Cady’s Marsh State Natural Area

Cady’s Marsh is one of the most southwesterly relicts of the former ancient Glacial Lake Wisconsin.  A lobe of that ancient lake reached as far south as where the city of Reedsburg is today, blocked on all sides by hilly unglaciated lands.  As the vast glacial lake drained some 12,000 or so years ago, many low flat areas, the former lake bed, remained.  Marshes formed in these low, poorly drained areas.  Cady’s Marsh is one of the few wetlands in the area that did not succumb completely to drainage and plowing for agricultural purposes.

The site contains dry sandy prairie grading into loamy mesic and wet-mesic prairie with sedge meadow and shallow emergent aquatic marsh also present. Deep-soil loamy prairies are one of the rarest natural plant communities in Wisconsin with nearly all having fallen to the plow. The site contains an interesting assemblage of plant species. Characteristic plants include blue-joint grass, big blue-stem, mountain mint, prairie blazing-star, and culver’s-root. Uncommon species are lesser purple fringed orchid, Michigan lily, glaucous white lettuce, Riddell’s goldenrod, Kalm’s St. John’s-wort, and Clinton’s bulrush. Cady’s Marsh is of historic interest in that it served as one of the last strongholds of prairie chickens in Sauk County. Cady’s Marsh is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1998.