Patty Loew:
Michael Perry shares his spin on life in Wisconsin in his various books. This week, his humorous essay takes you on a search and find mission of sorts, as he reveals his favorite piece of hidden treasure in Eau Claire County.  

Michael Perry:
How you doing?   

Michael Perry:
I got one more piece of junk pile treasure to show you and it's way down the ravine. This happens to be my daughter's favorite piece of junk. The interesting thing about this piece is that erosion has played a dual role. In the first place, the erosion from up the hill has come down and covered it. But then, as you can see, with each spring the ravine is eroding and this erosion is moving up the ravine and revealing that in here is some ancient, old piece of implement. It's got steel wheels with cleats on it. The fun thing is that each spring a little more gets washed away here as this wash works its way up the ravine. A little bit of the framework sticking out here, some galvanized angle iron. For now my daughter and I just come back each spring to see what the elements have been willing to reveal for the new year. These old bones sticking out, it's kind of -- I mean, there's a certain fossil aspect to it. And now unlike years before, we can actually see a little bit of the axle in there. At first, it almost looks like a rip, but you can see the rust, you can see another part of the structure. Down here you can see some old rusted bolts and a little bit of strap steel. You know there's some kind of fascinating piece of equipment. Somewhere there's an old-timer who could tell me exactly what it is. It was a bit of a thrill for me to see my 9-year-old enjoy the same sorts of discoveries. I was when I was here age out digging in the woods and finding treasures. That's what this is. This is not junk. This is treasure. I mean, it's not exactly Antiques Roadshow. Of course, unlike this piece, not every scrap of junk in the ravine is museum quality. So I wonder if all the people out there driving along gazing at the beautiful countryside realize that there's gold in them there hills, or at least a nice vintage inter-tube. Inner tube, actually. Not inter-tube. Inter-tube is that place where they keep the websites.