road trip     

Beaver Lake campground is situated about 25 miles West of Mellen, WI and 25 miles South of Ashland. Most of the way in is on a gravel forest road, in better or worse repair depending on the last heavy rain and the maintenane schedule of the road crew. National forest are "multiple use" areas, and in this one there was once heavy logging. The logging industry is still active but the large trees of the old-growth forests are long gone, and pulpwood is the main "forest product" still produced. Many small towns, once prosperous, have fallen on hard times over the last 30 years and some are gone. Mellen seems to be in better shape than when I was last here, but there isn't much. Walt's Bakery is gone.

On the way in there is Pine Stump Corner, a "Y" intersection that was there the first time I came this way.

     + TD

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The pine stump... it's a way-finder for people coming and goiing, pre-GPS, navigating by landmarks.
     + JB

"The pine stump in the triangle North of this sign has been a landmark for explaining directions to Mellen, Marengo and Sanborn since the time the tree was cut down by neighbors James Jensen and Joe Moder during the last week of November 1892.

The felled tree was skidded to a sleigh road by Archie Gilchrist and his son Billy with two teams of oxen the loaded onto a sleigh and hauled to the Mineral Lake sawmill."

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These pumps take pumping a dozen or so empty pumps before they draw the water up enough to gush out of the spout. I remember the water from this well being cold and containing so much iron it stained the water jug orange and left rust particles to settle to the bottom.

Just as I remembered it, but the level is higher, which probably means the beavers have been busy over the decades. The really is huge. Back then it was about 30-feet long with a trail along the top.

Last road trip, we visited the ruins at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, well-engineered and constructed buildings and courtyards that have lasted centuries. In our time, we have too much of this. People were living here back in the 1980s and aside from a rather-new looking white plastic dish drainer, the place looks abandoned.

Centuries from now, all that will be left will be that white plastic dish drainer..