FREE January 2019 of the River Valley VoiceCELEBRATING LIFE IN THE LOWER WISCONSIN AND SUGAR-PECATONICA RIVER BASINS voiceoftherivervalley.com 1 2 Voice of the River Valley | January 2019 INSIDE VOICES THANK YOU, ADVERTISERS 4 Editors’ Note 12 Calendar of Events BUSINESS & CONSUMER SERVICES 18 Community Resources Angel & Angel, S.C. Attorneys, 23 Kaul Family Properties, 20 Mary the Tax, 20 VENTURE FORTH Neider & Boucher Attorneys, 20 Retirement Specialists, LLC, 24 Royal Bank, 20 DESIGN SERVICES & REAL ESTATE Poem Homes, 6 EDUCATION, CULTURE & OUTDOORS Camp Woodbrooke, 12 Driftless Area Land Conservancy, 10 Folklore Village, 15 Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums, 15 Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, 10 Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, 6 ENTERTAINMENT Arthur’s Supper Club, 14 Crossroads Coffeehouse, 16 Folklore Village, 13 Gray Dog Deli, 24 Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums, 15 Spring Green General Store, 15 FARMS, FARM MARKETS & PLANTS Enos Farms, 14 Percussion Rock Alpaca Farm, 23 Spring Green Indoor Farmers Market, 6 Vandehoney, 16 FOOD & BEVERAGE Arcadia Books, 6 Arthur’s Supper Club, 14 Crossroads Coffeehouse, 16 Enos Farms Brunch & Cocktails, 12 Freddy Valentine’s Public House, 11 Gray Dog Deli, 16 The Shoppe at Herbs, Spices & More, 14 Spring Green General Store, 13 9 GALLERIES, STUDIOS & RETAILERS 9 Anti-Assault Activist to Speak Arcadia Books, 6 at MLK Observance This Month Linda Kelen, 10 Nina’s Department & Variety Store, 22 North Earth Gifts, 16 COLUMNS The Shoppe at Herbs Spices & More, 14 Spring Green General Store, 13 6 Between the Lines Wantoot, 20 BY KATHY STEFFEN White Rose Florist, 16 Wildwood Woodworks, 16 8 Living Well, Dying Well HEALTH, WELLNESS & BEAUTY BY MARK FRIEDEL-HUNT 5 High Barre, 15 5 Community Members Reclaim Iowa County Aikido, 14 10 Pedagogy Stew the Story of Tower Hill History L’Bri/Toasty Toes & Nails, 15 BY MARNIE DRESSER Lyrea Crawford, 16 North Earth Gifts, 16 11 Tracking Your Past Robin Ann Reid, Soul Coach, 22 BY DORIS GREEN Yoga in the Lowlands, 10 Upland Hills Health, 8 17 Garden Blitz HOME & AUTO ESSENTIALS BY PATRICE PELTIER Center Stove & Fireplace, 20 Driftless Electric, 20 19 Where the Land Meets the Sky Foggy Bottom Woodworks, LLC, 19 BY ETIENNE WHITE Specialty Auto, 19 Strang Heating and Electric, 20 21 Driftless Dark Skies BY JOHN HEASLEY voiceoftherivervalley.com 3 WELCOME TO JANUARY “The immediate function of curiosity is to learn, explore and immerse oneself in the activity that initially stimulated the deploy- ment of attentional resources.” Volume 14 • Number 1 —Todd Kashdan January 2019 hat better way to start off a new Voice of the River Valley is a monthly year than to savor the pleasure of independent arts and culture magazine Windulging one’s curiosity? With published by Wording LLC. each new year we take Since 2006, Voice of the River the opportunity — as Valley has been a guide to people Kathy Steffen does and events that inspire, inform and enrich life in the Lower Wisconsin and in her column on p. Sugar-Pecatonica River Basins of 6 — to ask, “Who Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. do I want to be?” To This all-volunteer publication be curious is about as is made possible by the creative good a thing to be as voices of our region and the generous any: Curious about support of area advertisers. For submission guidelines, advertising whether cultural activities really still happen and subscription options, and to submit in the winter. (The answer is yes; many! See events to the calendar, please visit our the Calendar of Events, p. 12.) Curious about website at voiceoftherivervalley.com. the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. in our Paul Kuenn Each month, 4,000 copies of community. (See story, p. 7.) Curious about Voice of the River Valley are distributed how to view bald eagles during the winter to 190 locations in seven counties This depiction of shot tower activities was across southwestern Wisconsin. along the Wisconsin River. (Find the answer painted by Amy Bakken while she was on p. 7.) Curious about curiosity itself. (See working at Tower Hill State Park in 1994. Copyright © 2019 by Wording (See story, p. 5.) Tower Hill history connects LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction Marnie Dresser’s column, p. 10.) in whole or in part without written Last fall, Paul Kuenn needed to satisfy the Wisconsin River to the mining of Mississippi Valley Type lead-zinc deposits permission is prohibited. his curiosity about the provenance of a that are indigenous to our nook of the P.O. Box 745 series of paintings depicting historic activi- Driftless Area. A mining trade school in Spring Green, WI 53588 Platteville made this region central to the ties at what is now Tower Hill State Park. In (608) 588-6251 pioneering of what would become Wisconsin. November, Paul wrote to us at Voice of the Platteville is bringing back the Miners Ball [email protected] River Valley to share his latest Tower Hill tradition on Jan. 19. (See invitation, p. 15). endeavors to update the display area and to ask for help finding the Amy Bakken whose membership campaign with magazine name is on the back of paintings depicting inserts (see story, p. 7). For many years we VOICE OF THE RIVER VALLEY shot tower activities. We connected Paul have welcomed similar inserts for the Spring Sara Lomasz Flesch with Bridget Roberts at the Spring Green Green Food Pantry locally in the River Val- editor & publisher Community Library and within a week ley area, and we are happy to support this Erik Flesch Bridget connected Paul with the artist whose worthy cause. This is one more way that we editor & design director name was on the back of the paintings. can connect with our community. Curiosity yields connections among our Wishing you a happy new year full of Mary Friedel-Hunt (2006-2012) communities. curious connections and happy reading, & Bill Hunt (2006-2010) founding publishers Members of Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway were curious if Voice would help with their first-ever annual & facebook.com/voiceoftherivervalley twitter.com/voiceriver ON THE COVER linkedin.com/voiceoftherivervalley anuary’s cover image was taken by Leslie Damaso, a music teacher, musician and an “intentional observer of the stuff that makes us feel human.” Leslie describes her image, which she took of Brewery Creek in Mineral Point, as “the ghost of winter melting into Nature, Culture & Events spring.” For more of Leslie’s astute observations, follow her on Instagram @decibelleslie Find the full calendar of events and sign up for and @lesliedamasomusic. To share art or photography for a future cover, contact us at our mailing list to stay in touch with the region. Visit voiceoftherivervalley.com. [email protected]. J4 Voice of the River Valley | January 2019 the Story History ReclaimingHill of Tower Courtesy of Paul Kuenn Paul Kuenn, left, and Ellis Pfeifer, right, together with Paul’s wife, Jude, put in countless hours in the spring of 2018 cleaning and updating the shot tower exhibit at Tower Hill State Park. Along the way they had an enriching encounter with an artist whose work is on display. By Paul & Jude Kuenn Ellis Pfeifer, who has always been willing once bustling village and the Unitarian fter completing the refurbishment to lend us a hand bringing life back to retreat Mr. Jones created on the park of the historical bread oven near this significant site, once populated as property, then known as the Tower Hill Asite 7 at Tower Hill State Park the second site of Helena. With help and Pleasure Company. in 2017 with my trusty permission from Ranger Pat Kraska and We did not plan on an April 25-inch SPRING sidekick, Jude (see the July Park Superintendent Kathy Gruentzel, we snowfall in Appleton, which only slightly GREEN 2016 issue of Voice of the planned to start in early April 2018 before the delayed the project. I was still able to get River Valley at www.voiceoftherivervalley. park opened for the season. We also knew some of the display wood cut in the garage. com), we set a new goal to clean up and better than to wait until warm weather when When we arrived April 20 there were still reorganize the shot tower exhibit. mosquitoes can ruin every saw cut. a few inches of snow in the woods. We Cleaning the partially enclosed Our goal was not just to update the had planned on backing up the steep paved display in the past was hopeless: It was exhibit, but also make it informational. path as far as the steps. After shoveling open to insects, Chimney Swift droppings This included details about Civil War and removing frozen leaves, we could only and bat guano. The previous year, veteran and humanitarian Jenkin Lloyd drive it halfway, so much more time was someone broke the Plexiglas and stole Jones (Frank Lloyd Wright’s uncle), who spent carrying lumber and tools up the hill the old mining pick axe. I was able to purchased the land in the early 1890s than working on the display the first day. replace that after watching Craigslist and and whose wife transferred it in 1922 to We removed six original paintings eBay for similar period tools. We wanted the state for preservation after his death on the shot tower walls, depicting steps the exhibit to be educational as well as in 1918. A historic plaque near site 10 in the process of making lead shot. On cheery, bright and welcoming to visitors. references the dismantled town of Helena, the back of each painting the name “Amy Since the shot tower was rebuilt in the land used as a route to findMa-ka- Bakken ’94” was hand written.