Parfrey’s Glen To Re-Open Today.

As teenagers my friends and I took a super 8 video camera into Parfrey’s Glen to record our best spin at Monty Python humor. The glen was a perfect set, offering that amazingly over-the-top, Terry Gilliam like background that somehow made the silliness of what we were doing there seem even more bizarre. It’s hard to image there were many other kids in the Baraboo area at that time having a laugh riffing on the life and times of Norman Carter Fassett. Mr. Fasset by the way was the chairman of the Wisconsin Natural Area’s Committee from 1945 to 1950. He was the man who selected Parfrey’s Glen to be Wisconsin’s first state natural area (and who amazingly enough provided fodder for adolescent film-making years later).

That love for the park and all those hours roaming the back corners of the lands with our Super 8 brought me to later work at the park for a few summer seasons in the mid-nineties.  That bit of destiny led me back into Parfrey’s Glen in 1993 again with camera in hand, only this time to film the “once in 500 year flood” devastation that had just occurred. It was impossible to have guessed that this would just be a sign of things to come.

The shape of the glen is ideal to focus and amplify the power of flood waters pouring off the bluffs. Anything within the small gourge would be lifted, spun and re-arranged. Even boulders the size of small cars will shift. This occasional clean out has been going on for eons, yet with such apparent rarity that it seemed logical to those in charge in 1993 that any new infrastructure faced little risk of further flooding. It was decided then to not only clean up this unique spot on the southern face of the Baraboo Bluffs, but to enhance it, make it more “park-like”. Wooden walkways and bridges were added. It certainly was pretty and yes, it did help to keep people from wandering off trail (a bit). But anyone who had seen the power of the last flood knew that if another hit, all this fancy woodwork would never survive. It didn’t.

Devil’s Lake was hit again in 2000 with another flood. This time Parfrey’s survived. From then to 2008 it seemed we had regular high water problems but none with the power of the ’93 flood. Then last year it hit. In June of 2008 the flood gates let loose and again the Glen was scoured. The Park again was under water, and even in the city of Baraboo the Wisconsin Dells Ducks were called in to save the day. Of course the headlines all went to the incredible disappearance of Lake Delton in Wisconsin Dells. For fans of Parfrey’s Glen the announced closing was met mostly with a calm reticence. What could you do??

Last evening a reporter called me for a quote on the announced re-opening of the Glen. Missed me however! I thought about it though. It seems to me that it’s hard to comment on the re-opening until we know where it leads. We know this time around there will be no boardwalks. In fact the new trail is temporary until something better can be set up. But it seems rather obvious that either for a cycle or for decades to come our local climate is changing. Summer floods have been fairly common now for over a decade. Nature will roll with it as much as nature can. The Glen was not “damaged” by the floods really. It was changed. The trail was damaged. To see the glen as perfect only when frozen in time is not correct. We want to be careful not to try to maintain a Parfrey’s Glen Museum. Pafrey’s Glen certainly is a unique natural area. Unique, and this is the bit to keep in mind. . , ever changing.

I’m not sure when the gates open. I’m hoping to have a glance in just a couple hours. We’ll see.

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**UPDATE: Just back from the Glen.  Well, it’s not going to be a “Museum”.  The power of nature is awesome.  My first impression is the DNR should not have opened it to the public but more on that in a later post. I’ll have new pictures later today as well.

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If you’d like a map to Parfrey’s Glen we’ve posted a nice new Google map over at WisDells.net just the other day.  Click Here.

To learn more about the glen and see some pre-flood images visit our Parfrey’s Glen page.

Read The Baraboo New Republic Article Here.

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