Baraboo, Dells, and Devil's Lake Region Part 7

Fern Dell is one of the most attractive places in the whole region.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCENE AT MIRROR LAKE]

The narrow valley, with overhanging crags and luxuriant verdure, astonishes the beholder.

Retreat of Great Circusman

The erection of a commodious hotel in Delton by Mrs. Eliza Ringling, adds to the convenience of those desiring to visit the popular resort.

Mrs. Ringling's late husband, Al. Ringling, eldest of the circusmen, spent many delightful days in his cottage in the woods at the upper end of this attractive inland body of water.

Congress Hall

A short distance east of the village of Delton, on the south side of the highway leading to the Wisconsin river, is Congress Hall. Here a rivulet has cut a ravine, much of the work evidently having been done in times long past, when there was more water than at present flowing along the course. Early in the spring a creek finds its way through the narrow gorge, but in late summer, after the May showers and June rains have pa.s.sed, one may explore the elongated, eroded canyon without inconvenience from moisture. The Hall is wildly broken and much distorted in its windings. Often there are s.p.a.cious openings as if for rooms, narrow pa.s.sages leading into other chambers sufficiently ample for a congress to gather. These views are quite different from others in the region and will well repay a visit.

CHAPTER VII

Pewit's Nest Near Baraboo--Home of a Recluse--Skillet Falls--Graves of Napoleon Soldiers

But a trifle over three miles from Baraboo, in the early 40's, a queer enigmatical character secreted himself in the rocky recesses of Pewit's Nest. To this wildering abode he unexpectedly came, lived for a time, and mysteriously disappeared like a phantom or will-o'-the-wisp.

After rumbling over the bridge at the Island Woolen mill, climbing the curved incline, and pa.s.sing over the viaduct above the railroad tracks, the course to Pewit's Nest follows the main highway which turns here to the right for a half a mile and another half mile to the left. Leaving the main road, No. 12, the course follows a mile to the right climbing the terminal moraine and crossing the outwash plain--and still another half mile to the left the journey brings the visitor to a little rural school-building by the roadside, the place to abandon the car. Here Skillet Creek has cut a wide-mouthed valley or pocket, Pewit's Nest being a quarter of a mile to the left of the main road.

Sward-sided cellar holes are all that remain of a few rude dwellings built about a primitive mill. At one time the jaws at the mouth of the Nest supported a great iron shaft, a c.u.mbersome overshot waterwheel deliberately delivering the contents of the creek, by means of its buckets, into the pool below. In the process logs were converted into lumber, a painfully tedious operation.

A Queer Abode

Before building the mill, however, there dwelt in a recess of the solid sandstone, an ingenious and eccentric character whose presence and unusual behavior gave the name to the place. In his "Outline Sketches"

W. H. Canfield, local historian, who located on Skillet Creek in 1842, says the abode of this individual was ten feet above a deep pool of water, dug out by the fail of the creek over the crest of the resisting formation. The approach to this nearly secreted habitation was either through a trap door in the roof, or a trap-door in the floor. If one entered through the roof it was by clambering down the rocky wall to the opening, and if through the floor it was by means of a floating bridge upon the pool, a ladder at its end leading to the trap-door in the floor. The little shop could not be seen from the mouth of the canyon, or from the top, or from any direction but one, hence by the early settlers was dubbed the "Pewee" or "Pewit's Nest."

Here the recluse repaired watches, clocks, guns, and occasionally farming utensils, even essaying to manufacture the latter in a rude way. Lathes he had for turning iron and wood, the power for propelling being provided from an old fas.h.i.+oned centrifugal water wheel, itself as much of a curiosity as its owner. A large coffee mill, likewise a grindstone, was arranged to operate by the water that was forever collecting in the upper valley and pouring through the shady dell. It is said that this hermit of the hill could tell a lively tale and dispelled the gloom of loneliness by playing upon a violin. At times, forsooth, he was persuaded to preach for the Mormon church, although his activities in this direction were never p.r.o.nounced. Among his other accomplishments, he posed as a doctor and prescribed as remedies the herbs and shrubs growing in the valleys and on the hills about.

His favorite place of abode seems to have been the border of a new country and when the settlements among the Baraboo Bluffs became too numerous, he as quietly and mysteriously disappeared from his queer home at Pewit's Nest as he had come.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKILLET FALLS]

Skillet Falls

Skillet Falls is located about a mile above where the stream tumbles into the pool at the head of the peaceful valley and may be reached by following the creek through woods and fields, or by approaching through the farmyard of Dwight Welch on Trunk Line 12. This place of interest was named by Levi Moore from the "Skillets" or water-worn holes in the sandstone rock, looking much like basins or iron vessels used in cooking.

Stream With Two Beds

Before the time of the glacial epoch Skillet Creek probably emptied into the Baraboo River where the city of Baraboo is located, two or three miles below the present confluence. The moraine material filled a portion of the bed of the stream and after the ice receded it was forced to find a new course near where three roads meet, a short distance above Skillet Falls. The upper portion of Skillet Creek tumbles down the Baraboo Bluffs over a bed which dates to Potsdam times while the lower portion is of much more recent origin, something unusual in the history of streams. This interruption in its career has resulted in the picturesque waterfalls. From the highway east of Skillet Creek one has a view of the terminal moraine to the east and of the highly productive outwash plain.

Marched With Napoleon

Continuing on the highway a mile west of Pewit's Nest one observes a rural burying ground on the slope of Rock Hill. A little south of the center in Rock Hill Cemetery sleep two soldiers who marched with Napoleon in his world-disrupting European conquests. On a marble stone one reads:

* Michael Hirschinger *

* Died *

* March 20, 1853 *

* Age 67 Years *

The father of former a.s.semblyman Charles Hirschinger, this soldier's most thrilling experience was his march to Moscow in the fall of 1812 and his retreat with the great Corsican. Half a million men marched triumphantly into the beautiful city, only to have it reduced to ashes in their very presence. This meant the destruction of Napoleon's army.

The soldier often retold the retreat through the Polish snows, recalling that some of his comrades, after crossing streams, perished in the snow.

The tomb of Mrs. Hirschinger is near that of her husband.

Near the grave of Michael Hirschinger one reads on a stone about all that is known of still another Napoleon soldier:

* Michael Nippert *

* Died *

* May 23, 1864 *

* Age 70 Years, 2 Months *

As to his martial deeds but little is recorded. By his side sleeps his wife.

Napoleon went to St. Helena; Hirschinger and Nippert came to the Baraboo Hills.

Hirschinger Spring

A mile and a quarter south of the cemetery, where the road bends to avoid plunging into it, a spring of delicious water bursts from the hillside and escapes into the quietude of a wooded dale. This obscure valley is known as Pine Hollow and the tortuous streamlet, which finds its way for almost a mile through the towering timber of this delightful retreat, is known as Pine Creek. Ferns, mosses, and certain varieties of wild flowers hide the gray of the rocks which are piled high above the stream. The dale is one of great attractiveness to a loiterer through this unfrequented wood of the Baraboo Hills.

CHAPTER VIII

Man Mound, Famous Archeological Wonder--Why Indian Earthworks Were Built

The famous man mound, a few miles northeast of Baraboo, is the most interesting archeological feature of the region. This earthwork is shaped like a giant human figure and is the only known Indian monument of this nature in the world.

A Deer Mound