Goosetown Traditional Cache
Wis Kid: As there's been no cache to find for months, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Published for Myrick Hixon Eco Park's CITO 101 event. Do take note that the zoo is NOT open yet. It is currently under construction.
Did you wonder why this was called Goosetown? People used the marsh for pasturing - it wasn't a marsh at that point. It was actually pretty dry - farmers grew corn and hay here. They would pasture their cows and birds here as well. Many residents had their own poultry - chickens, geese and guinea fowl. They raised them between their yards and the marsh. Goose Green was north of the La Crosse River, West of Red Cloud Park, and this is where most people would take their birds. During the summer when the birds stayed in the park, people would take turns staying overnight to 'shepherd' the birds - make sure that no predators got the birds. In the fall, the birds were brought home and noodled - they were fed carbohydrates (many of them noodles...) to fatten them up for slaughter. There were 10-12 butcher shops in Goosetown that slaughtered them, packed them in barrels of river rice and sent them to markets in Dubuque and St. Louis.
Goosetown residents used the marsh for many other things as well - collecting wild plums, grapes, tuberour meadow sunflowers, Chinese potatoes, asparagus, berries, strawberries, iris and hazelnuts. Some of these they kept for themselves and others they would sell to restaurants in town. They also spearfished for buffalofish and carp, which they smoke and ate or sold. Small mammals were trapped for subsistence purposes. Hackberries trees were harvested to plant along the city streets as cottonwood was illegal to plant due to its nuisance.
The park and cemetery were well used by the people of Goosetown in many ways. People picnicked here, swam in a lake in Oak Grove Park, sledded down the hills, threw their garbage into the marsh, ice skated, built a zoo, built a gun club in 1932 (there was actually enough lead in the marsh that a company mined it in 1952.) The fairgrounds were here as well. These are just a few of the uses that the Goosetown residents had for the area!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)