March 1995
the monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
The Day the Dugout Emerged from the Mud By Pamela Eyden
If you want to look for artifacts along the river, late spring or early summer are the best times. That's when things long buried come to light again. Freezing and thawing heaves up the earth. Flood waters scour soil away from channels and tree roots. You never know what you might find - tiny arrowheads or something bigger. A few years ago a fellow from Trempealeau, Wis., found something bigger. He went out fishing and was about to tie his boat to an old snag when he noticed that it looked a lot like a dugout canoe. He tugged the hollowed log out of the
He went out fishing and was about to tie his boat to an old snag when he noticed that it looked a lot like a dugout canoe.
(Dugout continued on page 2)
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Exotic Fish are Not the Answer By Lee Kernen
The introduction of the common carp, back in
1879, turned out to be one of the biggest blunders ever made - the damage these fish have done to our clear water lakes and streams across the Midwest is appalling. Obviously, people should have learned from this error and not made the same mistake twice. But, as hard as it is to believe, two more species of Asian carp are now loose in the waters of the United States. The grass carp, or white amur, was brought to Arkansas in 1963 with the hope the species would eat vegetation from weed-choked waters. They did! In fact, in some lakes grass carp ate all the vegetation and even followed lawn mowers around the lakes to eat grass clippings that flew into the water! Grass carp have been spread across the nation by private fish hatcheries that advertise them as the cure-all for
(Exotic Fish continued on page 3)
mud, towed it to shore and called nearby Perrot State Park. Naturalist Steve Carlson spent a couple of months researchNative American dugout canoe expert at the Milwaukee Public Museum. She, too, became fascinated. At 19 feet long, 22 inches wide and 26 inches deep, the cahoe w as longer than the other three dlJ.gouts found in Wisconsin. Dr. Lurie thought it might have been built by Winnebago or Ioway Indians and buried for 100 to 300 years, possibly more. There was an unusual rectangular hole in the
Vol. 3, No. 3
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