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Wander project Wisconsin Dells Wisconsin!

Images are from the Wisconsin river circa 1968. I say circa only because they are from 1968 but over the course of a couple of months. My grandfather took pictures often of the Wisconsin River. There were his favorite places, one of my all-time favorite pictures of my father and I, was taken by Grandfather in one of his favorite places.  Today the pictures are of one of the most famous rocks near the Wisconsin River, near the Dells.

The rear boats wander past this rock 24 or more times a day. Tourists are snapping pictures from the river towards the rock. My grandfather hiked to the other side and took the picture the other way. He didn’t wait for tour boat to snap the picture. That would have been an iconic picture. Well iconic in the sense that it would have connected him and I. I love taking pictures of people taking pictures of me. A boat full of tourists captured on film at the moment they were snapping a picture of a famous rock would have been perfect.

In some of the pictures, you can see the rock worn away by the river. Erosion is showing the layers of sedimentary rock that made the river bed. It is as if a baker, seeking to make a rock cake, made each layer and then, with a little frosting between them, stacked each new cake layer upon the last. Cake Rock perhaps it could be called. My grandfather loved the Wisconsin River. I have many happy memories of being on, near or around that river as well. Funny how sometimes a river defines the memories of another person.

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Written by DocAndersen

One fan, One team and a long time dream Go Cubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 Comments

    • That is a funny story, I’ve seen this (and I was at the various places my grandfather photographed but I was very young) but I don’t have many memories of the place.

    • It is a beautiful place to wander and photograph. My grandfather never took a picture until his daughter (my aunt) taught in around 1956. Over the next 16 years, he took more than 4000 pictures, many of them focused on the Dells!

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