The Great Kickapoo River Flood of 1978 - Part II

The Flood of 1978 started to recede in La Farge on Sunday, July 2^nd.  As the floodwater’s crest on the Kickapoo River moved downriver, the communities south of La Farge also felt the wrath of the flood.  Boats were the only mode of transportation on Viola’s Main Street, just as it had been for the floods of 1935 and 1951.  A partial dike system in Soldiers Grove failed during the crest of the flood there, devastating the downtown business district.  A new bank building in Soldiers Grove was nearly ripped in half, exposing the interior and the vault walls.  Almost every business and home in Gays Mills was inundated with floodwaters when the Kickapoo’s crest reached there.  Further downstream the villages of Steuben and Wauzeka also suffered heavy damages before the flood finally abated on Independence Day.  Every field of corn, tobacco, grain, and hay located on farms along the river from Wilton to Wauzeka were lost to the floodwaters.

In La Farge, the houses that had floodwater in them (some for the first time ever) included Gerald Anderson, Stanley Potter, Elmer Storer, Catherine Norris, Eva Clements, John Sokolik, Bob Sokolik, Ron Gabrielson (renting the JaDoul house), Reynold Waddell, Jim Campton, Gib Stevens, Harry Lounsbury, Ethel Burt, Maxine Kennedy, Bob Erickson, Lucille Yarolimek, Vera Campton, Bob Jacobson and Les Gillett.

Business places in La Farge that were inundated with floodwater included the La Farge Cheese Factory, Nuzum’s, Gary’s Texaco Station, Caucutt-Olson Plumbing, La Farge Epitaph newspaper, Jeffer’s Truck Sales, Kickapoo Antiques, Major’s Appliances and Nelson’s Garage.  Also suffering damage from the flood were the Town of Stark hall and shed, the La Farge village jail, and the new village hall and firehouse.

When Village President Ted Erickson met with state and federal officials a week after the flood, a list of 38 homes and 23 businesses in La Farge damaged by floodwaters had been compiled.  The total cost of the flood damage in La Farge approached $200,000.  That figure did not include agricultural losses located within the village, as several fields of tobacco and corn crops were lost to the flood.   

The school’s bus garage, located on Main Street in the old Fulmer’s Garage building suffered heavy damage from the flood.  The school buses had been moved out of the garage as the floodwaters rose and were kept in the parking lot at the United Methodist Church for nearly a week after the flood as repairs were made to the school bus garage floor.  Later, the school district also had more costly damages at the schoolhouse when a water main, weakened by the heavy rains, broke causing the elementary wing to be completely flooded.  

Floodwaters kept area roads and highways closed for days.  Water covered the old portion of Highway 131 at Seelyburg for nearly two days and caused major damage to the road.  (Whitey Barclay lost 27 pigs to the floodwaters at his Seelyburg farm.)  Highway 131 south of La Farge was closed for two days and almost one hundred yards of the highway were washed out below the new bridge at Lawton’s.  In addition, the sewer plant at La Farge was inoperable for more than 24 hours at the height of the flood and raw sewage was dumped directly into the river’s waters.  Many people boiled village water for drinking during the flood, but a DNR check on the village’s water supply on July 5^th indicated there was no contamination.

Interesting stories and happenings abounded in La Farge as people had varied reactions to the great flood.  What happened to Roger Andrew’s tractor was one such story.  Roger had cattle on pasture along the east side of the Kickapoo River.  As the floodwaters filled the pasture, the beef cattle soon clustered on a disappearing high spot.  Roger drove his John Deere tractor over to the stockyards east of Calhoon Park and started to drive through the floodwaters towards his herd of cattle, hoping to guide them back toward higher land near the old railroad bed.  However, the tractor dropped into an unseen ditch and stalled out.  Eventually, Roger had to be rescued by a crew in a boat and his tractor slowly disappeared under the rising floodwaters.  Ironically, the cattle ended up swimming across the swollen river and found high ground on the west side of the pasture.

That could have been the end of the story of Roger Andrew’s tractor except that a crowd assembled in the Lions Shelter at Calhoon Park had witnessed the attempted rescue.  Many people came to La Farge that day thinking that the opening day of the 4^th of July Celebration would happen.  Softball players and fans sat in the beer tent at the shelter (even though no beer was sold there) that day and watched as the tractor disappeared from view.  Soon a gambling pool was created as to when the tractor would reappear from the floodwaters.  Some time on the following day, Sunday, July 2^nd, the tractor reappeared and a local softball player was a little wealthier with his lucky pick in the pool.

Members of the La Farge Fire Department had a hectic couple of days because of the flood.  Many members of the department had been called out after midnight on Friday night, June 30, when a downed power line knocked out power to the village for four hours.  Members of the fire department helped to provide alternate generator power to people using sump pumps to keep water out of their houses or businesses on that first night.  Later that night, firemen went to the Rockton area to help look for canoeists camped along the river there.  As the flood waters descended on La Farge the next morning, all of the fire trucks had to be moved out of the firehouse on south Silver Street.  Because the floodwaters made Highway 82 impassable to the west, two fire trucks from Viroqua came to the west end of the Highway 82 Bridge in La Farge.  The Viroqua trucks and crew would respond to any fire calls on that side of the river.

However, that evening, July 1^st, tornadoes were spotted in the Viroqua area and the fire trucks and crew had to return to their hometown.  The La Farge firemen had to get a truck to the other side of the river.  Driving north with one of the fire trucks, La Farge Fireman Cecil Rolfe, looked for a way across the flooding river to get to the other side.  As he drove down 24 Valley Road, the roadbed, undermined by the heavy rains, gave way and the fire truck fell into a huge hole.  A wrecker had to be called to pull the damaged fire truck back to the village.  Many La Farge firemen remained on duty all of that evening after never having slept the preceding night.

The school gymnasium was used as a temporary shelter that Saturday night for some of the people displaced by the floodwaters.  Although finding cots for people to sleep on proved a problem, most people were happy to be high and dry on an air mattress with some warm blankets.  Other people who were chased out of their homes by the flood stayed in the KP Hall that night.  Many other people stayed with nearby family and friends.

Maxine Kennedy told me later that the Saturday of the flood in 1978 was the busiest day she ever had in her Main Street restaurant.  Part of the reason was that the A&W Root Beer Stand, that normally would have been open to serve food on that Saturday in July, was closed.  The popular root beer stand, owned by David and Kay Mick, had been struck by lightning during a weekend thunderstorm in mid-June.  The resulting fire caused considerable damage to the drive-in, so it wasn’t open to help feed the masses for the 4^th of July Celebration.

When the Red Cross workers arrived in La Farge late that afternoon on July 1^st, they immediately began handing out meal vouchers to be used at Kennedy’s Restaurant for people displaced by the flood and for the volunteers, firemen and other workers who were helping with the relief effort.  With the food stands not open at the 4^th of July grounds, all those visitors also stopped at Maxine’s for a sandwich as well.  Maxine had to close the restaurant early that Saturday night because she ran out of food.

The 4^th of July Celebration in La Farge actually did get going on Sunday, July 2^nd.  Some events, like the tractor pull had to be cancelled (it took several days to find that swept-away eliminator in Norwalk) while others, like the Men’s Softball Tournament were changed to only include twelve teams.  (Mt. Tabor Bar won the men’s tournament, while the team from Valley won the women’s.)  A new event, the Mini-Marathon Race, was run on an altered course through the village, avoiding the muddy streets where the floodwaters had been.

The carnival hired for the celebration had quite a time getting to La Farge.  Most of the carnival rides were mired in floodwaters at Wonewoc, where they were set up prior to La Farge.  Eventually most of the rides and carnival stands made it to La Farge by the 4^th of July.

The 4^th of July weekend in La Farge became even more bizarre when there was a shooting over that time.  A man from Illinois was driving erratically and squealing his tires on the busy streets of the village, causing concern among local residents.  Several local people stopped the car and the man brandished a pistol, which he waved threateningly at them.  The man then sped out of town in his car with several local people in hot pursuit.  The Illinois man crashed his car into the ditch near Don Potter’s house east of La Farge.  Again the man pulled out his pistol as he departed his wrecked vehicle.  Don (Moose) Getter, using a shotgun that was in LaVerne Campbell’s car then shot the man to disarm him.  (Moose was not a village policeman at the time.)  The man from Illinois, who did not suffer a life threatening wound in the shooting was taken to Viroqua by ambulance guarded by sheriff’s deputies and later moved to the county jail.      

The Night Some Packers Came To La Farge

As we watched the Green Bay Packers unsuccessful march towards a fifth Super Bowl title, it is interesting to observe the effect of the team’s successes and failures on small towns like La Farge.  Of course this story is being played out in nearly every small town in the state of Wisconsin.  From Lena to New Diggings and from Clayton to Caledonia, the small towns of the Badger State don their “Green & Gold” as the success of “their” NFL team increases.

            In the immediate area around the city of Green Bay, this allegiance to the Packers by small town Wisconsin has been around pretty much since the beginning of the storied franchise.  For towns like La Farge and others that are several hours drive from Titletown, the connection to the Packers is a product of the NFL coverage on television.  When CBS began covering all NFL games in the 1950’s and when LaCrosse opened a TV station (WKBT) that would carry those Packer games, the good people of La Farge who had access to television sets and good rooftop antennas could start following the team from afar.  I was growing up in the village during that heady time.

            Now all of this; the NFL exposure on CBS, the coming of the television age to La Farge, and me becoming a Packer fan, would not be nearly as significant without Vince Lombardi also coming to Green Bay during this time to coach the team.  That coaching decision worked out pretty well for the Packers, didn’t it? (After all, there is a good reason why that Super Bowl hardware bling is called the Lombardi Trophy.)  My generation was spoiled absolutely rotten by the Packer’s success while Lombardi coached them.  NFL championships piled up for the Packers during those wonderful times and the new generation of Packer fans watching on television (like me) came to expect nothing but finishing first each year in the NFL.

            The first television that I ever watched when I was a kid growing up in La Farge was at Stan and Marge Hollenbeck’s house.  It was an evening potluck supper TV gathering as Stan had purchased a new Zenith from Major’s TV and the whole neighborhood was invited in to see the new contraption.  The kids sat on the floor in front of the TV while the adults watched from the chairs and couch.  Every available chair in the house was in that living room that night and Freddie Major was there to make sure the new Zenith TV housed in a beautiful blond oak console would get Channel 8, the new signal from LaCrosse.  I remember the snowy screen, the WKBT test pattern and then a show actually coming on around seven that evening. 

I have no idea what that TV program was, but I was hooked on the new medium of communication. Soon it was “Fury”, “My Friend Flicka” and “Mighty Mouse” (Here he comes to save the day!) on Saturday mornings and Ray Scott and Tony Canadeo bringing us the Packer games on autumn Sunday afternoons.  What was not to like about the Packers in those days?

By 1960, Lombardi’s second year at the Packer’s helm, Green Bay played the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFL championship.  They lost that game played at Philly that day (Remember Packer fullback Jim Taylor deciding to try to run over Chuck Bednarik near the goal line at the end of that game instead of attempting to run around him in the 17-13 loss?), but Green Bay went on to win five NFL titles over the next seven years.  That run also included the Packers winning the first two Super Bowls, although at the time, those games took a back seat to winning those great matchups with the Cowboys to win the NFL.  It was ridiculous how good the Packers were during that run of success (Don’t forget that one of the years that Green Bay didn’t win an NFL title was in 1964 when the Pack had an 11-2-1 season record, but finished behind the hated Chicago Bears in the Western Division.) and it remains an era of excellence not repeated since in the league.

But after Lombardi stepped down as Green Bay’s coach after the 1967 season, the Packers only had two winning seasons over the next decade.  During that time, Green Bay won one division title, but was bounced out of the playoffs in their first game.  It was not a very good time to be a Packer backer.  Which brings us to the 1978 season, after which some Packer players ended up playing some basketball in La Farge.

By 1978, Bart Starr, the quarterback of the glory days of the Packers’ 1960’s title teams and a two-time Super Bowl MVP, was coach of Green Bay.  Everybody liked Bart Starr in Packerland and hopes were high when he started his coaching career in Green Bay.  That 1978 season started great for the Packers as they had a 7-2 record after nine games.  But then Green Bay finished badly, going 1-5-1 down the stretch to tie Minnesota with 8-7-1 records atop the North Division of the NFC.  Since the Packers had not beaten the Vikings during the regular season, they finished second and did not make the playoffs once again.  But optimism had returned for the Packer faithful, including their many fans in La Farge.  It was with that renewed spirit that the La Farge Lions Club decided to bring the Packers to the Kickapoo Valley to play a basketball game.

It was not an easy decision for the local service club, which had been founded in La Farge in 1974.  Bringing the Packers to town was not cheap.  Up-front money to schedule the appearance of some players from the Packer team was substantial and the La Farge Lions Club at that time was nearly always broke.  But Lions member Orval Howard, who owned and operated the Village Market grocery store in town, supported the event and stepped forward to make arrangements for the game to happen.  And so it came to be that members of the La Farge Lions Club took on a team of Packer players in the local gym on Saturday, January 20, 1979.

Playing for the Packers that night was Johnnie Gray (#24), who was a starting safety on the team and a popular member of the team.  He was joined by linebacker Michael Hunt (#55), who was a rookie 2^nd round draft choice and had played his college ball at Minnesota.  Eric Torkelson (#26) was a back-up Packer halfback who played that night in La Farge.  Torkelson was a young good-looking guy and was a real hit with the ladies, some of who were able to sit on his lap that night.  Steve Wagner (#21 and a former Badger player) was a back-up defensive back and good special teams player for the Pack that year, also made his way to La Farge.  Rounding out the team for the Packers that night was Reed Giordana, who had been a little All-American quarterback at UW-Stevens Point and had been signed as a free agent by Green Bay in 1976 and took some snaps for the Green & Gold in a couple of pre-season training camps.  Giordana brought a friend along with him to play that night and the friend looked remarkably like Packer kicker Chester Marcol, but wasn’t.

A crowd of nearly 600 people packed the La Farge gym that night to see the Packers players and they were not disappointed.  Those four Packer players and one or two near Packers put on quite a show for their fans.  They signed every autograph on every program, t-shirt, and football that was shoved their way.  They held every local kid on their lap for every possible photograph that they could and had little skits to interact with the fans during the basketball game.  Their easy access and interaction with the fans, especially the kids could not have been better.  I think they beat the Lions in the basketball game, but it seems that a tie might have been worked out in the end.  After the game, the Packer players hung out with fans for nearly an hour, continuing to sign autographs and have photos taken.  Then they went to a post-game party with the Lions Club members hosted by Orval and Jan Howard at their house.  If was after midnight when they finally left La Farge and headed towards home.

I’m not sure if the Lions Club ever made any money from that Packer game, but it was a rousing success in all other aspects.  Several local men joined the club right after the game and others were drawn to join the Lions later because of the event with the Packers.  Many of the youngsters in attendance that night became Packer fans for life.  The smiles and memories of those La Farge youngsters who were at the game that night would last for generations.