In late October 1975, the La Farge
Fire Department notified the Corps of Engineers that there could be no fire
protection coverage on the federal dam lands without a written agreement. The fire department was leery about driving
the fire trucks across the old bridges on Highway 131 north of town, since the
trucks would exceed the 10-ton weight limits.
Eventually the Corps and the fire department came to a temporary
agreement over fire protection coverage and the Wisconsin DOT gave approval to
the La Farge fire trucks crossing the bridges as long as a 5-mph speed limit
was followed.
Many of the problems with traffic
using the old bridges on Highway 131 could have been avoided if the new section
of the highway, running from La Farge to Rockton had been opened in mid-October
as planned. The paving of the new
section of highway was completed by then and ready for traffic, but
disagreements between the Corps of Engineers and the Wisconsin DOT over the
ownership of the new section stopped the transferal. The DOT felt that the new section of highway
did not meet state standards nor was adequately or properly completed. Finally, Jim Ruyak announced from his Corps
offices in St. Paul that the new highway would not be transferred to the state
as planned nor would the new section be opened to traffic in 1975.
The new highway project was also
stopped when several local governments balked at plans for what to do with the
old highway. Once again, the local
school district joined in the controversy.
It was suggested by some that the school buses could avoid crossing the
bridges on old Highway 131 by instead using the new route. But the La Farge School District resisted
running their buses on the new road until the DOT had officially taken over
that section of the highway.
The school also wondered about the flood-prone
section of the old highway south of Rockton and the condition of the bridges on
that section south to Weister Creek.
That section of the old highway was to become part of County Trunk P,
but Vernon County had no money for road or bridge improvements on that section
of the old state highway. Several Vernon
County board members opposed the county assuming ownership of that section of
Highway 131 due to the projected high cost of maintenance and repairs.
The Town of Stark was supposed to
assume ownership of old Highway 131 from the Corps’ dam site south to the La
Farge village limits. But Town of Stark
officials rejected assuming ownership of the road due to the poor condition of
that portion of the state highway. That
portion of old Highway 131 had damage caused by heavy machinery traffic on the
road during the dam construction.
Finally, the Village of La Farge was to assume
ownership of the old highway from the northern village limits (next to the Star
Cemetery) south to where the old road joined new Highway 131 on Mill Street
near the ballpark. But that section of
the old highway contained the crumbling bridge at Seelyburg that needed massive
repairs or replacement entirely. Since
the village had no money for either bridge option, La Farge also rejected
taking over that portion of old Highway 131.
So as the winter season approached,
the new section of Highway 131 remained closed to traffic (although it was
unofficially open to those who chose to use it and many did) and what to do
with several sections of the old highway remained in tumult.
With all of the controversy over
the bridges around La Farge, there was one positive development when a new
bridge was built across the Kickapoo River at the Lawton (Rehbein) farm south
of La Farge. The Highway 131 Bridge was
opened for traffic at the end of November, but of course, not before some
controversy.
The new bridge was actually the
first part of a larger project to renovate and straighten Highway 131 between
Tunnelville and La Farge. The plan
called for cutting through the hill known as Elk Point on the Rehbein farm,
which would eliminate the old railroad tunnel still at that place. Besides the historic tunnel, there was also
an ancient Native American burial ground located on the top of the hill above
the tunnel. The DOT plan called for the
elimination of the tunnel and the removal of the Native American mounds
beginning in the summer of 1976. The
project was to be completed by the fall of 1977. (More on the local efforts to save the old
railroad tunnel and burial mounds in a later installment)
On Monday, December 8th,
1975, as early morning drivers headed north from La Farge on Highway 131, they
came upon a burning bridge a mile and a half north of Rockton. One car stayed at the bridge (Bridge #9) to
ward off any traffic trying to cross, while another driver went back to Rockton
to notify authorities.
When the La Farge Fire Department
arrived at 6:30 am, the south end of the bridge was fully engulfed with
flames. The creosote coated wooden
pilings under the bridge on that end were already burned off, indicating that
the fire had been burning for some time.
Some of the wooden under-planking on the deck was also burned through
and the entire southern end of the bridge had collapsed, dropping a foot below
the roadway approach. The fire
department was at the scene for two hours pouring water on the burning
timbers. Later that afternoon, the La
Farge firemen were called back to the bridge fire scene as several flare-ups of
the creosoted timbers were extinguished.
The Vernon County Sheriff’s
Department and county highway crews were at the burning bridge scene
immediately. An alternate route needed
to be established for traffic. The lengthy
detour routed traffic to County Roads P and F and Highway 33 before returning
to Highway 131.
Vernon County Highway Commissioner
Ernie Urban inspected the bridge after the flames were extinguished and
declared the burned out bridge unsafe for any traffic. Barricades were set at each end of the bridge
as Urban said it was even unsafe for people to walk across the bridge. The bridge was also being treated as a crime
scene.
Vernon County Sheriff Geoff Banta
said that the burning of the bridge was a deliberate act of vandalism. Some noted that the bridge had been burned
only four days after the U.S. Senate had rejected all funding for the La Farge
dam project. Earlier in the fall, the
Wisconsin DOT had inspected the bridge and a 15-ton weight limit had been
placed on it.
The week before the bridge burning,
another meeting had been held in Madison between the DOT and Corps’ officials
about the possibility of opening the new section of Highway 131 between Rockton
and La Farge. Earlier, possibly spurred
on by the school bus protest, the DOT had asked that the old section of Highway
131 between Rockton and La Farge be closed due to the old and crumbling bridges
along that section of the state highway.
Corps’ officials had seemed ready to open the new section of highway in
mid-October, but that plan was thwarted when state, county, village and town
officials balked at assuming control of the old highway and its poor
bridges. The early December meeting in
Madison had been called to see if those problems could be resolved and the new
highway opened. But in the end, the
Corps again said that the new section of highway would not be opened to
traffic.
The week before Christmas, Senator
William Proxmire made a surprise visit to La Farge. As he talked to people in an impromptu
meeting on the sidewalk in front of the La Farge bank, tempers flared and several
people cursed the Senator. Local anti-dam
leader Gale Huston defended Proxmire, but also drew curses and jeers from most
of the gathered crowd. Before quickly
leaving, Proxmire, who some in La Farge called “Senator Scrooge” as befit the
holiday season, told people to buy flood insurance or move out of the flood
plain.
The following week, the Vernon
County Highway Department announced that the burned bridge north of Rockton
would be rebuilt. In La Farge, members
of the fire department and ambulance squad held a practice on the use of the
new Jaws-Of-Life extrication device.
Using some donated junk vehicles the emergency personnel learned how to
open up vehicles with the device to get to injured people trapped inside.
As 1975 ended, there did not seem
to be much good news in the village of La Farge. At the last village board meeting of the
year, it was noted that the village Christmas tree located at the old firehouse
between the bank and post office did not have enough lights to be sufficiently
festive. The board also heard that the
brand new Bean Park skating rink leaked.
Bah, Humbug!
* * * *
Save the date! As part of the Driftless Dialogue lecture
series at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, I will be talking about this crazy time
of the La Farge dam project history on Wednesday, June 21. “More On That Dam History!” will begin at 7
pm with socializing and refreshments offered one-half hour prior to the program.
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