Only thing is that when I got it here, the listed club wasn't anywhere to be found on campus.
No big deal, there was a lot to take in. It was overwhelming in some respects. While the roommate assigned to me really sucked, the room had a great view. (It only took me about 16 years to finally get in to see the Wilson Place Mansion after literally overlooking it for some years.) The view of the lake was nice, eventually the last room on campus was at the end and it was really quite excellent.
Below is the view that I came to know on the many walks between residence and class and work.
It is quite interesting that my future home currently is in view although it's not seen.
In the relatively short time I have been here I have seen a lot of Menomonie, not the UW Stout part, but the real Menomonie disappear. Little by little. For instance, this stairway below went up to the parking lot that is behind Hovlid hall. It is gone now, but for years this kind of what was my backyard. Now it is the new Stout North Campus cafeteria that took over the parking lot area above. This scene gone.
Now if someone in 50 years looks at it, would it read something like, "rustic staircase," and someone like me will wonder where it was?
Of course at the time, a couple decades ago, I had no idea what was there before me. As I come across more and more information about Menomonie I am floored by the amount of homes that have disappeared to make room for UW Stout expansion and parking lots. Not to mention the closing of roads and elimination or outright theft by the city and state of property for "renewal" efforts or road widening.
And then in the modern news it appears there is a "housing shortage" in Menomonie.
My first walk off-campus was north along the Omaha rail that eventually led me to Kmart. Kind of a random first adventure on my first night in Menomonie. I don't have any pictures of the railroad tracks I was following and I didn't know much about anything I was passing at that time. Now it is the rail-to-trail Junction Trail.
Way off my radar at the time was the Wakanda Water Park. I really enjoyed walking, running, and biking, down to Wakanda park in those days. The lightly wooded and large parks of Menomonie have been one of my favorite aspects of this city.
I thought this article was really interesting. The note that the water park was something on the list of things Menomonie desired since 1960 really hit home on the current me. If I had read this article 20 years ago that part wouldn't stand out to me.
Why now? I think it is because with the on-going research and discussion, that year, or more specifically it was 1958 when Menomonie saw the realization of the "big new lake," and in 1959 when that extra depth didn't improve to the desired "lake" people thought it might be was evident.
With so many people that were here in the 1950's and 1960's that will tell about the algae that existed then, I have to wonder where the people who claim there was never an algae presence "before" came from?
When pressed for more information on this, the "it was clear before" demographic will sometimes later add something like, "it wasn't AS bad," or it "was never THIS bad," or "it is getting worse."
There can't be two contradicting accounts.
I could showcase clear water every year for the last couple decades but at the same time produce a green photo of the lake in each same year. Why? That's the algae cycle, it is a photosynthetic creature and they are feeding and multiplying like crazy until they kill each other off, and then release their blue color, their decaying odor, and possibly toxins (if present.)
The environment needs balancing.
Next up, we're hitting on the crumbling lake shore, a bigger problem that Menomonie should be addressing.
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