Dr. Allison In The Footsteps Of Henry David Thoreau’s Wisconsin Trip

  • Henry David Thoreau traveled through Wisconsin in 1861. From Prairie du Chien, Thoreau crossed the state via railroad, following the Wisconsin River, then riding through Madison and east to Milwaukee.
  • Thoreau kept careful notes of his observations, recording the plants he saw along the way.
  • Allison was interested in conducting an experiment to determine how Wisconsin’s ecology had changed since Thoreau’s trip more than 150 years earlier. Allison followed the same existing railroad corridor.
  • Allison (right) invited photographer Paul Thoresen, a retired psychologist from the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, to document their journey.
  • They observed the greenhouses of Monsanto, a company that has developed many genetically modified organisms, and wondered what Thoreau would have thought about such advances in science.
  • Passing through Spring Green, a significant return to local organic agriculture is apparent.
  • Allison and Thoreson crossed the Wisconsin River on an old railroad trestle.
  • Areas along the railroad tracks, especially along the river, still are home to birds and wildlife that have always existed there.