🥶 Cold enough for ya?

🇺🇸 Madison Readies For Second Trump Term

• Even before President Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday as the country’s 47th U.S. President, Madison activists signaled they were ready for a fight. On Saturday, hundreds marched to the Wisconsin State Capitol for “The People’s March,” uniting groups of different backgrounds and agendas in their opposition to a second Trump term.
• U.S. Rep. Marc Pocan (D-Madison) skipped Inauguration Day festivities Monday, instead meeting with groups he said will be hurt by Trump’s policies, including immigrants, seniors and the LGBTQ community. [WORT, Daily Cardinal]

🥶 Extreme Cold Closes Schools, Delays Trash Pickup

• With daytime wind chill temperatures reaching 35º below zero Fahrenheit, Madison Metropolitan School District joined multiple other area districts in closing school on Tuesday.
• The extreme cold also delayed trash and recycling pickup in some areas, because city officials determined it wasn’t safe to use rear-loading vehicles. Those who didn’t get their refuse collected Tuesday should put it out on Wednesday.
• And in a reminder that extreme cold doesn’t always equal thick ice, a woman fell through the ice at Lake Monona on Tuesday morning. The woman was unharmed. [ 🔒WSJ, City of Madison, Ch. 3000]

🏗️ Top of State Street Getting Extreme Makeover

• The 100 block of State Street will soon look very different. In addition to the construction of the new Wisconsin History Center, Madison officials want to redesign the nearby Mifflin Plaza to make it more “attractive to pedestrians.”
• Construction on a rebuilt plaza will start after the history center is finished in 2027. The city is hosting an online forum on Jan. 30 to get residents’ input on what they’d like to see in a redesigned plaza. [ 🔒WSJ, City of Madison]

When my kids were younger and I used to volunteer to chaperone school field trips, one of my favorite trips was the UW-Madison Geology Museum on Dayton St. The free museum is just packed with so many treasures for both young and old to explore.

And today on the City Cast Madison podcast, we have a story on one of the museum’s newest – and oldest – treasures. UW paleontologist David Lovelace talks about the museum’s latest discovery, a brand new species of dinosaur that roamed the northern hemisphere a full 10 million years earlier than previously thought possible.

Here are some other cool things to know about the UW Geology Museum:

The Museum’s Origin Story

The museum itself isn’t as prehistoric as some of its exhibits, but it’s still pretty old. It dates back to the first UW Board of Regents meeting in 1848, where the regents talked about displaying mineralogical deposits found around the state.

The museum didn’t officially open on the third floor of Science Hall until 1877, but it really found its footing in the 1920s when its first full-time curator, Gilbert Rassch, was appointed to modernize and expand the museum. Finally, in 1981, the museum moved into its current home in Weeks Hall.

The Boaz Mastodon

The thing that many visitors (especially little ones) remember best about their first museum visit is the Boaz Mastodon. The 9.5-foot-wide, 15-foot-tall prehistoric skeleton was found in the streambed of a family farm in 1897. It was reconstructed in 1915, and since only half the bones were found, the other half of the skeleton was recreated using inverted molds of the existing bones.

It now looms large next to an 1888 replica of an armadillo-like glyptodon and an Edmontosaurus skeleton – the first dinosaur to be displayed in Wisconsin.

⬆️ Last Week’s Photo

Did you guess where this very vibrant Madison mural is located? (Rob Thomas/Madison Minutes)

This mural by artist Triangulador is located at the intersection of Monroe Street and Commonwealth Drive, in between Lauer Realty Group and Klinke Cleaners!

🎉 Congratulations to Dan S. for being the first person to guess right! And apologies to all guessers for the technical issues we had last week with the submission form. It should be all fixed this week.

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Do you know where this giant globe is? A few clues:

• It’s on the UW-Madison campus
• It’s in a department that’s very relevant to the Earth
• There’s a very big hint elsewhere in today’s newsletter!