The Bark winds through southeastern Wisconsin's "Kettle Moraine" — small hills called drumlins and deep glacial lakes known as kettles. It's part of the Mississippi watershed.
The Bark has some muddy shorelines, but it also has "shaking ground," soil that looked solid but is actually afloat. This is called "terre tremblant," or shaking ground. It hindered U.S. troops during the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832, as it continues to do with contemporary explorers.
Margaret Zerwekh, who has lived in the mill house for half a century, listens to Milton Bates read from his book, Bark River Chronicles. Zerwekh's home is a treasure trove of Delafield history.
Maintaining the mill, pond and dam has been a joy, and a struggle. On the mill pond outside of Zerwekh's home, fallen leaves rest on a soft crust of algae pond scum.
This former mill is the last private mill on the Bark and was in operation until a few years ago. It was built in the 1850s by one of the founders of Delafield, Wis., Nelson Hawks, to grind corn and grain. The mill pond and an earthen dam are behind it.
Zerwekh, 93, is also a local historian. Due to her efforts, Civil War soldier Lt. Alonzo Cushing finally received his Medal of Honor in 2009. Cushing was born on the banks of the Bark in Delafield. In 1863, at the age of 22, he was killed as he held out against Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
The Bark winds through southeastern Wisconsin's "Kettle Moraine" — small hills called drumlins and deep glacial lakes known as kettles. It's part of the Mississippi watershed.
The canoe party paddles past "Sugar Island," where the Bark River flows through Nemahbin. The Potawatomi tapped these trees for sugar. I'd never known there was an island in Nemahbin Lake; it holds summer cabins.
My favorite view from the fourth floor of Margaret Zerwekh's mill house, looking east out on the Bark — herons use the river like a private causeway, and fish swim in the millrace.
The Bark River is my backyard, childhood river. And yet, in a lifetime of travel, I'd never explored it.
I knew it carved the land from the Ice Age to settlement times, from the Black Hawk War of 1832 (in which young Abraham Lincoln appears) to the era of grist mills. But the Bark also flows past impressive Indian mounds. It nurtured poets, naturalists and farmers.
When former Marquette University professor Milton Bates published his Bark River Chronicles through the Wisconsin State Historical Society, I jumped at the chance to learn about the river with him.
Originally published on Wed October 31, 2012 12:10 pm
It was not a good year for people, weather and climate. The winter was strangely warm in many places and the summer ridiculously hot. As a large fraction of the country suffered through extreme or even extraordinary drought many folks naturally wondered, "Is this climate change?" Then along came a presidential election in which the words "climate change" disappeared from the dialogue. Now, just a week or so before voting day, the convergence of westbound Hurricane Sandy with a eastbound cold front is creating a massive storm, a Frankenstorm even, that is threatening millions of Americans.
STD cupcakes: From Two Little Cats Bakery in Cambridge & Hertfordshire, these chocolate cupcakes feature symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea, syphilis, genital warts, chlamydia and HIV.
STD cupcakes: From Two Little Cats Bakery in Cambridge & Hertfordshire, these chocolate cupcakes feature symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea, syphilis, genital warts, chlamydia and HIV.
Suicide Stomach Contents: Bartender James Dance of Loading in Cornwall concocted this mixture of flavored vodka, chocolate pieces, skittles, and absinthe, with empty pill casings for garnish, modeled on pathology lab stomach specimen.
Festival organizer, pathologist, and baker Carla Connolly injects a cake make to look like human flesh in this promotional shot for the museum's bake sale.
An Anatomical Model: This sponge cake with marzipan icing by the Conjurer's Kitchen, a specialty baker, depict the art of wax modeling called "moulage" first developed during the Renaissance.
Originally published on Wed October 31, 2012 8:16 am
Everyone's crazy for cupcakes these days, as our pals over at The Salt will tell you. So why not use them to lure the public into a conversation about STDs and platelets?
That's what St. Bartholomews Pathology Museum in the U.K. is up to this weekend, and the baked goods on the menu are quite the frightening sight.
Bridget Donnelly walks on a sandbag wall outside her home in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a mandatory evacuation of the city's low-lying coastal areas.
President Obama makes a statement after a briefing on Hurricane Sandy at FEMA headquarters Sunday in Washington. The president and Republican nominee Mitt Romney both canceled East Coast campaign appearances.
Buildings on the Atlantic City boardwalk are braced for Sandy. Gov. Chris Christie's emergency declaration is shutting down the city's casinos, and 30,000 residents are being told to evacuate.
A construction worker covers air vents that could cause the New York subway system to flood in preparation for Hurricane Sandy on Sunday. The city is closing its transit system, as are Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
The approaching Hurricane Sandy causes heavy surf in Cape May, N.J., on Sunday. Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the New Jersey coastline sometime Monday, bringing heavy winds and floodwaters.
Originally published on Mon March 25, 2013 11:48 am
"The time for preparing and talking is about over." That's the message from Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as Hurricane Sandy, the monstrous superstorm that's churning its way to the U.S. East Coast, threatening millions of people.
Michael Tomsic became a full-time reporter for WFAE in August 2012. Before that, he reported for the station as a freelancer and intern while he finished his senior year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Heââ
Moonshine used to be big business in the South, an illegal business that also kept the federal courthouses busy. Now one of those facilities, once on the front lines of the war on homemade booze, is shutting down.
The Johnson J. Hayes Federal Building is in Wilkesboro, N.C., where distilling corn whiskey in backwoods breweries was once the town's main trade. It's one of six federal courthouses closing in the South over the next year or two.
When Han Han blogs, a million Chinese netizens click and read. The popular Chinese blogger, race car driver and literary star has just released a collection of English-language translations of his essays that criticize both Chinese Communist Party policies as well as Chinese society at large.
Not so long ago, many Chinese commentators wrote in a cautious, oblique style designed not to offend the nation's famously humorless leaders — then came the Internet, blogs and a cheeky young man named Han Han.
The voice of China's post-'80s generation, Han is ironic, skeptical and blunt — writing what many young Chinese think but dare not say publicly.
Now 30 years old, Han has boy-band good looks, drives race cars and has 8 million followers on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
One of the most bitter congressional races is in the suburbs of Chicago, where controversial freshman Republican Joe Walsh is fighting to keep a seat he was actually drawn out of.
The Tea Party favorite's bombastic rants frequently get him into trouble, even with members of his own party, and Walsh is facing a tough Democratic opponent in Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in combat.
It's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm asking for your vote, and I'm asking you to vote early.
MITT ROMNEY: It matters. This race matters. You know how big this race is.
LYDEN: The candidates making their last swings through the swing states a week and a half before Election Day. James Fallows of The Atlantic joins us as he does most Saturdays. Hello there, Jim.
A construction worker finishes a roof in Chicago on Oct. 12. Signs of recovery in the housing market are springing up nationwide, but there's still a ways to go.
The economy has peppered political speeches for much of the presidential campaign. But talk of creating jobs has stolen thunder from the housing market.
The epic housing collapse four years ago was a key ingredient in creating the Great Recession in the first place. Plus, boosting the housing market can be a boon for overall economic recovery.
