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Day 35: Cave of the Mounds and Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin

It wasn’t a long drive into Wisconsin, but I could already detect the change in dialect. When I bought my groceries I was no longer offered a “Bag” I was offered a “Beg”, and the word tomorrow had an unusual accent on the second “o” that I wasn’t used to. Yep, I was in dairy land alright.
My first official stop, after buying my groceries for the night, was at Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, WI. A cave that sat beneath a lead prospector’s feet for more than 100 years before the cave was discovered during a blasting in 1939. After almost a year of the family  guarding the new cave entrance by rifle to curiosity seekers, the cave was open to the public in 1940 and has been ever since.

Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. June 12, 2011

It, like it’s neighbor to the East in Iowa (see day 34), is located in the Galena carbonate rock formation. It was mostly formed in a typical carbonic acid/water erosion fashion, but some areas were enlarged with sulphuric acid that bubbled up as the water mixed with the sulphur in the galena (PbS). The speleothem development in Cave of the Mounds is pretty sparse, and it has a lot more of the colored varities than Crystal Lake Cave. In fact, the iron oxide staining in some areas is so prnounced that it looks blood red, as if someone had just maimed themselves on the stalagmite.

Iron Oxide staining on a speleothem in Cave of the Mounds. Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

Everyone I met at Cave of the Mounds, even though it is privately owned, was very helpful. There were several people on staff that were knowledgeable about the geology of the cave and the surrounding area, and they gave me contact information in case I needed any other information for my personal research project. It was hard to leave the cave, but it was time to head a little further North into Wisconsin to my next campsite: Devil’s Lake State park.

Devil’s Lake S.P. Wisconsin. June 12, 2011

Devil’s Lake State Park is focused around a glacial lake that has no stream inlet to speak of. All of it’s water is either remnant from the last ice age, or a result of precipitation. The lake is beautiful and they have been working hard to restore it after levels of a certain chemical were unsafe and caused “swimmers itch” (something I still don’t quite know much about). It has many, many campsites and if you get into the Ice Age campground you have wooded lots that are fairly private.

Devil’s Lake State Park of Wisconsin

I enjoyed some cheese curds, cooked up a stir fry, and drank a local brew called “The Spotted Cow” next to my toasty camp fire. Although I was alone at the campsite, I certainly wasn’t lonely. There was a caterpillar that seemed fixated on crawling on me, as I would throw it into the woods only to have it return half an hour later. Ok,.. who am I kidding, I was a little lonely.

The Caterpillar of Devil’s Lake S.P. June 12, 2011

Honestly, camping alone is pretty tough….I enjoy it from time to time, but after a while it can wear on you. I am very excited that my friends will be joining my in South Dakota, more friends joining me in Yellowstone, and another friend in Glacier. I just hope I haven’t grown so accustomed to being alone that I am a terrible host!
Tomorrow I head on to Minnesota, where I will tour yet another cave and experience another unique camp site. I’m slowly getting closer to the big, openness of the West and I can’t wait. Nothing feels more like home…
-Nicole

The very original gate for Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin.
Devil’s Lake S.P.:The concession sits on pillars into the lake, giving you a great view as you eat your meal.
Devil’s Lake State Park June 2011
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Day 34: Crystal Lake Cave in Dubuque, IA

I had spent all of Yesterday (the official Day 34) driving so that I could get to Dubuque, IA to see Crystal Lake Cave. By the time I had arrived it was too late to tour the cave, and I was too exhausted to set up camp for the night, so I camped at a Econolodge in Dubuque. It was the last room available, as it turns out I showed up on the weekend of some sort of biking festival. Pure luck that someone had canceled their reservation is what secured my room at the Econolodge, one of the budget options for the Choice hotel chain that claimed to be smoke-free but smelled of stale cigarettes. Not my favorite hotel, but I was too tired to care at the moment.

Crystal Lake Cave map. The red outlines the tour route. June 12, 2011

Dubuque, Iowa is a river town, situated along the Missouri river as a major port for trade. Between the lead mines (you can visit the old spanish mines in the area) and the major river for transport, Dubuque flourished and looks to be a nice city. It has plenty to do in the area and I’m surprised I had never really heard of it until I started planning my trip…perhaps it’s because I struggle in properly pronouncing it’s name.

Crystal Lake Cave Dubuque, IA June 12, 2011

Crystal Lake Cave is just outside of Dubuque, Ia and was discovered by lead miners who had decided they wanted to find their own mine instead of work in someone elses. They found a cave when they began to drill in 1868. It was opened to tourists in the 1930s. It resides in the Galena Limestone layer, with another layer of Limestone above it, the Maquoketa. Underneath is the Decora LS/Shale formation, and below that the St. Peter Sandstone that we are familiar with back in Missouri.

A very pure speleothem (calcite) A Soda straw in Crystal Lake Cave. June 12, 2011

The cave, when it was original before the miners began exploiting it’s resources, was very small- probably only a few feet tall. It would have been a nice, long, (strenuous) belly crawl over flow stone in it’s previous, unaltered state. The miners enlarged the walking paths so that they could stand up and roll carts thorough the tunnels, so the lower half of your tour route was artificially carved out.

Notice the original height of the cave, and the people walking below it through the tunnel created by miners. June 12, 2011

The top half is incredibly rich in speleothem decoration, and most of them are a pure white indicating no traces of iron or manganese have seeped through to discolor them. One of the most amazing things about this cave is that they have anthodites, and quite a few of them. The cave is privately owned, and depending on who gives the tour you might get a different story. Each person has picked up on different bits of information and added their own flare to the tour. If you are the average tourist that just happened to bump into a cave to waste some time, this is fun. If you are a serious caver or geologist, it can be a little funny to listen and censor it in your head.

This isn’t to say it isn’t a good tour- every place has to cater to the audience and do what works for them. These sorts of privately owned caves are businesses, and whatever drives tourism is what needs to be done to keep the cave open. There is a delicate balance that is needed in any sort of natural resource for the public to enjoy and understand. Every National Park and State Park knows this, and they sacrafice small portions of the prized resource so that people can enjoy it while camping, in hopes that they will become educated and inspired to continue to protect it with their tax dollars for years to come.

You know how the saying goes that you have to spend money to make money? Well, you have to let some of these places go to the wayside of conservation to save the rest of it. It’s a fact of business: If people don’t know about it, they won’t want to pay for it.

It’s time for me to head to another cave that has been opened to the public, this time in Wisconsin. I’ll see you there soon.

-Nicole

Soda straws, very white, in Crystal Lake Cave. June 12, 2011