COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2015
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
VOL. 32 NO. 09 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
ST. CROIX FAT CAT TRIATHLON: Stand up paddleboarding added to 2nd annual event. P6
Best laid dams
GENE DILORENZO SUBMITTED
Street dance
Placing equipment in the river to begin sonar readings.
Andy Lapos and his daughter dance to the sounds of High & Mighty at Marine’s Public Safety Street Dance, June 20.
Elementary loses teacher Lenarz leaves, position changed to part time
There was a distinct possibility that Lenarz would not be replaced — at least not full-time. The Stillwater School District had decided in March to cut staff in several schools, an effort to reduce deficit spending. With its relatively low student counts, Marine Elementary fell under the knife in spite of the fact that the school employs just one teacher per grade. For a time it seemed
possible that Marine might be left with no third grade teacher at all. With the security of her teaching job uncertain, Lenarz accepted a BY SUZANNE LINDGREN position teaching fourth EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM graders at Andersen Elementary in Bayport. As students and staff Ultimately, Marine at Marine Elementary did not lose all funding said farewell June 5 to for a third grade teachthird grade teacher Jane er, but the position was Lenarz, they knew they reduced to part time. might be losing more “As part of the staffthan a beloved teacher. ing allocations set earlier this spring, the third grade position at Marine has been reduced from a 1.0 (or full time position) to a Due to the Fourth of July holiday, the deadline to .3 teaching position,” submit advertising or news releases for the July 8 wrote Carissa Keister, edition of the Country Messenger will be noon on SEE TEACHER, PAGE 2 July 2. Our office will be closed July 3.
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River archeologists examine forgotten structures BY MICHELLE MIRON EDITOR, THE LOWDOWN
The summer of 2007 was a dry time in the St. Croix Valley. With water levels low, boaters began to notice strange structures sticking out of the St. Croix River. Most of the 50-some log-and-stone structures were spotted along shallow parts of the river near Taylors Falls, Minn. and Osceola, Wis., but some were found as far south as Afton. Word got back to park service staff at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, which began investigating. The structures were remnants of “wing dams,” channel diverters built in the late 1800s — when commercial boat traffic was common — to make the water deeper. Few of the structures have survived elsewhere, according to the Riverway's Cultural Resource and Interpretive Specialist Jean Schaeppi-Anderson, making the finding significant enough to warrant a visit from the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center as well as its Midwest Archeological Center.
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This summer, staff from the two centers have been diving into the St. Croix to measure, photograph and test the structures. The research is being funded by the National Parks Service via mitigation funding from the St. Croix River Crossing (Schaeppi-Anderson was unsure of the exact cost). Although ice and flooding have worn some away and others have been inadvertently damaged by boats and pedestrians, many have been preserved by their longtime submersion in relatively cold water. This summer’s research findings will be compiled into a report that will likely be available online and in print in the near future. Once the report is finished, the sites will be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Local knowledge of the wing dams seems to have disappeared with the structures themselves. “Because this river did not remain a commercial river, it hasn't been updated,” noted Schaeppi-Anderson of the wing dams. “On the Mississippi, they've been replaced by concrete wing dams over the years, but ours were kind of forgotten.” She pointed out that no photos or documents seem to exist about the SEE DAMS, PAGE 2
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