Baraboo, Dells, and Devil's Lake Region Part 2

Kimball, dwelt there with the professor and his wife for a year or more when the daughter was in her infancy.

Other Ringling Homes

On up Oak Street, number 103 Tenth, stands the home erected by the late Alf. T. Ringling, who died at Oak Ridge, New Jersey, October 21, 1919.

The place is surrounded by a vineclad, sandstone retaining wall, has a commanding view, and is well appointed within. The place is now the home of Mrs. Ringling. Henry Ringling died in September, 1918, in the colonial house at 201 Eighth, erected by Charles E. Ringling and occupied by the family for a number of years. Mrs. Henry Ringling and son now live in the home.

The Baraboo Cemetery

One of the pleasing prospects of the region is obtained from the high point on the south side of the Baraboo Cemetery. The burying ground is reached by ascending East Street from the greenhouse, pa.s.sing the old T. M. Warren home buried among the trees on the right and a row of trees planted on the same side of the thoroughfare through the efforts of the Civic League. The view from the knoll in the cemetery includes a sweep of the eastern portion of the Baraboo Valley and the south range of the Baraboo Bluffs, the Devil's Lake gap being almost directly south and Point Sauk, 1620 feet high, to the southeast. The Baraboo River is hidden in its depressed bed and the lake is closed from view by the terminal moraine left by the sea of ice in glacial times.

In the old cemetery sleep many lawyers, doctors, ministers, merchants, enginemen, trainmen, circusmen, newspapermen, and others identified with the city which is half-hidden below. The mausoleum near the south boundary of the cemetery is that of Henry Ringling, the one farther north and in the same row of lots, that of Al. Ringling. The father and mother and Otto are buried near the granite resting place of the youngest son, Henry. August G. Ringling is interred in St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, adjoining the protestant, and near the public highway while Alf. T. sleeps at White Plains, New York.

Between the vault and the s.e.xton's house is the grave of Mrs. Eben Peck, the first white woman to come into the Baraboo Valley, and on a stone in the same lot one reads the name of her son-in-law, Nelson W.

Wheeler, the author of "Old Thunderbolt in Justice Court."

The Hull House

Returning to the greenhouse and continuing one block south, 820 East Street, one finds where George Hull, of Cardiff Giant notoriety, resided while a dweller in Baraboo.

House With Many Gables

While pa.s.sing Sixth Street one may see on the ridge to the right, number 216 Fifth, the house of many gables. For years the place was the home of Terrell Thomas, the first banker in Baraboo, and here died Rev.

Fr. J. T. Durward in September, 1918.

Church With Beautiful Windows

Several blocks towards the river, St. Joseph's Catholic Church stands on the brow of the hill. The structure was erected during the priesthood of the late Fr. J. T. Durward and one of its characteristics is the beautiful windows, impressive and artistic in design, portraying many Biblical scenes.

Deserted Ringlingville

At the foot of the hill, and extending several blocks to the eastward along Water Street, lies deserted Ringlingville. For more than thirty years the circus went forth in the spring time and, after a season in many commonwealths, returned with the autumn, weaving into the years a name which will cling to the place for many decades to come. Here the lions roared and the hyenas snarled, while there trumpeted in a building hard by the largest herd of elephants this side of Africa.

With the coming of the mellow days of spring, horses and camels and pachyderms in long processions gave to the streets an individual air, while the yards and thoroughfares filled with gilded wagons emphatically denoted the circus center that it was. On account of the war and influenza in the fall of 1918, the show sought refuge in Bridgeport, a calamity in Ringlingville.

A Pioneer Home

Turning to the west the loiterer pa.s.ses the Ringling Hotel on the left, and a block more reaches Ash street. Perched on the hill to the right, 308 Ash, is the pioneer home of Colonel D. K. Noyes and family, erected in 1850. It was the first example of a solid and dignified abode in Baraboo, built of red brick and graced with four fluted columns.

Between those two same pillars on the left the owner went away to war, losing a foot at Antietam, and to win honors as postmaster and politician. Between those two same pillars the guests a.s.sembled on their golden wedding day and later the venerable pair pa.s.sed out, one after another, to their last resting place on the hill.

Bunn The Baker of Baraboo

Bunn the Baker of Baraboo, made immortal by B. L. T. in the Chicago Tribune, had his shop across the river at 114 Walnut Street, the street name changing at the river. Here the tradesman-merchant with the alliterative appellation, made sweet buns and bread until the fall of 1919 when a home was purchased on Cheek's Hill where Mr. and Mrs. Bunn reside.

Birds of Many Feathers

Advancing and turning to the right on Lynn Street, then crossing the long bridge over the Baraboo River, one arrives at the high school building on the right, and postoffice on the left. In the former structure is the extensive bird collection made by Charles Deininger of Sauk City. Here may be seen a male and female pa.s.senger pigeon, mandible to mandible, as if pitifully predicting the doom of the species. At one time millions were slaughtered at roosting places on the bluffs and in the pine woods near Kilbourn, after they had darkened the sky at evening on their return from feeding grounds. At present as far as known no living birds are in existence. The two exhibited are rare and interesting specimens.

An Idea Makes a Million

Where the Corner Drug Store is located at the southeast corner of Oak and Third Streets, once stood a frame building fronting the first-named thoroughfare. On the second floor of the old structure A. N. Kellogg published a newspaper and during the Civil war he found it necessary, the typesetter having shouldered arms, to have his paper printed on one side at Madison. The idea developed into the "patent insides" for newspapers. Mr. Kellogg's name became familiar in every rural newspaper office in the land, and he garnered a fine fortune as his reward. His business was absorbed by larger interests several years ago and the name is no longer known in the newspaper world.

CHAPTER III

Devil's Lake State Park--Geology of the Baraboo Hills--The Glacial Epoch--Scenic Wonders

Devil's Lake is one of the outstanding places of beauty and wonder in this region of unusual charm and interest. The placid body of water, with talused slopes and encroaching moraines, is the central object in Devil's Lake State Park, a tract of land containing more than a thousand acres. Few of the visitors who come into this region escape the lure of this wonderful playground.

The Park is reached by traversing three miles of concrete road from Baraboo, the beautiful highway made possible by a bequest of $40,000 by the late W. W. Warner of Madison, an early resident of Baraboo. The contract for building the road was awarded in 1919, the work to be completed in that year and 1920.

An Iron Mine

Soon after leaving the city, about a quarter of a mile to the right, may be seen a stack of iron ore at the abandoned Cahoon Mine. The mine was opened in 1911 and closed in 1919 after more than a million dollars had been expended. The Baraboo Valley from end to end has been pierced with the diamond drill and iron ore has been found beneath the surface in all the region, often at a depth of 400 feet. Two abandoned mines may be seen southwest of North Freedom and flowing wells here and there tell of the millions expended by various companies in a vain effort to make mother earth yield her riches.

Entering the Park

Just before entering the Park one's attention is called to the view on the left extending to the Lower Narrows of the Baraboo River and to the Caledonia Hills beyond. Within the Park unique is the vista through the arboreal avenue, rugged rocks on the right and a wooded slope on the left.

The first glimpse of the lake is caught from the terminal moraine, the ridge of land left between the bluffs when the ice was present during the glacial epoch centuries ago. On top of this ridge, toward the railroad track, where the road begins to descend, lies an effigy Indian mound.

Geological Wonder of the World

Geologically Devil's Lake is one of the wonders of the world. At the dawn of the earth's history there were no rivers or lakes or bluffs in the Baraboo region, the ocean or an inland sea covering all the land.

At the bottom of the sea were the Archean or igneous rocks, the oldest formation known to geology. Upon these rocks the sand was piled a mile deep, the sand at a later time being changed into sandstone and still later metamorphosed into the hard quartzite which towers high in the bluffs. Resting upon the beds of sand were deposits of clay which changed to slate, limestone which became dolomite, and iron which remained in its elemental state.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Balance Rock]

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Devil's Lake]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stone Face]

Later there was a mountain making movement of the earth and there appeared peaks as lofty as those in the Alps or Rockies. The once horizontal beds of sand, clay, limestone and iron were uplifted and folded in the process, the layers at the lake being inclined about fifteen degrees as seen along the East Bluff. The Baraboo Bluffs are among the oldest formed things on the globe--older than the Rockies or Alleghenies, older than a pound of coal on the earth, older than any tree or bird or beast that ever lived.

There was a long period of erosion and a river cut a gorge through the range where the lake is now located.