The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #15802 Message #793708
Posted By: Jim Dixon
29-Sep-02 - 08:18 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Western Wisconsin
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Western Wisconsin
That would be the Chippewa River, which gets its start by flowing out of Lake Chippewa up in Sawyer County, right next to the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, which belongs to the Chippewa tribe, also known as the Ojibwe or Anishinabe. My favorite Wisconsin radio station comes from there: WOJB. (See an article here.) If their programming is any indication, Indians are NOT listening to Eminem.
My wife's family owns a cabin in Burnett County. We spend weekends there whenever we can through the summer. Saturday nights, I like to listen to "Honky Tonk" between 7:30 and midnight. That show consists of mostly OLD country music: Patsy Cline, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, etc. (But last night I heard a John Prine/Iris Dement duet that I want to hear again.)
Nowadays, if you want to find a reservation, just follow the billboards to the nearest casino. All the casinos in Minnesota and Wisconsin are Indian-owned.
On major holidays (Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day) there is nearly always a pow-wow going on somewhere in the area. I've attended a few, and I have always found Native Americans very hospitable to visitors.
Getting back to the song and the river...
The "fairgrounds" probably refers to a county fair, and county fairs usually take place in county seats. Looking at a map, I see the Chippewa River flows through 3 county seats: Chippewa Falls, in Chippewa County; Eau Claire, in Eau Claire County; and Durand, in Pepin County. Then it flows into the Mississippi River, near the town of Pepin, Wisconsin. Red Wing, Minnesota, however, is about 20 miles upstream along the Mississippi from the mouth of the Chippewa. So connecting the Chippewa River with Red Wing, Minnesota is kind of a stretch. But the song is about childhood memories, so I suppose it's forgivable if those memories are kind of geographically vague.
Chippewa Falls is about 100 miles from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation, so that's probably why you got a blank stare, Jerry. Is that where you asked?