Spring Green, Wisconsin
Thursday, November 17, 2022 | Vol. 3, No. 26 FREE, Single-Copy
Inside this edition
Profile: Katie Green on Bob McQuade
Community Calendar: Workshops, Open Mic, Live Music
Deer Hunting: Columns and Forecast
Page 2
Pages 6, 7
Pages 2, 4, 11, 12
Tower Hill State Park: making a difference Doug Swenson, Contributed The trail is open! Tower Hill State Park (5808 County Rd C, Spring Green) is a local River Valley treasure with stunning views, campsites and trails. But with a loss of state funding, a main trail on the north slope of the shot tower was closed for over 15 years due to physical deterioration and lack of budget to maintain it. Paul and Jude Kuenn, residents of Appleton, have been coming to the park over the years to camp, hike and enjoy the proximity to APT, the river and the community. Seeing a need that was not being filled, they jumped into action and spearheaded the trail repair with some local volunteers. Over two years of repairs and 464 volunteer hours later, the trail is once again open for hikers. The “trail closed” sign that has kept hikers off the trail for 15+ years was removed on October 30 and the trail will be available for all when the park reopens next May. Paul Kuenn is a consultant for deep energy retrofits and solar installations in homes and businesses, and along with these skills, he is a true handyman. He and Jude are outdoor enthusiasts and passionate about the arts and nature. This trail repair is not the only Tower Hill project they have volunteered to fix. In 2017 they rebuilt a historical stone bread oven and in 2018 rebuilt and reorganized the shot tower exhibit after
Photo contributed by Doug Swenson Paul and Jude Kuenn live in Appleton and are members of various Wisconsin state park non-profit 'Friends' organizations, including The Friends of Devil's Lake, Rock Island, Point Beach, and Potowatomi. They'd like to see a similar group created for Tower Hill State Park. it had been vandalized and fallen into disrepair. Working with park ranger Pat Kraska and local resident Ellis (Skip) Pifer, who lived on the property in his childhood, Paul and Jude updated the exhibit with electrical wiring, lighting and wood framing, restored photos and paintings, and replaced a mining pickaxe from the period that had been stolen from the display. With these updates completed, Paul
and Jude took on the much larger task of rebuilding the trail in October of 2020. Securing the mid-level trail winding down the north slope of the shot tower that had eroded and crumbled into a stone pile was no easy task. Rebar was pounded into the lower side of the trail where a new dry stacked stone wall was built; cracked and crumbled stone stairs were removed, and gravel brought in bucket by bucket as new stairs were replaced; and the upper stone
retaining wall was rebuilt. Dry stacking the stones, using both original sandstone and limestone from a nearby quarry, created a strong wall using gravity, not cement, to secure the wall and keep the soil from eroding. Large limestone rocks were brought to the top of the trail, then hauled to the site with a 2-person rock carrier that Paul built, emulating the same method the Civilian Conservation Corps used when they built the original terraced trail in the ‘30s and ‘40s. The dense stepping stones can weigh up to 200 pounds, so the carrier was a perfect solution for getting the stones into place. Tower Hill State Park still has many maintenance projects in its future, but the generosity and passion of Paul and Jude Kuenn will always be evident in the stone walls and path they have rebuilt, a true community gift that will not fade away with time. Some of the volunteers that Paul and Jude have motivated during their time at the park include Ellis Pifer, Kim Nolet, Bob Johnson, Mark Berres, Max Berres, Patipat (Petch) Tuongheeranchort, Jan and Dean Swenson, Doug Swenson, Omar Lopez, Chuck and Denise ValentiHein, Patti Zarling, Timm Zumm and Earl Straiter. With park budget cuts and no active Civilian Conservation Corp today, this type of volunteerism and visioning is perhaps the new way forward.
Arena Historians to hold Harvest Celebration with storyteller Cecilia Farran The Arena Historians will host a harvest table of home made and locally grown food November 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Grandma Mary’s Brisbane Hall (175 Hwy 14, Arena). Folks are invited to bring samples of their homemade bread along with locally sourced family favorite foods that pair well with bread such as jams, jellies or other preserves perhaps
from recipes passed down through the generations or even local honey. Also suggested are home made or local cheeses, sausages, hand churned butter, juices or wine or home brewed beer or even pies and sweets made with locally grown or foraged produce, all to be sampled in a smorgasbord of the fruits of the land.
Before the sampling, local storyteller Cecilia Farran will set the tone as she shares “Daily Bread,” a true story that takes place at the noon dinner table in her family farmhouse kitchen. It is a harvest tale of the wisdom of those who live on the land and take sustenance from it, even in times of hardship. Drawn from her memories of farm
life Cecilia creates a rich tapestry of feelings, earthy character and agrarian wisdom, interwoven with the circle of the seasons and the sacredness of place. It is a touching tale of her father and the wheat he raised, and of her mother, who ground that wheat into flour and made
continued on page 9