I’ve heard horsetail called many names including Equisetum, snake grass, scouring rush, gun bright, tinker toys, and panpipe. Most people recognize the scouring rush horsetail that grows as a hollow green stalk (long and narrow like a snake), but they don’t notice the common horsetail with its whirls of slender green branches around the central stem. The latter looks more like a horse’s tail, but either are good for scouring and sanding, because silica is imbedded in the stems.

In pioneer days, a fist full of stems scoured the heavy, iron cooking pots, while a single stem shined your brass buttons or polished the rust from an old shotgun. Children pulled stems apart at the joints like tinker toys and then challenged each other to see who could reassemble the longest stem.

Make your own musical panpipe. Do you remember blowing into a soda bottle to make “music”? The tone depended on the size of the bottle. Well, pull a horsetail apart and blow into a section of stem; the tone is related to the length of the section. After you master a single stem, try three at once and you’ll have a chord. Finally, figure a way to hold 6 to 10 stem sections in a row arranged from longest to shortest, and you’ll have a panpipe (named for the Greek god Pan who had the legs of a goat and wandered the pastures playing his panpipe).

Recently Dane County Parks received a generous donation from Jim Pabian, photographer and artist. Jim has been using our county parks as his studio for years. His wonderful photos of wildflowers, insects, grasses, sunsets and sunrises will grace our office walls until they find a more permanent home at the Heritage Center. These twelve matted and framed works of art reflect the beauty and inspiration of our parkland natural resources. What make this so special is that all these artistic creations evolved not just from Jim Pabian’s view through the lens of his camera, but the visions of others as well. The photos were taken in Lake Farm County Park and the Nine Springs E-Way.

Professor Phil Lewis, the “father or grandfather” of the E-Way had the idea, vision and inspiration to protect this unique resource; the city, county, state, and federal governments had the wisdom to approve and fund the project, and make Lewis’ vision a reality. The staff of a variety of agencies and units of government had the vision, understanding and concept of how to make it happen. Citizens supported the project financially and will soon be able to view the E-Way not only through Jim’s photos, but through their own experience while they hike or bike the Capital City Trail. Jim, we thank you for your generous donation; these works of art are a preview of what people will experience first hand as they travel through the E-Way next year, when the Capital City Trail is complete.