Subplots, intentional and otherwise

Beautiful "driftless" Wisconsin.

I'm sneaking in a final post to wrap things up before we deploy to Sand Island tomorrow for another tour of duty as NPS volunteer lighthouse keepers. We are now finished with our criss-crossing tour of Wisconsin and the travel trailer will stay parked here Washburn until we set out for home in October.

We will stay on Sand Island through Labor Day to close up the lighthouse that we opened just a little over two months ago. Thursday is the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service and it is also the birthday of Tex's fiancé, Rachel Simon. Happy birthday to both!

When we get back from Sand Island we hope to visit the four lighthouses (on three islands) in the Apostles that we have not yet been to. That will take about a week. Then, in the last half of September, we are going to take the "Circle Tour" of Lake Superior (leaving the trailer in Washburn). That may take 10 to 15 days but we will be sure to get back to Washburn in plenty of time for the Apple Fest in Bayfield the first weekend in October. After Apple Fest we will depart for home.

That's the summary of where we are going next week and next month, now let's look back to recap where we went last week on the final leg of our "really-get-to-know" tour of Wisconsin.

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Taliesin III, twice rebuilt after fires.

I reserved the tickets for the tour of Frank Loyd Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, some six months ago, so it was no accident that we ended up in Spring Green, Wisconsin last week for the tour of the house. However, we had no idea how interwoven the works of one of America's most prolific architects would become in our travels this summer as we repeatedly, but accidentally, stumbled on some of FLW's best-known projects; the Unitarian Church in Madison, the Johnson Company campus in Racine and the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield where Betsy picked up a book that delved into the murders and fires that occurred at Taliesin more than a century ago (a sordid but fascinating tale; Google if interested).

Regionally speaking, we gave short shrift to southwest Wisconsin when planning our "really-get-to-know" tour but after spending just two days there we agreed that it may be the most beautiful (certainly the hilliest) part of the state. When the glaciers leveled out most of of present-day Wisconsin and retreated they left behind silt and rock deposits that geologists call "drift". However, the glaciers meandered around the Paleozoic plateau that is present-day southwest Wisconsin and, thus, never retreated from it and, thus, did not leave behind any drift. Therefore the region is known today, geologically speaking, as the "Driftless Area".

FLW's view of "driftless" Wisconsin.

For a self-described "organic architect" that loved to harmonically knit his structures into the natural environment the "driftless" hills along the Wisconsin River just south of Spring Green were an ideal place for Wright to build his house and studio. But that's probably not the primary reason why he selected the site for Taliesin (a welsh word that means "shining brow" and is also the name of a sixth-century Welsh poet and bard). The property was adjacent to a family farm where he had spent several summers as a boy growing up in Madison and his mother purchased it for him.

We also visited an eclectic state historic site in the town of Mineral Point where the homes of some Cornish immigrant lead miners transitioned into a depression era restaurant that lasted until 1970.

From southwest Wisconsin we "drifted" north to Superior (both the city and the lake) to attend the Tall Ships Festival in Duluth which, counter intuitively, featured a gigantic rubber duck. It was a beautiful day and a nice way for us to get to know a little more about Duluth (even if it isn't in Wisconsin).

A lot of people went to see the tall ships.

Others went to see the duck.

Duluth sits at the southernmost, westernmost end of Lake Superior.

We also toured this "laker", a 600+-foot ship built by U.S. Steel in 1938 to carry iron ore from western Lake Superior ports to the steel mills on the shores of eastern Great Lakes. It looks big (and it is) but it is also obsolete and has been replaced by much larger and more efficient ships. The William A. Irvin (named for a U.S. Steel president) is now a museum and sits permanently in the Duluth harbor.