Message from the President
A Bridge to the Future
Building a bridge is no easy task. Selecting the site where the bridge is to cross is always the first step. Then the planning and design process starts in full earnest. Foundations are strategically built with the roadway carefully overlaid till it connects with the other side. Once built, crossing over to the other side becomes a very simple process.
Well, as you may guess, Crossroads has become very proficient at building bridges, not just to cross Big Creek that flows through our property, but from one program year to the next. As 2013 comes to an end, we look forward with enthusiasm to crossing the bridge to these projects for 2014.
We are also working on the layout and planting of an Arboretum as outlined in the Crossroads Master Plan. Thank you to Greg and Nick Meissner for all the time spent on this project.
Special thanks to Scott Matheson, Collin Mirkes, and Adam Monfils of Boy Scout Troops 1022 and 1140 for planning and the completion of walking trails, an observation deck, and forest footpath. We plan to continue to expand our trail system in 2014.
As always, because of the dedication and involvement by all of you, our most valued assets, we are building a bridge into an exciting New Year for Crossroads.
Dick Weidman,
President , Crossroads Board of Directors
Room for Improvement
Former “garage”
Schematic designs are the bridge between ideas and architectural plans. We have engaged Marc Isaksen Design, LLC to create a schematic design for our proposed Lower Level Education Space. For the past few months, we have been collecting ideas… listening to volunteers, teachers, researchers, representatives from other environmental groups, youth group leaders, caterers, artists, gardeners, kids. And we’ve arrived a at set of ideas.
We hope to have a meeting room/classroom which is very flexible to accommodate various groups. A glass door (to replace the garage door) will provide daylight, and also enable us to open the room to the outdoors for many activities. The room will have a kitchenette with serving counter. We hope to install a Smart Board, white boards, and recreational equipment storage. The former garage will have equipment storage, a room dedicated to research projects with work stations, and a holding area for garbage and deliveries.
We now have a sketch and we will start listening again…to carpenters, suppliers, plumbers, heating and air conditioning contractors, and so forth, to see if the ideas will work, and if so, how much money we will have to raise to turn ideas into reality. And we will continue listening to all ideas.
Our timetable? We will do the work incrementally as funds become available. We invite you to be a part of this project by making a special designated gift to the Lower Level Education Space.
The Holidays are a Bridge Between the Old and the New Year
Accomplishments in 2013
- Moved maintenance equipment and supplies from Lower Level of Collins Learning Center to the new Maintenance Building.
Thank you to Friends of Crossroads - In conjunction with Sustainability Fair, hosted Safe Lawn Programs featuring Paul Tukey
Thank you to Door Property Owners - Planted 300 trees during Earth Day Celebration
Thank you to Sunrise School Staff and Students - Held a Monarch Weekend with guest speaker Lincoln Brower
Thank you to Green Fund of Door County Community Foundation - Created a new hiking trail
Thank you to Ministry Door County, Scott Matheson and Boy Scout Troop 1022 - Built an observation deck by Big Creek
Thank you to Collins Mirkes and Troop 1022 - Established a forest footpath & removed invasives
Thank you to Adam Monfils and Boy Scout Troop 1140 - Conducted a Phase I archgeaological survey
Thank you to Raibrook Foundation, Paul and Fran Burton and Randy Dickson of Midwest Archaeological Consultants - Viewed the moon on Astronomy Day 2013
Thank you to Door Peninsula Astronomical Society - Began planning lower level education space
Thank you to Peter G Horton Charitable Remainder Trust and Meissner Family Fund
Goals for 2014
- Begin work on Lower Level Learning Space
- Replace the 13 year old snowmobile (used for grooming Walking and Hiking Trails)
- Conduct Phase I and begin Phase II of Archaeological Survey
- Enlarge Service Area around the Maintenance Building
- Repair exterior walls (which have succumbed to the sun) on the south side of the Collins Learning Center
- Expand the Hiking Trail System
- Enhance Collins Learning Center Landscaping
Thank You Donors!
Gifts from July 1 – November 16, 2013 (Year-end Gifts will be listed in our spring issue)
$5,000 – 9,999
- Peter G. Horton
- Charitable Remainder Trust
- Portland Trust II
- Joan and Brian Wake
$2,500 to $4,999
- Don and Coggin Heeringa
$1,000 to 2,499
- Door County Community Foundation
- Tom and Peggy Hauser
- Zion United Methodist Church
$500 to 999
- Dan and Bonnie Balch
- Friends of Crossroads
- Ann and David Harsh
- John and Karen Kierstyn
- Karl and Lucy Klug
- David and Kelly Kudlik
- Ministry Door County
- John and Nancy Munch
- Ivy Nelson
- Noon Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay
- Norm and Mabel Watkins
$250 to 499
- David and Janet Daniel
- Robert and Donna Hays
- Edward and Cindy Koutnik
- Leroy and Marilyn Liebe
- Tom and Jill Herlache
- Wulf Brothers, Inc./Hi Tec Fabrication
$100 to 249
- James and Barbara Bunning
- John and Katherine Campbell
- George and Margaret Collier
- Helen Collins
- David and Ann Conger
- Door County Fair Association
- Door Property Oweners
- Breakfast Rotary Club
- John and Edith Fulkerson
- Mike and Connie Glowacki
- Susan Gilson
- Kenneth and Jean Hill
- De Anne Hoffmann
- Hope Fellowship
- Jeanquart Associates
- Dave Jordal and Linda Hinkston
- Paul and Kanani King
- Susan Gigot-Klein and Charles Klein
- Paul Lambeck
- Tom and Claire Minahan
- Camila Nielsen
- Todd and Shelley Parrish
- Peninsula Planters Garden Club
- Gregory Ristow
- Carl and Ruth Scholz
- Richard and Dorothy Shappell
- Gertrude Stillman
- CT and Susan Stone
- Tom and Barbara Tierney
- Terry Ullman/Door County Candy
- Ray and Lee Vlaming
- Rob and Cathy Vuksanovic
- Steve and Joan Wilkie
- Wild Ones of Door County
- Duane and Leslie Youngsteadt
- John and Beth Yount
$50 – 99
- Walter and Marlene Allen
- Herb Klein and Cal Bonnivier
- Scott and Lynn Brunswick
- Warren and Nancy Burlend
- Pete and Carol Clikeman
- Ralph and Maeta Chase
- Karen and James Erickson
- Ralph Erickson
- Anonymous
- Tammy Kroll
- Ellen Looker
- Jim and Valerie Maki
- Nancy Mattke
- Patricia Malkemus
- Charles and Susan Nelson
- Harry Porter
- Lee Somerville
- Geraldine Szuberla
- Biz and Sharon Virlee
$1 – 49
- Sally and Rod Alexander
- Heidi Bader
- Jeanne Barnard
- John and Carol Bartoszek
- Pat Blizel
- Randy and Jane Bumgardener
- Barb Chisholm
- Cheryl Choronzy
- Rose Coisman
- Cathy Eckers
- Mike and Sue Eliason
- Travis Grooters
- Jane Guthrie
- Nicole Herbst
- Carol Hobson
- Ed and Margo Ireland
- Deborah Jeanquart
- Joann Johnston
- Darrel and Eline LaLuzerne
- Gretchen Montee
- Jan Olson
- Rachel Pratt
- Matthew Propsom
- Betty Ostram
- Anna Quale
- Robert and Helen Reed
- Belinda Richard
- John Rosenthal
- Robert and Sue Ryan
- Gordon Saron
- Marguerite and Dennis Skahan
- Jeanne Schopf
- Ed Schriner-Schmitt
- Scott Steebs
- Randy Watermolen
- Eugene and Wilma Waterstreet
- Mary Wanke
- Jolene Wilson
- Cliff Wind
- Carmen Youra
- In Memory of
- Ron Casadont
- Jim and Valerie Maki
- Mary Wanke
- Russell & Mary Hemmington
- Beth and John Yount
- Omer Mickelson
- Janet Mickelson
- Leroy & Claire Olsen
- Charles and Susan Nelson
- In Honor of
- Harvey and Rita Stahl
- Darrel and Elaine La Luzerne
- Special Thanks
- Gerry Banks
- C & S Manufacturing
- Door County Advocate
- Door County Daily News.com
- Door Peninsula Astronomical Society
- Friends of Crossroads
- Steve and Theresa Selvick/
- Mastercare Carpet Cleaning
- Little Hoppers
- Ministry Door County Medical Center
- Peninsula Pulse
- Len Villano
- WDOR
A Bridge to the Past
Our Archaeological Survey has been a bridge to our past. Professionals from Midwest Archaeological Consultants have not only located two sites (so far) at Crossroads, but also have done a number of outreach programs for elementary students and the general public and have given several hundred middle school students actual experience in shovel testing.
So far, we have found many flakes of chert, which was a locally available rock. The flakes are the waste material from making stone tools.
Flint knapping demonstration
Until growing season, the Crossroads Greenhouse will be transformed into the Archaeology Workroom. We hope to have displays and hold outreach programs, and also conduct laboratory analysis including flotation of light and heavy soil fractions using water and different screen gradients to capture seeds, botanical remains, small mammal bones, charcoal and other cultural material.
The next stage of scientific inquiry is called a Phase II archaeological evaluation. Next spring we will strategically place 1 x 2 meter or 2 x 2 meter units on the sites in the areas of highest artifact concentrations and systematically excavate the units 1cm at a time. We will record data concerning soil types, soil textures, changes in hue and chroma of the soils, stratigraphic sequences, cultural features and artifacts.
We hope to involve learners of all ages in finding evidence of the first inhabitance of Crossroads, and that will assist us in our interpretation of past lifeways, subsistence, habitation and more.
The project is funded by:
Paul & Fran Burton, Raibrook Foundation, MMG Foundation, Anonymous & Midwest Archaeological Consultants
Below the Surface
Educational Theme for 2014
At its October meeting, the Crossroads Board of Directors selected “Below the Surface” as the educational focus. Our education efforts will include but not be limited to:
- Water Quality
- Archaeology (continue Phase I and start Phase II of our Archaeology Survey)
- Great Lakes Ecosystems
- Geology (focusing on the Escarpment, Karst and fossils)
- Wildlife (focusing on animals that live under the surface)
- Soils
- Construction of our new Education Space (which just happens to be below the surface)
