Voices from the Heart of the Land: Rural Stories that Inspire Community

In the Beginning

RURAL STORIES THAT INSPIRE COMMUNITY 1 IN THE BEGINNING VOICES FROM THE HEART OF THE LAND 2 Arena Township Iowa County, southwest Wisconsin • 45,314 acres • village (of old Arena) platted 1848 • first U.S. Post Office, 1847 First graduating class of Arena High School, 1910 as recorded by Jeanette Lloyd Demby, mother of Bob Demby, a voice in this book: • Vern and Orville Pfanku • Winnie Sawle • Leona King • Leslie Wilson • Edith Harrop Arena Township schools before consolidation in 1962 • Helena was the first, in 1846 (some students walked four to five miles a day to attend) • then Dover, Coon Rock, Bawden, Ray Hollow, Mounds Creek, Hogan, Mill Creek, Pleasant Point, McCutchin, Blue Ridge, Meadow Vale, and Arena Cheese factories in the 1940s • Mounds Creek, Mill Creek, Blue Ridge, Coon Rock, Hyde, Arena, Pine Knob, and Hwy K at Roelke Road In the Beginning 936 1444 POPULATION 1940 2000 8 2 CHEESE FACTORIES 1940 2000 13 0 COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1940 2000 230 12 WORKING FARMS 1940 2000 ARENA TOWNSHIP RURAL STORIES THAT INSPIRE COMMUNITY 3 VOICES FROM THE HEART OF THE LAND 4 RURAL STORIES THAT INSPIRE COMMUNITY 5 Arena Township is located in the magical “driftless” area of southwestern Wisconsin, a piece of the northern landscape that the past two million years of glaciations just plumb missed. The area is underlain with old sedimentary rock strata — dolomitic limestone and sandstone — undisturbed since their water-borne genesis by the ancient oceans that covered the North American continent more than 250 million years ago. The land is well-watered and buried with glacial loess — literally, glacial dust from millions of years of the nearby sequential ice sheets grinding ice-on-rock — the stuff that makes the best soils in the world. As a result of having been spared the flattening effect of such a long and weighty mass of glacial ice, the land has been deeply carved by the actions of millennia of thunderstorm Opposite page:The Cates family farm, 1996 VOICES FROM THE HEART OF THE LAND 6 In the Beginning torrents and deep snow runoff, a ridge-and-valley province of its own. Two principal waterways flow through Arena Township: Blue Mounds Creek, a designated trout stream, emanates from one of the highest spots in southern Wisconsin, townships to the south and east of Arena; and Mill Creek, its headwaters a trout stream, its origin the spectacular Governor Dodge Park to the southwest, a “grand canyon” of sorts in these parts. The waters of these cold streams and innumerable springs flow among the hills and down through the rich hollows of the township, making their way past Coon Rock — part of a last set of hills and outcrops — before the sand flats of the Wisconsin River valley,and, finally, emptying into the river itself. The joggings and meanderings of this great watery serpent, the Wisconsin, describe the northern limit of the township. From this point, the river continues west to join the wide Mississippi, a three-day canoe paddle distant. This is a maternal land: rounded hills softened by time and deep, fecund valleys teeming with life. Take a walk on a spring evening and breathe deep — the richness of the air, infused with that of the life-sustaining soil, is indelible; its effect intoxicating. On early August mornings, fog brews over the Wisconsin River basin and silently insinuates its way up the hollows — a kindred spirit, returning to share the sights, sounds, and life of the community — only to dissipate in the warm sun’s rays and take its leave well before dinnertime. Autumn air is cool and crisp, ideal for communal labor, harvesting the fruits of the earth; the world is aflame in a kaleidoscope of color — the oak’s russet, the yellows and oranges of birch, aspen, walnut, and elm, Old Blue Mounds Creek Mill, ca. 1900 RURAL STORIES THAT INSPIRE COMMUNITY 7 and the reds of sumac and hard maple — grandly decorating the township’s celebration of life. No wonder this place has been home to so many for so long. FROM PURSUIT OF THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH TO THE FIRST THRESHING BEES Threshing — locally called “thrashing” — is defined as “separating the grain or seeds from straw or chaff by beating with a flail or...