Sneaky, sneaky....

I pride myself in making good geocaches.  Some are whimsical.  Some are difficult.  Some are both.  And on occasion they actually get better with age.

I've done several using plate fungus as a base.  Now, I'm not saying where this one is, but if you were to look very closely at it you might just see the bit of black plastic that holds it to the piece of dead wood below.  But it's not as easy as it was on first deployment.  Because the plate fungus has dropped spores that are now growing on the supporting structure!

I've given this one five stars for difficulty.

CCC Camp Delta - Faces from the 1930's

Because they should be remembered, lets have a look back in time at some of the men who worked at CCC Camp Delta.  All photographs courtesy of Bob Scheulke.

The bugler and one of the cooks outside the Kitchen.  Interesting to see construction details.  In an era before widespread use of plywood this building seems to be made of individual long planks, probably sawed on site.  The current premium we pay on construction materials makes this quite a lot of 2021 money on display!

John Scheulke with snow shoes on Bass Lake.

Donald Bidgood.  He looks as if he might be dressed up to go to town.

Probably taken for comedic effect.  Eating ice cream in the snow.

John Scheulke, someone named Thyer, and a pet.

The Camp Delta Ice Cutting Crew 1934

A photo labeled Foreman and Forester 1938.  Titles not names one supposes.

And a photo simply titled "Hang - Er - Up Time. Camp Delta 1938".

I can't fit this into any known geography of the camp so I assume this was a job site photo.  Possibly taken the same day as the ice cutting photo, the man in the foreground is not carrying a rifle but some sort of complicated grabber.  Maybe for ice, maybe a Cant Hook used to maneuver logs.

CCC Camp Delta - Then and Now

A while back I posted a brief survey of CCC Camp Delta.  The remains of the camp are near the tiny hamlet of the same name.  Given the nature of the Internet it was just a matter of time before somebody contacted me saying his father had been one of the "CCC boys" there.  And better still, there were photos.

This prompted a second look at the site hoping that John Schuelke's photos can help bring it back to life.  All black and white photos are John's courtesy of his son Bob.  Let's start with the obvious, the front gate posts.

1938:  John Schuelke strikes a pose.

 And 2021:

There are always little details that you only notice on careful study.  See how the "castle" top of the pillar has been filled in?  Also, that little "birdhouse" niche on the front of the pillar has lost its roof.  I think this was a vent, suggesting that the pillar is or was hollow.  The two sets of larger round holes would have allowed poles for signs to be mounted on both front and side.

The next image is from a vantage point I can't reach without a boat, but helpfully shows the general layout of Camp Delta:

Boat landing on the right.  Main buildings of the camp in a line overlooking the lake.  Water tower straight back from that.  Here's the rather unimpressive remains of the long row of buildings seen above:

Not much really.  Just a long rectangular area of slight depression where leaves have accumulated.  These barracks like buildings did not have much for foundations or cellars I guess.  Next is a walk straight back to find the water tower.  Logically it is at the highest point of elevation.  Here's one of the "Boys" pretending to leap from it in 1938.  In reality he must have only been only a few feet off the ground.

And today?  Well I think this pattern of four cement blocks supported the feet of the tower.

There are a number of photos in the Schuelke collection showing the Forest Service garage.  Forestry work was a big part of what was done out of Delta, and I suspect Mr. Schuelke might have had a specific assignment in this area.  It appears to be on the back side of the hill.

Given the various adverse weather conditions they'd encounter it would only make sense to have a solid cement footing under this parking area.  In fact I think you can see the edge of it in front of the line of trucks.  The man in the photo by the way is John Skylondz.  And, in 2021...

There are two unusual features near this slab.  My first take on them was that they were privy or cesspool pits.  But something was just a little bit wrong with this.  I've seen other "facilities" at CCC camps and they were always something much less formidable.  Simple sunken pits or oil drums buried in the ground.  This is some serious cement.

I think the answer can actually be seen in the picture with the trucks.  Here, I'll cut out the relevant section:

It appears to be in the correct spot....so I think the cement slab was to support this gas pump!  With magnification it has a No Smoking sign on it.

That's about all I could manage with respect to linking the historic photos with their current locations.  But there's more to see.  Next time we'll spend a little time with the men of CCC Camp Delta at work and play.

Strange Fishing Challenge Day Five

Well it has been a while since I launched the Strange Fish Challenge.  To review, my whippersnapper of a grandson (age 5) has a longer list of fish species caught than I do.  I decided to try and show him a thing or two.  I mean, it has to work out better than when I showed him the correct way to do a cartwheel, right?

So I said I'd see if I could catch 20 different species of fish in seven days of fishing.  Having started this fairly late in the fall I got in four days....and 11 species.*  Do the math, I need three per day to pull this off.

I'd been out for a few recon missions as the water warmed up and the fish got frisky.  On one of them I caught a couple of sturgeon.  This little guy was just so cute!

His great grandpa took my line an hour later.  All I saw was a flip of a huge, prehistoric tail as he ripped the 20 pound test line off my reel.  Watching it spin off I had no choice but to bring the rod tip back and take a stand.  SNAP!  Fun, but as it was not an official Fishing Challenge Day sturgeon are not on my list.

Recently I had a day to kill.  The usual schedule of helping out with the grands was off for me as I waited, like a condemned man, for a root canal.  Time for distraction.  I went to a small stream called Muddy Creek.  And in the first hour I got this guy:

This is a White Sucker, and a rather fine specimen at that.  And just a few minutes later, look who turned up:

A cute little brook trout!  This was only the second one I'd ever caught, and the White Sucker was an entirely new species for me.  It was only 10 am and I figured my odds of getting another species were excellent.  I went to where the sturgeon had been a few days earlier...

Nothing.  Picturesque, dead water.  I tried a couple of little streams on my way back to Eau Claire.  Nothing.  I tried a spot on the river in Eau Claire where I'd had luck.  Same.  Half Moon Lake, allegedly home to bowfin, bullheads and other Strangies....just a few bluegills.  I even tried my last ditch spot on the Chippewa River near home.  My son and grandson had caught catfish there.  No fish.

So for the day only two novel species.  So far five days, 13 species.  I'm falling behind.  I think the problems are several.  Certain species are just so common that they crowd out the odd ball fish.  Strange fish are often in strange and hard to get to places.  In fast current.  Or heavy brush.  Or in the middle of swamps.  In particular the minnow sized fish are very hard to catch.  You go through life as a potential snack to all manner of fish, mammal and bird species and you dash for cover when anything approaches.

Well we'll see.

-----------------------------------

Fish list as of this posting.  Small and largemouth bass. Northern and Walleye pike.  Yellow Perch.  Creek Chub.  Common Shiner.  Bluegill.  Silver Redhorse, Smallmouth Buffalo, Shorthead Redhorse.  Brook Trout and White Sucker.

Cats of Rome

A Facebook friend of mine recently posted pictures of cats sulking about in ancient ruins.  I recognized at least one site, the Torre Argentina in the middle of Rome.  The little slinkers have free run of the place.  And I know exactly what they are thinking....

"Before Man there was Cat.  After the day of Man has ended we shall endure unchanged.  Behold the Works of Man.  Once the heart of his greatest city, now our litter box.  So it is with all he builds.  The claws of The Great Cat will take down his cities one by one.  His vaunted technology is mere foolery, suitable perhaps for the entertainment of Dog."

"We disdain it all.  Except for the can opener, that was actually pretty cool.  And the mysterious Red Dot of Light.  As soon as we figure that one out we are totally done with the clawless, bipedal stooges."

Forgotten Brewery Caves - Rochester Minnesota

As I mentioned in the recent series on Mayville Wisconsin brewery caves, off site storage caves are the toughest to research.  Breweries are relatively visible, well documented and usually in predictable locations.  But what if the brewery had a cave somewhere on the edge of town?  There would be nothing on the maps and if you think about it they would not want to advertise that there was a cellar full of beer tucked away out of sight!

Similar to Mayville this story begins with a house for sale.  At this point it is probably best that I just turn this over to my friend Gabe, one of my Underworld Contacts.  His video is used with permission.  Feel free to skip over the parts that don't interest you.  Like the $500,000 price tag for the house.

Well.  It's hard to know what to make of that.  It is clearly in an area of previous stone quarrying.  But that's not a deal breaker...where else would you find the geology to build a storage cave?  The general configuration and the multiple vents make it difficult to buy this as say, a sand mine.  The visible pick work looks 19th century.  The water tower and the Plummer House above are 20th century.  It is a bit confusing to have the newer pipes running through but that's part of what makes this one interesting.

There were three breweries in Rochester during the 19th century.  There is, alas, little to point to one as a prime suspect for this cave.  My Google Earth fly through suggests that all three were on flat ground and would be candidates for off site caves.  By size alone I should think the Schuster brewery which was around from circa 1857 up to Prohibition would be the best candidate.  Alas, none of the maps of 19th century Rochester extend this far out into what looks to have been a dreary industrial area.

Now of course it is quite tony.  In fact this neighborhood having once been called Quarry Hill has become in local slang "Pill Hill" as it is where the physicians of Mayo Clinic have built and maintained some very nice houses over the years.  I'm out of that world now but there was a time when it was a major status symbol to own a home built by an early Mayo physician.  And near the pinnacle of social standing, and of the hill physically, was the Plummer House.

The property with the caves behind it was once the pump house for the Plummer Estate.  Dr. Henry Plummer built the house in the style of an English Manor house in 1924.  The water tower on the property is said to be earlier, circa 1919.  The pump house proper was built a couple of years later in 1926.  With the Plummer house being so over the top architecturally it is of course possible that they could have hand excavated a cave just for the heck of it in the mid 1920's, but the otherwise pointless side tunnels make it unlikely that it was simply a place to run pipes.  A much smaller service tunnel could have been drilled mechanically and with much less effort in the 20th century.  One small detail from the video that caught my eye was an abortive attempt to hand drill a vent.  It's something I've seen a time or two - Brownsville for instance - and has always struck me as very labor intensive.

A definitive answer?  We might not get one.  The enigma of the cave has attracted some attention and I did find a commentary that references information from the local historical society.  On the one hand a Plummer daughter opined that her father intended to grow mushrooms but never got around to it.  On the other hand the son of a man who helped design the house wrote in a 1980 letter that the cave was pre-existing.  I find this more plausible.

A couple of side notes.  Gabe is clearly a kindred spirit.  His Youtube channel shows a man having a great deal of fun in life.  I recommend it as a day brightener.

And I mentioned that the Plummer House was near the pinnacle of Rochester social circles.  At the very top of course was Mayowood, an elegant mansion built on 3000 acres by Charles Mayo in 1911.  In the Mayoverse this is something akin to the Vatican or the Pantheon.  Many years ago in an interesting phase of my career I was actually invited to a private reception at Mayowood.  I thought it was OK, they served some very nice wine.  I don't recall much else, in fact I found it rather boring.  But our friends employed by Mayo Clinic were astonished.  My blasé attitude aside a private invite to Mayowood apparently was an honor to which many aspired but few were accorded.  

Meh.  The wine was good.

Forgotten Brewery Caves - Banks of the Rock River

Spring is an excellent time for spotting brewery caves.  Today's example is along the banks of the Rock River in southern Wisconsin.

Perhaps you did not spot it instantly?  Well don't feel bad it took me a moment and I knew it was there.  Stepping a bit further upstream and switching to my slightly better camera we can see..

A fairly typical small brewery cave, of the sort quite common in the 1860's and 70's.  Especially in an area such as this that lacks the geology for hard rock caves.  There is of course always something novel to the trained eye.  And it looks to me as if the structure directly above the cave is a vent hole that has been rebuilt a bit and repurposed as a decorative wishing well!

My policy on locations is to err on the side of caution when trespass and safety are concerns.  This does look like a place that passing canoers might be tempted to duck into, and my Underworld Contacts tell me that the cave in in danger of collapse.  So in a general sense just be happy to know that it is out there, at least for a few more years.

A brief history of the brewery will of course give clues for the more motivated to follow.  These clues being already in circulation I'll simply trust you to exhibit the same degree of sense and discretion that I have.

This brewery was started circa 1864 by a man named Grosskopf.  Never a big brewery it usually made about 175 barrels a year.  It seems to have been a rather rough place.  In 1878 a man was killed in a fight at the brewery, and in 1884 there was an attempted robbery by drunken railway workers.  That seems to have been enough for the Grosskopf family and the brewery went out of business soon thereafter.