Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tiffany Bottoms Wildlife Area
At the confluence of the Chippewa and Mississippi Rivers spreads a magnificent
marsh—an island-dotted wetland over 12,500 acres from Mississippi and up the Chippewa
River Valley, known as
Tiffany Bottoms Wildlife Area.
Paved roads did not penetrate
these capacious tracts of water-pocked bottomlands until WPA and CCC projects in the
1930s. An undeveloped network of “trails”—mostly those old logging roads—branches
out all over the place (outstanding for berry picking and inward contemplation). Amateur
shutterbugs should have a field day with the ambient sunset beams playing havoc with the
oddball topography's colors.
Nelson
An additional few miles down the road is Nelson, crowded along a bluff line so high that
hang gliding and soaring above town is becoming something of a draw. About the only
other draw is the family-owned
Nelson Cheese
(south of town on WIS 35, 715/673-4725,
www.nelsoncheese.com
,
9am-7pm daily), dispensing awesome squeaky cheese curds since
the 1850s. It offers tours. South of town you'll find excellent cabins at the four-acre
Cedar
Ridge Resort
(south of town on WIS 35, 608/685-4998,
www.cedarridgeresort.com
, $75);
one enormous “loft” building is gorgeous and sleeps 11. Have grand pizza at the
Stone
Barn
(Hwy.KK,715/673-4478,
www.nelsonstonebarn.com
,
dinnerFri.-Sun.)inareal-deal
old barn on a real-deal farm. Go north on WIS 35, east on Highway D, then north on High-
way KK. Munch with the chickens.
Leaving Nelson, look to the east at the bluffs. Over 161 acres of these were purchased
in 2012 by the Nature Conservancy as a habitat for dry prairie and grasslands with massive
oaks. They will, bless them, be open to the public at some point in the future, though there
is not yet a predicted opening date, nor does the area have a name yet.
Buffalo Slough
Next,theroadrollsintogeologymashedwithhistory.Skirtingthewetlandsdousedbyseep-
agefromBuffaloSlough,theroadwayishackedoutofablufffaceorsupportedbyconcrete
pylons atop mucky soil where “burrow pits” were dug out of the land.
At the mouth of the Buffalo River is what's known as
Buffalo Slough.
The site is his-
torically the most significant from lumber's heyday. A staggering amount of timber was
floated down the Chippewa, St. Croix, and Eau Claire Rivers and stored in enclosed ponds
here.Foraspell,thepowersthatbeinthe“Buffalo”virtuallycontrolledthenortherntimber
