- I'm in Marathon County enjoying the sights and sounds
at Dells of the Eau Claire Park.
In order to gain a deeper understanding
of the special geology found in this park,
I met up with Dr. Keith Montgomery,
a glacial geologist
and professor of and geology and geography
at UW-Marathon County.
[playful music]
Sometimes you have to get off the beaten path
to discover a place's hidden history.
The Dells of the Eau Claire
provides a perfect path to the past.
- We're standing here in the south unit of the park.
It's very quiet.
We're sort of inside the bend of the river here.
But the rocks here tell us of a much more violent past.
The rock type here in the first instance was a lava.
And a very explosive lava.
The type of lava you would find
in some of the more explosive earthquakes on earth
such as in the northwest United States.
And then, subsequently, as continents collided
in this part of the world,
well, 1.8 billion years ago,
the continents were in very different configurations.
This part of the world
was in a different latitude and longitude.
The continents did collide here and when they did,
they ground up that rock.
And so they created a type of metamorphic rock
called a mylonite .
And so, instead of having the minerals randomly distributed
throughout the rock, as they would be in a granite,
the minerals have been ground up,
and you can see, they're all aligned in one direction.
- Just to the north, the Eau Claire River runs.
The river has shaped the land as it is today.
- Tens of thousands of years ago the river did cut through here
and what we see just over here is a bluff that one time
was actually bore during the river,
just as we find in the main channel today.
- So you can physically see remnants of that history
that you referenced. - Oh yeah.
You can see it in the rocks.
The rocks tell us of the history.
- A history that many visitors are unaware of,
but that doesn't stop them from enjoying the area.
The Rust family has come to the park for a number of years.
- A lot of good memories here
and I wanted to share it with my daughter.
- Aw...
- We like coming to the county park too
because it's a little bit easier to get in,
as well as the beauty of the Eau Claire Dells.
- And if you're camping,
your camping site is very secluded from those around you.
There are trees all around you.
They have electric hook-up
and there's some paved bike trails.
- And there's a beach just upstream,
as well as the dells where the falls are.
- There certainly are trails for families like the Rusts to enjoy
but as Dr. Montgomery reminds us,
there is so much more to gain when you know the history.
- If you understand
a little bit about geology,
you can actually enlarge upon
your appreciation of the environment
if you can think of the processes
that shaped the environment in the past.
- This park has a lot to offer
and is worth experiencing in person.