As we have always done on these
little strolls, lets begin at the east end of the village’s business district
and head towards the river. We will walk
down the north side of the village’s main street, go all the way to the river,
then cross over and come back up the street on the south side. There will be occasional darts up some of the
side streets from the main drag, but we always head back to Main Street because
that is where all the action is!
We start at the corner where the Episcope newspaper office is
located. That building has been the home
of a grocery store for most of its existence and sixty years ago my folks ran
the store while our family lived overhead in an apartment. Attached to the north end of the building was
the feed mill where farmers brought their oats and corn to be ground into cattle
feed. Today, the old feed mill serves as
a storage warehouse for La Farge Maintenance, but Donny Strait and Steve
Greenland, co-owners of the business, ended their partnership in 2015 as both
men took other jobs in the community.
The Episcope office is a busy place on
weekdays as folks drop off the latest news items for the next issue of the
local weekly newspaper. Lonnie Muller is
still the editor as the year ends and had to assume the role of publisher of the
newspaper as well when his wife Gail retired in 2013. Matt Gabrielson works the modern versions of
the linotype to get the ads and articles laid out and to compose his weather
page for each week’s edition. In August
of 2015, the Episcope reached a
milestone as the newspaper celebrated its 20th year of publishing
existence. Most importantly, with the
publication of the January 2, 2016 issue of the Episcope, La Farge continued to have a weekly newspaper for the 118th
consecutive year!
Across the
street from the newspaper office is Bergum’s Food Mart, one of the last grocery
stores in the Kickapoo Valley. It has an
absentee owner – Brad Bergum – but the
full-service grocery store operated by Julie Greenland and her crew does a
lively business. The grocery store is
open seven days a week, just like the stores of yore in La Farge. In the summer of 2016, Bergum did some major
remodeling of his grocery store building by installing new cement parking
spaces and entrance areas and all new siding and trim. A new “Bergum’s Food Mart” sign adorns the
side of the building while a “For Sale” sign still hangs on the front.
One
building west on this block is the “A Little MOORE Than Hair” Styling
Salon. Deb Moore operates the salon and
also owns the building that housed Bonnie’s Beauty Shop operated by Bonnie
Risen up until 2014. Bonnie retired at
that time after recovering from a hip surgery and Deb began her business at the
same location where Lois Engen had a beauty shop forty years earlier. Deb has a revolving barber’s pole on the
outside of her shop signaling that her business is open for a haircut or two.
Moving down
the street to the corner we come to the building that housed the last barbershop
in La Farge. The building was originally
built as a hotel and has been a rooming house for most of its existence,
continuing to the present.
Across the
street and on the northwest corner of the intersection of State and Main
Streets is the law office of George Wilbur.
George, who originally came to La Farge in the mid-1970s to help market
George Bader’s wood stoves, reinvented his career choices and earned a law
degree. Wilbur went on to be Vernon
County District Attorney for a couple of terms before starting his law practice
in La Farge in 1999 on this busy corner.
George owns several other iconic buildings in La Farge. Most of those buildings used to be places of
business, but now house various apartments that George rents out.
Across the
alley to the north from the Wilbur building is Bean Park. Located on the former site of Dred Bean’s
house and original blacksmith shop, the village park is a popular gathering
place for children who cavort on the swing set and playground equipment. A basketball court always seems to be busy
with kids improving their shooting eyes.
When the weather is nice, several picnic tables in the park are usually
filled with people talking and visiting.
This Christmas season, the park has been decorated with lighted
displays, courtesy of several members of LAPA, the new community promotion
group in La Farge
To the north
of the park on the other side of Penn Street, the village funeral parlor is
still in operation. It is now called the
Seland-Huston Funeral Home (named after former funeral directors Paul and
Margaret Seland and Dewey Huston) and is operated as “A Pratt Funeral
Service”. Like most funeral parlors in
small towns in the area, the La Farge funeral home is now part of a bigger
operation. The parlor is used for
visitations and funerals, but the actual “business” is done elsewhere. The hearse is driven in for each occasion and
no longer kept in the village. In 2013,
the big two-car garage at the funeral parlor that used to house the hearse was
sold off and moved out of town.
Across
State Street from the funeral parlor is the La Farge Community Temple – the old
Masonic Temple. The building is a center
for community events and meetings. The La
Farge Lions Club, which over the years has poured lots of money and labor into
upgrading the building, has their monthly meetings at the community temple, as
do the VFW, Crafty Cookers Homemakers and other groups. Several exercise groups meet each week at the
temple. In 2016, the community temple
hosted many family parties and other special occasions like anniversaries and
reunions. Monthly Bingo Nights,
sponsored by LAPA, are held at the temple and two community pancake suppers,
sponsored by the Lions Club, are held each spring and fall at the temple.
Returning
to Main Street, to the west of the Wilbur Law Office is the Kickapoo Haven
Senior Nutrition Center – the Kickapoo Haven.
2013 was a tumultuous year for the La Farge Senior Center as Vernon
County withdrew support from the noon meal program. For years, the meals had been prepared on
site at the Kickapoo Haven and served there each noon, Tuesday through Friday,
with home deliveries to those who could not get to the center. With the cut in financial support from the
county, the locally prepared meals ceased at the end of 2013. With the start of a new year in 2014, meals
were prepared in Viroqua at the Vernon Manor and driven down to La Farge where
they were served. The arrangement did
not go over well with the La Farge senior citizens and people stopped coming to
the Senior Center for their noon meals.
By May 2014, the meals from Viroqua were scrapped and a new arrangement
was initiated. The meals are made
locally in La Farge at Sisters Place restaurant and brought across the street
where they are served to the senior citizens.
When the Kickapoo Haven hosts area musicians to play during the noon
meal, usually once a month, the Senior Center is packed!
Across an empty
lot from the Kickapoo Haven sat the old Quonset hut that used to house the Band
Box Café. The restaurant business was
shut down in 2012 and the building sat empty for several years, the brick
façade on the front crumbling to the sidewalk.
In June of 2016, the building was razed. The new owners intend to
construct a new building on the lot to house a brewpub – slated for opening by
July 4th of 2017.
To the west is the Indigo Thrift
Shop, one of three secondhand stores operating in La Farge during 2016. This business, owned by Jake Sell (what a
truly apt name for an owner of such a business), fills the old Muriel’s Variety
Store building with merchandise that always seems to spill out onto the
sidewalk in front. The business has
operated at the site since October of 2012.
Another vacant lot separates the
Indigo Thrift Shop from the old theater building, which had been operating as
“The Field House” bar into 2012. Owner
Cheryl Haas closed the bar and in the spring of 2013 began the “What’s In Store
– A Lot of This & That” secondhand store in the building. During warm weather, Cheryl has a blue Air
Dancer named “Stretch” bopping away in front of her store, luring customers
inside and scaring Amish horses as they pass.
Moving north up Bird Street, the
Lawton Memorial Library is located at the end of the block on the west end of
Bean Park. The library is another busy
community center that serves as a host to regular reading times and activities
for children, an adult book reading group and various other regular community
activities. The community library had
become such a busy and heavily used place, that more space was needed.
In 2012, the Friends of the Lawton
Library began a major fundraising campaign to expand the library. Architectural plans were drawn for an
expansion of the building that would nearly double the size of the existing
library. By the end of 2013, over a
quarter of the $600,000 needed for the expansion had been raised by the Friends
of the Lawton Library group. In May 2014
an application was made for a state grant to complete the library expansion
project. By that time monetary
contributions and pledges for the project had exceeded $200,000 and were used
as a foundation for the grant application for the library addition. Fundraising continued for the next two years
and two grants were procured for the project. A groundbreaking for the new
library expansion occurred in August of 2015 as many of the lead donors were
honored with the task of hoisting the first shovels of dirt.
Construction on the new addition to
the library continued through the winter months of 2015-16 as fundraising
continued. Besides the expansion of the
library, the entire building was improved with a new roof and siding and
upgrades to the HVAC system and improved toilet facilities. To help with all of the upgrades, a
“Teachers’ Honor Roll” was established for the library by the “Friends” group
as a way of honoring educators while raising needed funds for the project. By the time of the official “Grand Opening”
of the new and expanded Lawton Memorial Library in June 2016, nearly $25,000
had been raised by the Teachers’ Honor Roll project.
The new VMH Community Meeting Room
at the library was also officially opened at the grand opening. The new community meeting room was named to
honor Vernon Memorial Healthcare, which was the lead donor for the funds raised
for the library expansion project.
Across Bird Street from the old theater
building is an old hardware store. It is
one of the oldest buildings on Main Street and was the first brick store built
in La Farge (circa 1902). The building
currently houses two apartments and ownership of the building changed in late
2013 when Mark Katz and Janet Kruk sold the building to the Dr. Jeff Menn
family.
To the west in the middle of the
block is the always-busy Premier Co-op Auto and Tire Center, managed by Kevin
Janecek. Originally the gas station of
the La Farge Oil Co-op, the building has been expanded several times over the
years. When the Cenex Co-op acquired the
property, the gas tanks were removed and that fuel was no longer sold. Automotive services remained a big part of
the business along with the selling of farm supplies. In 2013 through a merger of several co-ops in
the state, the La Farge store became a part of the Premier Co-op. In May 2016 the Co-op opened up a new gas
pumping area for propane vehicles, such as the new propane fueled school bus
that the La Farge School District had acquired.
To the west of the Co-op is the old
Major’s store building, which when the year began housed several different
businesses. Penny Palmer had her resale
store, “Penny’s Nickel & Dime Store” in the corner of the old Major’s
Building located across Main Street from the Zzip Stop. Penny’s was the oldest of the thrifts, having
first opened in 2006. With its ideal
location across from the town’s busy gas station/convenience store and next to
the Co-op, Penny’s had a steady flow of customers to look over her stock. If three thrift stores defined La Farge as a
“destination shopping” venue, a step back was taken in October of this year when
Penny closed her store. Penny and her
husband, Pat Palmer sold the building, so all of the businesses located there
had to leave. Don Potter
Realty, now operated by Tom Kotten, comprised the east side of the
building. Kotten’s business specializes
in property appraisals. (More about
where these businesses moved when we get further along on our little stroll.)
One block north on Silver Street is
the United Methodist Church, on the same corner since 1902. Across the street, is the “Field of Dreams”
softball field – a busy place that serves as home field for the LHS softball
team and for summer youth teams’ games.
Going back down Silver Street is
the old welding shop building, now owned by George Wilbur, which is used for
apartment rentals. To the west and
continuing all the way to the end of the long block, are two buildings and two
parking areas that are part of the La Farge Truck Center (LTC). The LTC body shop is located in the building
that was originally built by Cecil Rolfe as a cabinet shop in the early
1970’s. Next to that is a parking area
to display new trucks and other vehicles.
In the middle of the block is the LTC Tire Center where the Muller
Brothers Construction shop used to be.
The west one third of the block is used as a parking area for vehicles.
To the north on Mill Street the
last sawmill in La Farge ceased operations in 2013.
Schroers Hardwood Lumber, which had operated a sawmill at
this site for over forty years, stopped sawing lumber in the summer of
2013. A sale was held in September and
all of the sawmill buildings and equipment was sold. By the end of October of that year, the lot
sat empty of any buildings or machinery from its sawmill days. In December, Russ and Sharon Schroer sold the
2.6-acre lot where the sawmill had been to Vernon Memorial Healthcare (VMH) for
the future site of a new medical clinic.
In April 2014 VMH released plans
and drawings for the new clinic to be built at the old sawmill site. The rest of 2014 were used to fill the old
sawmill lot and construct the new clinic.
Moving of the equipment from the old clinic to the new facility was done
in May 2015 and a grand opening was held for the new VMH – La Farge Medical
Clinic in June. The new clinic has
eleven exam rooms and procedure and treatment rooms for advanced and acute
care. The clinic has two birthing rooms, one with a water-birth tub and another
with a balcony for being outside. The
new clinic also is equipped with a state-of-the-art lab and another draw
station to assist in the births.
The new VMH - La Farge Medical
Clinic is one of the busiest places in the village. The new building originally served the
practices of three doctors – James Deline, Ben Agar, and Shawn Sedgewick and
two physician’s assistants, Kelly Scheder and Tamsen Morgan. In 2016, Dr. Taryn
Lawler and Dr. Tom Herr began practicing at the new clinic.
This busy new clinic is the result of the many years of hard work put in
by Dr. Jim Deline to establish a practice in a small town. Dr. Deline reached out to the Amish community
that surrounds La Farge early on in his practice. Making house calls to the Amish on Salem and
Buckeye Ridges and in the Dell area to deliver babies became common for
Deline’s practice. Eventually he
encouraged the Amish families to have the mothers deliver their babies at the
clinic in La Farge in a special birthing room or at the Vernon Memorial
Hospital in Viroqua where a special Amish birthing room was also provided. With the state-of-the-art birthing rooms and
labs at the new medical clinic, Dr. Deline can continue his research on the
hereditary diseases specific to the Amish community.
Nuzum’s Building Supply remains on
the northwest corner of Mill and Main Streets, in the same location where it
has been for over a century. The retail
building supplies business, now owned by Jon Zahm, remains a vibrant and active
place in La Farge. To the north of
Nuzum’s and across from the new clinic is Hill Country Heating. Doug Weed once sold wood-burning furnaces
from this facility. The elevated office
building, perched on a stilt-like foundation, is a reminder of past and
potential floodwaters in this area of the village.
To the west of Nuzum’s towards the
river is the old railroad depot site.
The depot is long gone, spirited out of town after the railroad closed
in 1939, but the old railroad freight house is still there. The building was used by Dick Hatton for his
lawn mower repair and small engine business for years, but now is used for
storage. As is the old cheese warehouse
building that is located to the north next to where the railroad track used to
be. In the summer of 2016, the La Farge
Area Partners Association (LAPA) hosted a farmers market at the site each
Saturday morning.
The village maintains a canoe
landing on the Kickapoo River just to the north of the bridge for Highway
82. There is also a parking lot for the vehicles
of the canoeists who are departing the river at that spot. The old concrete water measuring station
still sits along the bridge just below the canoe landing, constantly measuring
the flow of the waters of the Kickapoo below.
In the spring of 2016, preliminary plans were being discussed to put a
new canoe landing along the river on the south side of the bridge with vehicle
access away from the main highway.
