WATER THROUGH THE DAM!

KICKAPOO RIVER FLOOD OF 2008

            Volume II of my history of La Farge begins with information about the great Kickapoo River Flood of 2008.  The introduction of the book deals with how that particular flood somewhat delayed the publishing of Volume II and why that flooding event kept me occupied with other tasks besides writing.  Chapter 1 of the book is all about the flood itself and how the community reacted to it. As we have been doing with these recent columns, we also will look at how La Farge dealt with the aftermath of that great flood.  Let’s begin by looking at what I wrote about the flood of 2008 in Chapter 1 – titled A Flood For The Ages.

            The water started to cross Highway 82 at the low spot in the road near the river, just to the west of Nuzum’s and the Organic Valley cheese factory building. Roger Andrew’s flat to the north had filled with water during the early Sunday morning hours and was now spilling the excess water across State Highway 82.  Around the corner and going north on Mill Street, the water was starting to seep across that street towards Schroer’s sawmill.  Heavy rains from the day before in the Kickapoo Valley had accumulated to over a half a foot of precipitation or more in some places and those waters were rushing to the river.  It was Sunday, June 8, 2008 and the village of La Farge was beginning to feel the effects of what would become the greatest recorded flood in the history of the Kickapoo River.

            To the north, the flat empty land that had once been Seelyburg was covered with several feet of swiftly rising water.  The river had come out of its banks during the night and now the old lumber town’s Main Street was under water from Chapel Hill in the south all the way to the Star Cemetery hill north of the river.  Around the hill to the north, the covered bridge on the Kickapoo Valley Reserve strained against the floodwaters battering at its foundation and rising nearly to its roof.

            On County Highway P where Weister Creek enters the Kickapoo, the river was a quarter of a mile wide at Bridge 14 that morning.  Traveling north to Rockton, the talk in that hamlet was about the FedEx truck that stalled out in the rising waters near Cutoff Road on County P heading east towards Valley.  The previous evening, curious on-lookers and flood gazers had watched the floodwaters ascend on the side of the truck.  When darkness fell, the truck was still there surrounded in water that was door-handle high.  Then early on this morning, the first gazers noticed that the truck was gone and supposed that the terrible current had washed it away.  Only later did they realize that the truck was still there in the early morning light, only invisible as it was completely covered by the floodwaters.

            Word came upriver from Ontario that the village was in a state of shambles from the terrible floodwaters.  Reports started down the valley that the crest of the flood was the highest ever seen in the village, surpassing the high water marks of the 1935 and 1978 floods. “Prepare for the Worst” was the alarm echoed along the Kickapoo on that June morning.

            Back in La Farge the warnings were being heeded.  At Nuzum’s Lumber Yard, workers carried a variety of items upstairs in the old shed, as had been done so many times before during big floods. Across the street at the old cheese factory building, Organic Valley workers placed products up on shelves in the retail store and warehouse.  Earl Nelson and his crew moved trucks off the lots at the La Farge Truck Center and drove them to high ground.  The ambulances and fire trucks were moved from their garages located south of Main Street to the school parking lots on the high ground on the north side of the village.  An Emergency Command Center was set up at the schoolhouse and the Red Cross arrived to prepare a place for displaced people to stay in the school gymnasium.  The National Weather Service issued flood warnings along the Kickapoo, setting off preparations by Vernon County Emergency Management to help those people in the path of the flood.

            As the water continued to rise during the afternoon, many people were removed from their homes south of Main Street and taken to the shelter at the school where food and sleeping cots were available.  Most of the people living in houses south of Main Street had been busy all day getting what they had out of the way of the floodwaters.  Once again the floodwaters of the Kickapoo were cutting the familiar diagonal slash across the village as it had done before in the other great floods.  Heavy rains hit in the afternoon hours dumping nearly three inches of water on saturated ground.  Rain totals for the two days now reached eight inches, or a foot, depending on where you lived in the Kickapoo Valley.  All of the creeks soon roared out of their banks in the countryside around the village.  Water rushing off the hillsides washed a pickup parked along Jug Creek Road, located north of La Farge, into the nearby ditch.  Bear Creek’s raging waters closed County Highway D east of La Farge and washed two cars off the road there.

            During the evening the floodwaters in La Farge continued to rise at an alarming rate.  County Sheriff’s cars manned a blockade on the west end of the bridge over the river to keep traffic from entering the raging waters.  In town the waters had reached into the Heartland Cenex Co-op station parking lot, nearly up to the Post Office.  A vigil of emergency personnel maintained an overnight post on Main Street at the east end of the floodwaters.  Shane Nottestad, owner of the Zzip Stop convenience store/gas station, spent the night with other helpers steering floating logs, washed out of Schroer’s lumber yards several blocks to the northwest, away from the gas pumps of his business.  Lights shining out of the roiling waters showed one of the trucks at the La Farge Truck Center, parked on a display riser nearly four feet above the street level. Left there because it was hoped it would be above the floodwaters, the truck now seemed to be perched on the surface of a lake as the waters lapped at its tires.  Finally the water rose so high that the emergency electric generator, being operated two blocks south of Main Street, had to be shut down, plunging the village into further darkness.

            When light first came on that following Monday, June 9, the Kickapoo River at La Farge still stretched from the bridge on the west end of town to the Zzip Stop corner five blocks away.  The floodwaters had risen to record levels in the village during the previous night and had stayed that way for longer than ever before.  The only good sign that the bleary-eyed gazers saw on that morning was that the waters, slowly but surely, were starting to abate. Sometime in the early morning hours of darkness the crest had been reached and the river’s mighty flood had started to recede back towards its banks.  The recession of the river’s crest was a slow process that took most of the day.

            By Tuesday, the cleanup from the flood was in full force in the village. Volunteers poured into the village to help those returning to their flooded homes.  The flood had been the greatest ever recorded, with the National Weather Service gauging station at La Farge measuring a high water mark of 15.78 feet.  That level was nearly a foot higher than the previous highest level recorded in La Farge during the 1978 flood.  The effect of those record high floodwaters on the houses and businesses of La Farge was readily apparent.  There was so much water backed up in the offices of Nuzum’s that holes had to be drilled in the floor to get the water to drain out.  Across the street at the old cheese factory, the coolers and freezers of Organic Valley’s retail store and warehouse were badly damaged by the floodwaters.  It would take months to get that Main Street operation back to normal.  Further up Main Street at the La Farge Truck Center fire hoses washed away at the mud left by the floodwaters.  Piles of trash and debris started to accumulate on the curbs around the village.

            Homeowners who had rarely if ever had floodwaters before in their homes, now returned to see the devastation caused by the flood.  High water marks left on the walls were nearly two feet high on the first floor in some houses.  Nearly every house in the village south of Main Street had suffered some type of flood or water damage.  Mold grew on the floors and walls where the floodwaters had once been.  Many of the homes had suffered major damages and the extent was confirmed by touring village and FEMA officials.  After the inspections later in the week, eight houses that were most heavily damaged by the floodwaters were declared unfit to live in and condemned.  Eventually, more than fifteen houses in La Farge, damaged by the floodwaters, would be purchased from their owners with FEMA funds and demolished.

            Another casualty of the flood was the Burt’s apartment building located across Snow Street and to the south of the motel.  In the early hours of Wednesday morning, June 11^th, the La Farge firemen rushed to the building, which was totally ablaze.  It could not be saved and burned to the ground along with the contents of the three apartments.  The flood had inundated the apartment building, which was once the former La Farge Methodist Church parsonage.  The moisture from the floodwaters had damaged the wiring in the apartment complex.  When the power was turned back on, the wiring failed and caused electrical problems that led to the fire.

            The Burt’s apartment building was the first of nearly two-dozen residences that would cease to be on La Farge’s south side because of the 2008 flood.  Using FEMA and later DNR funds, many houses on south Mill Street, south State Street, Snow Street and Pearl Street were purchased from their owners and razed. The great Kickapoo River Flood of 2008 and a later, but smaller flood in 2010 sent people who owned homes near the river to higher ground.

            After the flood a new apartment building was built on Highland Street using federal grant money as a way of replacing some of the lost housing in the village.  A new Emergency Services Building opened in 2010 on the village’s east side to house the fire department and ambulance squad vehicles.  The building also serves as a village hall for meetings and elections. The Town of Stark relocated away from their flooded buildings on Main Street and moved to a new town hall building constructed on the dam site at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.  About that unfinished water control structure north of La Farge, once again people were amazed and saddened at how much water can flow through an unfinished dam.

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If you would like a copy of Volume II of my La Farge history, send a $25 check (that includes shipping and mailing costs) to me at P.O. Box 202, La Farge, WI 54639.  Locally my books are for sale at the La Farge Episcope office, the bank in La Farge and at the gift shop at the KVR Visitor Center.    

            

            

WATER OVER THE DAM - PT. IV

The great Kickapoo River Flood of 1978 was the culmination of a very wet spring season that continued into June.  That month, weekend storms seemed to keep the river at or near flood stage every weekend, thwarting the attempts of tourists to canoe on the river.  At the end of the month the tipping point was reached. Here is how I described that flood in volume II of my history of La Farge (page 214).

            On the evening of Friday, June 30^th, a series of heavy thunderstorms swept through the Kickapoo Valley.  During the evening, the National Weather Service issued a flood alert for the Kickapoo River and surrounding streams.  The Vernon County Sheriff’s Department mobilized efforts to move everyone away from flooding streams.  The La Farge Fire Department was called out during the night to look for canoeists who were camped along the river south of Rockton.  Later, the power went off in the village and firemen helped people with emergency power for sump pumps to keep water out of basements.

            By the morning of July 1, reports from communities upriver from La Farge warned of high floodwaters on the way.  Norwalk, Wilton and Ontario were all deluged with floodwaters and all of it was headed fro La Farge and other communities downstream.  North of Rockton, the waters of the flooding Kickapoo were almost over the 10-foot high railings of Bridge #10 that spanned the river. By late morning on Saturday, July 1, the flooding Kickapoo began to spill into La Farge.  Employees and volunteer work crews worked at Nuzum’s, Jeffer’s Truck Sales, and the cheese factory to get merchandise to higher ground. Volunteers and members of the fire department began to move furniture and other belongings out of the houses south of Main Street.  A caravan of volunteers in trucks and boats moved people out of their houses on Mill, Pearl, Gold, Silver and Snow Streets.  All of the trucks of the fire department as well as the ambulance were moved away from the firehouse on south Silver Street to higher ground.  Some of the trucks were kept at C&S Motors and a couple others were eventually driven over to the Major farm on Otter Creek, so the department could respond on the west side of the river.

            By mid-afternoon the waters of the Kickapoo had advanced up Main Street to crest between the post office and the Co-op Gas Station.  All events of the opening day of the 4^thof July Celebration were cancelled, but many people still came to La Farge for the events – many unaware of the devastating flood.  Others, however, cam to see the floodwaters and by late afternoon the village was jammed with people.  Sandwiches that had been made for the celebration were donated to feed the many volunteers, firemen and policemen helping with the flood.  Red Cross officials came to the village by nightfall and they arranged for meals to be served at Kennedy’s Restaurant for people displaced by the floodwaters.  Sleeping bags were placed in the school gymnasium and people with no place to stay could reside there until the floodwaters abated.  Others stayed in the KP Hall overnight as they waited to return to their flooded homes.

            The waters started to recede late in the day on July 1^st, but then an intense storm pummeled the La Farge area in the evening.  The storm had spawned several tornadoes in the Viroqua area and La Farge received nearly two-inches of rain.  The storm caused more severe flooding on Bear Creek, Otter Creek, and Weister Creek and caused the Kickapoo to again rise to former high levels during the night.  From Friday evening June 30^ththrough Sunday morning, July 2^nd, 6.15 inches of rain was measured in La Farge.

            By the morning of Sunday, July 2^ndthe waters of the Kickapoo at La Farge had begun its recession down Main Street and back towards the river’s banks.  The floodwaters had crested at 14.92 feet, the greatest water level ever recorded at the gauging station located on the bridge west of Nuzum’s.  12,900 cubic feet of water per second was rushing through the village at the peak of the crest, another apex never recorded before.  (Many of the older generation compared the great Flood of 1978 to that of the one in 1935, but the gauging station at La Farge was not in operation at that time of the Flood of 1935, so an official comparison was not available.)

            It is interesting to note that the gauging station at La Farge was installed because of the flood of 1935.  When the Corps of Engineers did their preliminary flood control studies of the Kickapoo Watershed beginning in 1938, one of their initial recommendations was for gauging stations to be placed along the river to measure its flow.  The stations were installed at La Farge and Gays Mills soon after that initial Corps study. Let’s now return to my account in volume II of that 1978 flood at La Farge.

            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, Ethel Burt, Maxine Kennedy, Bob Erickson, Lucille Yarolimek, Vera Campton, Bob Jacobson, and Leslie Gillett.

            Business places in La Farge that were inundated with the floodwaters 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, and Nelson’s Garage.  Also suffering damage from the flood were the Town of Stark hall and shed, the La Farge jail, and the new village hall and firehouse.

            The school’s bus garage, located on Main Street in the old Fulmer’s Garage building suffered heavy damage.

            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.  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 Seelyburg 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^thindicated there was no contamination.

            Governor Martin Schreiber had declared much of southwestern Wisconsin, including the Kickapoo Valley, a disaster area because of the flooding.  (President Carter soon followed with his own disaster declaration, freeing up federal funds for flood relief.)  The move by Governor Schreiber allowed for state and federal assistance to reach those affected by the floods more quickly. Within a week of the flood, representatives from HUD and the Governor’s office were in La Farge to assess the damages. A list compiled by Village President Ted Erickson indicated that 38 residences, 23 businesses and several municipal facilities in La Farge had damages from the flood.  An initial estimate total of $200,000 in damages to La Farge residences, businesses, and streets was compiled.  That total did not include any of the damages to farm operations within the village.

            It is important to remember that a nearly completed flood control dam lay north of La Farge during that epic Kickapoo River Flood of 1978.  Originally scheduled to be completed two years before the flood, construction on the unfinished dam had been delayed for nearly four years.  It is interesting to notice how the Corps of Engineers assessed that 1978 flood on the Kickapoo River.  Again, I will return to volume II, page 219.

            Later, the Corps of Engineers came up with very different numbers for the impact of a completed dam on the flood.  Corps estimates on the total damages from the flood to Vernon, Richland and Crawford Counties was $20-million.  An additional $7-million in damages occurred in Monroe County, but those damages would not have been affected by a dam at La Farge.  However, the Corps estimated that with a completed dam at La Farge and the accompanying levee systems at Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills, 80% of the flood damages to Kickapoo towns would have been avoided.  With only the dam in place and with no downstream levees, the Corps still predicted a decrease of 63% in flood damages. 

            Wow, 80% less damages with a completed dam at La Farge!  It blows one’s mind to think that those kinds of numbers still created no impetus for the politicians to finish the dam project. As Bob Faw said on his TV news story about the La Farge dam project that was shown on the “CBS Evening News” on October 13, 1978, “An unfinished dam stops no flood waters”. 

Water Over The Dam - Part III

La Farge, as a community located along the Kickapoo River, has a long history of recovering from floods. As we wait to see how the village reacts to the greatest Kickapoo River flood ever in 2018, perhaps a look back at some of the other post-flood times is in order.

            The June 1899 Kickapoo River flood was the first great flood to be felt by the communities in the valley.  There had been other floods before that, but nothing like the destruction caused in that year.  At the mill in Rockton, the 1899 flood of the Kickapoo River was measured as over a foot higher than any previous flood.  The flood was devastating to the downriver town of Seelyburg as the river cut a new channel right through the middle of the community. Every house and store in the hamlet was damaged or destroyed.  Many of the people who lived in the little community along the Kickapoo moved away from Seelyburg to higher ground.  Several of the Seelyburg businesses including the Millard General Store and the Brown Photography Studio moved south to La Farge to reestablish their businesses. The exodus from Seelyburg continued after the flood as the Methodist congregation moved from Chapel Hill on the southern end of Seelyburg to a new church in La Farge in 1902.

            Interestingly, only one house in La Farge suffered damages from the 1899 flood.  A month after the flood, the village was incorporated and the new municipality including flood-ravaged Seelyburg on the north end, was established.  La Farge had damages to the railroad that had come to the town only a year earlier.  Most of the railroad’s track bed in the village was washed away and the railroad bridge south of town was washed askew and had to be straightened.  Of course, in the summer of 1899, the new village had not yet begun its expansion towards the river.  By 1907, when the next great river flood hit, the village had expanded to the west and south from the original “Corners”.  Many houses and places of business had been built south of La Farge’s bustling Main Street and would be in the way of the flood.

            The July 1907 Kickapoo River flood devastated La Farge and the other communities along its path.  In La Farge, the crest of the floodwaters reached nearly three blocks east from the river.  According to an article about the flood in the La Farge Enterprise newspaper, the floodwaters reached the base of the hill where the Central Hotel stood (Today, the post office is located where that hotel once was.  That serves as a good comparison of that 1907 flood to the recent 2018 flood.)  Major damages were suffered at many of the lumbering businesses along Mill Street, including the Arm & Pin Factory, Nuzum & Hunter Lumber, Hammer Brothers Lumber & Excelsior Mill and several other lumber mills located along the street.  Further north at Seelyburg, the La Farge Milling Company & Electric Company also suffered heavy damages.  

            The railroad depot and freight warehouse (next to Nuzum’s today) also were heavily damaged in La Farge.  At Seelyburg, the railroad’s “Wye” turnaround was washed out as well as the spur line to the mill there.  South of the depot in La Farge, most of the railroad’s spur line to the lumbering businesses was washed away or damaged in some way.  It was weeks before railroad service was restored to the community. 

             Many people living in houses south of La Farge’s Main Street had to be rescued by boats during the night when the floodwaters rose dangerously in town. Amazingly, nobody was hurt or killed during the numerous rescues in La Farge during that 1907 flood.  During the height of that flood, water was measured at five-feet deep in some houses in La Farge.

            For Seelyburg, the 1907 Kickapoo River Flood virtually marked the end of the little riverside hamlet.  After the flood, only one residence and one business remained on the once bustling main street of the mill town as everyone else moved away from the river, continuing the exodus to the higher ground to the south in the village. 

When the big floods come, the Kickapoo washes away more than ever comes back.

            After the 1907 flood, some people living in La Farge moved from their flooded houses to higher ground.  A few businesses that had been hit hard by the flood did not choose to stay in La Farge.  Some of the lumbering businesses located along Mill Street would close within a short time.  Some of that was due to the damages suffered from the flood, but another reason was the lack of available wood to use in the lumber and excelsior mills.

            It would be nearly three decades before another massive flood would hit the Kickapoo Valley.  In August 1935 the greatest Kickapoo River flood that had ever been seen devastated the valley.  The floodwaters rose rapidly in La Farge during the evening of August 5^thand people once again were rescued from their houses during that terrible night. The floodwaters rose so rapidly that some people had to be rescued by boats from the second story windows of their houses.  The La Farge telephone operator stayed up all night calling homes in the village and beyond towards Tunnelville to warn people to get out of their homes if they lived near the river.  At its height that night, the Kickapoo River floodwaters rose two feet in one hour in La Farge.  People displaced by the flood were temporarily housed in the KP Hall, the Odd Fellows Hall and the Masonic Temple.  The Red Cross was in town the next day and over the next week served nearly 300 meals to those displaced by the flood.

            The aftermath of the Flood of 1935 was a massive cleanup.  Disinfectant by the gallons was used to clean up the flood’s stinking residue.  The village’s health officer ordered everybody to boil any water used for drinking for fifteen minutes to avoid the ill effects of typhoid fever and other bowel infections.  Waste and garbage from the flood was burned immediately or buried. Dead animal carcasses, and there were many of them in the village, were removed in haste.

            The Red Cross brought in two-dozen large tents to La Farge for people to live in while their houses were drying out.  People in the village shared their garden vegetables with their neighbors who had lost their gardens to the floodwaters.

            Damages to businesses in the village were massive. Nuzum’s, the cheese factory, both gas stations on the corners of Main and Mill Streets, the lumber mill and pickle station on south Mill Street and the power plant at Seelyburg all had heavy damages from the floodwaters.  

            Every aspect of the railroad received heavy flood damage as the tracks from south of La Farge all the way to Seelyburg were heavily damaged.  The railroad’s depot, freight warehouse, coal shed, icehouse, engine house and nearby cheese warehouse were all heavily damaged.  The railroad bridge south of town had to be repaired again.  A freight train had stood next to the depot in La Farge during the flood and the high water mark was three feet up on the wooden boxcars.  It was nearly three weeks before the trains were able to run to La Farge once again after the flood.

            Residential damage in La Farge from the Kickapoo River Flood of 1935 was immense.  Many people’s woodsheds and out buildings were burned instead of repaired, too far gone to be fixed up.  Most of the damaged houses in the village were eventually cleaned up and repaired. Some of the houses were elevated to avoid future floods.  Many of the former occupants moved back in, but several houses were dismantled due to the excessive damages from the flood.  By September, several small single story houses had been built along north Mill Street (across from the present Calhoon Park) to help provide temporary housing for those displaced by the flood.

            After the Kickapoo River Flood of 1935, the people of La Farge and other Kickapoo Valley towns began to seek some type of relief from the river’s floods.  Led by La Farge Village President Arch Davidson, a delegation went to Washington D.C. to plead with Congress for some type of flood control help.  Thus, the story of the dam project at La Farge began. But that is another story for another time.

Water Over The Dam - Part II

The great Kickapoo River flood of 2018 began on the evening of Monday, August 27^th, when torrential rains inundated an area from Coon Valley to Hillsboro.  Rainfall totals for that evening exceeded a foot in the Cashton, Ontario and Wilton areas.  In La Farge over five inches fell.  During that first night, the northern Kickapoo Valley communities were hit with record setting flood heights.  Most of the downtown Ontario business district was under 5 to 10 feet of water before daybreak.

            By 4 am on Tuesday, August 28^th, word had been received in La Farge of the record setting water that was approaching from upriver.  An army of workers and volunteers began to move what could be saved from the businesses along west Main Street nearest the river.  By daylight the river was out of its banks, crossing the old Highway 131 at Seelyburg and plowing its way toward the village with alarming speed and power. By mid-morning, the Kickapoo River stretched from the bridge west of Nuzum’s all the way to the gas pumps at the Zzip Stop.  And the water kept rising.

            That afternoon over five inches of rain fell in less than three hours in the La Farge area.  The downpour set off a massive flood on area creeks and streams. As the rising waters of Bear and Otter Creeks came careening into La Farge that afternoon, it encountered the already record flood heights of the swollen Kickapoo and had nowhere to go. The water kept rising and by nightfall, the flood crest had breached the drive-thru of the post office – a never before seen height.  Water from a backed up Bear Creek was running west down Snow Street and into the river near the motel.  On the other end of the village, the waters of Bear Creek nearly reached the parking lot of the new EMT Building.

            Rescuing people from their houses was a top priority after the afternoon deluge.  DNR wardens brought a boat to the village and went door to door rescuing people and their pets from their flooded houses and getting them to high ground.  (Check out the rescue video posted on the WKBT – Channel 8 in LaCrosse website of those DNR wardens rescuing people in La Farge that day.  It is mesmerizing to watch – the definition of heroism in many respects.)  

            It took nearly all of Wednesday, August 29^thfor the flood waters to leave Main Street in La Farge.  Highway 131 was closed in both directions from the village. To the north, the road had washouts at Bridges 10, 9, 7 and three different locations at Bridge 2 on the northern end of Ferris Flat.  To the south, the river’s floodwaters covered the highway below Tunnelville at Lawton’s and would eventually wash out part of the road there.  Highway 82 through La Farge finally opened for traffic on that evening.

            The flood’s height for La Farge measured at the official measuring station at the bridge next to Nuzum’s was 19.42 feet.  That height eclipsed the previous high water mark in La Farge (set by the 2008 flood) by nearly three and a half feet! By the way, that measuring station was always operating during the flood even though the station did quit sending out information via satellite.  When Lyle Dorscheid, the local gauge reader and the National Weather Service crew checked the gauging station after the floodwater finally went down, they verified that it had always been recording the river’s depth.  What the station could not record was the torrents of water entering the river via Otter and Bear Creeks south of the gauge.

            The power was out in La Farge for most of three days as the village’s generating station on south Silver Street was overcome with the high floodwaters.  The electric power ceased to be at noon on that Tuesday and did not return until mid-afternoon on Thursday, August 30^th.  Down river, the Kickapoo inundated Viola, Readstown, Soldiers Grove, Gays Mills and Steuben as its waters raced to join the Wisconsin River.  Almost every village set high water marks, just as La Farge had, with some areas noting water levels nearly five feet higher than any ever recorded previously.

            The record floodwater levels meant lots of damages to several businesses in La Farge.  They included Nuzum’s, the Organic Valley retail store in the old cheese factory, the La Farge Truck Center and Car Wash, Don Potter Realty, the Zzip Stop, Ewetopia, the Premier Co-op, The La Farge Dental Clinic and the La Farge Motel. Water even seeped into the north end of the new clinic on north Mill Street that had been constructed at an elevation level three feet above the previous highest flood.

            In addition, twenty-one La Farge residences had floodwater damage.  All of the houses on Snow Street, eleven in all, suffered extensive flood damage. Many of those houses had been elevated since previous floods, but still had water damage due to the record flood crest. Six houses on south State Street, several that had never had floodwater previously, were flooded this time.  Some of the houses can be repaired and made livable again, but many cannot be fixed.

            By Friday, August 31^st, the water had finally receded from Plum Run Road (old Hwy 131) at Seelyburg.  Massive clean up continued in the village.  The Zzip Stop was selling gas by that day after having the gas pumps cleaned and inspected.  Dumpsters were everywhere in the floodway of the village, stretching the length of Snow Street and beyond.  The water had been so high in the motel that all of the rooms had to be gutted.  Dumpsters piled high with flood debris stood beside the motel, Zzip Stop, Ewetopia and other Main Street businesses.  Rental houses on Main Street were damaged too badly to allow the tenants to return.

            The sidewalk outside of the Kickapoo Haven served as a meal site while the power was out during the beginning of the cleanup. Meals were served at noon and in the early evening every day through that Friday, August 31^st.   Volunteers, flood victims and those who needed a meal were fed with food donated and made by the Rockton Bar, the La Farge Food Pantry, both La Farge restaurants – Brosi’s and Phil & Deb’s, Bergum’s Grocery, and the Zzip Stop.  The La Farge Fire Department personnel was on call for the entire week helping with rescues, pumping out basements and doing what ever needed to be done to help the people of the community.

            Flood relief supplies were available at both churches in La Farge and the United Methodist Church was soon filled with clothes, food, and other necessities for those that had been flooded out.  The La Farge UM church is scheduled to be open as a flood relief center until the end of the first week of October.   The La Farge Food Pantry, under the leadership of Pastor Mark Phillips, was providing housing and money for those displaced by the flood.  A week after the last floodwaters had subsided, Pastor Mark was still busy finding places for people to live and providing relief in many other ways. Several families displaced by the flood moved into campers parked in the La Farge Village Park.

            By the weekend, the weather had settled down and the river was back in its banks.  Then early Sunday morning, September 2^nd, it started raining again.  It rained again on Sunday and several times on Monday, Labor Day.  Another nearly six inches of rain fell in three days and the Kickapoo rose rapidly again. By Tuesday, September 4^th, the floodwaters of the Kickapoo River had covered old Hwy 131 at Seelyburg again.  By that evening the river’s water was over Hwy 82 at Nuzum’s and over Mill Street again near the new clinic.  Most of the floodwater had receded by the next day, September 6^th, but Plum Run Road at Seelyburg remained under water for another day.  South Mill Street, south Silver Street and Pearl Street on the far southern end of the village were closed for nearly two weeks straight due to high water.

            So where does La Farge go after such a catastrophic flood?  How many people and businesses will leave?  What lays ahead for this Kickapoo River town?  What will be the reaction to this historic flood?

The Great Kickapoo River Flood of 1978 - Part 1

The Kickapoo River flood of June 30 – July 2, 1978 was the greatest ever recorded at La Farge up to that time.  The high water mark happened on Saturday, July 1 as the depth of the Kickapoo reached 14.92 feet, nearly three feet over the river’s flood stage of 12 feet.  At its height, the flood poured 12,900 cubic feet of water per second through La Farge – another all-time record.  The 6.15 inches of rain that fell in torrents beginning Friday evening, June 30^th and continuing through Sunday morning was the final impetus to unleash the havoc of the Kickapoo’s greatest flood.  Meteorological and political events leading up to the great flood framed the significance of the damage to the Kickapoo Valley in a special way.

            As was usual for that time, the record setting Kickapoo River Flood of 1978 once again splashed La Farge and the failed fiasco of the federal dam project back onto the national scene, culminating with the appearance of several local citizens on an October airing of the CBS Evening News.

            Most of the great floods of the Kickapoo Valley watershed are often a culmination of a series of weather patterns and the Flood of 1978 was no exception.  A wet autumn in 1977 had culminated in flash flooding along several La Farge area streams at the end of October.  With Otter Creek, Bear Creek, Elk Run and Camp Creek all flooding that fall, the Kickapoo River was soon out of its banks from La Farge and down river.

            Heavy snows in late November 1977 had been the beginning of a winter that featured heavy snowfall totals that continued for several months.  A big snowstorm in early January 1978 dumped over a foot of snow in some parts of the Kickapoo Valley.  Snow totals were above average for February and by March the heavy ice accumulation on the Kickapoo River at La Farge had barely started to melt.  The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted floods for the Kickapoo Valley from the melting of the snowpack later in March.  Although the river was out of its banks on several occasions, the spring flooding of the Kickapoo was moderated by an even snowmelt and less than normal rainfall.

            A week of rains in late April brought the river out of its banks for several days and filled all of the sloughs, swamps and other wetlands along the river.  In June, it seemed that there were major rainstorms every weekend and the river was usually out of its banks.  Weekend canoeing on the Kickapoo was a washout for most of the month.  For the two weeks before the big flood at the end of June, the Kickapoo River remained bank full or higher.  With nowhere for any excess water to go, the massive storms of June-July generated rainfall totals to trigger the greatest flood in the history of the river.

            The great flood arrived just as the community of La Farge was set to commence a four-day celebration of America’s Independence Day.  The 4^th of July Celebration, sponsored by the La Farge Lions Club, was to offer a variety of events and activities for all ages.  In an effort to draw some of the 4^th of July crowds back to the Village Park, where they had traditionally been held, the Lions Club rented a large tent to cover the Village Park Bowery.  (At the time, there was no permanent shelter over the bowery that consisted of a large pad of cement for dancing.)  The Lions Club had scheduled several dances and a fashion show to be held under the big tent during the celebration.

            On Friday evening, June 30^th, many people were at the 4^th of July grounds setting things up for the celebration.  A thunderstorm with heavy rain went through early in the evening and another a few hours later.  I had helped set up the big tent in the park earlier in the afternoon and had been instructed by the installation crew to drop the side poles to let water drain off the canopy if there was heavy rain.  When another heavy rain hit La Farge before midnight, I made my third trip to the Village Park to drain the water from the tent.

            Another heavy rainstorm hit the Kickapoo Valley after 2 a.m. and I was back to the park once again.  We were living in the Burt Apartments next to the motel in that summer of 1978 and when I returned home I noticed a group assembled at the nearby firehouse.  The La Farge Fire Dept. was assembling crews to search for canoeists who were camping along the river south of Rockton.  The NWS had already issued a flood alert for the Kickapoo Valley and the Vernon County Sheriff’s Department was moving everyone away from soon-to-be flooding streams and rivers.  I stumbled home to try to get some sleep before another storm came through.

            Early the next morning (Saturday, July 1^st) a knocking at the door woke us from our short night’s slumber.  Fellow Lions Club member Brent Waddell had just driven in from Fairview Ridge and said that he had never seen the water on Otter Creek so high.  Brent was one of the Lions’ members in charge of the tractor and 4-wheel drive pull to be held later that day.  The pulling eliminator for the event was to be rented from a business in Norwalk and Brent wasn’t sure if the pull could be held with the looming flood threat.  When he called the Norwalk business about the eliminator, he found that Norwalk had suffered a terrible flash flood overnight and the eliminator had been washed away along with several other vehicles kept on the property.  The pulling event was definitely off for that day.

            We decided to drive north to see how high the water was at Rockton.  As we were crossing the Jug Creek Bridge, we saw Ole Gabrielson walking towards the highway from the river.  Ole had walked down to look at the river at Bridge 12 and saw the floodwaters form a cap on the river before rushing over the banks.  He was soaked nearly from head to toe and he told us that the waters on the Kickapoo River had come over the bank so fast that they overtook him as he scrambled to higher ground.  Behind him, we could see the mouth of Jug Creek rapidly filling up with floodwater.

            When we continued on upriver and crossed the new Highway 131 Bridge at Rockton, we could see nothing but water below us.  We stopped into the Rockton Bar and asked owner Dean Hamilton how bad the flooding was.  Dean told us to drive up the river and look at the bridge above Rockton.  As we descended the hill towards the bridge we were amazed at what we saw.  The bridge (Bridge #10 today) had railings on both sides that reached nearly ten feet above the roadbed.  On that morning less that a foot of the railings remained above the swollen river’s waters – nearly eight feet of water was flowing above the bridge!  Shaken, Brent and I hurried back toward La Farge.

            When we returned to La Farge, we saw that Andrew’s flat was rapidly filling with water next to the river.  We stopped at Nuzum’s and helped with the efforts there to move merchandise and material to higher spots in the building to avoid approaching flood waters.  Items were carried upstairs in the Nuzum’s shed and after an hour or so; most of the work was done.  The floodwater was just beginning to cross Highway 82 between Nuzum’s and the river, so Brent and I headed up Main Street to help at other businesses.  When we arrived at Jeffers Truck Sales, it dawned on us that my apartment was in the path of the flood and quickly drove there.  Carolyn was in full flood-mode and had moved the vehicles to higher ground as the front yard was filling up with water.  She came out the front door with our little Chihuahua, Tinker, in her arms.  Carolyn’s parents came from Viola to help, but soon had to head over the hills and back downriver as the flood moved downstream to their hometown.  They took little Tinker with them and the friendly little dog got to hang out in Viola for a couple days with other flood refugees from that river town.

As we were beginning to put things up, Dean and Rudy Hamilton arrived with pickups and a crew of helpers, offering to move our things to higher ground.  They had already secured several garages and sheds in town where the material could be kept, so the process began immediately to move everything out of the apartment and truck it off for storage.  When our apartment was done, we started on the apartment next door.  Then it was over to Burt’s house, Maxine Kennedy’s, Earl Geddes’ place and on down Snow Street. 

            Other trucks and then boats helped in the moving of items, to the upstairs in some houses and off to the storage garages in others.  When we got to Harry Lounsbury’s house, some concerns arose as nobody had seen Harry anywhere that morning.  Dode Erlandson and I warily entered the house to check on him, but Harry was away from his home, safe out of the flood’s way.

            The floodwaters continued up Main Street all the rest of that day, until finally stopping between the La Farge Co-op gas station and the old post office building.  The water started to recede a little later in the afternoon, but another torrential thunderstorm came through in the early evening.  That storm caused even worse flooding on Bear Creek, and the floodwaters in La Farge stayed at near record levels through most of the night.  (Ironically, the floodwaters never did enter our apartment, although reaching right to the doorsill on a couple of occasions.)

Christmas Walk in La Farge - 2016

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 20^th 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 4^th 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.