Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MM NEW GLARUS
MONROE
Cranberry Country
TOMAH
SPARTA
FORT MCCOY
MM ELROY-SPARTA STATE RECREATIONAL TRAIL
Coulee Range
KICKAPOO RIVER WATERSHED
WILDCAT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK
RICHLAND CENTER
Ten thousand years ago, as the icy bulldozers of the ultimate glacial epoch gouged their
way across the hemisphere, two adjacent thrusting lobes were rerouted by the declensions
of natural valleys (and immovable quartzite). The forks twisted around the natural borders
ofsouthwesternWisconsinbutneverencroachedontheinterior—ashadnoneoftheprevi-
ousmantlesofglaciers.TheinspiringresultisWisconsin'sDriftlessRegion,encompassing
nearly one-quarter of the state's geography—four times the square mileage of Connectic-
ut—and the world's only pocket of land completely surrounded by glacial drift.
Early geologists to the state remarked on the region's similarities to the Cumberland
plateau in the Appalachians. An oddball topographical hodgepodge, the swooping “cou-
lees”intheupperquarteraretheuplands'mostsalientfeature,markedbyambitiousvalleys
soimposingandeye-catchingthatearlyWisconsinitescouldfindnoEnglish-languageequi-
valent. In the north, northern and southern biotic regions intermingle. The rolling, varie-
gated terrain, splattered with red barns and roads slowed by chugging tractors, is likely the
most quintessentially rural in America's Dairyland.
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