DAM BOOK TALK IN MADISON

I would like to invite everyone to Madison for the Wisconsin Book Festival on Saturday, November 10th when I will give a talk on my book, THAT DAM HISTORY - The Story of The La Farge Dam Project.  I will be speaking at 4 pm in the Rotunda Studio of the Overture Center located at 201 State Street.  I will be part of a program titled "Loss & Discovery on Wisconsin's Waterways", which will also feature Milton Bates, who will talk about his book, Bark River Chronicles.
The theme of this year's book festival is "Lost & Found" and I will be speaking on what was lost and found in the Kickapoo Valley because of the La Farge dam project.  I will talk about how people who were forced to sell their homes for the project lost faith in their government and of the amazing find of early history of the area uncovered by archeological research conducted as part of the dam project.
My dam book will be for sale at the festival as will my earlier book, La Farge - The Story of A Kickapoo River Town - Volume I.  I will also be selling copies of The People Remember, which features interviews conducted as part of an oral history project done in 2000-01.
For more information on the festival, go to wisconsinbookfestival.org.

La Farge History - Part I

It has been a while since I've posted any update of my history-writing efforts on this blog. Since I have last talked to those of you who may frequent this post, some major decisions have been made and substantial progress moved on the book.

First of all, the book on the history of La Farge is still scheduled to come out in early December. I had wanted to have the book out by the 4th of July of this year, so I'm only six months late. I want to have it for sale at that time and to sell it at the Small Town Christmas in La Farge on Saturday, December 4. I would like to have a table at the Crafts Fair at the gymnasium that day and perhaps another book signing at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve early in that evening. More will be forthcoming on those events.

Secondly, the history is now definitely a two-parter. This first book - Part I - will cover the history of La Farge from its beginnings up through the early 1960's. I stop at that point in time because that is when the La Farge Dam Project is finally authorized by Congress. After that time, the dam project takes on a whole life of its own and is another book in itself. To do any justice to that story and how it affected the village, I need to put it another book. With the self-imposed deadline for getting a book out this year, I did not feel I could do the village and dam history from the 1960's and on any justice. So, Part II will be coming out later.

Lastly, I'm really getting some excellent help in finishing up the book. Carolyn has been helping with editing since summer. Chuck Hatfield is helping me with the self-publishing (We are calling ourselves Kickapoogians Press.) and has helped me with ISBN numbers and copyrights. He is currently in contact with printers, lining up quotes for that procedure. Paula Howard (nee Muller) has come aboard to help with final editing, which has really been a God-send for the project.

I am finishing up the research and writing on the last chapter, which I hope to have done by the next couple of weeks. Then Chuck and I will start putting the whole thing together to send off to the printers. Wish us luck!