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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 · 27d

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

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 1h

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 · 1d

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 · 22d

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.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 1d

Unusual King Tides is also cool

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 2d

I'm pretty sure it is Saturday

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 3d

"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 · 4d

I'm listening!

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

My greatest fear

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

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

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

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 · 6d

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

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

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

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

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.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

The only people I would text about this would not sleep tonight with worry, so here I am. Anyone on Bluesky on a Saturday night gets to hear about it.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

Noteworthy that the boat landing where the manhunt seems to be centered was once a ferry landing federal agents often staked out during Prohibition. Story says despite a lot of booze going across on the way from western Wisconsin to the Twin Cities, feds never busted a single bootlegger here.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

I figure the most common cause of such an action is dumb kids doing dumb things.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

The most reassuring thing was that the cop sounded bored, but I think I'm putting too much faith in that impression

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

I locked the door. And posted.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

Now there's a drone up over the river and I hear a dog barking.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 6d

I'm at a cabin on the St. Croix River. A little while ago, a cop at the landing across the river got on a loudspeaker and addressed a fugitive who he believed to be within earshot. He urged them to surrender and informed them a K-9 unit *would* find them.

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 9d

Goodness.

The gray trunks and dark green needles of white pines with a river in the background and a red needle covered path on one side

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 10d

When I was in college ca. the turn of the millennium, I stumbled into a project scanning in Jane Goodall's slide collection. I handled the page of her notebook where she first wrote of observing chimp tool use. She visited once and I got to say a brief hello. It remains a highlight of my life.

Reposted by Greg Seitz

David @archaeomather.bsky.social · 10d

Saddened by news that Jane Goodall had died at the age of 91. She was truly an inspirational leader.

Photo of young Jane Goodall crouching to touch hands with a baby chimpanzee.

Reposted by Greg Seitz

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

Greg Seitz @gregseitz.com · 11d

See any trout? Me neither.

Underwater photo with sand and vegetation