Yesterday, roaming around in the Driftless Area, we spent a few hours in Decorah, Iowa. We loved the little town, home of Luther College, and hiked up to Dunning's Spring:
Somehow, we got to talking about the meteorite — "as big as a city block" — that hit right here 470 million years ago. There's a 4-mile-wide crater underneath Decorah, and "it is filled by an unusual shale that formed after an ancient seaway sluiced into the crater, depositing sediment and an array of bizarre sea creatures that hardened into fossils." The most interesting of these creatures is Pentecopterus decorahensis:
Pentecopterus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils have been registered from the Darriwilian age of the Middle Ordovician period, as early as 467.3 million years ago. The genus contains only one species, P. decorahensis, that is the oldest known eurypterid, surpassing other Ordovician eurypterids, such as Brachyopterus, in age by almost 9 million years. The generic name derives from the penteconter, a warship from ancient Greece, and the suffix -pterus, which means "wing" and is often used in other genus of eurypterids. The specific name refers to Decorah, Iowa, where Pentecopterus was discovered.
Pentecopterus is among the largest known arthropods, with the largest specimens having an estimated length of 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in)....
So something like this...
... something lobster-y... was longer than I am... and yet still only "among the largest known arthropods." What other bizarre creatures are out there in the unusual shales of ancient sluiced seaways?
They found something they called Jaekelopterus. It sounds like a joke — like a jackalope — doesn't it? But, here, they found it in Rhineland (Germany). This thing was, we're told, 7.64 to 8.50 feet long.
The smaller one may seem unworthy of your attention. I notice that the man is looking right past him as he extends his hearty welcome to his arthropod overlord. But the little guy hails from Wyoming, and I think that gives him a little pizzazz.
By the way, Luther College deserves a moment of your attention:
[A]t the start of the Civil War, the [Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church] decided to open its own college that fall in a former parsonage at Halfway Creek, Wisconsin... On September 1, 1861, classes officially began with an enrollment of 16. The following year classes moved to Decorah, Iowa...
In 1866, a group of students signed a "bill of rights" criticizing the rigid schedule, the rules about going downtown, the lack of windows in some of the sleeping rooms, and the woodcutting and shoe-shining chores, concluding that "there was not enough freedom."
I'm sure this wasn't the earliest student protest, but look at these issues — personal freedom and comfort.
The leader of the group, 18-year-old Rasmus Anderson, was expelled. This event was viewed as a rebellion and "the worst of sins" by the pastors assembled in a pastoral conference shortly after....
In 1932, Luther College dropped its mandatory study of the classics and embraced the modern concept of the liberal arts education. Due to financial constraints associated with the Great Depression, the college decided to admit women as students in 1936....
Women! Sometimes we're accepted not out of love or fairness but just for good old money.
In 1964, Luther's museum collection became separate from the college and was established as the Norwegian-American Museum. Now known as Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, it is the largest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant group....
Ah! We saw the museum, but failed to step inside. It's not too late, for we intend to go back to Decorah, Iowa. People there were super friendly — and that's compared to Wisconsin. Someone told us that Decorah was recently declared the "second-best" something — something like "place to live in America" or "small town in America." He couldn't remember exactly what, but it was definitely second-best, and he couldn't remember what was first, because if your town is second-best, that's great news, and what does it matter that there's also one place that's better? One, none — what's the difference?!
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Decorah's also home to the Toppling Goliath Brewing Co., brewers of Pseudo Sue (and others), a very tasty pale ale.
My wife went to college there. I was quite surprised to discover it was beautiful, and not at all what I expected of Iowa (that would be flat).
Nice brewery there too with award winning IPA Psuedo-Sue.
Paul Prudhomme could make some serious etouffee with that mud bug!
While wandering the Driftless, you might enjoy visting the Effigy Mounds National Monument. The mounds and history there are tied to the proto-Indian culture that once lived in the Madison area, building their complexes from the Mississippi to southeast WI (including the large complex at what is now known as Aztalan State Park).
So was this deposit of shale and fossils an instantaneous event, or did it occur over thousands/millions of years?
Is that Sasquatch up on the ledge?
Now known as Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, it is the largest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant group....
Come see the world's largest collection of Sven & Ole memorabilia in Ufffdah Hall!
And don't forget to try Lena's world-famous lutefisk smoothies!
Live at Luther College is an excellent live release from a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert.
" and not at all what I expected of Iowa (that would be flat)"
This is a topic we discussed during the drive — the way outsiders to this area lump it together with a broad swatch of America that they consider flat. When you're looking at it, you feel outraged on behalf of the land that so many people think of it as flat. We climbed some scenic bluffs along the Mississippi.
"Is that Sasquatch up on the ledge?"
It was impossible to get a shot that didn't have at least one person in it.
The Decorah eagles webcam is there.
He couldn't remember exactly what, but it was definitely second-best, and he couldn't remember what was first, because if your town is second-best, that's great news, and what does it matter that there's also one place that's better?
Try saying that to someone with an Olympic silver medal.
Decorah, named after Chief Waukon Decorah, who had two towns named after him. Growing up in Iowa, I loved learning the origins of our town and county names. Our little state has 99 counties.
5 foot to 8 foot arthropods? My mind went immediately to how large is my largest stock pot. No...not large enough. We'll need a tub. That's it. A tub of boiling water and a shitload of butter.
I agree that most Americans have no idea how beautiful their country is, and how diverse the topography and plant life all around. I worked a bit in Iowa years and years ago, and drove through it a couple of times. I was surprised how beautiful a state it is (I shouldn't have been) and how hilly it was in some areas. Wisconsin is even more beautiful. Just cold as hell half the year.
Some states get a bad rap. On the other hand, some might deserve them. Like Ohio. No one likes Buckeyes.
Don't jump!
Looks like a nice place to visit. Glad y'all enjoyed it.
Sometimes [women are] accepted not out of love or fairness but just for good old money.
Sometimes, but women are mostly on the other side of that deal.
"We'll need a tub. That's it. A tub of boiling water and a shitload of butter."
That sounds like what the 8 foot arthropod would say after meeting Temujin.
I wonder what happened to Rasmus Anderson. Sounds like he dodged a bullet, there.
That aquatic creature gives "Giant Shrimp" a whole new meaning ...
I'm not sure if the prime mover should be a greedy industrialist who wants to make big money with vast lobster herds or perhaps, it would be better if the prime mover was an attractive young woman, a brilliant marine biologist who wants to bring lobster to the masses. Anyway, the prime mover starts breeding Pentecopteri for commercial application.of What the prime mover doesn't know is that the Pentecopteri are intelligent, social animals. They soon break free of their enclosures and roam the seas in packs. They develop a particular taste for the swimmers around the beaches on Cape Cod....I'm seeing this as Jurassic Park meets Jaws. Sure money maker.
OK, but give me a Henry rifle in 44 Magnum, a huge stock tank and a couple of immersion heaters, 200 pounds of butter and a peck of garlic and 5 pounds of salt, and I will feed a couple of hundred people with that thing! Oh, and a sledgehammer I think, cracking that shell is going to be a job.
Somehow, we got to talking about the meteorite — "as big as a city block" — that hit right here 470 million years ago. There's a 4-mile-wide crater underneath Decorah, and "it is filled by an unusual shale that formed after an ancient seaway sluiced into the crater, depositing sediment and an array of bizarre sea creatures
That sounds like a fun B movie! Just move it into the modern era.
This thing was, we're told, 7.64 to 8.50 feet long.
One of my favorite monster movies is a flick from 1954 called Them!, which is a lot of fun.
A horror horde of crawl-and-crush giants clawed out of the earth from mile-deep catacombs!
The most interesting of these creatures is Pentecopterus decorahensis
I see that jaydub and Temujin are speculating about the creature’s edibity. I think that if you’d been swimming in Ordovician seas it would have been you on the menu.
I dated a woman from Luther College.
Still waiting for Meadehouse to visit Nebraska, or at least Omaha.
>>it is the largest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant group
The National Hellenic Museum is on Halsted just south of Jackson in the West Loop in Chicago. On the border of Greektown, the remnants of what used to be an actual Greek neighborhood (now mostly a handful of Greek restaurants) that was destroyed by the construction of interstate highways "protecting" the Loop from encroachment of, well, whatever, from the west. The whole area (including the area around my Jesuit high school a mile or so away) has gentrified immensely since I was in high school in the late 60s/early 70s.
I've never set foot in the museum, even though it's just half a mile away from the hotel I've been staying at whenever I'm in Chicago (usually at least once a year). From what I've read, it's a total snooze. Nothing I've seen from the outside makes me think anything different. There are also some silly artworks by Greek students they stick all over on Halsted.
To the extent there is one any more, it's a great location to stay in if you're in Chicago. A number of great nearby restaurants. An el line going directly to O'Hare, as well el lines with access to downtown and other locations, and a bus going to the Steppenwolf Theater. I used to be comfortable riding the el at any time of the night, though I'm not sure that's true any more.
Well, a town called Decorum could hardly allow student protests!
35 million years or so a go, a bigger meteor hit the shallow ocean where the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay is now. It almost certainly devastated life on the East Coast and much of North America. A mega-tsunami lapped up against the Blue Ridge mountains. The initial crater was about 15 miles wide, but since then has collapsed along the rim to a diameter of 50 miles. It probably shaped the origin of the Bay. As the sea floor rose later rose and became land, the crater collected the discharge of several rivers, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the James, the Rappahannock and more, and instead of letting them run straight to the sea the way most other rivers on the East Coast do, and started the current configuration of the Bay.
We had no man sized swimming bugs, but in the Miocene waters over the crater and what is now the Coastal Plain, there were school-bus sized Megalodon sharks, with teeth up to 7 inches long that preyed on the many kinds of whales that were also evolving there. My wife found a nearly perfect 4 1/2 inch tooth this year while walking the beach.
I googled "Rasmus Anderson" and got a hockey player.
Then I googled "Rasmus Anderson Luther College" and discover that Rasmus was a member of the first freshman class of Luther College in 1861. He was expelled in 1865, not 1866, got his PhD elsewhere, and returned as a professor to Luther, where he became a noted historian and professor for the rest of his life, dying at 90 in 1936. He was the last of Luther College's first class to expire. His autobiography is available free on Google Books.
He also was instrumental in establishing "Lief Ericsson Day" in the US, which is nice.
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