Walked past an old dredge site on the Mississippi near La Crosse last weekend and noticed how the banks have healed over completely.

Back in the 90s we'd pull up everything from old tires to shopping carts out of that stretch, and now you can barely tell we ever touched it, has anyone else seen their old stomping grounds change that much?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_ross4d ago

Is that the spot just north of the bridge where they used to do all the sand and gravel dredging? I remember helping my uncle pull a rusted out refrigerator out of there back in 2003, and the whole bank was just a mess of old pipes and trash. I was down there last fall and couldnt believe how much the willows and wild grass had taken over, the water is even clearer now than I ever saw it growing up. It really shows what happens when you just leave a place alone for a couple decades, nature is pretty good at fixing our messes if we let it.

lewis.terry4d ago

Oh the dredging stopped years before 2003, that spot's been quiet since the late 90s lol.

parkerbrown4d ago

Yeah the willows and wild grass really took over fast once the dumping stopped. Actually though the dredging did keep going a little longer than the late 90s, I remember hauling scrap off that bank around 2000 and there was still a barge tied up there. Still, you're spot on about nature fixing things, I went back last summer and barely recognized the place.