The Spokesrider

This is a snippet of a Fulton County map I was working on last weekend. For my Black Hawk Slept Here website I want to build a collection of maps showing a) historical sites relating to the Black Hawk war and settlement era, and b) bicycleable routes to these places. It’s fun working with maps [...]

Wednesday of this past week I did a bike ride in the Rochester area. We stayed at a motel in Rochester this time instead of camping as usual. There is a private campground out of town where I remember camping on a self-contained tour six years ago. I was in a grassy area on one [...]

This afternoon I braked to a stop by this large tree stump because it was near what was said to be one of Aubbenaubee’s villages or camps — near the north side of Anderson Lake in Aubbeenaubee Township, Fulton County.   I don’t know what species of tree that was, but from the size it looked [...]

I’ve decided, for now at least, that the upper Eel River should be one of my favorite places to go riding. The terrain was very gently rolling, there were cattle pastures to supplement the corn and soybean fields, the soybean leaves are turning to their fall pastel colors, the homes along the way were nice [...]

No photos today.  I don’t have proper photo-editing software on my travel computer. I got in a 57 mile ride after 2pm, but it was pretty much a bust as far as history is concerned. We started the day’s activities at the Fulton County Public Library, only to be told we couldn’t use the Indiana [...]

After taking a quick look at Talma, I rode back to the west side of the river, and then south towards Rochester. Toisa’s village and reservation had been here Now there is a different sort of riverside village — lots of cottages and mobile homes, some of them in not very good condition. I haven’t [...]

This is the outlet of Bruce Lake in Fulton County, Indiana — between the towns of Rochester and Winamac. Before heading to that part of Indiana for a four-day bike ride, I had been looking at my copy of “Indians and a changing frontier : The art of George Winter” by Sarah E. Cooke and [...]