sheboygan

amsterdam dunes preservation area is a 328-acre preserve made up of lake michigan shoreline, rare sand dunes, forest, and wetland areas. somehow it avoided development. there’s also a little playground. direct access to dunes on lake michigan this far south in wisconsin is uncommon, so thanks to sheboygan county for tending this piece of land and opening it to the public!

(note: photo quality won’t be as high as normal here and in the next few posts, as i used the old flip-phone for this excursion. though in ways i like the lower res for this project sometimes; it seems to fit the immediacy and spontaneity i’m aiming for here. and i like to use old technology anyway—i still listen to audio cassettes and things like that…)

spine against dune

cormorants over waves

the sun shining now

thinnest ray of silver water—

field shifting slow downhill—

finds a linear tidal pool

piercers of sky,

hoary beeches

leaves on the mounds

ten-thousand years

of peat and water building

purple cress is sleeping

ostrich fern

and skunk cabbage

ahead of snow

Indian Mound Park in Sheboygan is a great sign of Wisconsin’s conflicted history. It is a treasure for how in 1966 the Sheboygan Garden Clubs saved the large group of effigy, conical, and linear mounds built here by Middle and Late Woodland indigenous inhabitants of Wisconsin (ca. 200 BCE-1000 CE). However, of course, the mounds would not have needed saving if the land hadn’t been ceded by local tribes thru dubious treaties long before. Nonetheless, I am supremely glad they remain here, along with the wetland downslope from the mounds (thru which runs Hartman Creek) and the very old beech trees thru-out the park. It is a tremendous place. Deer and water panther mounds—a real grace to visit on Thanksgiving. (If you’d like more on my perspective on the mounds, you can read that here.)