Monday, February 16, 2009

So what did we do in Northern WI?

The purpose of the trip was a campus visit for my baby Emily! I can't believe we are looking at colleges for her. She is thinking of doing Outdoor Education and loves the outdoors and nature and animals. So there is an environmental college in Ashland WI that we went to look at. I think she liked it. Above is their campus wigwam! It is missing the cover right now because they are moving it to a more centrally located spot on campus. And below is the fire pit.


And what is a college campus without student art!



The highlight of the tour was the flesh eating beetles! You can just make out the skulls the beetles are feeding on in the picture. YUCK!



The campus is absolutely gorgeous and is very geared to out door activities. There is a gorgeous bridge across a ravine in the middle of campus with a creek that runs under it - of course right now it is frozen and covered in snow, but it is still gorgeous. The student who gave the tour said there are always classes and students down there enjoying nature. They also have a climbing wall, telephone pole you jump off of in a harness and ropes course farther downstream.



The college was founded 1892 and still has the original building on campus but also has wonderful new buildings. There are only about 700 students. Here is a picture of the ravine in which they used to hold a yearly tug-of-war between freshman and sophomores, look how empty the land was back in 1955! Ashland is in between 3 Indian reservations and the college ties a lot of its studies and cermonies with the Indian tribes in the area. Here is an Indian ceremony in 1981. And the setting of the cornerstone of one of the buildings back in 1926.



It was a great tour, we really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the college and surounding areas.

4 comments from wonderful readers:

meggie said...

Wow, I have never heard or seen anyrhing like that over here. What a great chance to get to know nature.

Libby said...

A campus wigwam! Now that's a school I could love. Sounds like a fun curriculum - Emily is a clever girl *s*

~ Phyllis ~ said...

That was a nice trip. Enjoyed the pictures.

Gypsy Quilter said...

I hope one of her classes will cover "making a subzero parka". It sure looks brrrr chilly up there.