Summertime Perambulations: On the Shoreline

Previous perambulation

Walking along the northern shore of the Yahara River means walking through people's backyards. One gentleman was doing some littoral lounging and flashed me the peace sign as I walked by. It doesn't get much more Madison than that. Reaching Lake Monona I came to Yahara Place Park, the home of the final Sid Boyum sculpture** that I see on my walk, "FuDog Lantern".



Does anyone know why lakes with a Native American name are "Lake " while those with English names are " Lake"? So, for instance, in the Madison area you have Lake Monona and Mud Lake. And why don't rivers have the same naming convention? It's the Yahara River and the Rock River, by way of comparison, not River Yahara. You sometimes hear "The River Thames" but never "The River Mississippi" or "The River Danube". The Brits just have to be different. I wonder if they have something similar wit, say, Welsh names for lakes.

Apparently "Yahara" is a corruption or bad translation of the Winnebago word for "catfish". While I'm at it, the origin of "Monona" is unknown but it is theorized that it may be a corruption of the name of a goddess of the Sauk-Fox people.

There was a nice breeze coming off the lake as I traversed the northern shore and I was quite pleased that it didn't reek of algae or decaying fish. I eventually made it onto Lakeland Avenue which is home to some Native American effigy mounds.





Here's a map of mounds present and past on one stretch of Lakeland Ave.



Robert Birmingham is the expert when it comes to the area's effigy mounds and his Spirits of Earth is, according to former co-workers at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the definitive work on the subject. However, here's a nice blog post about the mounds to tide over any inquiring minds until they buy the book.



Continuing I walked by the Corry Carriage House which is a city landmark built in 1911.



**I also spied a sculpture in someone's front yard which was of a horse or unicorn in faded blue that I thought was rather neat and Boyum-esque. Only later did I read that it was, in fact, "Fantasy Seahorse" by the man himself. Oops.

Before long I made it to Olbrich Park and found this bit of art near the shore.





A cursory exploration of Google turned up nothing about this installation. Still, I rather like it.

Nearby was a memorial for someone named Ernie who presumably is no longer with us.



Over where Starkweather Creek meets Lake Monona is "ACT" by William King.



This twenty-some-odd foot tall bit of aluminum statuary dates back to 1979 and its original home was behind the Civic Center, now the Overture Center. I am not sure when it was moved. Perhaps when the OC was built.

Strolling up the shore of the creek and onto Atwood Avenue, it wasn't long before I was back in my native Eastmorland neighborhood where there was more yet to be explored.

Onward to the journey's end