Field guide

Tap a number to meet what lives on the wall.

A painted freshwater estuary in downtown Algoma: a cross-section from the riverbed up through the water and shoreline into a night sky of planets and a compass rose.

The wall is wider than your screen — scroll sideways to explore the whole estuary.
The wall is a field guide — tap a marker to meet what lives on it.
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2025 · mural, interactive, nature

A Magical Little Freshwater Estuary

Algoma, WI

Come explore this magical little freshwater estuary.

This one began at home, in the pages of our son’s nature books. We wanted a wall that did what those illustrations do — invite you to lean in, look closer, and learn the names of the small overlooked things sharing the water with us.

So we painted a freshwater estuary in downtown Algoma: a magical little ecosystem of numbered specimens, each one a creature or plant you might actually find where the river meets the lake. A QR code turns the mural into a field guide — scan it and an explanation of each numbered specimen unfolds, so the wall teaches as well as delights.

Thank you to the Community Improvement of Algoma and to building owner Nick Uecker for their continued support of local public art and the artists who make it. And thank you, as always, to David Carpenter for collaborating on this one.

How this guide works

The sky is real
The planet and moon positions on the cards are computed on your own device, with the same astronomical models NASA's JPL uses. Nothing is looked up from a server, so the sky is always current.
Works at the wall
Once the page loads, the guide keeps working on a weak signal. There are no third-party calls, no ads, no cookies. The scavenger hunt remembers your finds on your own phone — no account, no tracking.
Built as a system
The guide is an engine, not a one-off. Each mural is one data file — the specimens, their places on the wall, their stories. The same engine can turn any numbered or didactic wall into a field guide like this one.

Put this guide on your site

Cities, chambers, schools: the guide is free to embed. Paste this wherever it should live. 

<iframe
  src="https://www.yonderartland.com/estuary/embed"
  title="Freshwater Estuary field guide — Algoma, WI"
  style="width:100%; min-height:640px; border:0;"
  loading="lazy"></iframe>

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