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    • A Kinni Memory by Ella Mae Taylor Woodbury

    Tim Miller and Ella Mae Taylor Woodbury in 1949

    The Kinnickinnic River has played a big part in my life.  My folks moved to many different neighborhoods located on or near the river.  When I was eight, Marilyn Person Weiss and her siblings would wade with me in the South Fork.  When I was nine, Sandra Green and Barbara Brickner Rippley would dip our toes in the river near the south end of town.

    When I was eleven, a cousin, Tim Miller who was from Alaska, came to visit for an entire summer of 1949.  We played and fished the river.  We lost my Dad’s prize fishing pole just above the mill, which are your offices on Main Street now.  The employees of the feed mill fed fish corn.  So we caught some mighty large fish.  It was thrilling.  We were warned not to fish from the old wooden dam because it was rotten.  We did.  My mother, Kiza Taylor, removed the dark part of the fish and soaked them. They were delicious.

    Tim and I roamed the river from Glen Park toward the St. Croix all summer long.  It was spooky in the same place mentioned in the book Kinnickinnic Years.

    My parents, Kiza and Neal Taylor moved to 605 N. Main when I was 13.  I spent a lot of time on the top of the boathouse of Miss E. Weisend.  We called it the patio.  The Quandt boys had a rope hanging from a tree near by.  You could swing over the swamp beside the river.  One day they had cut it just enough so it broke when I swung on it.  Of course I landed in the swamp.  I found it hilarious then and still do.  I always used that route and took the old “Peanut Pusher” tracks over the river to visit Maggie Hanson. Of course I was also warned about tramps in that area.  I never saw any.

    Recently, a family reunion of many people from all over the U.S. visited the area.  The main base of the reunion was John Hanson’s farm.  It was the 2nd time that 22 canoes went out for adventure with all age groups.  It is a fairly difficult trip, but most people say they would do it again.  Tim Miller made the trip to see the river again from his new home in Utah.