We take many things for granted and never give them a second thought… that is, until someone asks us a question.
I have a friend, Elmer Wischmeier, from Sedalia, Missouri, who visited us several summers ago in Madison before we moved back to Westby. Elmer and I now go back 50 years together, but I hadn’t seen him since we left Vietnam in July, 1967.
Going adore in Vietnam: Harlan with glasses on left, Elmer in center. I took photo.
Still alive after spending the night on an ambush patrol! Harlan, seated, Elmer, reclining. I took photo.
During his visit, we drove to Westby one day to visit Harlan Springborn and Larry Skolos. The four of us had been in the army together. We were in the same basic training company, went ashore in Vietnam on the same landing craft, and were in the same unit while in Vietnam and spent nights together on ambush patrols in the middle of enemy territory. The four of us have a lot of history together!
L-R: Larry Skolos, Howard Sherpe, Harlan Springborn, and Elmer Wischmeier.
Before we met Harlan and Larry for lunch, I took Elmer for a ride around the Westby and Vernon County countryside to show him how beautiful Wisconsin is. We drove down Timber Coulee and I pointed out other coulees as we drove along. Then we went back up the tree-lined road through Spring Coulee with huge hills all around us. I mentioned that we would swing up on Spring Coulee Ridge Road, so he could get a different view of the coulees.
That’s when Elmer said he had a couple of questions for me. “Doc, What’s a coulee and is this the Northwoods?” I think all the rugged, forested country we were driving through, and my pointing out every coulee we passed, raised his curiosity!
This brings me back to my original statement that we take things for granted and never give them a second thought. I grew up around coulees and never thought to question what they were. They were just coulees. There was Timber Coulee, Spring Coulee, Mormon Coulee, and Rulland Coulee, to name a few. They were just names of places. No one had ever asked me what a coulee was before. Maybe they didn’t have coulees in Missouri, or they referred to them as “Hollers.”
I wasn’t sure what to tell Elmer. I said it probably meant a valley. All the coulees I knew had high bluffs on both sides. “Maybe that kept it cooler in the valleys,” I said. “So they called them ‘coolies,’ meaning it was cooler there. Maybe someone who wasn’t an A student in spelling, wrote it down as coulee!” It sounded like a good, logical, Norwegian explanation to me. Never let it be said that I can’t come up with an answer to every question, even if it seems to be a lot of hot air… or cool air in this case!
I found out later, from Elnor and Marjorie Haugen in Coon Valley, that coulee is a French word. The coulees must have been named by early French fur traders. When all else fails, read the directions, or in this case the definition of coulee. I found the word “coulee” comes from the French Canadian “coulée,” from the French word “couler,” meaning “to flow.”
In Wisconsin it refers to a gully or ravine; a narrow and steep gorge formed by thousands of years of erosion, found especially in the Driftless Area of Southwestern Wisconsin. Coulees also provide shelter from the wind, and a concentrated water supply to plants that would otherwise have a hard time surviving in areas more exposed to the sun and heat. So, at least I was right about the valley part, and according to that, it is cooler in the coulees!!
In Vernon and Crawford Counties the coulees are certainly not little gully washers or ravines, like the definition mentions. They are “real” valleys with big hills and steep bluffs. Not only that, but they generally have a stream running through them, or as the French would say, “flowing” through them. Some people might say it’s a “creek” or a “crick,” not a stream, but that’s a whole other story!
Now for the second part of his question, “Is this the Northwoods?”
Well, that depends on your perspective. If you live in Missouri, like Elmer, the coulees and hills of Vernon and Crawford County, Wisconsin must seem like the Northwoods. If you live in Vernon County, Black River Falls might be considered the Northwoods. At least it was back in the days when my grandfather and many young Norwegian immigrants became lumberjacks in the winter months and cut timber in the “Northwoods” to make a living.
If you live in Black River Falls, you might travel to Woodville to be in the Northwoods. As I said, it all depends on your perspective and where you’re at when asked the question!
The Northwoods… it may not be a specific place at all, but more a state of mind. I like to think it is, and we can go there any time we want. At least that was my explanation to Elmer.
I’d never given much thought to coulees or the Northwoods before he asked me about them. I’m glad he did. Too often we don’t appreciate or notice the uniqueness of our own surroundings until someone points them out, or asks us a question about them.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna’ head out in search of a coulee with a nice trout stream running through it.
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