Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy and windy with a high of 57. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset is 8:15, for 14 hours, 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1780, New England’s Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada:
In Connecticut, a member of the Governor’s Council (renamed the Connecticut State Senate in 1818), Abraham Davenport, became most famous for his response to his colleagues’ fears that it was the Day of Judgment:
“I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.”
Wisconsin’s park system is now 125 years old:
Today, Wisconsin’s 50 state parks — not including 15 state forests and 44 state trails — comprise nearly 156,000 acres and are enjoyed annually by about 20 million campers, hikers, anglers and others.
Not one Wisconsin State Park is like any of the others. And like the variety of landscape and wildlife found in each, the parks differ in size, popularity, staffing and ability to maintain their amenities and natural resources.….
Smaller parks have become particularly reliant on the volunteer fundraising and sweat equity provided by park-specific friends groups.
Members of these groups staff nature centers, remove invasives, restore equipment, run programs and organize fundraising efforts.
“Most of the parks can’t afford to have a full-time naturalist, so they depend heavily on friends members to give guided nature hikes,” Buchholz said. “We really couldn’t run the state parks without them.”
Belmont Mound State Park near Platteville is operated in cooperation with a local Lions Club, said Michael Degenhardt, state property supervisor for the park — as well as Yellowstone Lake State Park and Cadiz Springs State Recreation Area.
“A new friends group started up (at Belmont Mound) a few years ago, too, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm,” he said. “They’re finishing up a playground project.”
See Joel Patenaude, Much loved and underfunded, Wisconsin State Parks celebrates 125 years (‘Revenue sharing and volunteers manage to keep the 50 state parks open’), Wisconsin Public Radio, May 19, 2025.
The World’s Most Famous Language Police: