{"id":21542,"date":"2025-07-01T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/?p=21542"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:31:08","slug":"from-bone-skates-to-frozen-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/2025\/07\/01\/from-bone-skates-to-frozen-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"From Bone Skates to Frozen Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\"><div class=\"g g-4\"><div class=\"g-single a-310\"><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"MzEwLDQsMSwyMA==\" href=\"https:\/\/oneotacoop.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img src=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/banners\/curiss_oneotacoop_1024.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"440\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt; color: #ff9900;\">I<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>n the Driftless Area, ice skating doesn\u2019t feel like a novelty or a polished winter attraction.<\/strong> It feels earned. When cold settles into the valleys and the backwaters finally lock up, there\u2019s an unspoken readiness that spreads through towns and rural neighborhoods alike. Someone checks the ice. Someone else sharpens their blades. And then, quietly, winter opens a door.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That feeling\u2014of waiting, watching, and finally stepping onto the ice\u2014connects us to a history far older than any rink or scoreboard. Ice skating didn\u2019t begin as sport or art. It began as survival.<\/span><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Thousands of years ago, people in northern Europe faced winters just as demanding as ours. Archaeological evidence from Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia shows that by around 3000 BCE, humans were strapping animal bones\u2014horse, elk, even cattle\u2014to their feet to cross frozen lakes and rivers. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-21565 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Bones.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Bones.jpg 400w, https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Bones-273x300.jpg 273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">These early skates didn\u2019t carve into the ice the way modern blades do. Skaters pushed themselves forward with poles, trading speed for efficiency, moving across frozen landscapes because they had to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">That instinct still resonates in the Driftless. This is not a flat place. Rivers bend, cold pools in coulees, and ice forms unevenly. You learn to read winter here\u2014where it holds, where it thins, and when it invites movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Skating changed dramatically in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Middle_Ages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Middle Ages<\/a>, especially in the Netherlands. By the 13th and 14th centuries, wooden skates fitted with iron runners allowed for smoother gliding and real control. Frozen canals became winter highways, then social spaces. People raced, skated for pleasure, and gathered on the ice simply because it was there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">That was the turning point, when skating shifted from necessity to joy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-21570 size-full alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Jackson-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Jackson-1.jpg 400w, https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Jackson-1-247x300.jpg 247w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span>By the 1700s and 1800s, skating was becoming formalized. Scotland formed the first known skating club in 1742. England published the first skating instruction manual in 1772. Steel blades replaced iron, allowing sharper turns, spins, and eventually jumps. In the mid-1800s, American skater <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jackson_Haines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jackson Haines<\/a> introduced flowing movement and music, shaping what we now recognize as figure skating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Around the same time, ice hockey was taking shape in Canada, blending skating with stick-and-ball games played on frozen ponds. Speed skating evolved from racing traditions in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. By the early 20th century, skating had reached a global stage, with figure skating debuting in the Olympics in 1908 and speed skating included in the first <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1924_Winter_Olympics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Winter Olympics in 1924<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Artificial indoor rinks would later make skating accessible year-round and far beyond cold climates. But even with climate control and bright lights, outdoor skating never lost its gravity\u2014especially in places where winter still shapes daily life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">That difference is amplified in the Driftless. Unlike much of the Upper Midwest, this region escaped the last glaciers, leaving steep ridges, limestone bluffs, spring-fed streams, oxbow lakes, and wide river backwaters. When winter freezes these features, skating becomes immersive\u2014you\u2019re not just circling ice, you\u2019re moving through terrain and weather.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-21571 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/FigureSkate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/FigureSkate.jpg 400w, https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/FigureSkate-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span>Across the Driftless, outdoor rinks remain the backbone of winter community life. Town parks in places like <a href=\"https:\/\/viroqua-wisconsin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Viroqua,WI<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.decorahareachamber.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Decorah, IA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/prairieduchien.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prairie du Chien, WI<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winonachamber.com\/whywinona\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Winona, MN<\/a> flood ice each winter, creating spaces where pickup hockey games form organically and kids learn to skate under dim park lights. These rinks aren\u2019t flashy. They don\u2019t need to be. They work because they belong to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Then there are the rare, perfect wild-ice days\u2014the ones people talk about for years. When conditions line up, sheltered lakes, flooded fields, and slow-moving river edges freeze smooth and clear. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/upper-mississippi-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge<\/a>, backwater areas can sometimes offer long, quiet skates framed by bluffs, cottonwoods, and the sound of ice shifting beneath you. Smaller spots\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.dnr.wi.gov\/lakes\/lakepages\/LakeDetail.aspx?wbic=728100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lake Onalaska <\/a>\u00a0or rural county park lagoons\u2014can feel almost sacred on calm winter mornings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Skating here isn\u2019t just recreation. It requires attention\u2014listening for cracks, watching the color of the ice, feeling vibration through your blades. That balance between joy and caution hasn\u2019t changed much since bone skates crossed prehistoric lakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-21567 size-full alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Skate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Skate.jpg 400w, https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Skate-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span>Ice skating\u2019s long history is still unfolding. Today, ice skating lives in many forms\u2014figure skating, hockey, speed skating, and casual laps with friends\u2014but its core remains the same. It\u2019s a way of meeting winter on its own terms, of finding movement where others see stillness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">In the Driftless Area, where land and water refuse to be simple, skating feels especially honest. Ice comes late and leaves early, which means you don\u2019t take it for granted. Every skate is temporary, and that\u2019s part of the draw.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\"> Out here, between bluffs and backwaters, skating doesn\u2019t feel like something w<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e inherited. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It feels like something we\u2019re still earning, one winter at a time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><br \/><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">By <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Riley Johnson<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These early skates didn\u2019t carve into the ice the way modern blades do. Skaters pushed themselves forward with poles, trading speed for efficiency, moving across frozen landscapes because they had to. That instinct still resonates in the Driftless. This is not a flat place. Rivers bend, cold pools in coulees,<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/2025\/07\/01\/from-bone-skates-to-frozen-rivers\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":1770413422,"_expiration-date-type":"draft","_expiration-date-categories":[131],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>From Bone Skates to Frozen Rivers Driftless Area Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From Bone Skates to Frozen Rivers Driftless Area Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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