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Touch History
September, 2012
WELCOME TO MRSP

Thanks for stopping by our booth at the Driftless Art Festival and signing up for our
newsletter.
Hope you enjoy the latest edition.

SCULPTOR'S CORNER
The Mississippi River Sculpture Park. What is it for?
People have asked me this question and it is hard for me to answer. For me expression
comes through the artwork. Although I know inside myself what it is for, I find it a little difficult to
express in words.
Answer #1: It is to showcase the artwork:
A bronze life size figure done by a master artist and cast by a professional art bronze
foundry is a work of art lasting for thousands of years.
As I look back I can see that my whole career and all of my life experiences have led me to
create the figures in the Mississippi River Sculpture Park. My Master of Arts degree and
continued post-graduate work plus a lifetime of practice have allowed me the skills and
knowledge to create these realistic figures. The ability to bring human dignity and heartfelt
emotional expression into each sculpture portrait is born out of many years of my personal life
experiences, some beautiful and happy and some sadly tragic.
I feel privileged to be able to bring all of this to the statues in the Mississippi River sculpture
Park. As you look at the statues notice how they are positioned and the expressions on their
faces. Notice the contrast in texture and pattern of the clothing. How does the bronze mellow
with age? Do you notice the change of light and shade on the bronze as the day lengthens? Are
they interesting to look at from all sides? Do the figures look friendly or proud? Would you like
to meet them? Can you imagine their lives? Their characters? What they might say? What music
they heard? Has the artist done a good job of introducing these people to you? Do you
experience your own emotions and ideals about our humanness because of them? Have you
learned more about our collective history because of them? Would you like to share your
experience of this monumental sculpture park with others?
Can you imagine what future generations might think of these enduring statues from their
ancestral community?
Someone has said "Great art demands passionate appreciation."

--Florence Bird

(Watch for two more answers to the question in upcoming newsletters)

Hidden Treasures
APPLE SEASON ARRIVES
Cold air is known to sink. So apple
trees that blossom a little too early have a
better chance of surviving a late frost if they've
been planted at the top of a ridge. If there's
one thing this area is known for, it's apples.
And another: awe-inspiring ridge-top vistas
where its apples grow.
The ridge above Gays Mills is home
to one of the two biggest apple-growing areas
in Wisconsin. Drive north out of Prairie du
Chien on Highway 35, a scenic drive along
the Mississippi River. Turn east on Highway
171, then follow it through the village of Gays Mills and up the bluff to the stretch that locals call
the Apple Ridge Road. Meander on the winding highway, where you'll find six miles of trees and
vistas, three apple orchards with packing rooms and sales rooms open to the public, lots of
varieties of apples, cider, and an October corn maze. Near the east end, The Applelicious Pie
Depot has freshly baked treats for those who are too lazy - or hungry -- to make their own, or
those who have ignored the cider doughnuts at Sunrise Orchard, the apple pizza at Hillcrest
Orchard, or the variety of baked goods at Fleming Orchard. Where 171 seems to dead-end
against Highway 61, Hillcrest Orchard will be selling apples, of course, but also the latest sweet
corn of the season. If you turn around and head west again on 171, the Kickapoo River Valley
will loom in the distance just before you plunge down the bluff into Gays Mills. For a closer look
at what you see in the photograph, turn off onto one of the two overlooks.
If you'd rather continue farther up the Mississippi on Highway 35, cross the blue bridge at
La Crosse, and follow the signs in La Crescent, Minnesota, to the Apple Blossom Scenic Drive,
another road that takes advantage of the fact that in this part of the country, apple trees are
planted at the tops of hills. Needless to say, local orchards sell apples too.
If you're heading out of Prairie du Chien and your aim is a shorter drive, Shihata Orchard,
just north of town off Highway 35, then about two miles east on Limery Road, is the place for
apples for the family and a Country Fun Park for the kids. The pumpkin patch will be open in
October.
One word of warning: if you already have a favorite orchard and a favorite type of apple
to buy there, everything is about two weeks early this year, thanks to the early, warm spring that
makes the orchard owners glad they planted their trees at the top of a ridge.



ONE MORE PIECE OF HISTORY ON THE ISLAND
William A. Thompson Dredge

The Dredge William A. Thompson was the biggest single
piece of equipment used by the Corps of Engineers - St. Paul
District and served the District well, dredging the Mississippi
River from St. Paul to St. Louis for 70 years. Constructed
by Dravo Corporation in Pittsburgh, it arrived in Fountain City,
Wisconsin, on May 22, 1937, and was immediately put into
service.
In order to facilitate the transportation of goods on the Mississippi River, the federal
government found it necessary to make certain that a shipping channel of predictable depth would
be maintained during the shipping season. The Dredge did just that - assuring a reliable flow of
goods to and from ports on the upper Mississippi to support agriculture and other commerce.
The Dredge measures 267 feet in length and 53 feet wide, with a draft of 6 feet fully loaded.
It weighs 1,370 ton, carried a crew of 51 with sleeping accommodations for 30, and had full
kitchen facilities. As of this summer, The Dredge has a new home in Prairie du Chien, after being
purchased by Community Development Alternatives with the intention to restore it and make it
available for public tours that will tell the story of river transportation and life on The Dredge. The
Dredge is presently moored at the barge loading area on the north end of St. Feriole Island,
upriver from the Sculpture Park. If you'd like to help restore this behemoth, contact Community
Development Office at 326-7333.


ER NURSE SPECULATES ON YOUNG SURVIVOR

After the MRSP board decided on the next statue in the Sculpture Park,
Aunt Mary Ann LaBouche, Mary Antoine, a local historian, gave us some
information about the attack that left the healer's granddaughter alive but
scalped. None of us could answer a central question: why did the baby
survive but an older man, who was also scalped, die?
Heidi Kirschbaum, a registered nurse and the Emergency Room Clinical
Coordinator at Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital, speculates on the answer, based on her
experiences and a conversation with one of the ER doctors.
First, there's the probable size of the wound. If tugging on the hair had exposed the
baby's entire head, there would have been more bleeding and, more importantly, more risk of
infection. So the wound was probably small.
"She must have used something to keep her from infection," the Emergency Room nurse
says of the local healer and her granddaughter. Nowadays, a sterile saline solution and soap
would be used, though the most recent advice to ER nurses is, "Get it clean by using clean
water." That's something that LaBouche would have had access to.
The historical account says that the grandmother placed a silver coin over the wound.
Kirschbaum points out that the coin would have sealed off the exposed area and kept it clean.
Also, silver has anti-bacterial properties. In a modern emergency room, a liquid that includes a
silver compound is used to wipe burns and prevent infection.
Did the coin remain in Mary Louisa's head until her death at 67? Sometimes a body will
eventually reject shrapnel or other small bits of metal, Kirschbaum says, although if LaBouche
pounded the coin until it was thinner, as the account says, this might have prevented rejection. In
fact, a descendant remembered sitting on his grandmother's lap while she showed him the scar at
the back of her neck and let him feel the silver piece in her head.
So why did a baby manage to survive a scalping? All of the above, plus one more
possibility: at 10 months of age, the baby probably was still being breast fed, Kirschbaum says.
And that means she was still getting some natural immunity that would have helped the with the
healing.


Editor's Corner
SOME OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE HISTORY
"Make history." That's something done by people who have attracted the public's attention
- sometimes it's negative attention, but more often it's positive attention. In either case, "make"
doesn't usually mean that the history makers were using their hands.
But you can make history, too, if you consider "make" a physical thing. Elsewhere in this
newsletter, you'll see an opportunity to bring history to life by joining others to restore an old
dredge to its original condition. Former dredge employees show up at the site with stories about
their working days. Clearly, they are looking forward to the work ahead. All it will take is a lot
of cleaning and sanding and painting. A lot of uncomplicated physical effort.
There's another way to make history in the physical sense, but with a lot less physical
work. You can help bring more history to the Mississippi River Sculpture Park by donating
toward the making of the statue of Aunt Mary Anne LaBuche. This life size bronze statue will add
an important chapter to the Wisconsin annals of history.
The address for sending a tax-deductible donation is:
Mississippi River Sculpture Park
PO Box 395
Prairie du Chien, WI 53821.
And thanks in advance.
--Marilyn Leys

MSRP
Mississippi River Sculpture Park
608-326-0862
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