Flat Matthew, He Delivers

It is almost time for Flat Matthew to head back to Illinois.

Flat Matthew wanted to have a party before he left. So he invited Round Matthew and Round Matthew's dad for pizza.

Michael ordered the pizza. Tom and Flat Matthew went to get the pizza and bring it home to eat. Flat Matthew, he delivers.

Flat Matthew was very excited to see Round Matthew again. Flat Matthew showed Round Matthew everything in the house, and they played computer games together. Round Matthew told Flat Matthew about school, and showed Flat Matthew how to read. Round Matthew is good at reading. Flat Matthew is not so good at it yet.

Round Matthew and Round Matthew's dad are driving home to Illinois today. Flat Matthew will go home tomorrow on a postal truck.

Round Matthew will be in school Monday. Flat Matthew will get to school sometime later this week, we hope.


Before we bring the adventures of Flat Matthew to an end, here's one last question for you.

Do you think that Flat Matthew looks like Round Matthew?

We do. Flat Matthew and Round Matthew have the same goofy grin. It is one of the things we like about them both.

Tom

Flat Matthew and the cranes

On the way back from Baraboo, Flat Matthew and I stopped at the International Crane Foundation. The Foundation's visitor center is only open from April through October, so we did not get to see any cranes. Flat Matthew did hear some cranes squawking, though, while I took his picture outside the entrance gates. The gate looks like cranes standing among reeds in the water.

The International Crane Foundation works worldwide to conserve cranes and the wetland and grassland ecosystems on which they depend. ICF is dedicated to providing experience, knowledge, and inspiration to involve people in resolving threats to these ecosystems. They even breed cranes so that endangered species do not go extinct.

They have been part of the effort to save the whooping cranes. This is the tallest bird in North America, and in 1941, there were only 21 left. Today, thanks to the efforts of groups like the International Crane Foundation, there are over 340. Flat Matthew said that 340 did not sound like many, but it is a lot more than 21.

Young whooping cranes have to be taught to migrate from Wisconsin to places like Florida and Texas for the winter. They used to learn by following adult whooping cranes, but because there are so few adults, rescue teams learned that the young cranes would follow an ultralight aircraft to learn the way. The picture is of the first migration of young cranes to fly from Wisconsin to Florida in January, 2009.

Flat Matthew thought it would be fun to fly in an ultralight aircraft. Maybe someday he can join one of the groups that help to save the cranes and fly with them.

Michael

Flat Matthew goes to Baraboo

This morning Flat Matthew went with me to Baraboo. Baraboo was the home of the famous Ringling Brothers who had the circus, and today it hosts the Circus World Museum on the location where the circus used to spend the winter by the Baraboo River. The sign above is on one of the buildings downtown on the square.

The Museum wasn't open yet, so Flat Matthew had to look across the river to see some of the old circus train cars and other buildings. I told him maybe he could come back and work there in the summer, because he already looks like a clown. Flat Matthew did not laugh. Actually, the circus museum does have peformances in the summer, and they have a special show that kids who are visiting can be part of. And you can even ride an elephant or a camel, if your parents think that is okay.

After that, we went downtown. Baraboo is also the county seat of Sauk County, and here is Flat Matthew on the steps outside the County Courthouse. Then we went to visit my friends at the law office where I worked when I first moved up here from Chicago.

You may think of lawyers as always being in court and dealing with murderers or other criminals because of the television shows you have seen. But lawyers help people in lots of other ways. They help them buy and sell property. (Tom was a real estate attorney in Chicago before he retired.) They help them write wills and set up businesses and all sorts of other things. Once when I was working at the law office, we helped a group of Amish families who wanted to have their own cemetery out in the country where they lived.

This is a picture of the office where I used to work. Linda, the woman sitting down, now does what I did. Evelyn, the woman standing in the back, is one of the lawyers, along with her husband Joe. They both knew all about Flat Stanley and were happy to have their picture taken with Flat Mathew. When Evelyn and Joe's grandson did a Flat Stanley, they took Flat Stanley to their farm to see all the lambs that had just been born. Flat Matthew didn't get to see any lambs, though. He was very polite because he said lawyers make him nervous.

I told him that all the real lawyers I know are nice people, and he did not have to be nervous about them. After all, Tom was a lawyer and he has been very nice to Flat Matthew. But if he wanted to be afraid ...

The building that you see on the corner behind Flat Matthew is a store that was built in the late 1800s. The people who work there today say they sometimes see or hear the ghost of the wife of the man who built it. I don't know if that is true. I have been in the store and it seems like just an old store to me. But Flat Matthew didn't want to go in and see. Just in case. So we took the picture from across the street.

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you think that is why Baraboo is called Bara -BOOOOO?

Michael

Flat Matthew, Big River

Tom and Debbie took Flat Matthew to the Wisconsin River this morning.


As Tom was was driving into the parking lot on River Road, Flat Matthew spotted a huge pile of logs. Debbie told Flat Matthew that the Department of Natural Resources was harvesting some of the trees in the area.

Flat Matthew, Forester, wanted to inspect the logs before walking into the State Natural Area.

Flat Matthew climbed up into the pile of logs. Flat Matthew felt very small. Can you find Flat Matthew in the picture?


Flat Matthew stopped and looked at the river as he walked along. Flat Matthew is looking at the Cambria cliff. He was surprised to see a tree growing right out of the rocks.

Flat Matthew didn't understand how a tree could grow out of a rock. Tom told him that the sandstone is very soft, and tree roots dig down into the rock, just like tree roots dig down into the ground. Flat Matthew said, "You're funny, Tom!"

I don't think that Flat Matthew believed Tom. Do you?


Finally, Flat Matthew got to Sunset Cliff. The river was way down, about a hundred feet. Tom wouldn't let Flat Matthew go near the edge, because it was icy, and Flat Matthew might fall.

Debbie told Flat Matthew that this was her favorite place on the river. When Debbie was a little girl, her family would have picnics right where Flat Matthew was standing.

If you look way in the background, you can see Louis Bluff. Louis Bluff was the place where the first European settled in the Dells area, in the 1830's. Today, Louis Bluff is part of the State Natural Area.

Flat Matthew and American history

We took Flat Matthew to visit a couple of local cemeteries because of historical figures buried there.

There is only one veteran of the American Revolutionary War who is known to be buried in Sauk County, and the cemetery is one that we often pass on the way back from Reedsburg. So we stopped to show Flat Matthew. The gate was locked at Dellona Center Cemetery, and Flat Matthew had to look at the grave from a distance. Here he is beside the historical marker with this information:

Private John Greenslit is the only known Revolutionary War soldier buried in Sauk County. He enlisted in the Connecticut State Troop Sep 01, 1782 at the age of 15, serving one year under Captain Benjamin Durkee, stationed at Fors Trumbull and Griswold, Greenslit saw action on Long Island. He was born Jun 5, 1767 at Hampton, CT. John and Salome Pitts Greenslit came to Dellona in 1855/56 to join two of their eight children, Henry and Stephan. John Greenslit died April 1, 1856. Salome died in April, 1860, aged 94. They are buried at Dellona Center Cemetery.

John who died at age 89, owned a lot in this cemetery. However, there were markers for John and Salome in the Fairfield Cemetery. Salome died at the home of a son in Fairfield Township. As a result, it is uncertain whether John's body was removed from the Dellona Cemetery to Fairfield or whether the marker in Fairfield is a "memorial" marker. The stones at Fairfield have since deteriorated and are a pile of stones but it is believed that at least Salome is buried there.

After that touch with the Revolutionary War, we went to Spring Grove Cemetery on the edge of Wisconsin Dells to honor those who served in the Civil War. Tom's great-grandfather was among the local men who fought for the Union, and he was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg before going on to be part of Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas which helped end the War. This statue of a Union soldier is at the highest point in the cemetery, still keeping watch.

Not far away is an unusual grave, unusual because it is decorated with a Confederate flag. This is the tomb of Belle Boyd, who had been a spy for the Confederacy during the war. Although she worked tor the South, after the War ended she toured the country, giving talks about her experiences and encouraging the unity of the nation. "One God, one flag, one people -- forever!" was her motto.

Belle had been invited by the Grand Army of the Republic to speak in Kilbourn City (as the town was then called), but she died here on June 11, 1900, before she was able to deliver her talk. The Union soldiers buried her in the local cemetery with honor. Later soil from her native Virginia was brought to the grave so that she might lie in what had been her own land, and stones were collected from all of the former Confederate states to help build her monument. And that is why there is a Confederate flag and a Confederate veteran's marker up here in a Wisconsin cemetery.

The caretaker of the cemetery says that he once saw what looked like the ghosts of Confederate soldiers near Belle's tomb, but Flat Matthew didn't see any when he posed for this picture.

Michael

Flat Matthew, Don't Jump!

The most famous picture of Wisconsin Dells was taken by H.H. Bennett, a pioneer photographer. Bennett took the picture in 1886. The picture shows Bennett's son, Ashley, jumping to Stand Rock.


The picture is famous because it was the first picture taken with a stop-action shutter. The shutter was powered by a rubber band. Before Bennett invented the stop-action shutter, people had to sit very still to have their picture taken.

Bennett lived in Wisconsin Dells. Today, his studio is a museum run by the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Flat Matthew likes to have his picture taken, so he wanted to visit the museum.


The museum is on the main street. It has many pictures taken by Bennett, and you can visit his work room, just as it looked when he was taking pictures.

Flat Matthew liked looking at old things, and he thought it was funny that Bennett used a rubber band on his camera.

But what Flat Matthew really wanted to do was to jump to Stand Rock.

Tom wouldn't let Flat Matthew jump. The jump is six feet, and that is too dangerous for Flat Matthew. Tom said, "Flat Matthew, Don't Jump!"

So Flat Matthew just thought about it.


This is what Flat Matthew imagined.

Don't try this at home, Round Matthew.

Tom

Flat Matthew learns about the meridian and time

Today Flat Matthew visited Reedsburg, a city of about 10,000 people twelve miles away. It was founded in the 1840s, about the time that Tom's family moved to the farm where we live. There is a log cabin pioneer village and museum on the edge of town, but none of the buildings were open today. So Flat Matthew had to look at the cabins from outside. It was a sunny day, so he wore his new sunglasses.

One interesting thing about Reedsburg is that it is located directly on the 90th meridian, which means that clocks here are exactly in sync with the sun overhead. When the sun is highest in the sky, it is exactly noon Central Standard Time.

For most of human history people measured time based on the position of the sun; it was noon when the sun was highest in the sky. Farmers and other people who work outdoors can still tell time by looking at the location of the sun during the day. Until the 1800s, cities would set their town clock by measuring the position of the sun, but every city would be on a slightly different time. There was no such thing as what we call Standard Time today, where all the towns in a particular part of the country have exactly the same time. (Wisconsin and Illinois are both in Central Standard Time, and during part of the year Central Daylight Time.)

You know about time zones if you watch television, because shows that are on the air in Boston (Eastern Time) at 8:00 p.m. are on in Illinois (Central Time) at 7:00 p.m. Or if you call your grandmother long distance in California, it is a different time there than it is where you are in Illinois.

Flat Matthew didn’t understand, so we went on the internet to find out more. Flat Matthew discovered that Britain was the first country to set the time throughout a region to one standard time, and it was all because of our friends, the railroads. The railways cared about the differences in local time because their schedules had to be the same everywhere to within a minute. It took forty years for all the clocks in Great Britain to be set to the same Standard Time, though.

Standard time in time zones began in the U.S. and Canada in 1883, also because of the railroads. Prior to that, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by a well-known clock (on a church steeple, for example, or in a jeweler's window). But the railroads needed to be more accurate and uniform.

Some people did not like the change. I can still remember my grandfather in Texas refused to change his watch for Daylight Savings Time. He insisted he would go by "God's time", by which he meant sun time. And I remember touring an old house in Virginia where the big fancy clock in the hall did not have a minute hand. When it was built, people only cared about the hour of the day. The tour guide told us, "If you arrived within an hour, you were on time."

We explained to Flat Matthew that in Reedsburg, when the sun was overhead and it was noon, it was also exactly noon Central Standard Time. In other places in the Central Time Zone, the sun might be overhead several minutes before or after when the clocks said it was noon.

Flat Matthew still was not sure he understood, but we took a picture of him anyway at the marker on Main Street in Reedsburg that reads "325 FEET EAST OF THIS POINT LIES THE 90TH MERIDIAN." The marker was dedicated on October 14, 1963, to designate Reedsburg's unique position in the state.

Flat Matthew thought it would be easier for him to understand if we got him a watch. We told him he is too young to have to worry that much about time anyway.

Another interesting things about Reedsburg is that Agnes Morehead, the actress who played Endora on the old Bewitched television show, lived there.

Michael