I made a mistake and published what should be the first blog below this. So read the bottom one first, then this one. Sorry . . .
Horicon is a very small town with two things that keep it going. One is the John Deere plant that is huge - 1 million square feet! - and employs 1,500 people. All of their lawn tractors and lawn mowers are made there. It is the only viable business that we saw . And the other thing is the Marsh. Birders, canoeists, kayakers, sightseers, and hunters come to enjoy all it has to offer. Even with these, Horicon seems rather sad and doesn't feel as if it is only a short way from Milwaukee. While we were there, we saw no new construction or even any buildings that had been built in the past 15 - 20 years. There is not food store, drug store, fast food restaurants, or shopping center. There is a busy gas station and an "ice cream station" that had lots of people coming and going. Here is the down town:
There are some very old buildings with character but all are boarded up. The were a few bars that were open but not many people in them.
Cindy and I picked up a pamphlet put out by the Historical Society that had a walking tour map of old homes of distinction from the better, by gone days. And we were surprised and pleased to find these gems as we walked the small neighborhoods. Horicon must have seen some boom times. I'm sorry I don't know much about them,or their architectural styles, but there are very pretty. Our B & B was also listed on the walking tour. Also, the pictures came out kind of dark - only the two middle houses are painted light blue-gray. The other two are white with dark trim.
The large maple on the left was planted the day Lincoln was buried!
This is now the home of the Historical Society.
I guess the Garden Club is no more. But this is quite well kept and someone was beginning to replant the garden when we were there.
Cindy and I had originally wanted to take pictures of barns but our route just didn't have many on it. But we did see two very interesting cemeteries. I just love the beautiful etching in some of the head stones. Here are some very pretty examples.
Here are some grave markers that look like chess pieces.
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An angelic one and a very old one.
And some sad ones.
Both of these cemeteries were mainly populated by German families and were out in the country. They were both well kept and quite peaceful. I'm sure they didn't mind us visiting.
And yes, we did get to canoe the Marsh. We luckily decided to just paddle around and not take the long trip. Things started out really well and the water was like glass. We saw cormorants, Great Blue Herons, turtles, and pelicans. The water lilies were just coming into bloom and I got a few nice pictures of them.
Notice the flower has holes chewed in it.
This is what a lot of the area looked like. We were out for at least 3 hours and began to turn back when the wind came up and we had to paddle into it on the return trip. Boy, that was too much like work but we laughed and joked and made the best of it. There were lots of kayakers out (mostly women of various ages and levels of fitness) and we decided that this Fall we're going to try that out. The rental lady said it was easier than it looks.
A map of the Marsh taped on the prow of the canoe. I was in front and Cindy had the harder job in the back.At the Horicon Nature Refuge tourist center we saw all kinds of these swallow nests with birds swooping back and forth. I've never seen this kind. Does anyone know what variety of swallow builds this?
It's built on top of a standard nest.And, lastly, here is a present I bought for Steve at the Blue Heron Landing canoe rental business. He just loves it and so do I.
It's about 4 feet tall and weighs quite a bit. There is a little metal perch in his mouth if you look really close.
That is pretty much of what we did. We'd like to go back and visit some Native American effigy mounds that are on the west side of the Marsh. There are quite a number of good hiking areas that we didn't have time to travel. So there will be plenty for us to do next time we visit Horicon.
Bye for now,
Alyssa
P.S. Horicon is the home of the world's most beautiful, big smoke bush. Isn't it lovely!
