Occasionally my interests stray from what would be generally termed "America's heartland," but my perspective stays the same--after all, the Midwest is the broadest representation of American culture...
Some of my excursions have taken me dinosaur bone hunting and climbing Devils Tower in Wyoming; most recently to Bermuda. What remains the same are the unique stories at each location that beg to be told--why I climbed Devils Tower in June, why the feral horses on Cumberland Island are suffering, or why it may not be safe for everyone to kayak the Chicago River. 
I was born and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois, the youngest of 4 children. Later, I home schooled my young family of 4 through 8th grade. My husband started up an enviromental consulting business during this time and we had the freedom, at times, to travel and bring the home school books along. When most children were hopping the bus for a long day in school, we'd be loading up backpacks and camping gear in the van and heading to Yellowstone National Park or Canada for a fossil dig. During this time, I began to research and create many family ancestor books as well. They have been passed on to family, libraries, and historical societies across the country. A lot of our pasttime was involved in the ESCONI Rock Club and a local 4H club where our home school projects and family hobbies could mesh. Grand champion 4H projects in geology and science were displayed in captital in Springfield and incredible books on Illinois' own fossils from Mazon Creek where completed through the clubs.
In 2008, after purchasing a cabin near the Wisconsin Dells, I began to hike with Ross M. Curry, the town historian who still writes for the Dells Events. Ross remembers wigwams on his family property and he went to school with his Ho Chunk neighbors and friends. His most recent book, Hidden History of the Dells just came out in 2010. It is a collection of his many articles from the Dells Events.
The Native American heritage as well as the landscape of Wisconsin have both intrigued me and encouraged me to research and write about the area. Devils Lake, the Apostle Islands, the Rivers, and the Great Lakes have all answered my desire for being outdoors both physically through hiking, climbing, kayaking, skiing and snowboarding, and historically through the ancient glacial landscape that has preserved some of North America's earliest inhabitants. My most recent trip has been to Oconto, just north of Green Bay, where there is a Copper Culture Indian burial site. We'll see what the future holds for my writing and blogging--this fall I am taking an advanced wilderness medicine course as I hope to continue to do more hiking and mountaineering.
Mary Fairchild
