Baraboo, Dells, and Devil's Lake RegionCole, Harry Ellsworth
History
Baraboo, Dells, and Devil's Lake Region
Cole, Harry Ellsworth
Baraboo (Wis.); Dells of the Wisconsin (Wis.); Devil's Lake (Wis.); Sauk County (Wis.)
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
appetite. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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