I was driving west towards Spring Green, Wisconsin. I followed the winding road through the valley surrounded by wooded hills. Amazing beauty all around. I was on my way to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate. I took the two hour tour. It was interesting and the guide was well informed. However the out building, studio and main house were what you would expect. Lots of wood and stone, lots of built-ins, lots of Asian art, and unpredictable architecture. What impressed me the most was the nature surrounding the structures. The setting was stunning. What I learned was that me Wright was very in tune with nature and was conscious of the beauty outside. And of course he tried to incorporate his buildings within their surrounding.
I think I sound a bit incoherent. I’m sitting in a Ramada Inn in Richland center after a long hot day.
Tomorrow is another day. Enjoy the photos! Click for larger view.
I learned something interesting recently. There are only four self-supporting marble domes in the world and the second largest one is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. It is made of Georgia (US State) marble and weighs more than fourteen million pounds and has a diameter of 87 feet.
The largest is St Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome. It has a diameter of 138 feet. The other two are the Taj Mahal in Agra, India with a diameter of 58 feet, and the Rhode Island State Capitol with a diameter of 50 feet.
The building was renovated in 2017 and the interior is impressive.
Drove to Wyoming, Minnesota yesterday. We were speculating on why it was called Wyoming. Maybe people were headed to Wyoming and only made it this far? Maybe they came from Wyoming and missed it. Turns out it was originally named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. This Minnesota town has a population of about 7,800. Its claim to fame is The Barker-Karpis gang kidnapped William Hamm of Hamm’s Brewery and released him in Wyoming in June 1933.
We drove down to Red Wing, Minnesota yesterday for my birthday outing. Red Wing is full of funky sculptures.
We drove on past Red Wing to Frontenac State Park at the north end of Lake Pepin. The Mississippi River. As we gazed over to Wisconsin on the other side, we had a conversation about the settlers and explorers of the area and decided they must have been pretty sturdy folk. After the Indians, it was the French. This State Park was named after a river town that was named after Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the governor of New France who arrived in the late 1600s. The governor was a French military man who came to America to defer his great debts. Not very romantic. The French came in the 1600’s to set up fur trading with the Indians or to set up Christian missions.
Etinne Brule was born in France and was the fur trader and explorer who was credited as being the first European to reach Lake Superior in 1622. (I think the Vikings were there earlier.) Medford Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit Radisson, both born in France, were the first Europeans to set foot in what would become Minnesota, reaching present day Duluth. Brother Claude Allouez, also born in France established a Jesuit mission and traveled the area producing the earliest maps of Lake Superior. Louis Joliet, born in Quebec City, and Father Jacques Marquette, born in France, traveled down the Mississippi River as far as to where Arkansas is today. In the 1680’s Robert de La Salle, born in France, claimed the whole Mississippi River basin for France. Pierre and Jean Pepin traveled up the Mississippi from the south. So the 1600’s were full of French explorers in the area.
Lucien Gaultier, born in France, was a Roman Catholic priest who arrived in Minnesota in 1840 and apparently named the city of St. Paul. After Minnesota was established as a territory in 1849, the French fade away. People from the east coast are the first to arrive, followed by Europeans from Germany, Scandinavia, and Great Britain. In my opinion, those are the people who were really gutsy. Anyway, then there is the whole messy horrible history of the Indians killing them and them killing the Indians.
So I won’t go into that.
But the Park is one of my favorites. It was established in 1957.
From there we went back into Red Wing and enjoyed the views from the bluff. And of course stopped at our favorite used bookstore before dinner and a nice drive home.
I recently returned from a week on the north shore of Lake Superior. We stayed in a small two bedroom cabin down a dirt road in the middle of the woods. I expected to see bears but was disappointed. Since we had so much rain recently the trails were pretty muddy and the mosquitoes were out of control but otherwise it was beautiful.
