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Greg Seitz

@gregseitz.com

480 followers 300 following 12K posts

Words and maps, woods and waters, people and places. 📍 May Township, Minnesota 🔗 gregseitz.com 🦋 @stcroix360.com

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Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 28d

Author (that's me) hopes ‘deep map’ of the St. Croix River watershed will inspire others www.twincities.com/2025/09/14/s...

Author hopes ‘deep map’ of the St. Croix River watershed will inspire others

Greg Seitz is working on it as an artist-in-residence at the historic Pine Needles cabin on the St. Croix River.

www.twincities.com

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Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 1d

I'm honestly reconsidering the veracity of this description. It's exactly what it appeared to be but then I remember seeing conduit roughly this size coming out of a nearby spring and disappearing in this direction. I'll go back tomorrow to check.

Reposted by Greg Seitz

St. Croix 360 @stcroix360.com · 2d

Missing Miskobineshii: The legacy of a St. Croix tribal elder www.stcroix360.com/2025/09/miss...

Missing Miskobineshii: The legacy of a St. Croix tribal elder

A year after her passing, more words and wisdom.

www.stcroix360.com

Reposted by Greg Seitz

Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24d

You think you know oak trees by their bark? Here are two >200 year old bur oaks I sampled in Northern Wisconsin, a St Croix River flood plain/terrace.

Twos similarly sized bur oak stems amidst lush, green, mid-summer floodplain vegetation. The stem on the left has thick furrows in the bark that cast shadows making it appear very dark whereas the stem on the right has relatively thin and closely appressed and peeling bark that makes the tree appear much lighter in color. Both trees have a blue-handled increment borer inserted into the stem and a backbpack at the base.

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Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 3d

Unusual King Tides is also cool

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 3d

I'm pretty sure it is Saturday

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 4d

"Just like children sleepin'
We could dream this night away"

A rising harvest moon reflected in a river, framed by mostly silhouetted white pine limbs

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 5d

I'm listening!

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

My greatest fear

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

And now Sconnies are surely coming here for legal cannabis! Makes you think.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

Re: The river crossing's criminal past.

“There was moon coming across from Somerset,” said Gilbert Walker, who operated the Marine ferry during the later years of Prohibition. “The ferry was a twenty-four hour deal,” he said and was based on the Minnesota side of the river. The road to the ferry from Wisconsin formed the border between St. Croix County and Polk County and was known locally as “County Line Road”.

Many of the bootleggers hid the liquor under a load of wood in their pickup trucks. They crossed from Wisconsin. It was usually at night and Gilbert had his home at the landing. The bootleggers used a telephone system which had a crank that would ring a bell. This woke Gilbert and he slipped into coveralls and leather slippers and crossed over.

The bootleggers always left a jug for Gilbert on the Wisconsin side. After they were across the river and safely on their way to the cities, Gilbert crossed back over and picked it up. At the land “there was always someone who wanted a drink now and then,” he said.

“The Feds watched the boat like a hawk,” said Gilbert. Federal agents always betrayed themselves as “someone who was hanging around with an unfamiliar car.” The agents monitored the crossing from the old quarry above and behind the landing on the Minnesota side where Gilbert stored his canoes.

From a cabin on the landing, Gilbert signaled with a light to the bootleggers whether it was safe to cross or not, “if the coast was clear or get the hell out,” said Gilbert. There was pride in Gilbert’s voice when he said, “They (the Feds) never did catch anyone there.”

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

The river is so low right now, I bet the fugitive was able to walk across.

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Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

The Polk County Sheriff tells me the suspect swam across the river and was apprehended by the Washington County sheriff.

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Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 7d

I neither aided nor abbeted, nor was I accosted by, any fugitives last night. But I did experience the fact that this Wild and Scenic River is not just a refuge for wildlife but also occasional outlaws.

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