By Mary Fairchild Maquoketa River Trail; 6/15/14. In June my two daughters joined me for a river clean-up and local archaeology paddle on the Maquoketa River with Iowa archaeologist Elizabeth Reetz. There are two forks of the Maquoketa River that meander through Jackson County for about 50 miles and meet up just north of the…
Dinosaur Bone Hunting
By Mary Fairchild2015, New Castle, Wyoming. When dinosaurs walked the earth, a vast inland sea had covered the area from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Today, our families can walk the earth and uncover the very paths of the dinosaurs through trips with Dr. Steve Nicklas of Paleo Prospectors. For the past several years…
Mirror, Mirror, on the Water: A Tranquil Paddle at Mirror Lake State Park
By Mary Fairchild Chelsea Boots appreciates the serenity of Mirror Lake as she quietly discovers the oak/pine forest reflection before her for the first time. …there is rarely a wind-stirred ripple on the water’s still surface— Mirror Lake is a narrow river-like waterway between tall cliff-sided gorges that is about 4 miles long. An impoundment of Sauk County’s Dell…
Giant Fiberglass Statues: Do You Know the Wisconsin Dell’s Muffler Man?
By Mary Fairchild (updated 10/2015) Until recently, this Muffler Man had been behind the Mobil Station near the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Now he’s all groomed, repainted and stands “all lit up” by the Buffalo Phil’s Pizza & Grille. These giant fiberglass statues were designed to draw the attention of tourists in the latter half of the 20th century when the West opened…
Nestled Deep in Wisconsin’s Woods: A Rustic Wedding at Mirror Lake State Park
By Mary Fairchild The bride with her flower girls; Mirror Lake State Park Amphitheater, 10/25/14. Picture by John Nicholls. An outdoor wedding in the woods can be an incredible experience especially in the fall as the cooler days and cooler nights begin to open and reveal more and more of the landscape. The playfulness of crisp falling…
Sea Kayaking Narragansett Bay: Native American Footpaths and Soul Freedom
By Mary Fairchild (Mfairlady.com) Audubon Society George B. Parker Woodland, Coventry, Rhode Island. “Williams(Roger), lacking the resources… got about by canoe, sometimes likely with a sail rigged…Canoeing, even in protected bays meant confronting sometimes breaking surf and routinely strong currents, heavy swells, whitecaps, and wind; occasional exposure to open ocean increased the danger exponentially.” (4; Barry, p….