Wednesday, September 24, 2025

A Swing Into Wisconsin

Today I drove eastward from my undisclosed location into Wisconsin.  Other than my walk across a bridge for pedestrians and bicycles from Stillwater, Minnesota that went over the St. Croix river, my most recent trip to Wisconsin was in 2023.  See this blog's archives from August of that year.  I visited two places, the first of which is the Devil's Punchbowl near the city of Menomonie.  The place features a waterfall set in a round section of cliff.

This is another cliff section, downstream from the waterfall.

In the first picture above, you can see some steps.  These take you to just above of the waterfall, seen in the next shot.  You can step over the narrow stream above the fall, but don't step over the metal cables.

After leaving the Devil's Punchbowl, I made a brief stop at the old Menomonie Depot, which is now a visitor center along the Red Cedar State Trail.

I then found a place to have lunch in Menomonie and continued eastward to Elk Mound, to see Elk Mound Castle.  I had to drive up a narrow winding road to get there.  Here's the castle, with its west side in shade and south side in sunlight.

From the south, the lower part of the castle was partially obscured by vegetation, and a bench.  There's another bench on the roof.

Before I entered the castle, I took this shot of the environs, looking south.  The highway is part of Interstate 94.

The castle includes two stairways that take you to a second story and then to the roof.  From the roof, I took this shot looking westward.

Near the castle's entrance is this memorial to the deceased rural mailmen of Dunn County, Wisconsin.

According to an article in Roadside America, Elk Mound Castle is haunted.  However, I was not bothered by any ghosts during my visit.

No comments:

Post a Comment