On a rainy November day, the sun peeked out for a short time to create a rainbow which I missed, but a sunny day viewing Rainbow Cave in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore sounds much better to me after this wet day and dropping temperatures.
Rainbow Cave
The squirrels have been very active looking for acorns the past few days. I think they heard the chilly forecast. They have a different view of a tree as they climb up than what we normally would see.
A Squirrel’s View
This kitten is waiting for its mother to get in range again so he can attack and terrorize her as he had been the previous ten minutes.
Waiting for the Next Attack
On a knoll in Durward’s Glen, sit the St. Mary’s of the Pine Chapel, which was built by Bernard Durward, three of his sons, Charles, John and James, with help from neighbors in 1866. The nearest church at the time was 10 miles away so Bernard built it so his wife, Margaret, would not have to walk so far for church. The stone walls are 17 inches thick, which remained standing after a fire burned the chapel in 1923. The chapel restoration was completed in 1929.
Bernard and Margaret raised all of their 8 children at the glen and remained until their deaths. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in the chapel and two of their sons, John and James, celebrated their first priestly Mass in the chapel. All the family, except for Andrew, is buried in the family cemetery on the front side of the chapel.
The Durward family sold the land to the Roman Catholic Order of St. Camillus in 1932. The order established a seminary on the land, where it trained priests beginning in the 1930s. Many priests and brothers from the order are laid to rest in this peaceful spot behind the chapel.
St. Mary’s of the Pine
Tucked in an area near Baraboo, Wisconsin, Skillet Creek cut a 30 to 40 foot narrow canyon through the Cambrian sandstone, forming a series of potholes and waterfalls in an area called Pewits Nest. The name came from a mid-1800s eccentric mechanic who built his workshop into the cliffs using the creek to power a water wheel to turn lathes for repairing or manufacturing equipment. This dwelling resembled the nest of a phoebe (or peewit, an earlier name for this bird), hence dubbed by early settlers the ‘Peewit’s Nest.
On my visit to the ‘nest’ in the fall, the small flow of water wouldn’t turn a big water wheel as the average flow is .8 cubic feet per second (unlike Niagara Falls which is 85,000 cfs) but the gentle current caused fallen leaves to swirl around. There is no remaining evidence of the workshop and the state officially designated the natural area as Pewits Nest in 1985.
Pewits Nest
If there was some summer birds who haven’t hurried south yet, they might have needed to find a vacant birdhouse for the night to stay warm. The winter birds are visiting the feeder quite frequently this chilly morning with wind chills below freezing.
Charming Birdhouse
As Yukon Cornelius said in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “It isn’t a fit night out for man or beast.” And I think any critter outside last night in the two inches of rain on a chilly night would agree, even water loving critters like frogs.
Trying to Stay Dry
Today is Veterans Days, which celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. The federal holiday originally was called Armistice Day, marking the anniversary of World War I when the Armistice with Germany went into effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Congress amended the bill on June 1, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans” to honor all United States Armed Forces veterans and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
Today is also the 75th anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard (before the holiday was called Veterans Day) which impacted the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. The morning of November 11, 1940 brought with it unseasonably high temperatures so many duck hunter took advantage of the nice day. When the weather turned quickly, most of the hunters were not prepared for the snowfalls of up to 27 inches, winds of 50 to 80 mph, 20-foot snow drifts and the temperature drop of 50 degrees and many froze to death. A total of 145 deaths were blamed on the storm, which included crew from three freighters on Lake Michigan.
Today a strong Veterans Day storm is impacting the same area, 75 years later, but at least there is improved weather forecasting and the nearly two inches of precipitation will be in the form of rain and not two feet of snow.
Remembering Our Veterans
Forty years ago, the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior during the gales of a November storm. About 40% of all the Great Lakes shipwrecks have occurred in November.
The last contact with the freighter’s captain was at 7:10 pm, when Captain McSorley reported, “We are holding our own.” She sank minutes later. No distress signal was received, and ten minutes later, the freighter Anderson, who was following the Fitzgerald, lost the ability either to raise Fitzgerald by radio or to detect her on radar.
It was almost twenty years after the Fitzgerald sank before its 195 pound bell saw the surface again after being raised 500 feet on July 4, 1995. A replica bell inscribed with the names of the 29 crewmen was lowered in its place as a permanent grave marker. The original bell is displayed at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.
The Edmund Fitzgerald Bell
The freighter, SS Edmund Fitzgerald, left the port of Superior, Wisconsin at 2:15 pm on the afternoon of November 9, 1975 with a cargo of 26,116 of taconite ore pellets headed for towards Detroit, Michigan. The freighter sank the next day, with the loss of the entire crew, during a Lake Superior storm when she was about 15 miles from reaching the Whitefish Point Light.
Didn’t Reach Whitefish Point
