Nice days come before you know it....

Wasn't it not too many weeks ago we were getting hammered by a crazy amount of snow?   Weren't we living with solid days of rain putting us up, what, 6+ inches over in precipitation for the year?   Wasn't it just a couple weeks back where the Red Cedar Dam was letting water through at a fast rate with very noticeable raise in even the Red Cedar River below, while the larger rivers absorbed and backed up smaller streams?

This past week in Menomonie, WI, saw a lot more activity around the boat landings as the area started to swing into summer mode.   Several boats can be counted at a time nearly every day from one location, normally the more intense fishing fans disappear along the shoreline on the horizon or vanish upriver.

And up until just days ago the water clarity was absolutely great.

Really, once the ice broke up, Lake Menomin was really very nice.


Was this due to the extra water movement?   Was this due to colder temperatures?

Maybe since farmers weren't in the fields upstream due to wet conditions farm run-off didn't occur as heavily, or was moved fast enough with the extra water movement?


Things that people should take note of.  The seasons, that is.   Everything has an ebb and flow but if a person can't be in a position to witness it or doesn't pay attention to it it is all just lost in past days.


Maybe now that the general consensus is that it is nice outside, more people will be outside in Menomonie.  But every other bit of nature is going to be coming to life, too.   

The good green algae (not the bad stuff) is forming up now near the shoreline areas but the people who are coming outside are expecting a pristine white sand beach (that is heated and warm with clear water), even a little pollen floating on the surface has been observed to lead a person to react to the entire lake for even a little bit of real nature disrupting some sort of fake beach notion.


Perhaps that is why Lake Menomin can't get a better deal on this.  Menomonie pushes Wakanda park as the main event, and with the permanent advertising show on the baseball field fences, it has really become a big commercialized park.

What better feature than a big white sand beach on the lake?

Well, maybe if it has been built in a natural spot.  Somewhere where the river current was moving, or where natural deposition was occurring, building up a sandy beach.    Of course, where Wakanda beach is now, it just keeps on maintaining that 1950's beach.

Now that everything is coming to life this late spring and the summer season is almost on top of us, by the time anyone starts to really care about "the lake" the bacteria will be in bloom and THAT cycle will start again.

Lake Menomin

Lake Menomin on June 8, 2019.

Do you  think the Secchi disk has any real interfacing value as a user of Lake Menomin?

Restore the beaches?

300 people swimming near the old Menomonie Boathouse would have been an interesting sight!

I don't think Menomonie has seen 300 people in the Ninth St. and Crescent area at once too often.

Maybe there is more than just wonderful worldwide water facts that would have greater impact toward the better?

swimming beaches Menomonie

Marshall's drive-in Menomonie

Do natural attractions affect business locations?   Will businesses force natural attraction manipulation?

Algae. Nothing new or unique to Menomonie.

Strange.   Something happens, people don't like it, experts get some press, likely some funding and nearly 70 years later it is dam near the same shit, different day.

Is it lack of funding for research?   A too complex of an issue?  Inconsistent funding?   Lack of genuine interest?

Mayor Randy Knaack of Menomonie cleaned up Lake Menomin with two expensive dredging projects and he didn't even have to use his scum sucker 2000. 

So, how did Madison, WI not figure that out way back in 1949?   Well, you're right, they didn't have Menomonie's Mayor, but, time travel hasn't happened yet.  That we know of.

Let's take a look at this smelly lake bit-o-press from December 2, 1949:















Did you catch that little bit about few natural "enemies?"     
Just a few years ago a similar notion was introduced as part of a long term sustainable plan that was cheaper than the dredging projects.

But good old Randy Knaack got his dredging and the press of the day bolstered by commercial Menomonie interests didn't want extra government to pay and sustain a solution.
HOLY SHIT, MENOMONIE!

Stouts Camp Colony

Camp Colony Menomonie Stout

Leased on a well wooded tract of land just south of Menomonie's Fair Grounds at the eastern edge of the city.

This early recreational multi-campsite location within walking distance of Stout buildings was started in the spring of 1929.

Stoutonia 1930

Stoutonia March 13, 1931

Stoutonia March 13, 1931

Lake Colfax.

Tainter Lake

Okay, so it's not Lake Colfax.    But back in February of 1911, it apparently was Lake Colfax.  Or at least someone thought so.

Big enough to freeze over, Wisconsin's newest lake of the day and ready for commercialization.  

How has the old lake held up?

Are you happy with "Lake Colfax" not sticking?

The new bridge then in post card greetings

Available on ebay for a limited time, this great RPPC post card is up for auction.  The last really neat post card with the old Lake Menomin sold for an astounding $77.00!

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Well today's post card is already reaching a fairly high price, considering this was likely sold by the box load through the old Lee Drug Store alone (Menomonie residents will remember the racks just inside the door that were there well through the 1990's and into the 2000's).   Of course this author thought these post cards were really cool then but with the deeper contextual Menomonie history knowledge (that this author has now) the pictures were still rather left self-interpretive.   Such as, "oh, this used to be a street here." vs.  "UW Stout has been constantly expanding and Bowman hall is the oldest building in 1897 and there used to be more Main Street buildings where that parking lot is south from Penco but they burned down along with the previous Stout manual training school building and then ....." 

You get the idea, there's a massive story behind it all with a lot of people spread through decades but we package things into the smallest most efficient package and the evolution of a "car-free" campus and the expansion of campus takes a long time to learn and communicate.   Who has that time to care about the city they live in these days?

Nowhere in the UW Stout history yarns is the mention of the pressure it has put on the city of Menomonie and the amount of traffic and parking lot spaces along with undesirable home owner occupied neighborhoods, but that's an "outside the bay" topic we'll cover in the future.  

But back to the post card.

What makes this RPPC really interesting is that the back description actually gives a huge clue as to what year this photo was taken.

"Lake Menomin as seen from Hwy. 12 on the south bank of lake. Girl's Stout dormitory and new bridge can be seen be seen across lake from this scenic paradise."

That handwritten note with "7-21-62" adds massive value to this post card.   People usually don't put foward dates on this type of thing, but stranger things....

Menomonie was notoriously known for crooked bridges and that 1942 bridge is a nice publicity feature.   Something we all really take for granted in the current day.   If it were possible to get a better view of the Parker Pen area behind the bridge, that would add more value to this picture.

Well, we know that the girls dormitory was Bertha Tainter Hall and that building was replaced by the Modern Jeter-Tainter-Callahan  in the mid-50's.   And of course this is still just "Stout State College" at this point in history.

The Jeter and Callahan "wings" were added in 1958 to the center Tainter Hall.  This is another clue as to an exact year this was taken.

This could also be a nice "look at our new brand new big lake" picture.   The water level relative to the bridge and the seemingly not there private boathouse near the old pump house could put this picture right into 1958 or 1959 with that very tidy looking rip-rap running along the shore.   Or even into 1961.

It doesn't appear that the old steel truss bridge is running under the new bridge, but it is such an obscured area off in the distance.

What's even more fun is that we could probably find someone that knew who these people were at the picnic table.

Of course it is a misleading photo to those of us today.  It would seem to suggest more space, peace quiet, nature, etc.   But those of use who live in Menomonie know it is a very traffic heavy road with vehicles routinely exceeding speed limits.  

This scene is very possible to recreate today, but not when UW Stout is in session or Monday through Friday for the most part.   The sit down passive park has become a drive-by location.   For the price, this author can't justify the higher bid value at present without a better shoreline background detail available.

A vision for Menomonie from 1927

 

"...to look after local conservation and to keep the lake shores and other beauty spots from being snapped up by real estate dealers and private persons who will rule out the public from their own lakes."  J.C. Wilcox, 1927