Note: This article documents flooding that occurred in April 2011. As of May, Prairie du Chien is once more dry and green, and all the parks and historic sites mentioned below are now open for visitors.

The Father of the Waters is reenacting a familiar natural drama at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Swollen by spring rain and melted Minnesota snow, the Mississippi River will carry over 1.5 million gallons of water past town each second during the peak of the Flood of 2011. While the power of the river is awe inspiring, the latest flood is nothing new. At Prairie du Chien, the Mississippi is immersed in history.

Floodwater began to seep around the foundations of Fort Crawford on Monday, April 11, 2011.
The two-story blockhouse is a replica constructed in the 1930s. The fence surrounds an excavated stone "prison pit" from the fort that has filled with water.

On April 11, 2011, floodwater began to creep across the foundations of Fort Crawford, one of Prairie du Chien's most significant archaeological sites. Built in 1816, Fort Crawford was a federal military installation intended to secure control of the Upper Mississippi River for the United States. It was also situated on an island in the middle of a floodplain.

One year after Fort Crawford had been built, Major Stephen H. Long made an inspection of the post. "In regard to the eligibility of the site upon which Fort Crawford is erected," wrote Long, "very little can be said in favor but much against it. ... The site has been repeatedly subject to inundation, which is always to be apprehended when excessive floods prevail in the river."

Major Long's apprehensions proved well-founded. In 1823 he returned to Fort Crawford along with William Keating, who noted:

The river bank is here so low and flat, that by a swell which took place in the Mississippi the summer before we visited it, the water rose upon the prairie, and entered the parade, which it covered to the depth of three or four feet; it penetrated into all the officers' and soldiers' quarters, so as to render it necessary for the garrison to remove from the fort and encamp upon the neighboring heights, where they spent about a month. The waters having subsided, at the end of that time, they returned to their quarters; the old men about the village say that such an inundation may be expected every seven years.

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Because I thought, hey, why not post more leaf photos?

⬑ I. Lost in the Leaves: Arts and Crafts Wallpaper has nothing on this.

⬑ III. Oaks in the Sky: Could I climb one to meet Jack and go looking for giant's gold?

⬑ II. A Golden Canopy: It's like discovering El Dorado.

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Autumn is the most vivid season. That's clear enough from the colors, but the visuals are just a veneer on what we actually feel. Autumn is the crisp bite in the air each October dawn. It's the smell of apple pie in the oven, the taste of sweet squash, the loud crunch of leaves crumbling underfoot. You can't experience October in Wisconsin with a photograph. You have to go out and live it. Who knows what you'll find...

I went for a walk this morning. It was -6° Fahrenheit. As I've stated before, I like the cold. Even so, I couldn't help but think back longingly to summer as I hurried down State Street, my fingers turning a rather pretty shade of blue. Summer was just a few months ago, but it seems as though it was a different world. We dressed differently, we spent our time differently, we saw entirely different scenes outside our doors. I took the photograph above on August 31. The pretty scene disguises a greater adventure, for to get that shot I had to hike a few miles, climb some tall rocks, and balance awkwardly with one foot on a steep slope, holding my camera overhead at just the right angle to cut past the weeds towards the lovely Asters you see. I realized later that these flowers were everywhere, and that I could have just taken a picture of them in someone's flowerbed — but summer wouldn't have been nearly as fun if I'd just stayed home.

The same thought applies to winter. It is easy on these frigid days of January to think back fondly to August, but I can't honestly say that winter is any less beautiful. Indeed, some places that are rather ugly in summer become quite aesthetic under a freshly fallen layer of snow. I could never spend winter hiding indoors waiting for the warm weather to return, because I would miss too much. Going through winter without admiring the ice and frost would be like passing the summer without appreciating flowers or thunderstorms. The joy of living in a place like Wisconsin is that we get to pass through all these remarkable worlds just by staying put.