By John Amelse, Grade 6

Our Spring

There is a little spring that runs through our land.  It starts from under a tree.  The tree is at the foot of the hill.  The little spring runs into a pond.  That pond runs into the old river bed.  In winter the spring never freezes over.  It always has a little moss growing where it comes out.  When grandfather came there they used the spring for watering their animals and drinking water.  The spring is pretty all the year round.  In the summer when Norman and I go after cows we take a drink from the spring.  The cows drink farther down.  We drink from where the water comes out from the tree root.  In summer the cows drink from the spring when they are grazing there.  It is a good place for having picnics and having fun.

Our Farm

My father bought one hundred sixty acres of land in the town of Lincoln.  He bought it from the county.  The land was all woods and brush.  He cleared the land and built buildings.  Our house was built for a machine shed and was fixed over for a house.  He built a new barn in 1945.  We plan on building a new house and garage.  This land was not zoned when we bought it.  A few years after they zoned it.  No one knew a thing about it until a few years ago.  All of the forties are in one zone but the one the buildings are on.  We had an auction in 1946, and sold most everything.  Then we bought new machinery and started farming again.

Wild Cat Mountain

Wild Cat Mountain is one of the highest peaks in Eau Claire County.  It is about five miles northeast of Fall Creek.  It was named Wild Cat Mountain because wildcats used to live there.  They had a hole in the rocks on the north side of the hill.  You can still see the home of the wildcats.  At the foot of the hill there used to be a house and a barn where passers-by could sleep overnight.  The Fall Creek road used to go by this hill.  Trees cover the hill at the present time.  It is very steep toward the top and is quite rocky.  On a clear day you can see a long way in every direction.  There used to be a path from the north side of the hill to Big Falls of the Eau Claire River.  It is a nice place for a picnic but hard to climb.  Many people have carved their initials on the rocks of Wild Cat Mountain.  Each year we take a trip up the hill to look for wintergreen and wild flowers.

My Home and Beaver Creek

About forty years ago a farmer named Henry Holze started a farm in the town of Ludington.  The farm is located in Eau Claire County five miles northeast of Fall Creek and includes two hundred eighty acres of land.  Henry Holze and his sons lived on the place for twenty years before he moved off.  Kenters lived on the place till six years ago when Adrian Amelse bought it.  The farm was built about three hundred feet from the creek.  The name of the creek is Beaver Creek.  The reason it was called Beaver Creek is because beavers used to live in it.  The beaver flooded the land.  Farmers destroyed some of the dams.  Trappers trapped till there are hardly any beavers left.  Beaver Creek has changed its course a few times.  You can still see the old ditches where it used to flow.  Beaver Creek is about five miles long and is a fair sized creek.  It has two tributaries within a half mile.  The fishing is quite good in places as it is a trout stream and it is stocked every year.  Beaver Creek flows into the Eau Claire River, the Eau Claire flows into the Chippewa River.  The Chippewa River flows into the Mississippi River.