairo Illinois and Fort Defiance at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers.

Meeting of the Big Rivers
The Mississippi on the Right; Ohio on the Left

Fort Defiance is another spot that is so significant in terms of early American history. The meeting of these two mighty rivers (Mississippi and Ohio) was the blending of two major stories. So many people have passed this point. Some folks came around this point and then headed north back up either of the two rivers. When Lewis and Clark were on their way to the exploration of the American northwest they came down the Ohio River and then turned and went up the Mississippi to the confluence of the Missouri River and then followed that up and thru what is now Montana and then over the mountains and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.

When Ulysses S Grant was beginning his Civil War campaign of attack on the Confederacy in 1861, he built up his Army at Fort Defiance which is at the point where the two rivers meet. So I wanted to  stand on this historic spot and look up both rivers.

Union Gunboats Running the Rivers

Fort Defiance Map 1861

I spent about an hour at the point of land looking and photographing and contemplating. From here Grant headed back up the Ohio River and then sent gun boats and troop ships up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to attack both Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. After violent clashes and battles at both forts, the Union took possession from the confederacy and after a short pause grand headed south and ultimately was in a major battle call Shiloh. Eventually, the Union took Nashville.

Grant's Initial Western Civil War Campaign

At some point Grant was back down the rivers onto the Ohio and then turn south down the Mississippi and ultimately attacked Vicksburg  Mississippi and after a long siege and battles the union prevailed and took nearly 30,000 rebels prisoner.

And so it all started from the spot where the Mississippi and Ohio meet. Pretty profound starting place…  I stared and took it all in.  Food for thought.

After lingering,  I got back in the truck and crossed the Mississippi River over to the Missouri side and headed south. At some point I crossed back over into the state of Tennessee and drove on into the night crossing the border into the state of Mississippi and finally found a Walmart at Tupelo and parked my rig on the outskirts of the parking lot, climbing into the back of the camper and went to sleep. 

George Rogers Clark and The Garden of the Gods

Vincennes, Indian has special historical significance.   So, I wanted to pause here on Monday morning and take in the specifics. 

Until five years ago I was not aware of George Rogers Clark who was an incredibly audacious young man (also the older brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame).  In 1777, at the age of 25, George proposed to the Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry, that he, Clark, lead an expedition out to "The Illinois Country" and attack British military outposts on the Ohio, Mississippi and Wabash Rivers and force the British out of the area.  He succeeded.  Improbably, he accomplished this with a small band of around 175 men.  

Clark's Expedition to Vincennes

British Surrender to Clark

For a number of years I've been fascinated with the "Old Northwest" of the early United States.  My home in Wisconsin is near the far Northwestern corner of this region.  The British had dominated the area prior to the American Revolution. (They, in turn, had taken legal possession from the French in 1763 after winning major battles both in North America and in Europe.) 

But Clark's conquest at Vincennes changed the equation and ultimately resulted in the Brits ceding the area to the Americans when the Treaty between the two was established in 1783 (Treaty of Paris).  Without this prior military victory by Clark, the British would not have been likely to concede the Ohio and Mississippi valleys to the United States.  Thanks George!

Land Ceded to The USA by the British
Treaty of Paris-1783

So, I wanted to spend a few hours looking the the National Park Service visitor center in Vincennes, see the elaborate memorial to Clark, and see the location of the fort where the British were at the time of the conquest. A video from Ball State University explains the Story of Clark and the conquest of the British and their Indian allies.

George Rogers Clark Memorial

Statue of George Rogers Clark

After a couple hours at Vincennes I was well satisfied.  I got back in the truck and headed south, driving thru Evansville, Indiana. There, I turned west and crossed the Wabash River and re-entered Illinois.

Although I had grown up in northern Illinois, I have never visited the southern end of the state. This area is very unfamiliar to me so I wanted to spend some time looking it over.  I especially wanted to pause in the Shawnee National Forest which is administered by the U.S. Forest Service.  I've seen that this has some physical features you usually don't see in the midwestern USA.  I was not disappointed!  After driving a number of miles on some quiet two lane highways, I saw signs for The Garden of the Gods which I had heard of.  I turned off the main highway (Illinois #1) and followed the lovely Karber Ridge Road west, climbing a steep grade up to the high ground of the ridge of the highlands which are cut thru with large canyons and unique rock formations. The rock seems to be mostly a tough, gray and banded sandstone.

Garden of the Gods
(Photo from the Web)

At the Garden of the Gods turn-off I parked the truck and went for a long hike and scramble.  The trees in the forest are almost all hardwoods and with the leaves off, you can get a good sense of the extreme topography.  Getty Images has a good collection of photos from these formations: Here 

The Old Northwest was originally the "Wild West" with massive rivers, great distances, low population density, wildlife including buffalo herds, bears, mountain lions and a number of different Indian tribes.  The history of this place is a subject to contemplate.

Ultimately, I decided to camp up in the highlands of the forest. There were plenty of cheap ($10) campsites.  This time of the year the campground was totally empty.  Not a bad place to stay the night!

The First Day; Baldwin to Vincennes

When I left home at 8:00 AM the temperature was -7°.  We had around 8 inches of snow on the ground.  My immediate goal fort this first day of driving was to get out of the cold and snow.    On the way out of town I stopped at the farm of my friend, Ron, and we chatted for a little bit.  He and my grandson keep an eye on my home while I'm gone.  (Sometimes my grandson stays there.)  After about 20 minutes of chatting with Ron, I climbed back into the truck and was soon on the Interstate.

Rolling Out of Town

In Ron's Farmyard

The Silverado is not that fuel efficient, especially when loaded with all my bikes, gear, tools, water, propane, etc.  I'm lucky to get 14 miles/gallon if I hold the speed on the highway at a steady 65 miles/hour.  (This compares to the Sienna minivan which gets around 22 miles/gallon.) So, as much as I can, I keep to that speed, setting cruise control and letting this be my discipline.  Other passenger vehicles and 18 wheeler trucks can pass me by and steadily do so.  As long as I don't form any traffic backup, I stick to the right lane and tootle along. My eye is on patience and consistency.  I've an audio book on CD by Ron Chernow, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant.  The total time for reading this book aloud is just over 48 hours. I expect that I will be able to listen periodically to this over the next week or two. Also, I've the capacity to listen to podcasts and radio shows.  These audio distractions help the hours pass.

First Three Days of Travel

I took I-94 down past Madison Wisconsin.  Then I followed I-39 further south thru Rockford, Illinois and further down thru Bloomington. A few more transitions via I-74 and and I-57 followed.  

The weather was fine for driving. The sky was overcast but with no precipitation nor winds.  A fine "Blah" day for a long drive and the miles turned over hour after hour. By the time I was in north central Illinois, the snow was nearly gone. The temps were in the low 30s and I was looking forward to warmer weather.  At around 480 miles, the sun set and I drove on into the darkness.  At some point my Garmin was sending me down dark rolling two-lane state and country highways before finally crossing the into Indiana.  

The specific ultimate destination for this first day of driving was Vincennes, in southwest Indiana.  Total mileage turned out to be around 610 miles.  Around 8:45 PM I rolled into town and I found the local Walmart.  After visiting the store, using the washrooms and making a few purchases, I parked the truck at a quiet but well-lit corner of the store parking lot, locked up the truck, and walked around to the back and climbed into the camper.  A long day of driving but I was pleased to have covered a good distance.

Winter Road Trip Preparations

Average Temps in January

The average temperature in my neighborhood in January and February is about 3°F with lows down to -25° at night. Sometimes we can have periods of 5-10 days of sustained subzero temperatures.  Also, the high latitudes of Wisconsin and Minnesota make for very long, dark and cold nights.  The winters are  hard and can run well into April. Sometimes winter seems to run up to nearly 5 months. Ugh!

For the last decade I've typically gone down to Texas Hill Country in the area of Marble Falls, Kerrville and Fredricksburg for a week or twos of road bicycling.  The Hill Country is lovely in the winter and early spring and a bicyclist's paradise.  So many winding, country roads with low traffic volume!  These rides were usually done in the company of other friends from Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We'd often have 15-25 folks together and have wonderful times covering the countryside. Typical day rides varied between 35 and 50 miles.

Since COVID, group rides became problematic. So many people were reluctant to travel.... but I personally didn't have any hesitation to go driving out in the the "Big Empty" on my own.  For years I've used my minivan for various solo forays.  So, in 2020 I loaded up my Toyota Sienna as well as a roof box.  In the van I've taken out all the rear seats and have a raised bed. Underneath the bed is storage for clothing and gear. When driving distances, I'd stow a bike in side the van and then lock it to an exterior rack at night for when I was sleeping/living in the minivan.  

Typically, when traveling, I camp at night on there periphery of Walmart parking lots.  I've black tagboard cut down to fit the windows.  From the outside, no one can see me inside, even when I've lights on.  I've a secure and private little RV.  The minivan gets nearly 22 miles/gallon and so is an efficient way to travel.  I love minivans and have used them for camping/traveling for nearly 25 years. 

In 2020 I drove back to the Fredricksburg Texas area and spent 5 days doing some familiar bicycling routes.  Then I continued west and ultimately visited Southwest Arizona, 'boondocking' in the Quartzsite, area. There are hundreds of thousands are square miles of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas where dispersed camping is allowed.  No campgrounds, per se, just a lot of open space.  Quartzsite especially attracts "Boondockers" because of the extremely comfortable weather in January-March area.  Many 10s of thousands of folks gather in the area. I found it very interesting and enjoyed setting up camp and bicycling and exploring the area.

Camping Near Quartzsite On BLM Land

 After getting a sense of the Boondocking Mentality, I thought it would be interesting to try something a little more suitable for the rough ground of BLM and US Forest Service Roads and later in the early autumn of 2020 I started shopping around for an additional vehicle.  I ended up purchasing a 2007 4x4 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup truck. The truck had spend all it's previous years as a utility vehicle for a farm services firm in southern California. It's service history was well-documented on CarFax and it also had no rust.  

From my time in the Quartzsite area, I'd decided that I'd like a Pop-up Camper for the truck.  This category of truck camper comes with a lower profile and center-of-gravity than a regular truck-bed camper. They're also somewhat lighter.  Once you've set up camp, you can raise the camper up and then you have a lot of room, especially for one person.  The camper has a refrigerator/freezer that works off AC/DC or Propane. Also, there is a 3 burner stove as well as a small furnace to take the edge off the cold in the mornings. 

Right away, I had my local mechanic, Mark, upgrade the truck's shocks, as well as install adjustable air-shocks in the rear. Also, I had 10-ply tires installed so that the truck could better handle the weight of the camper as well as all the gear that I cram into the rear of the extended cab.  I did not want to lose control because of too weak of a suspension system. Also, we gave the truck a little bit of a 'lift' so I've a bit more clearance underneath. Before these modifications, the truck handled more like a car; now, it feels more like The Real Deal.

Finally, I had a trailer hitch installed to the FRONT of the truck.  When covering distances, I still prefer to have my bike(s) stored inside the vehicle.  But once I'm at my ultimate destination, I can lock a bike to the front rack of the truck and have it handy for use.  When in Phoenix, I bought a couple solar panels as well as a control system and played with this for charging a 2nd 'house' battery.

Roof Raised and Solar Rig Set Up

This January I went back to Mark and asked that he set up the truck electrical charging system with a Battery Isolator so that it would charge both the truck battery as well as the primary House battery in the camper.  This will hopefully keep the house battery topped up from my driving.  I have fiddled around with the solar system but I'm not fully committed.  I hesitate to drill holes in the roof of the camper in order to install a roof-top system.  I figure while driving down the road I already have a charging system via the truck alternator. So why not have that as well as whatever I can glean from the sun?

Mark Crimping New Wiring Harness from Under
The Truck to the Camper

After Mark completed the battery conversion, I started loading up the camper and vehicle.  My goal was to get rolling on Sunday, January 30th.

Marathon Versus Sprint. Athleticism and Aging....

I'd like to discuss several role models in terms of physical fitness.  They were not perfect human beings. But one main lesson that I drew Inspiration from them all was the idea that  life and physical health is a Marathon and Not a Sprint.

When I was 18, I met a tough old guy named Scott Nearing.  He was 87 years old and living in rural coastal, Maine.  I had hitch-hiked up the coast to meet him and his wife, Helen.  I was a dewy-eyed back-to-the-lander sort of kid, entranced with the idea of living a Henry David Thoreau sort of life. Walden (1854) was the great book by Thoreau about "Taking  the Road Less Traveled".  Walden combined simple living and closeness to nature, along with the example of a contemplative life shaped by the seasons. The idea of building my own shelter, raising my own food, heating with wood, this was a great draw for me at this tender age.

Scott and Helen had published a book in 1954 titled Living the Good Life: How To Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World, and 26 years later the book had became a popular volume; for many it was as an important as a book as one of those in the Bible. At least it was so for those young adults who wanted to live in Rural America. 

I hitch-hiked up the Maine coast in the autumn of 1970 with my backpack. I left the coast highway in the late afternoon and walked  down a secluded peninsula. When the sunset, I took out a sleeping bag and slept in the woods. The next morning walked up the driveway of the Nearing's little subsistence farm.  There I spent a little over 24 hours with Scott and Helen.  It was very interesting experience and I reflected periodically about that day many times over the following decades.  So many layers of meaning to recall and unpack. But here, in this blog, I'll write specifically about Fitness and Health.

Scott Nearing in His 90s

I think specifically about the physical capacity of an old man, Scott.  

In the morning I spent four hours working with Scott in the garden.  As we worked, he'd direct he. But he just didn't tell me what do do. He was there with shovel and pitchfork, working along side me.  As we pitched compost and mulch, I had a growing sense of this old man and how hard he worked!   We repeatedly shoveled compost, mulch and kelp into a garden cart and then dragged the loads out to the garden.  I worked like a dog and was very strong, but he worked steadily with shovel and pitchfork. 

Scott was much tougher than my father who was in his late 40s but had been a high school and college athlete.   When we were done for the morning, we cleaned off their very worn shovels (the points had been eroded away from use) and garden forks and hung them up in the shed. Then we went into the house and cleaned our hands and faces and sat down and the dining room table where Helen served us a healthy lunch. I remember  a good lentil soup, salad and home-made heavy bread.  

Helen and I hit it off very well for various reasons. (I was guilessly gushing with great enthusiasm about someone she had been very close to, nearly 45 years before...)  

Scott picked at his salad, spooned his soup and ate his bread. He was quiet and listened to Helen and I chatting.  When I left, Helen gave me over ten books that Scott had written about socialism and communism! He had been a college professor in the early 1910-20s.  Besides being a physical specimen, he was a prolific author. I dutifully loaded these book into my backpack. I still have several of these.  After my visit I corresponded several times over the years with Helen.

Looking back, I noted to myself that I'd like to be in as good a shape as Scott when I reached his age! Later, I read Scott's book, The Conscience of a Radical (1984) and in it he mentioned that he was an enthusiastic follower of Bernarr Macfadden.  Who was he, I asked myself???  

Bernarr Macfadden 1910

It turns out that Macfadden was a physical fitness promotor who went on for many decades. Born in 1868, Macfadden published Physical Culture Magazine starting in 1899. The magazine ran from then until 1955!  Macfadden made a fortune building a publishing empire. The magazine was the basis for it all. Scott had kept up with Macfadden and used him as a benchmark for himself. 

Macfadden was a vegetarian, a food faddist, an enthusiast and a total nut case.  But he was crazy like a fox.  In his publications he appealed to the eternal human insecurities. Besides his magazines and books, he sold and promoted various products, foods and supplements.  Bernarr was the promotor of Charles Atlas, the body builder who was the original "92 Pound Weakling" who developed into a famous body builder.  Scott Nearing read Macfadden's publications for decades.  It obviously worked for him!  I was impressed  by these men who seemed to defy age and just kept going like the Ever-Ready Bunny. 

Charles Atlas, Former 97 Pound Weakling

Macfadden emphasized having and cultivating "Pep", a combination of attitude and energy, and sold advertising to hundreds of companies all the way thru the Great Depression and both World Wars. He built up a major publishing business that went on for many years after he had died. 

People are typically anxious about their health and appearance and the magazine spoke to these anxieties and gave hope and inspiration  Ball State University has the entire collection of five decades of the magazine online! (don't ask me why?)  https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/PhyCul  

Here is a random table of contents for December of 1924:

If you look at the titles of the articles, they suggest positivity, the pursuit of happiness, coping with challenges, and looking for inspiration. I expect that these articles were mostly little sermonettes about getting off dead center and overcoming inertia.  The articles seem to be targeted equally to both men and women.  The covers I've seen put emphasis being fit, sexual, positive and excited about living.  Covers showed men and women looking athletic and active.... Not a bad recipe for aspiring toward happiness.  I can imagine people buying this magazine over the decades of the 1900s, no matter how "Cheesey" the covers and article titles might seem, and look for items that would help them resolve to change their lives or get on a more positive track. No wonder Macfadden was successful!  This is really the Great American Dream, of a sort.

Jack Lalanne 1960

Then there was Jack Lalanne in the next generation of health and exercise promotors.  I was an elementary school kid, watching cartoons after school.  But sometimes I'd see Jack, in his tight black jumpsuit, doing exercises on TV and talking encouragement to his viewers.  Rather than using paper publications, he spoke to people over the airways...  I didn't think much about Jack but his enthusiasm was a bit infectious. Even if I wasn't into that into his performance.  I did hear about him doing all sorts of stunts like Bernarr Macfadden. Pulling boats across the Golden Gate, etc.  But what impressed me more was seeing him in his 80s and early 90s, hawking juicers with his wife.  Jack was still full of enthusiasm and energy.  He died fit at 96.

Jack and Wife Hawking Their Juicer

Besides these very public figures, there have been other more obscure athletic types I have known.  

In the climbing world, I know of several old guys that kept on going and staying active almost until death.  There was Fred Beckey who was still climbing into his late 80s.  A younger 21 year old climbing partner of mine did an two day climbing trip with Fred when Fred was in his early 80s.  Pretty impressive, Nate told me.  Fred climbed into his early 90s.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Beckey

Fred Beckey, Dirtbag Climber

Several other famous old climbers I think of come to mind. One was Fritz Weisnner who climbed into his mid 80s. He was on K2, 700' below the summit in 1939 with a US Expedition.  He was a great man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Wiessner

Fritz On Mt. Lemmon, Arizona

Fritz and Rope

Norman Vaughn was born in 1905 and was on the  1928 expedition to Antarctica with Admiral Byrd. When he was in his 40s, he worked for the US Army Air Force doing search and rescue of air crews in Greenland. He was an experienced sled dog musher from the earlier Antarctic experience and so was able to traverse the artic terrain.  He was later involved in the Korean War as a psy-ops specialist.  He recounted dropping loads of propaganda pamphlets from low flying C-47's, sending these down to North Korean troops in 1952. The planes did catch gain bullet holes from the ground troops. At age 68 in the early 1970s he was divorced and bankrupt and moved to Alaska to start a new life.  He ended up competing in 13 Iditarod dogsled races.  At age 88 he was back to Antarctica and climbed a mountain named after him.  He died at age 100.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_D._Vaughan

Norman Vaughn and Friend

Numerous of old cyclists and athletes come to mind who keep moving, often well into their 80s. The prime example was Norman D Ford who was a prolific writer of a sort. He was bike touring in the 1930s and was still going on solo rides overseas and domestically well into his late 70s.  He kept a cycle-touring website in the early 1990s and 2000s, long before Facebook, Twitter, etc. He was still biking well into his mid 80s.  Going up to 14,000' in Colorado (Mount Evans) in his later 70s.  I wrote a memorial to him at Crazyguyonabike/NormanFord .

Norman Ford Bicycle Tourist

On my bookshelf I've several old paperbacks from the late 1970s and early 1980s written by Ken Cooper.  He wrote about "Aerobics" and I used his books to help me measure my athletic efforts in terms of aerobic effort.    Fifty years later, Cooper is still going at age 90.  

From using these books and accumulating my own experience, I realized that people can keep going for a very long time and are more likely to stay in good health if they keep moving and challenge their heart and lungs.  This came to me early in my adult life and has been confirmed from my own life experience as well as decades of observation of others.  I've generally seen that the folks who keep moving........keep moving.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_H._Cooper

One of Several Cooper Books 
That I Have On My Shelf

Kenneth Cooper, Still At It!

So, the main lessons and inspirations I've drawn  from these folks allong with my own reflections are:

• Keep Moving. If you're not moving, start moving. It's never too late.
• Don't Smoke nor Drink Alcoholic Beverages.
• Be Gentle on Your Joints. Lower impact exercise is best for over age 50.
• Keep an Eye on The Scales and Avoid Excess Weight (not easy sometimes)
• Avoid Accidents (an element of luck and situational awareness).
• Take in good food or at the least, take supplemental vitamins and minerals. 
• Pick the Right Parents (!) If you inherit bad genetics, I am sorry...

Being Healthy does not mean you're a Good Person.  You could very well be a healthy, athletic, self-obsessed, stupid, narcissistic jerk.  But at the least, you're alive and vital.  This, at the very least, allows you time to work on working of becoming a better person.  But if you're decrepit, unhealthy and in a constant state of ache and weariness, you're not going to have a lot of energy for anything else.

I am a conservative in terms of conserving what I have.  This is true of equipment, cars, relationships, and my health.  Ultimately, I'm skeptical of good intentions, including my own. (You know what the Road to Hell is paved with?)  The results ultimately speak for themselves.  Hope and Aspiration are fine, but without the necessary action and effort, vague intentions are not worth cold spit.  I try to periodically set a goal or project in front of me. Then I work towards this by preparing for the project.  Every now and then, I have to come up with a something new to go after. That way I don't get bored. 

Ken Cooper talks about 'Squaring the Curve' where we slow the deterioration and maintain relatively good health later into our senior years.

 

“... research illustrates perfectly what we’ve been practicing for nearly 50 years. 

A healthy and fit lifestyle allows us to square off the curve...that means we want 

people to spend most of their lives in good health with an active lifestyle and less 

time with a chronic disease.”  

Healthspan Versus Lifespan
("Squaring the Curve")

The above table came from a paper of the World Economic Forum titled:

How To Grow Old Like an Athlete .  Good Reading.

 

Counties, Townships and St. Croix

 Growing up in Illinois in the 1960's, I only knew of Two Counties. Those were Will and Cook. I lived in Will County. Cook County was the more 'significant' county to the north since this is where Metropolitan Chicago and it's major suburbs are located. Will is to the south and southwest of Cook. Back at that time Will was much more rural than Cook although a bit of the southern Chicago suburbs overlapped into Will.

Because our home was  south of the border, in Will County, we were located at the extreme northwestern corner of the Crete-Monee School District. So, during my high school years, I took a six mile bus ride each morning to get to school in Crete. After school let out, I took another bus ride home in the afternoon or evening, (In the evening I would take the late bus for the kids who stayed late at school for athletics.)  With stops to discharge my fellow students, the ride generally took about 40 minutes in each direction. Being at the extreme end of the bus route, I was one of the first students on in the morning and last off in the evening.  Lucky me.

Anyway, other than this main fact about where I was going to go to be going to high school, the idea of counties or other civil borders did not enter my mind. I was young and oblivious.  My mind was busy with other things. 

Many people are thru their lifetimes preoccupied with family, school, career, sports and other entertainment as well as having other priorities; as a result they may never give the area where they live much thought.  Sort of like fish living in water.  It's just there.  For myself, I have gradually taken an growing interest.  But it has taken a long time and a number of insights to gain a deep appreciation for the geography and history of a place.  

My youthful ignorance of the nature of counties as political or geographical entities continued until I was attending Agricultural College at Iowa State University in Ames in the 1970s. One of the classes I took during my senior year in 1975 was Farm Appraisal. 

This class was an eye-opener for me. I learned about how farm properties were laid out on the landscape and how to understand the legal descriptions that ended up in the Deeds and Titles (and loan documents) associated with farms.

When you fly over much of the United States, looking down from 30,000+ feet, you see what looks like a quilt-work of squares. These are not natural but man-made and mostly represent property lines. The squares you see are usually called "Sections". These sections measure a mile on each side. (see aerial photo above). Each Section is a Square Mile and made up of 640 acres.  In my appraisal class I also learned that Sections are part of a "Township" which, in turn, is a subdivision of a County.  Counties are typically rectangular but they can have various shapes. Sometimes their boundaries may be a river or large body of water.  

Townships are almost always a square and typically made up of 36 Sections, The standard township is six miles long on a side. (see diagram below)  So a Township typically has around 23,000 acres (36 sections x 640 acres)! Occasionally a township may vary from being a square because of a body of water or for historical reasons.  But 99% of the time, it's a square.

36 Sections in a Township

As one of the exercises in the Farm Appraisal Class, I had to formally go over a particular farm (I was able to use a 520 acre farm owned by a girlfriend's parents in Northwest Iowa). I studied the soil maps for the farm, walked the ground, estimated crop yields, compared her parent's farm to other similar ones that had been recently sold in the county.  From this collection of information I was able to arrive at an estimated market value.  I followed standard methodology as laid out in the course and got an A for my efforts.  Nice.  But more than a good grade, I gained the beginning of an appreciation for the unique character of a particular patch of this planet earth. It was not just as an economic entity but something more.

The course in Farm Appraisal was my introduction to looking a piece of land as a specific place.   In the years and decades that followed, I gradually, practically learned more about rural geography.

Young Dairy Fieldman

In my mid 20s, I came to St. Croix County, here in Western Wisconsin. For the first six years that I lived in the county, I worked for a Dairy Cooperative, Mid-American Dairymen, and spent each day visiting farms. My job title was “Dairy Plant Fieldman” and my duties required me keep in touch with the member farmers and help them with quality control issues, and much more. I was given a company vehicle and a plat book.  (A plat book is a series of township maps that show the ownership of each farm.) 

During the years that I worked for the Co-op, I would drive from farm to farm, inspecting the dairy barns, checking to make sure that milk was produced in a sanitary manner. I would walk thru the barns and the milk house and inspect the milk-handling equipment I had a flashlight to look inside pipelines. I had a pocket thermometer to check the temperature of milk in the bulk tank.  Often I'd go out into the fields, pastures and meadows to find and have conversations with the farmer. He might be doing spring plowing. Or perhaps he and the family were baling hay in the summer. Or harvesting corn in the autumn.  With my background, I knew what it was like to milk cows and do the various farm chores.  This helped me build a report with the farm families.  Some of these families have become life-long friends who I still know today. I've seen generations born as well as pass away.  I feel very fortunate to have seen and participated in this community.

Being a Fieldman was a year-round outdoor, hands-on job and so sometimes I was out on the roads in frigid and snowy conditions. Besides the weather, I also dealt with mud, cow manure, and  bugs. But for much of the year, it was an idyllic sort of job, where I could enjoy nature, beautiful landscapes, fresh air and the variability of seasons. But the more practical aspect of the job was learning to navigate the county highways and township roads so that I could locate all the farms that I was required to visit. 

St Croix County and It's Townships

My wife and I had a small 80 acre farm in Cady township. We were in Section 18. About 45 acres were made up of arable or grassland.  We also had around 35 acres of hardwoods. We had an old barn and had a few beef steers and a flock of over 50 sheep.  We did not have dairy cows. We also made some babies.   If you look in the photo of Cady township and look for Section 18 (to the left), you can see the location of our farm.

After 8 years, there was a divorce and my name is no longer shown on Section 18 in the current plat book. (But at least it's on the record... ) Nor have I worked in the Dairy Industry for nearly 40 years. The dairy plant in Baldwin was closed in 1990 and torn down about 20 years later.  Still, I've continued to live in St. Croix County, near Baldwin, and still travel the same roads and visit farms and see the same fields and woods. I still know many people from this rural community Over these last 4+ decades, Besides the personal connections, I've continued to accumulate additional knowledge of the county, it's geography and history and it's changing personality.

St. Croix County became the fastest growing county in Wisconsin over the last 25 years. When I first came to the county in 1977, the population was approximately 36,000.  Now, it is well over 95,000!  This growth came because of the expansion of the Minneapolis-St.Paul Metro, coming towards Wisconsin.  The heavier growth occurred in the western half of the county.  The limiting factor has been the commuting time.  In the mornings, people get in their cars and drive across the St. Croix River and into Minnesota.  The number of individual dairy farms has plummeted.  I suspect we have nearly as many dairy cows in the county as back when I was in agriculture.  But the farms are typically 8-10 times the size and have become incredibly mechanized.  In few cases to I consider these operations farms.  More like industrial operations!

We've also had over 30 Amish families move into the area over the last 12 years.  They've all settled in the eastern half of the county, away from the busier western half of the county. Wisconsin has one of the larger populations of Amish in the midwest with over 12,000 people.  These local folks have taken over a number of the farms that I used to visit in the 1970s and 1980s.  Sometimes they've used the older buildings. But they also have built newer barns that are fresher and more suitable to horse powered operations.  This change has been a pleasant and interesting contrast to the large 400-1000 cow dairy operations.  I'm happy that the Amish folks are here.  They are always friendly and give a neighborly wave when I pass in my pickup truck or am riding on my bicycle.  I always wave back! 

Besides the Amish, we have also had a smattering of Hmong Truck Farms sprout up in the areas.  The Hmong keep a lower profile and are not as conspicuous as the Amish.  But I still see them out on several acreages, growing vegetables that they take into the Twin Cities in Minnesota to sell at "Farmers Markets".  

St. Croix County in 1840
Before Minnesota or Wisconsin 
Were States

St. Croix Was the Earliest County in the Region.  The County was, at one time, much larger. This was before the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota were established, St. Croix County was already in existence and part of what was called "Michigan Territory". It covered much of what is now western Wisconsin and much of Northern Minnesota. After Wisconsin was established in 1848, St. Croix County was reduced and took on it's current shape within the new state.  It was bounded on the north by Polk County, on the south by Pierce and on the east by Dunn. To the West was the St. Croix River, which was the border with the new state of Minnesota.

Prior to the state being established The surveyor's came thru this neighborhood in 1847 and marked out the townships and sections. Digitalized images of the notes and maps of the surveyors are on line at the University of Wisconsin. (Link and Image). These men would walk across the prairies, sloughs, forests and get over the rivers and around the lakes and swamps, using their chains, transits and stakes, marking out and recording the land and it's contours and qualities. This was done so that the land could be inventoried prior to eventual sale to homesteaders, lumberman, railroads and speculators.

Original Base Lines and Meridians
Subsequent Surveys Worked Off Of These

Surveyors worked off Earlier Established Base and Range Lines. Using trigonometry and a standardized “Gunter” chain, along with a compass, they would sight their transits and mark off the rods, furlongs and miles, driving marker stakes into the ground periodically. Also they would be taking notes as they went along with careful calculations. They would have to constantly check and double-check their numbers so to make sure that their line of travel stayed true. I can imagine them traveling, with a hardy wagon pulled by a team of horses. Certainly they traveled with a least one or perhaps several assistants.  These Surveyors were Contractors who were paid by the Federal Government.  They had to conform to the government's strict standards on the work they submitted. Otherwise they would not be paid.  So they were careful! The surveyors for Western Wisconsin had to submit their completed notebooks and maps to the Federal Land Office in what is now Stillwater, Minnesota, up river from Hudson Wisconsin.

It should be kept in mind that originally, the Federal Government raised much of it's revenue from the sale of land.  And so the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) was important as a mechanism for bringing in the money that the government needed to function.  A good history of the PLSS is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System

St. Croix County 1897 Platbook Face Page
(Showing the 21 Townships)

The County Seat of St. Croix is Hudson, on western edge of the county along the St. Croix River.  More typically, the county seat (which is essentially the "Capital" of the county)  was located near the center.  But since in pioneer times, people originally came via the rivers or lakes, in the case of St. Croix County, the development started on the western edge and only gradually moved eastward into the interior.  Originally, when people wanted to head east, towards Menomonie or Eau Claire, they either walked, rode a horse or horse-drawn wagon or they often took a stage coach.  

Our farm, in Cady Township, fronted County N.  This was the Old Stagecoach Road to Menomonie.  The stagecoach trip from Hudson to Menomonie was an overnight journey. It was not an express and followed a dirt trail, going over low, wet spots of over small rivers. The stage usually stopped for the night on the edge of Eau Galle and Cady Townships and travelers stayed at an Inn along the Eau Galle River.  The little town where the inn and stagecoach stop was located was called Brookville  (now long gone).   Our farm was about half a mile east and up the hill from the river and the town.

When, after the Civil War, the Railroad was Established from St. Paul to Chicago, development penetrated faster and more intensively thru the interiors of the Wisconsin.  St Croix, Pierce, Dunn and Polk counties had prairies, wetlands and woods.  The further east you went, the more heavily forested it was.  The lumbering industry was active here thru much of the later 1800s. Lumberjacks cut down the big trees and logs were floated down rivers in the spring; later they were hauled by sleds or on special logging trains.  

Logjam on the St. Croix River

Farms were established on land that originally had been forest.  It took many decades to pull and dispose of the stumps.  In the meantime, wheat was grown between the stumps and for a time, this country was where much of the flour came from.  Many towns had water mills to grind the wheat into flour.   After the price of wheat gradually dropped over the last decades of the 1800s, many of the farms in this area gradually shifted to dairy farming.  From the 1890s and up until today, Dairy became the major focus of Wisconsin Agriculture including in St. Croix County.

After the stage coaches and railroads, the state and national highways were established.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the main state highway between St. Paul Minnesota and Chicago was State Highway 12.  And then, in the late 1960s, Interstate 94 was laid out and constructed and now there's a constant flow of traffic between Minnesota and Illinois that goes thru St. Croix County.

Local Surveys of St. Croix and Western Wisconsin:

When I look back at the platbook maps of the townships and county roads, I reflect that before there was a road, the surveyors had traveled slowly along this countryside in the 1840s, carefully measuring and marking down the lines and leaving behind periodic driven stakes.  A painstaking process. Those lines became the township and country roads that are seen from the air.  

Transit, Chain, Compass, Axe and Stakes

St. Croix is just one of the 72 counties in Wisconsin!  In those Wisconsin Counties there are 1260 Townships.  You start to think of all the counties and townships in the country and it boggles the mind!  Each community with its own particular features, histories and families. So many stories to be told....  This country is a vast tapestry.

When I bicycle in the countryside, I often ponder over the county and community I am traveling thru.

I've been here in St. Croix County for 45 years and shall stay here until I die. Then I'll be buried here. I've the plot purchased in a cemetery that's nearly abandoned. I'll be buried in the old  Brookville Cemetery, Lot 107. The grass grows long there most of the time. This is within a mile of where our old farm was.

Fly-Over-Land

So when I hear someone derisively refer to  Fly-Over-Land, I just look at them and smile at their ignorance.  They're happily oblivious of what they pass thru or over.