Relics

In every abandon barn and stone wall here in the Baraboo Hills, there is a geology lesson.

Long before much of the public land we explore today here in the Baraboo Hills was “public”, it was farmland. Rocky farmland, strewn with glacial till.(That’s all the rock moved around by the glaciers about 10,000 years ago!) Early migrants to our area, many from Wales & Scotland, put that rock to good use just as they did back home. They used it to create walls for barns, basements, wells, you name it. The rock was also used for walls along property lines and stacked in endless rows along farm fields.

Today, in these abandon walls and buildings, you find lots of our native Baraboo Quartzite (The purple stuff!) and sandstone. You see conglomerates, (a solid mix of sandstone, pebbles, and bounders) created by fast-moving water and rocks native to Canada that were transported here by glaciers.

It the spirit of exploration, I won’t give you exact locations for many of these sites, many are well, far off-trail. What I can do is point you to our historic site map for the park. Then suggest you hike the Steinke Basin Trail where you will cross through and see some old stone walls (if you’re observant!) and recommend hiking the Sauk Point Trail which again travels through and along some stone walls. Another location to check out is the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area. At the SPRA, there’s an awesome old barn wall standing in a prairie which is a great photo opportunity. (If you don’t mind ticks!)

Snowshoes!

The great thing about winter is that not only is it easy to see these historic sites, but you can strap on a pair of snowshoes and have a look around without damaging the native plant life or carrying in invasives! Remember you can borrow snowshoes for free at the Devil’s Lake State Park Nature Center.

Photos

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