Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-12-08
BEAUTIFUL LOCALITY.
ideal Spot in the Northern Part OF
Iowa County.
HOME OF JENKINS LLOYD.JONES.


The Famous Chicago Divine Spends His
Summer Vacation There In Close Conn
muni0n with Nature Farmers Who Are
Above the Average In I,earning-School
Conducted by the si.,eSR,f Rev. Jenkin
Lloyd-Jones-A Beautiful Valley.
Madison, Wis, Dec. 6.-The romantic
Brook Farm experiment of over a half
century ago was practical demonstra-
ton of the incompatibility of success
full agriculture with high intellectual
pursuits, and Hawthorne in his Blithe-
dale Romance, while supposedly re-
fiecting glimpses of the communal life
Of that interesting band OF transcen-
dentalists, puts the same truth in
concrete form by saying that Burns
was never a poet while farmer and
never farmer while poet. 1t Is plain
that however the husbandman's con-
tact with nature Is conducive to nigh
and serene thought the distraction OF
his occupation are almost as many and
fatiguing as those Of any others. But
at the junction of the Wyoming and
Wisconsin river valleys in northern
Iowa county, Wis, Is community OF
farmers who not only find time to be-
come wealthy but to read and analyze
kiplng and Walt Whitman and keep
abreast Of the progress in the religious
world, besides studying the haunts and
ways of the birds and beasts of the vi
cinity and engaging in other pursuits.
1t is a Unitarian community in which
there are many prominent Lloyd-Jones
and Philips families, all related to one
another. 1t is the childhood home OF
Rev. Jenkin Lloyd-Jones, the famous
Chicago divine, and the intellectual at
mosphere which pervades the valley is
largely due to his overlooking spirit.
He has a coZy cottage there where he
spends his summer vacations in close
communion with nature
Percussion Rock.
In it's seclusion and picturesqueness
the locality is beautiful one. wy
oming valley is a.radiation Of the Wis
consin river valley and was so named
by it's early settlers because of it's re-
semblance to it's celebrated namesake
in Pennsylvania whence some of the
settlers came. In it's various divisions
and aspects, poet and painter, botanist
and fisherman are equally at home
Through a glen at the head of the val
ley steals little streamlet of the purest
water, at times almost dissipating it
self to stretch over some limestone
shelf, then dreams in pools under the
shadow of great trees among whose
protruding roots the willy trout is seen
to flash. Urder the same cool trees
the grass may not grow for want of
sunshine, but the rich, dark earth is
carpeted in springtime with brilliant
flowers, predominating among which is
the delicate and beautifully tinted
spring beauty. Should you wander
into some of it's most secluded depths
of summer day and forget your rod
and meet with but few flowers you
might yet find here a saving balm. In
the cool shadows of the interlacing
limbs overhead you could read with a
rare solace and understanding. Lazy
cows would wander by and stare at
you and crows and squirrels in the tree
tops far above you would ply their
busy labors, but the distractingf hum
of humanity would play no part in your
reveries. So, too, in autumn, its wealth
of color, it's tranced silence, broken only
of dropping nuts would make one pause
and Dire, with time. One of the most
beautiful objects in this place of beauty
Is Percussion Rock, a huge sandstone
formation resembling chimney, which
rises almost alone out of the valley and
lifts its imposing head to height of
ninety feet A rough, irregular rock
rises up beside it to about half the
height and the two are joined by huge
wedge of stone of many tons weight
that seems to the dizzy eye ready at
any moment to pry itssupports asunder.
On the platform thus created grow
few scrubby evergreens. Close at hand
is a shelving cliff christened Deer Shell
ter by the early settlers, who frequent
ly shot deer under it's shadow. The
base of Percussion Rock Is a popular
picnic ground.
Site of an Old Shot Tower.
The section of the Wisconsin river
valley at this junction is also beautiful
and interesting. The feature of the
scenery is Tower hill and the site of
the old shot tower of early lead mining
days. The latter site is the top of
perpendicular cliff nearly one hundred
feet high and directly over the Wiscon-
sin river. From this height the molten
lead was dropped into the water be-
low in the manufacture of shot in the
usual manner, but the shot tower was
long since abandoned and removed and
is now little but memory. A fine pros
pect is afforded from this point of
vantage. Directly under one stretches
the floor of forest tops and for twenty
miles above and below the Wisconsin
can be traced like a silvery ribbon
upon which the sunset effects are par
ticularly beautiful Owing to its sandy
bed, the river at this point is OF almost
| crystal purity and 1t widens out lazily
at points forming many islands of much
charm and picturesqueness. In the
sandy fiat at the bottom of Tower hill
are seen the ruins of a few cellars, all
that is left of the once fiourishing town
OF Helena, which at one time came
within one vote Of becoming the capt.
tai of the state. This was in the min
ing DAVIS when the Wisconsin was navl-