This is the second part of a presentation that I made in November 2012
in Madison as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival. The theme of the festival was “Lost &
Found” and my book was chosen as part of a presentation titled “Loss &
Discovery on Wisconsin’s
Waterways”. In the last blog entry, I focused on the history of the dam project at La Farge from the
first studies done after the great Kickapoo River flood of 1935 through the
creation of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve from the lands taken for the dam
project. In this entry, the
presentation focuses on some discoveries and losses that were a result of the
dam project. Parts of that presentation
have been edited for this entry. – BDS
In keeping with the theme of this
book festival, I would now like to look at what was lost and found for the
Kickapoo Valley from this dam story? I
would like to focus on two aspects of the story of the La Farge dam project,
one - a story of an extraordinary discovery found in the Valley and another of
a lost opportunity. First let’s look at
a rather amazing discovery that was the result of the dam project at La Farge.
I find this discovery so intriguing
because it deals with the history of the land and of the first people to live
in the Kickapoo Valley. Being a former
high school history teacher and an avid researcher and occasional writer in
local history, I found the discoveries in these areas brought about by the dam
project to be most interesting.
In the 1950s, the Corps of
Engineers entered into an agreement with the Wisconsin Historical Society to do
an assessment of the archeological and historic significance of the lands that
would be submerged beneath the waters of the lake at La Farge. Beginning in 1959 and continuing through the
late 1960’s, archeologists from the State Historical Society and students from
the University of Wisconsin would come to the Kickapoo Valley each summer to
conduct archeological studies.
First led by archeologist Donald
Brockington and later William Hurley, the studies of the northern Kickapoo
Valley lands provided an amazing catalog of archeological significance. From those initial surveys, a total of 132 sites
were identified in the lands north of La Farge and forty of those sites were
tested and found to contain significant archeological artifacts. Sixteen of the sites that were tested during
those summer surveys were rock shelters.
All of the sites that were surveyed yielded artifacts and specimens that
were removed and archived in Madison at the State Historical Society.
This archeological research that
was conducted in the northern Kickapoo Valley in the early 1960s was the
beginning of nearly thirty years of continued study in the area. As the dam project was delayed into the 1970s
& ‘80s, the studies could continue as more teams from the historical
society and UW came to the La Farge area to search for evidence of the earliest
people in the Valley and state of Wisconsin.
The number of significant archeological sites grew from the original
eight listed in 1959 to a total of 596 found after the last assessment in
1998. The sites included ancient
campsites and farming areas, linear and conical mounds, once-occupied rock
shelters and many petroglyphs. The
findings from this research were so significant and detailed because the La
Farge Dam & Lake Project lands became one of the most intensely studied
localities in the Driftless Area. Nearly
half of the sites, 282 to be exact, were of such archeological significance
that they are now included on the National Register of Historic Places as the
Upper Kickapoo Valley Prehistoric Archeological District at La Farge.
Since the Ho-Chunk Nation became
closely connected to 1,200 acres of the dam project lands when those lands were
transferred back to the state from the federal government in 1999 (the land
parcels are part of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve and are held in trust for the
Nation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs), the study of the cultural and historic
significance of these lands by the Ho-Chunk and others continues today.
Another aspect of this intensive
research of the dam project lands has been the recognition of the truly unique
geologic nature of the northern Kickapoo Valley. Senator Gaylord Nelson realized this very
early on when he first opposed the lake aspect of the dam project at La
Farge. In 1974, he called for a study to
see if the Kickapoo Valley lands purchased for the dam project could become a
national park. He said that the Valley
land formations located along the Kickapoo were some of the best examples of
the unique geologic features of the Driftless Area that could be found
anywhere. Partly because of this
research on potential national park status, nearly 6,000 acres of the Valley
including a portion of the former La Farge Dam & Lake Project have been
designated a National Natural Landmark through a program of the National Park
Service. This land, known as the
Kickapoo Valley Natural Area by state designation, is also the third largest
natural area in Wisconsin. The awesome
beauty of the magnificent seeping sandstone cliffs along the river and other
geologic formations in the Valley are still there for all visitors to see – a
magnificent discovery for all to enjoy.
Loss is another aspect of the story
of the La Farge dam project. There was
great personal loss for all of the families who had to sell their homes to the
federal government for the dam & lake project. Some people had to sell farms that had been
homesteaded by their family over a hundred years before the time of the dam
project; had to leave their family home.
As I say in the beginning of the dam book, I cannot adequately tell the
story of the loss felt by those people.
But another loss that all the
people of the Kickapoo Valley shared was the loss of any type of flood control
and I would like to comment on that.
What was considered to be the main reason for the dam from the very
beginning and throughout the project – flood control – never really
materialized in any form or manner. When
you consider how much money was spent on the project, it is mind boggling to
think that flood control for the Valley was never attained in any fashion. A study was done in 1992-93 by two UW
professors on the negative impacts felt in the Kickapoo Valley from NOT
finishing the dam at La Farge. The study
concluded that the total cost of the economic damage from not finishing the La
Farge dam project was $83-million! That
total included lost family income, loss of recreational benefits and damages to
private property from flooding. It did
not include costs for repairing roads and bridges from flood damage. Adding in the costs of flood damages to town,
village, county and state transportation systems would certainly boost the economic
damage total over $100-million.
In 2007 and 2008, the Kickapoo
River unleashed two floods of epic proportions in the Valley and the Kickapoo
flood of June 2008 remains the greatest ever recorded. The Corps of Engineers dam at La Farge was
designed to contain the waters of such floods and keep them from causing
devastation downriver. An unfinished dam
stops no floodwaters. The people of the
Kickapoo Valley still continue the struggle to recover from those floods.
