Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-01
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Band BOYS END
NORTHERN TRIP
Visit in Wisconsin On Last Lap OF
Long and Adventurous Hike
Of Two Weeks.

Thirty tired boys bringing
memories OF busting cities and sill
emit northern forests pulled into
Rock Island Saturday afternoon,
riding in state-in several touring
cars and an automobile truck.
They were the members of the
United Sunday Schools band, just
returned from cruising by road
through northern Illinois, Wiscon-
sin and Iowa The letters prev
iously printed showed that they
had the best time imaginable dur
ing their trip of two weeks. A sort
of swan song, Written by one of the
boys near the end OF the trip de-
scribes the last few days of the
journey He says:
Our last night in Wisconsin was
spent tonight at Dunkirk, a little
settlement three miles from
Stoughton. We spent this morning
on Lake Mendoza, resting and
swimming. At 1880 We left for
Madison, three miles distant. to
visit the historical building of the
University Of Wisconsin.
We spent a little time in this
wonderful building getting merely
a glimpse Of the valuable relics
there We learned that the Wis
consin state historical collection is
the largest Of its kind in the
United States. Another feature OF
this visit was seeing the great col
lection of newspapers and manu-
scripts. There is a collection Of
over 10000 personal letters of vet
Grams of the Civil war. There are
any number of original manu-
scripts Of early great leaders Of our
country, such as George Rogers
Clark, Daniel Boone, etc. These
manuscripts are very well taken
care of that they may be pre-
served.
1.-THE collection Of newspapers
from all parts of the country is one
of the largest in the United States,
second only to the collection of the
congressional library at Washing
ton. Almost every newspaper of
circulation of any size is repre-
scented here Back numbers of the
Gazette and Augustana Of Rock Is
land are on file.
From the historical building
we went to the new state capitol
building. This structure was only
completed in 1918. The old capitol
building was destroyed by fire in
1904. In 1907 the present building
was begun on the site Of the old
building and was completed last
year at a cost of $500, 900. The in
terror as we'll as the exterior is
made of the best material obtain
able, a good part of the best gran
tie having been obtained in Wis
cousin. We had the privilege of
climbing to the top gallery where
We could look out over the four
lakes of Madison and see the city
and country for miles around.
1T was 4 o'clock when we left
the capitol building. Our next lap
Of the home stretch took US
through Oregon to Stoughton.
From Stoughton we secured neces-
sary supplies and struck out for
the nearest desirable camping
place. We located our camp on the
banks of the Yahara river, the out
let of the four lakes of Madison. We
settled by the old grist mill at a
place called Dunkirk. We learned
why DunkiTk had th- better chance
for development than StOughton in
Gold Thwait's book, Down Historic
Waterways in the chapter on the
trip down Rock river. We learned
that through some scheming on the
part of a fey people the railroad
entered Stoughton, going around
Dunkirk Here we met a resident
farmer who had lived here 81 years.
He told US many interesting stor
les of early times.
AT present the grist mill is net
operating, but in 1900 a waterpower
electric plant was put into opera
ton. This plant introduced the
electricity for the community at the
same time. Now power is furnished
from KilbUrne, where there is a
greater waterpower plant on the
Wisconsin river.
Possibly some OF our boys will
read this letter at home when it is
published, for We plan to be home
some time Saturday, Aug. 80, when
13 days of great adventure close.
IRVING E. W. OLSON"