MUSCODA - Probably few folks in this village remember when mice in Muscoda paddled canoes and/or drove a Hudson roadster automobile. Don’t worry, the little rodents existed only in the mind of a Muscoda native and artist, Dudley Huppler.

         Huppler was born in Muscoda August 8, 1917. He attended high school in Muscoda where he developed a life-long interest in reading. He then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving  bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

         He first worked for the WPA, a make-work federal program during the Great Depression when jobs were scarce. He later returned to the U.W. as a teaching assistant.

         Through the years he made frequent visits to Muscoda to visit his family who operated a meat market here. I interviewed Dudley in September, 1961. By then he was an international traveler with many connections throughout the art world. He also spent time teaching at the University of Minnesota and had studios in Santa Monica, California and New York City

         As an artist Dudley developed a system of tiny black dots to portray mice and other characters. He used the method in children’s books and on sets of cards that he marketed in New York City and small places like Ed’s Store and Ruth’s Dress Shop in Muscoda.

         One of his books has characters who lived in “Mouscoda”  during the 1920s, including a young girl who is given a croquet set and struggles to learn the game. 00

         His books for children are not among the collection at the Muscoda Public Library. However there is a book on local shelves that chronicles Huppler’s life and accomplishments.

MUSCODA - Again this week my thoughts were drifting, stopping on long distance canoe paddling. However, this time the river thoughts in question flow in the Mississippi River rather than our Wisconsin River.

Prompting my river thoughts was the arrival of th publication ‘Our Mississippi,’ published by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is filled with information regarding what the Corps is doing as it manages the big river. Plus, it carries personal stories about people who use and enjoy the long river. The current issue includes a story about Dale “Greybeard” Sanders, 87 years old. He has reclaimed the record for being the oldest person to paddle a canoe down the Mississippi alone, from top to bottom. He made the 2,340 miles in 87 days last fall.

When asked about what it took to make the trip  he is quoted as saying, “Paddling the Mississippi is hard. It’s muggy, there are insects, there is a lot of misery. One has to be dedicated.” And he also noted there were a lot of people who helped, giving him a ride to shop for supplies or letting him camp in their back yards, etc.

Sanders once held the record for being the oldest person to hike the Appalachian Trail, but that record has now been broken. He says when he turns 90 he is going to try to get the record back.

Also, in the Corps of Engineers publication is a story noting a new speed record for paddling the length of the Mississippi. Last May a four-man crew made the trip in 16 days, 20 hours and 16 minutes.

Closer to home

There is now an abundance of big sandbars in the Wisconsin River because of the below average amount of rainfall that has fallen in much of the valley. A property owner along the river called my attention to a substantial number of large snapping turtles that seem to be calling a nearby big sandbar home. He is wondering if the turtles that hatched out in his front yard several years ago are among the current sandbar residents.

Among the joys of living in a small community like Muscoda is seeing various wild critters that live among us. On a recent evening car cruise Vi and I watched a whitetail doe and fawn as they walked through a village yard, seemingly unconcerned about us driving nearby.

Larry Anderson recently mentioned that a fox in his neighborhood has been a bit hard on his black squirrel population. He also noted folks in other parts of the community have been seeing fox.

It was several years ago when I looked out our front room window late one night and watched an otter lope along Nebraska Avenue, heading east.

Also, going back a few years, a deer broke a window and got into the Riverdale High School cafeteria. She was found the next morning, hiding in a closet.

MUSCODA - Boscobel area folks are celebrating 150 years since the beginning of their community. Village of Avoca residents previously observed a similar length of history. It’s always fun to look back at the way our parents and grandparents lived their lives. But it can be a bit mind-boggling when we realize how long folks lived in this area.

Not long after Vi and I arrived in this area an old Indian cemetery was discovered on the north side of the Wisconsin River between Boscobel and Blue River. The resulting story in the June 30, 1961 Progressive noted: “Apparently this section of Wisconsin was inhabited by a tribe of Indians even before the birth of Christ, perhaps as much as 500 years.”

A team from the Wisconsin Historical Society estimated the age of the newly found burial ground to be 1,500 to 2,500 years. Several graves were found at the site. However, a complete skeleton or skull had not been discovered. The high acid content of the soil resulted in the bones being in a rather decayed condition. One pelvis bone was found and identified as that of a man.

About two blocks from the graves was the site of an ancient village where a collection of artifacts was found the previous year, including about 200 arrowheads, 300 stone knives, 29 stone scrapers, a couple of copper awls and thousands of flint chips.

The archaeological team working at the site credited Richard Derrickson, an 18-year-old man from Blue River, a mining engineering student at Platteville State College, with the burial ground discovery. He had a large collection of Indian artifacts he had found in this area.

MUSCODA - Looking at the current low flow of water in our Wisconsin River and the resulting display of growing sandbars brings back memories of a time when there was an effort made to okay building a structure to stabilize the water level at Muscoda. The engineers who designed the structure referred to it as a “barrage.”

A Progressive news story in early 1960 was about a gathering in Madison when a group of local people who supported the idea was at a meeting of the Public Service Commission. The key witness, representing the Village of Muscoda, was the lead engineer of the firm that designed the proposed structure.

He testified that the promoters of the idea believed the proposed structure would “hold the river within the natural banks of the river and not flood any land not currently flooded at normal river flow.” He also pointed out that the structure would be designed to make a navigable pool when the river was at now stage but would have little affect at high stages and would also have little affect on upstream islands.

Testifying in favor of the project was Muscoda Village President B. J. Schwingle. The Wisconsin Conservation Department opposed the project.

Attending the meeting from Muscoda were Schwingle, Orville Froh, Mr. and Mrs. James Mathews and myself. Several representatives for neighboring counties were also present.

During the following months there were many more meetings. Of special interest was a large detailed model of the flowing river as it was at Muscoda. The model, located in Madison, on campus, was built by University of Wisconsin engineer students and staff to study possible silting and other concerns. Also included were conversations about a possible series of barrages downstream from Prairie du Sac.

Some upstream landowners voiced a fear if water was held back at Muscoda it might make their river bottom pastures too wet to pasture or for hay. Wisconsin Power and Light, which owned upstream land, opposed the project. George Knutson, Conservation Department Naturalist, thought higher water might be a problem for the 10,000 people a year he predicted would soon canoe the river. That figure was a bit hard to believe for local people. At that time, in the sixties, if more than two canoes were seen on the river at one time it was a reason for a second look.

MUSCODA - Because of the many years involved perhaps it’s normal for an occasional person to ask if I have a favorite story among the many I have written? There have been many stories that may qualify as a “favorite.” However, at least near the top of the list is one that appeared in the June 11, 1981 issue of “The Progressive.”

It’s about an 8,500-mile trip made by two Highland men, John Benish and Manny McGuire. The men, along with four mules, a horse named “Dusty” and a border collie dog that answered to “Journey” made the trip.

On the first day, April 15, 1980, the travelers made it through Muscoda and camped across the river on the Ruth Thompson farm. But it was the Dakotas, the Tetons and Death Valley in California that were destinations. They were back home in Highland by early the following June to be welcomed by a special community celebration.

The exact number of miles traveled was not known because their odometer quit working somewhere in Kansas. The men estimated that by the time they reached home they had traveled more than 8,500 miles.

They were slow movers and along the way they were interviewed by 186 newspapers, 35 television stations, and 34 radio stations.

Such a trip had long been a dream of Benish as he heard and read about the early pioneers crossing the country in wagons, headed for California.

It was Death Valley where the men thought about calling it quits. Asked whether the trip was it worth it, Benish said, “You bet, I wouldn’t take a million dollars for our experience – but two million wouldn’t be enough for me to do it again!”

The men had a little help along the way. A farmer in Kansas gave the travelers a chicken hen and a rooster that helped – the hen layed an egg a day and the rooster crowed to awaken them each morning. Of course many folks were interested in the men and would stop to chat. Vi and I found the pair camped a short distance into Wisconsin on the way home and a number of cars stopped with folks who listened to our interview.

MUSCODA - If you have been watching television news in recent days you have probably seen pictures of a big airliner with the word “Trump” emblazoned on its side. When I saw that I remembered there was once a Muscoda resident, Leo (Pat) Muller, who, with a friend, dreamed of starting a new airline.

When Vi and I came to Muscoda in 1958, Leo was the first local businessman we met. He operated a one-man car repair shop in a building next to our office. But his earlier life was much more exciting.

Leo began flying in the U. S. Navy, entering the service in 1919. He first was a mechanic until he entered flight training about a year-and-a-half later. He was among 616 men who took the exams for flight training. Of those, 135 passed the test with Leo one of the 11 who finished to become flying enlisted men. Now, all pilots are officers.

Leo took flight training at Pensacola, Florida and qualified to fly nine types of seaplanes and became a seaplane test pilot before leaving the navy in 1924. In addition to seaplane training he also trained for carrier duty when the big flattop ships were new for warfare.

Following his hitch in the nave he and a friend, EricVMontgomery, became barnstormers in the SouthVand East portion of the country. Some of their earlyVday flying adventures were revealed in the OctoberV5, 1923 edition of “Air Station News.”

The story describes a flight to New Orleans from Montgomery and landing on golf course, out of gas. They then flew up the Mississippi to Jonesville, Louisiana.

Leo described their arrival: “I bet there about 500 people out to see our plane within about 30 minutes after we landed. We were the first aviators and had the first plane that had ever landed there. Some people had never before seen a plane except in the movies or in newspapers.

At Jonesville the pilots gave rides. “We offered the prettiest girl or oldest man a free ride by had no takers. Finally the editor of a small town newspaper, wanting to be a hero, climbed aboard. When he came down there was almost a stampede, everyone wanted to know about his ride!”

Muller, Montgomery and another fellow headed on toward Boulder, Colorado with dreams of starting an airline. But they never made it to their destination. When they tried to land in a field along the way, hidden tree stumps damaged their airplane.

They were able to repair it, but when taking off down the main street of a small village a wingtip hit a tree limb, the plane flipped and hit the front porch of a house. Only the engine of the plane was saved and the village children carried off the rest.

That ended the airline dream.