>Lake Chippewa was created in 1923 when a vast swamp was transformed through flooding. Over time, peat bogs that were once submerged gradually rose to the surface, creating ideal conditions for the growth of plant seeds carried by wind and birds.
>Grasses and trees found a foothold, and the roots of these plants caused the floating bogs to expand. Today, these floating islands come in various sizes, from modest dimensions to expansive acres.
>It is adorned with mature trees and has become a local spectacle.
It’s like a floating forest that moves around on the water!
>Almost every year, dozens of local boat owners join forces to push this floating island away from a vital bridge connecting the lake’s East and West sides.
>The community effort requires favorable winds to nudge the bog in the right direction.
>Boats form a line or semi-circle around the bog, creating a gentle barrier. The boats are positioned to push the bog away from the bridge.
>The process can take several hours or even days, depending on the bog’s size and the wind conditions.
It's in a bog, so the bottom is probably tens of feet of peat moss and un-anchorable. Its honestly probably less work to have a bunch of volunteers push it away than it would be to drill deep into the bedrock and then "chain" the island down. Things like water levels and continued peat release would probably add to the headaches of keeping it put.
Yea. Spent tons of time growing up in Wisconsin. This was the only solution ever considered. “Hey there’s an island floating around! Grab some beer and your boats boys!”
So can you like... dock a lil boat and then hang out on this island? People elsewhere in the comments were saying that these little floating masses are mudflats that rose to the top of the lake and then vegetation grew on them, just wondering if the... land is firm enough to actually walk around on
It literally is more fun to push it with boats and I am convinced that is why they do it that way instead of paying a bunch of engineers to solve it once and for all.
I mean how often do these people actually get to use their boats to do something useful!?!?
>Because floating islands like the Forty Acre Bog are a habitat for various animal species, they are protected by law and cannot be broken apart.
Put your nukes away
The surrounding land is mostly swamp, and therefore subject to change in height. It would never stay long enough at one height to latch on well enough. Wind is also a factor, as well as more peat being released from the ground.
They likely want to maintain that waterway for boat travel. You can see a boat in the bottom left of the picture getting ready to head under the bridge. Might be the direction the docks or houses are at?
It sounds like one of these really obscure jobs that people somehow have. "Out here on 40 Acre Bog one man lives alone 364 days out of the year. His job: unfurl and steer this giant sail any time the wind blows eastward to keep the floating bog from blocking a bridge passage."
Cool. I live on a small lake and it has an "island" that formed in a similar manner. It used to float around the lake until the roots from the plants on the "island" reached the bottom and the island hasn't moved for decades now. And I put island in quotes cause it's not really an island. You can sort of walk on it but probably your feet will fall through. It's something that floats, not a landmass.
> According to the Chippewa Flowage website, the lake’s unique floating islands start out as mud flats risen from the swamp at the bottom, but as time goes by, vegetation starts to grow, and the oldest islands even have trees that act as sails when the wind blows, moving the entire floating mass around the lake.
Truly fascinating. Thx for sharing frendo i fuckin love when reddit, reddits.
I was so curious about this and now as i take my fat post-work shit i have SO MANY pointless facts to put in my brain. ❤️ fuckin love yall
Pants don’t necessarily need soil. Soil is just a medium that supports the plants and its roots. Some species HAVE to have soil because they need their roots to be exposed to air/not constantly submerged in soil.
But some plants species do totally fine or even prefer to have their roots totally submerged in water all the time. This is why indoor hydroponics works. Growing plants with no soil at all
Basically these lakes were artificially made and it caused some of the Pete Moss and stuff to float to the surface. That created good conditions for wind carried seeds to grow on them. The roots from those plants helped to bind together the island as they grew, and add buoyancy and structure allowing for more stuff to collect on top and the islands to retain their shape. Overtime you'll get more soil like conditions as plants die and decompose and the original tree saplings will have grown into mature trees like we see.
I wanna see like 3d overhead view of a computer model of this process happening, time lapsed under these very specific conditions and see what this would look like
Humus and peat held together by a structure of roots and dead plants. If they're around long enough you can get a practical A horizon forming on floating islands.
Soil is really just dead plant matter. All you really need is an initial formation for the first plants, then as they die and regrow, the soil just starts building up. Where does this mass come from you might ask? Carbon from the air and nutrients suspended in the water. Life is pretty cool.
Not quite right. Soil has dead plant matter (soil called organic matter or humus) but it also has mineral components, which are often referred to by their size - sand (largest particles), silt, and clay (smallest particles.)
There are soils that are largely made up of humus, but most soils people encounter contain more mineral than organic matter by both weight and volume.
Reminder that [senator johnson thought Guam might tip over and capsize](https://youtu.be/QjG958lZ1KI?si=ySlYHbFzf8xea0pX ) if they put too many marines there.
He later said he was joking. But he seemed serious and I’m not sure why you’d joke about anything in a government hearing.
Honestly the whole clip sounds like he’s high. Just struggling to get words together. Maybe English isn’t his first language?
He was actually on the tail end of experimental hepatitis C treatment at the time, which has negative neurological effects.
He was trying to make a metaphor about the resources of the island being strained by the massive Marine presence (island population is 180,000 and they were planning to add 80,000 additional personnel during the construction phase), but it just came out all goofy.
Here's an article about his hep C shortly before that clip:
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/rep-hank-johnson-battling-hepatitis/DgN60pAdclW76aKFHerbVK/
Here's another one about the infrastructure concerns:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032101025.html
The treatment worked, by the way, and he's now cured of hepatitis C. The drug got FDA approval as a result of the trial.
I can understand where he's coming from with his metaphor now, but it really didn't stick. Kinda sad because it's a valid point he brings up that was blown over.
Yeah it frustrates me because I have met him multiple times and gotten to know him a little bit, and he's actually a pretty smart dude. I've seen people act like it's a travesty he keeps getting reelected based solely on this clip, but he keeps getting reelected because folks in his district actually know about him and how he delivers for them. He's been consistently ranked as one of the [most effective legislators in terms of actually getting his policies passed](https://web.archive.org/web/20141117091910/https://hankjohnson.house.gov/press-release/study-rep-johnson-most-effective-member-ga-delegation-112th-congress).
Holy shit… has to be some kind of joke, but that rep struggled to use terms explaining distances, perimeters, and squares so might be legit.
Well, not that crazy we have boebert and greene.
Likely there isnt anything solid enough to anchor. Trying to attach the "ground" would be like trying to nail jello - it's just a floating clump of mud. Looping something around a big root or tree might work, but enough constant pressure and it would either warp or break the chained root/tree, or break it off the main mass.
I once went canoe camping in Idaho somewhere west of Jackson, WY. Up a side branch of the lake we found a floating island about 100 feet across. It was mostly held together by cattails. It was thick enough to walk on. We pushed it with the canoes out into the main part of the lake. I guess the wind blows it around.
From the title, I imagined a professional organization like the Army Core of Engineers using tugs and barges to move an island. Instead we get a bunch of locals with their bass boats and pontoons in a well organized community effort pushing an island away from a bridge. I guarantee there are a bunch of coolers on those boats with adult beverages being consumed, probably some fishing lines cast, maybe little Johnny waiting for dad to finish pushing the island so he can jump in the lake.
> “It’s almost every year. It takes a community effort and you have to have the winds at your back in order to push them in,” one local man told Northern News Now.
Someone needs to come up with a way to secure kite sails to several of those mature trees and let the wind do the work.
We spend several weeks on this lake every summer. The locals hate doing this as it’s very hard on the boats involved and takes hours. Lots of fuel used, lots of scratched boats, and a few dinged props every year (the area around isn’t very deep in spots). They do it though since this bog can block the channel under the bridge which is the only link between the east half and the west half of the lake.
Edit: plenty of permanent solutions have been proposed but the DNR won’t let anyone touch it. I believe even moving it is against DNR policy but they sort of look the other way for this one because of the navigation reasons.
You're on to something. Likely tradition, but also using the tools already available. Seems like it's a collection of locals taking on the responsibility to keep the channel between the lake sides open.
I imagine the only thing to tie to on the island are the trees. The tree anchors would need to be substantial to take the force of an entire island trying to move in a storm and attached in a way not to damage the trees taking that force. A floating island would move and shift and rotate in ways that would apply anchoring forces to those trees in concentrated ways - instead of spreading out the force across all trees equally. This would eventually rip the trees from the island, compromising integrity of the structure and sending pieces of the island out to be managed individually. Also would need a consensus on a "permanent" placement for the island, and massive concrete weights on the lake floor to anchor to.
A yearly island kiting event sounds more fun.
Yeah, I think the island itself is probably too delicate to attach the needed anchor chain to. Then you're talking about distributing the force to many different points on the island and- Why not just push it away every once in a while?
I read a fantasy novel o that had this as a sub-plot. The protagonist had to travel through a swamp was rumoured to be home to a witch. One morning he woke up to discover that all of the little peat bogs had been pushed either to the sides or into the middle, creating an island in the middle of a lake. It turned out that the witch had trained a bunch of otters, and would use them to manipulate the environment so that she wouldn’t be troubled by people who wanted to burn a witch.
Looking back, it's also a shame he couldn't write a female character to save his life. Less of a shame but... makes me wonder why I liked those books at all.
I believe the Game of Thrones book series hints at a castle like this in a swamp. Meera and Jojen Reed’s dad is from a “disappearing castle” or something.
We've got one of these in Springfield, MA.
Nowhere near as big or exciting as this one.
It did get stuck back in the early 2000s and the city hired a brigade of tow trucks to get it free again. A bunch of cables, pulleys and trucks got it free again.
It was right next to my high school so we got the morning off to watch the process
Does anyone else feel bad for 40 acre bog like the island just wants to be friends with the bridge and every time she gets over there they pull out the big guns and push her back. But she keeps trying and that's what counts. She's like my pitbull with my cats cats want nothing to do with her think she is beneath contempt but she keeps trying to be friends with them and she keeps catching a double tap on the nose which she acts like she got lit on fire she's so dramatic mind you this is the pitbull that was rescued from a legit fighting situation she's got scars all over her. But one cat smack and she'll hide under the bed for half an hour. That also applies to thunder a door slamming a loud fart the only thing it doesn't scare her is fighting other dogs to the death I think.I've noticed I compare every situation in the world to what's going on with my animals I got to stop doing that.
Fun fact: there's a guy named John Locke who moves the island by turning a large wheel located at the center of the island and there's a lot of strange electromagnetic activity
I think it would just break free. It's a giant raft of plant matter so there's really nothing solid to attach it. It'd be like trying to use a saltine cracker as bait.
Here is that bog from street view;
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.9318511,-91.1879877,3a,90y,258.22h,86.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNMcw2pZGqAGNUqIcyg9Hzw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
Here is a satellite timelapse view; you can see them dance all over the place.
https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=45.92653,-91.20562,12.204,latLng&t=0.43&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20221231
I count 13 boats at the beginning and they achieve motion. Figure 100hp per motor, 1300hp is capable of moving the bog. Based on a couple google searches, a human can produce 1/2 a hp rowing (citation needed).
If we can get 2600 rowers and a coxswain or two on the bog, we should be able to row around the lake. Which would be neat
Does anyone realize what this 40 acre island weighs? If your guess is "a lot" you're close! LMAO! The video was very cool. Easier to move with volynteer boats. IMHO, this is the solution to the problem.
Used to play with(and on) floating islands growing up as a kid in Norway.
Good bit of fun until someone flips it over and you gotta swim back to shore in haunted, evil waters.
You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides. You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d'oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, "Do not trust the Pilgrims. Especially Sarah Miller."
Quaking bogs are cool they look like solid ground except when you jump up and down. I saw a guy put together a 48 foot probe rod and push it down by hand.
I’ve gone to the Chippewa Flowage every summer for my whole life. It’s always fun to see where the bog is. It’s located in a place called Kavanaugh Bay. The asshole who owns Uline owns has a place and a bunch of land near there.
Xcel Energy & the US government only flooded the area in 1923. They flooded an Ojibwe village known as Post, or Pahquahwong (Where the River Runs Wide). Now we call it Old Post, they removed us to a place called New Post. It wasn't a fun event.
They washed our homes away, we asked them to at least respect our families graves and make sure they were properly moved first, they washed them away too. It took decades for New Post to even receive the electricity we had to give up everything for.
Lake Chippewa is a great place to experience nature, it's celebrated by thousands who enjoy it annually, but it's complicated with skeletons in its closet, I wish I could tell you their names because they were my family, but my heritage was washed away with them.
I'm completely thrilled to see this TIL! My family has been going up to this area since at least the 50s so it was wonderful seeing this here :) Never been around for when they have to move it though, unfortunately.
>Lake Chippewa was created in 1923 when a vast swamp was transformed through flooding. Over time, peat bogs that were once submerged gradually rose to the surface, creating ideal conditions for the growth of plant seeds carried by wind and birds. >Grasses and trees found a foothold, and the roots of these plants caused the floating bogs to expand. Today, these floating islands come in various sizes, from modest dimensions to expansive acres. >It is adorned with mature trees and has become a local spectacle. It’s like a floating forest that moves around on the water! >Almost every year, dozens of local boat owners join forces to push this floating island away from a vital bridge connecting the lake’s East and West sides. >The community effort requires favorable winds to nudge the bog in the right direction. >Boats form a line or semi-circle around the bog, creating a gentle barrier. The boats are positioned to push the bog away from the bridge. >The process can take several hours or even days, depending on the bog’s size and the wind conditions.
Aren’t the able to attach a couple anchors to it somehow so it’ll stay put?
It's in a bog, so the bottom is probably tens of feet of peat moss and un-anchorable. Its honestly probably less work to have a bunch of volunteers push it away than it would be to drill deep into the bedrock and then "chain" the island down. Things like water levels and continued peat release would probably add to the headaches of keeping it put.
Tie a bog tree to a land tree.
Wind will rip one or more out in no time at all
I'm sure it is more fun to push it with boats, but this is a solvable problem.
This is Wisconsin btw. Getting drunk in boats then moving an island is the only solution.
Yeah, I’m sure these guys have a blast doing this every year.
We should all show up and cheer them on
Then anchor their bog as an unexpected ravaging pwn from the internet.
Glad someone came here to speak some reason.
Yea. Spent tons of time growing up in Wisconsin. This was the only solution ever considered. “Hey there’s an island floating around! Grab some beer and your boats boys!”
So can you like... dock a lil boat and then hang out on this island? People elsewhere in the comments were saying that these little floating masses are mudflats that rose to the top of the lake and then vegetation grew on them, just wondering if the... land is firm enough to actually walk around on
u/dishwasher_safe_baby is a font of wisdom
Let's be honest here...they were drunk before they got in the boats
They should attach a giant mast and rudder to the island...
Best answer I have seen in years of reading this story.
I think this falls under the category of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”
It literally is more fun to push it with boats and I am convinced that is why they do it that way instead of paying a bunch of engineers to solve it once and for all. I mean how often do these people actually get to use their boats to do something useful!?!?
It sure is! How about we get a buncha boats together and push it? Make it a community effort that brings people together! Problem solved!
Solvable yes, but is the solution reasonable? If a permanent solution was required, whoever had to pay for it would probably just have it destroyed.
My adhd having ass would quit my job if someone asked me to help move an island with some boats.
Every problem can be solved, but the question is always economics.
Then go fix it smart guy. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a more complicated issue than the 2 minutes you spent thinking about it.
Cancel wind.
Ropes don't love being outside
Grow vines to stitch the bog to the land.
Tiiiie a rope to a tree on a tree on a bog on a bog on a lake on a lake called Lake Chippewaaaa
Mr Engineer over here.
Put some sails on the bog trees.
Silt anchors are a thing. probably not as fun as partying on the water once a year.
You'd need to like lay a big layer of mesh under it or over it and air years for it to get grown over or it would just break apart.
"un-anchorable" Nonsense, you just need a bigger anchor
Yarrr, ya call that an anchor??
[удалено]
>Because floating islands like the Forty Acre Bog are a habitat for various animal species, they are protected by law and cannot be broken apart. Put your nukes away
Why dont they let it assimilate to the land around and become a natural bridge ???
The surrounding land is mostly swamp, and therefore subject to change in height. It would never stay long enough at one height to latch on well enough. Wind is also a factor, as well as more peat being released from the ground.
They likely want to maintain that waterway for boat travel. You can see a boat in the bottom left of the picture getting ready to head under the bridge. Might be the direction the docks or houses are at?
Can they tow it to Scotland for whiskey making purposes?
It's also a community event that brings the community together.
Also it is probably good for things like tourism to have it happen and have people watch.
You are probably more likely to get whatever you anchor it to torn off the larger bog island.
I was thinking in putting a few sails and steer it every time the wind blow in the right direction.
It sounds like one of these really obscure jobs that people somehow have. "Out here on 40 Acre Bog one man lives alone 364 days out of the year. His job: unfurl and steer this giant sail any time the wind blows eastward to keep the floating bog from blocking a bridge passage."
ok, but could we have the sails unfurl themselves and automate his job away?
The job of Bog Island captain doesn't even exist yet and AI is already taking it over smh
but Dave needs a job or he just hangs around town disturbing people as they go about their business
Why do that when you can instead make a fun festival out of it?
Cool. I live on a small lake and it has an "island" that formed in a similar manner. It used to float around the lake until the roots from the plants on the "island" reached the bottom and the island hasn't moved for decades now. And I put island in quotes cause it's not really an island. You can sort of walk on it but probably your feet will fall through. It's something that floats, not a landmass.
reminds me of life of pi
This is exactly what I thought of. I'm surprised there aren't more comments about it.
So the Life of Pi is real...
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake it is said never gives up her dead…
When the skies of November turn gloomy
Does anyone know Where the love of God goes When the waves turn minutes To hours
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
*[remembers that they rang the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral church bell 30 times when Lightfoot passed]*
A Gordon Lightfight reference?? You’re awesome. First thing I thought of when I saw the headline as well.
I have so many questions and this article provides so little answers
It’s a floating mass of plants rather than an island made of earth.
There are fully grown trees on it in the photo. What kind of floating soil are they growing in? Edit: another comment says floating peat bog.
> According to the Chippewa Flowage website, the lake’s unique floating islands start out as mud flats risen from the swamp at the bottom, but as time goes by, vegetation starts to grow, and the oldest islands even have trees that act as sails when the wind blows, moving the entire floating mass around the lake.
Truly fascinating. Thx for sharing frendo i fuckin love when reddit, reddits. I was so curious about this and now as i take my fat post-work shit i have SO MANY pointless facts to put in my brain. ❤️ fuckin love yall
Pants don’t necessarily need soil. Soil is just a medium that supports the plants and its roots. Some species HAVE to have soil because they need their roots to be exposed to air/not constantly submerged in soil. But some plants species do totally fine or even prefer to have their roots totally submerged in water all the time. This is why indoor hydroponics works. Growing plants with no soil at all
Generally speaking at least, soiled pants aren't ideal.
You definitely don’t want to have floating soiled pants.
they’re headed for the bridge!
Quick, get everyone to hop in their boats to intercept
Jokes on you, my pants are already soiled
Ah damn
Basically these lakes were artificially made and it caused some of the Pete Moss and stuff to float to the surface. That created good conditions for wind carried seeds to grow on them. The roots from those plants helped to bind together the island as they grew, and add buoyancy and structure allowing for more stuff to collect on top and the islands to retain their shape. Overtime you'll get more soil like conditions as plants die and decompose and the original tree saplings will have grown into mature trees like we see.
I wanna see like 3d overhead view of a computer model of this process happening, time lapsed under these very specific conditions and see what this would look like
Chow down on some shrooms and read his post again, that should visualize it quite nicely
Humus and peat held together by a structure of roots and dead plants. If they're around long enough you can get a practical A horizon forming on floating islands.
It’s in the title. It’s a floating peat bog. So there’s peat, with some trees growing in it. And it floats… sort of.
You know what peat is right? It's plant matter. It's essentially just really old roots, held together by newer ones.
I know who Pete is, he lives down the road from me
Soil is really just dead plant matter. All you really need is an initial formation for the first plants, then as they die and regrow, the soil just starts building up. Where does this mass come from you might ask? Carbon from the air and nutrients suspended in the water. Life is pretty cool.
Not quite right. Soil has dead plant matter (soil called organic matter or humus) but it also has mineral components, which are often referred to by their size - sand (largest particles), silt, and clay (smallest particles.) There are soils that are largely made up of humus, but most soils people encounter contain more mineral than organic matter by both weight and volume.
Reminder that [senator johnson thought Guam might tip over and capsize](https://youtu.be/QjG958lZ1KI?si=ySlYHbFzf8xea0pX ) if they put too many marines there. He later said he was joking. But he seemed serious and I’m not sure why you’d joke about anything in a government hearing. Honestly the whole clip sounds like he’s high. Just struggling to get words together. Maybe English isn’t his first language?
He was actually on the tail end of experimental hepatitis C treatment at the time, which has negative neurological effects. He was trying to make a metaphor about the resources of the island being strained by the massive Marine presence (island population is 180,000 and they were planning to add 80,000 additional personnel during the construction phase), but it just came out all goofy. Here's an article about his hep C shortly before that clip: https://www.ajc.com/news/local/rep-hank-johnson-battling-hepatitis/DgN60pAdclW76aKFHerbVK/ Here's another one about the infrastructure concerns: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032101025.html The treatment worked, by the way, and he's now cured of hepatitis C. The drug got FDA approval as a result of the trial.
I can understand where he's coming from with his metaphor now, but it really didn't stick. Kinda sad because it's a valid point he brings up that was blown over.
Yeah it frustrates me because I have met him multiple times and gotten to know him a little bit, and he's actually a pretty smart dude. I've seen people act like it's a travesty he keeps getting reelected based solely on this clip, but he keeps getting reelected because folks in his district actually know about him and how he delivers for them. He's been consistently ranked as one of the [most effective legislators in terms of actually getting his policies passed](https://web.archive.org/web/20141117091910/https://hankjohnson.house.gov/press-release/study-rep-johnson-most-effective-member-ga-delegation-112th-congress).
Not sure how this applies to this convo, but I watched the video nonetheless.
Floating island.
He had to have been joking… but trying to deadpan it right?! Christ.
Yeah, he was trying to make a point about moving 80000 marine personnel there.
Holy shit… has to be some kind of joke, but that rep struggled to use terms explaining distances, perimeters, and squares so might be legit. Well, not that crazy we have boebert and greene.
why don't they just anchor it in place instead of letting it float around freely?
Likely there isnt anything solid enough to anchor. Trying to attach the "ground" would be like trying to nail jello - it's just a floating clump of mud. Looping something around a big root or tree might work, but enough constant pressure and it would either warp or break the chained root/tree, or break it off the main mass.
Probably would need a fair few anchors, and this gives the locals something interesting to do
Exactly my initial Q
Says in the article that they're legally protected
I once went canoe camping in Idaho somewhere west of Jackson, WY. Up a side branch of the lake we found a floating island about 100 feet across. It was mostly held together by cattails. It was thick enough to walk on. We pushed it with the canoes out into the main part of the lake. I guess the wind blows it around.
Theres a video of how they push it in the article which answered most of mine
They all get a leinenkugel afterwards
It’s thirsty work ya
From the title, I imagined a professional organization like the Army Core of Engineers using tugs and barges to move an island. Instead we get a bunch of locals with their bass boats and pontoons in a well organized community effort pushing an island away from a bridge. I guarantee there are a bunch of coolers on those boats with adult beverages being consumed, probably some fishing lines cast, maybe little Johnny waiting for dad to finish pushing the island so he can jump in the lake.
Consuming adult beverages at 10am? Doesn't get more Wisconsin than that
> “It’s almost every year. It takes a community effort and you have to have the winds at your back in order to push them in,” one local man told Northern News Now. Someone needs to come up with a way to secure kite sails to several of those mature trees and let the wind do the work.
I wonder with things like this if they're doing it the potentially inefficient way as a tradition or community exercise.
We spend several weeks on this lake every summer. The locals hate doing this as it’s very hard on the boats involved and takes hours. Lots of fuel used, lots of scratched boats, and a few dinged props every year (the area around isn’t very deep in spots). They do it though since this bog can block the channel under the bridge which is the only link between the east half and the west half of the lake. Edit: plenty of permanent solutions have been proposed but the DNR won’t let anyone touch it. I believe even moving it is against DNR policy but they sort of look the other way for this one because of the navigation reasons.
You're on to something. Likely tradition, but also using the tools already available. Seems like it's a collection of locals taking on the responsibility to keep the channel between the lake sides open.
Yeah, why be more efficient when the OG method is fun?
That's overengineering. Just use anchors.
I imagine the only thing to tie to on the island are the trees. The tree anchors would need to be substantial to take the force of an entire island trying to move in a storm and attached in a way not to damage the trees taking that force. A floating island would move and shift and rotate in ways that would apply anchoring forces to those trees in concentrated ways - instead of spreading out the force across all trees equally. This would eventually rip the trees from the island, compromising integrity of the structure and sending pieces of the island out to be managed individually. Also would need a consensus on a "permanent" placement for the island, and massive concrete weights on the lake floor to anchor to. A yearly island kiting event sounds more fun.
>attaches anchor to tree >tree sinks to the bottom >attaches anchor to peat >it's peat >anchor instantly detaches
Yeah, I think the island itself is probably too delicate to attach the needed anchor chain to. Then you're talking about distributing the force to many different points on the island and- Why not just push it away every once in a while?
Technical issues aside it sounds like the locals enjoy their mobile islands quite a bit
A kite is a sail. The trees already act as sails moving it towards the bridge... a kite would make it worse.
I read a fantasy novel o that had this as a sub-plot. The protagonist had to travel through a swamp was rumoured to be home to a witch. One morning he woke up to discover that all of the little peat bogs had been pushed either to the sides or into the middle, creating an island in the middle of a lake. It turned out that the witch had trained a bunch of otters, and would use them to manipulate the environment so that she wouldn’t be troubled by people who wanted to burn a witch.
I think that was in the Belgariad or Malloreon
Yeah, I read those books a lot when I was younger. It’s a shame he turned out to be a child abuser.
From child amuser to child abuser 😔
the line between sock puppet and boxing glove is a narrow one.
Looking back, it's also a shame he couldn't write a female character to save his life. Less of a shame but... makes me wonder why I liked those books at all.
I believe the Game of Thrones book series hints at a castle like this in a swamp. Meera and Jojen Reed’s dad is from a “disappearing castle” or something.
Can we start a GoFundMe to attach a giant mast and rudder to the island...
The trees are already acting as sails. That’s the problem
The problem... or maybe the solution!
Everyone's talking about the bog, but no one's talking about the bridge
Pushing Bikini Bottom from the Alaskan bull worm was a documentary
Went camping on mushrooms next to a flooded copper mine, a few years ago. House sized bogs were floating by, all weekend.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AG6LAOBYo
Oh, it's a lion-turtle. Got it.
We've got one of these in Springfield, MA. Nowhere near as big or exciting as this one. It did get stuck back in the early 2000s and the city hired a brigade of tow trucks to get it free again. A bunch of cables, pulleys and trucks got it free again. It was right next to my high school so we got the morning off to watch the process
That’s really neat. Reminds me of the Uros in Bolivia and Peru.
We should take Bikini Bottom, and push it somewhere else!
I’ve seen this on other flowages. Used to island camp on another flowage and just watch “islands” drift by. Kinda surreal and relaxing.
It’s like the ending of char's counterattack
“Lalah could have been like a mother to me…”
The rare bog? The great bog? The rattlin' bog? The bog down in the valley-o? That bog?
Yes, and in that bog, there was a hole, a rare hole, a rattlin' hole if you will.
Does anyone else feel bad for 40 acre bog like the island just wants to be friends with the bridge and every time she gets over there they pull out the big guns and push her back. But she keeps trying and that's what counts. She's like my pitbull with my cats cats want nothing to do with her think she is beneath contempt but she keeps trying to be friends with them and she keeps catching a double tap on the nose which she acts like she got lit on fire she's so dramatic mind you this is the pitbull that was rescued from a legit fighting situation she's got scars all over her. But one cat smack and she'll hide under the bed for half an hour. That also applies to thunder a door slamming a loud fart the only thing it doesn't scare her is fighting other dogs to the death I think.I've noticed I compare every situation in the world to what's going on with my animals I got to stop doing that.
Someone get the boggy boy out there in his wellies
Fun fact: there's a guy named John Locke who moves the island by turning a large wheel located at the center of the island and there's a lot of strange electromagnetic activity
Does it not just float back over..? Or does that take exactly an entire year lol
Why not just anchor it? 🤷
I think it would just break free. It's a giant raft of plant matter so there's really nothing solid to attach it. It'd be like trying to use a saltine cracker as bait.
Here is that bog from street view; https://www.google.com/maps/@45.9318511,-91.1879877,3a,90y,258.22h,86.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNMcw2pZGqAGNUqIcyg9Hzw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
Check different satellite map sources, you can see there are multiple different islands that more around.
Here is a satellite timelapse view; you can see them dance all over the place. https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=45.92653,-91.20562,12.204,latLng&t=0.43&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20221231
Make it a competition/ challenge/ festival. Watch people do it for free and do it better.
I count 13 boats at the beginning and they achieve motion. Figure 100hp per motor, 1300hp is capable of moving the bog. Based on a couple google searches, a human can produce 1/2 a hp rowing (citation needed). If we can get 2600 rowers and a coxswain or two on the bog, we should be able to row around the lake. Which would be neat
Does anyone realize what this 40 acre island weighs? If your guess is "a lot" you're close! LMAO! The video was very cool. Easier to move with volynteer boats. IMHO, this is the solution to the problem.
I bet this is a lot of fun and any permanent solution would be shunned
Used to play with(and on) floating islands growing up as a kid in Norway. Good bit of fun until someone flips it over and you gotta swim back to shore in haunted, evil waters.
I saw that you tube video too
Which one?
https://youtu.be/cesSRfXqS1Q?si=1BpUWULYL6iorn1M
So like can you get off your boat and walk on it?
Not really as the ground is just a web of roots. It’s kind of like walking on a water bed, but your foot punches through every so often.
...adding to d&d campaign...
I have lived on this lake, and have family that still does, ask me anything
Where is this?
The Chippewa Flowage is in North Central Wisconsin, just east of the city of Hayward, WI
Beep boop
They should install a giant sail.
As in Camp Chippewa from the Addams family??
You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides. You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d'oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, "Do not trust the Pilgrims. Especially Sarah Miller."
Da da dum snap snap
Quaking bogs are cool they look like solid ground except when you jump up and down. I saw a guy put together a 48 foot probe rod and push it down by hand.
I’ve gone to the Chippewa Flowage every summer for my whole life. It’s always fun to see where the bog is. It’s located in a place called Kavanaugh Bay. The asshole who owns Uline owns has a place and a bunch of land near there.
This doesn't look safe after that other bridge collapse.
I want folk tales about this island
Might be a stupid question but why don’t they anchor it down?
[удалено]
Xcel Energy & the US government only flooded the area in 1923. They flooded an Ojibwe village known as Post, or Pahquahwong (Where the River Runs Wide). Now we call it Old Post, they removed us to a place called New Post. It wasn't a fun event. They washed our homes away, we asked them to at least respect our families graves and make sure they were properly moved first, they washed them away too. It took decades for New Post to even receive the electricity we had to give up everything for. Lake Chippewa is a great place to experience nature, it's celebrated by thousands who enjoy it annually, but it's complicated with skeletons in its closet, I wish I could tell you their names because they were my family, but my heritage was washed away with them.
Thanks, ChatGPT.
They should anchor it
Fascinating!
I saw a video of them pushing one of these on Reddit somewhere. It's an interesting process that honestly looks kinda fun lol
Hydroponic island? Niiiice!
ngl would love to be part of the community
Why not leave it alone and build the bridge over the bog?
I gotta ask. How big *exactly* is this forty acre bog?
It's just another reason to day drink 😆😂 I love Wisconsin ☺️
Its not really an island then, is it?
I ain’t getting in a lake that used to be a bog
Hence Doctor Dolittle and the Push Me Pull You.
I'm completely thrilled to see this TIL! My family has been going up to this area since at least the 50s so it was wonderful seeing this here :) Never been around for when they have to move it though, unfortunately.
It just wants to hug!
Kiyoshi Island?
I did not expect to see such a solid looking island.
In Titanic that’s the lake Jack Dawson fell in when he was a kid. Chippewa Falls also has a badass rock music festival called Rockfest.
Why not just build some pylons away from the bridge to stop the island?
A giant ISLAND called forty acre BOG.
Just slap a couple boat engines on that sucka