KVA History Project - Part 2

So, let us finally continue with our look at the KVA local history project, which ran from 1977 through 1979.

            Perhaps no one knew of the importance of the oral history interviews for the KVA project better than Dale Muller of La Farge.  Dale had spent most of his life listening to peoples’ stories, remembering those stories and then passing them on to others.  As a young boy, Dale had been drawn to listen to his elders as they told of “the good old days”.  He remembered those stories of that earlier time and in 1972 when his son, Lonnie, began a new weekly newspaper in La Farge, he started writing about some of those memories in a weekly column called “John Bear Spreader Notes”.

            Dale used the pseudonym “Johnson Gunfrunk” when he penned the local history columns in the weekly issues of the Epitaph.  Some of the stories he told were priceless and I will share a very early one that he wrote in the second edition of the Epitaph – January 19, 1972.

            Dale was writing about the Dutch elm disease wiping out the American elm trees in the Kickapoo Valley.  He was not a big fan of that type of tree because it was a poor source of heat when it was burned for firewood and because of its penchant for warping and splitting.  Dale shared a local history story in that column that went like this, “Richard Cornell, local gunsmith, once made a full length stock for a .22 rifle out of elm.  It warped so bad that it bent the barrel.  He had the only gun on Bear Creek that would shoot around corners.  Dick became quite an expert at shooting squirrels on the other side of trees with it.”

            In 1976, when the village organized to celebrate the nation’s Bi-Centennial, Dale became a vital part of the committee that was formed in La Farge.  As part of La Farge’s look back for the American Bi-Centennial, Dale began to interview older people in the village.  Using a tape recorder for the interviews, he was able to save the precious local history stories for posterity.  As a matter of fact, when the Bi-Centennial activities were concluded with the 4^th of July Celebration in La Farge, Dale continued on with the oral history interviews and archived the tapes in the village’s library.

            When the Kickapoo Valley Association (KVA) began its local history project in 1977-78, Dale was a natural to serve on an “Advisory Group” for the project.  In the last issue of the “Kickapoo Pearls” (September – 1979), this testimony was made about the Advisory Group:

            “The Advisory Group to the Kickapoo Valley Association History Project has been a vital part of our efforts.  The members of the advisory group were selected by the KVA and the Crawford, Monroe and Vernon County Historical Societies to represent their various perspectives and concerns as historical information was gathered.  Other members were selected at large by the Advisory Group.  Their role has been to provide advice, direction, assistance, contacts and experience and knowledge to the staff of the project.  The members of the Advisory Group have served on a voluntary basis since early January of 1978.

            ‘Staff and Advisory Group have met regularly every six weeks over these past 20 months to jointly map out direction and goals.  Working in this type of situation was a new experience for most all of us and one that we’ll not soon forget.”

            Others on the Advisory Group included Kate Walter, Leita Twining Slayton, Kathy Calhoun, Helen Tuchalski, Jeanne & Bernard Smith, Connie Stephens, Steve Picus, Arlene Obert, and Dawald Craig.

            Dale Muller was also instrumental in helping with the initial phase of the KVA History Project, which was the preparation of a history of Seelyburg.  Dale had spent much of his youth in the Seelyburg area and helped to coordinate a research project on the old lumbering town on the Kickapoo River.  Working with other local history advocates Jeanne & Bernard Smith of La Farge and Connie & Lawrence Stephens of Viroqua, Dale joined Dale Treleven from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Oral History Program to get the history of Seelyburg project started.

            In the summer of 1977, the KVA used a Summer Youth Work Program grant to hire Janet Marshall, a recent graduate of La Farge High School, to research and write about the former community of Seelyburg.  Janet conducted oral history interviews with several people and then wrote an excellent history about the old lumbering town.  Janet Marshall’s work set a fine example for the local history project that was to follow.

            With the advice and direction from the members of the Advisory Group, the KVA soon assembled a staff to collect the local and folk history, take that information from the interviews and put it into essay form and add photographs and graphics for the editions of the Kickapoo Pearls.  Tom Hovde, who lived near Ontario, became the leader of the KVA’s project and assisted at almost all levels besides administering all of the programs.

            Working from offices on La Farge’s Main Street, Hovde assembled a staff of researchers and writers that included Dail Murray, Lon Reuter, Judy Wilmes, Dan Eumurian, Lynne O’Brien, Mike Wright and Dana Strobel.  That group soon started conducting oral and folk history interviews with people up and down the Kickapoo Valley, recording their stories and memories while collecting and copying historical photographs to supplement the project.  According to a written account of the local history project that was published in the last issue of the Kickapoo Pearls, another local woman was a key ingredient to its success.

            From Volume IV, “Jean (Daines) Muller of La Farge was the main cog around which things got done.  Jean’s title was secretary/typist but her ability to keep files, typing, tapes, and everything else in order while working with ten people was a key to any accomplishments we’ve had.  Jean got married while she was working for us but it only slowed her down a little while.”

            Shawn Donovan of La Farge was the project’s bookkeeper, making sure that all CETA grant guidelines were followed and that the payroll came out on time.

            In addition to the written products of the KVA research, other mediums were used to present information on the history of the Kickapoo Valley.  Mike Wright led an effort to develop radio programs called the Crooked River Series, which aired the first Sunday evening of every month on WGBM-FM from Viroqua.  The one-hour programs included discussions on The Great Depression in the Kickapoo Valley, Settlement of the Kickapoo Valley, the Kickapoo Valley Railroad and other topics.  Several programs featured area musicians playing in “Old Time Kickapoo Music” segments.

            Frances Burton also produced a 16-mm color documentary film as part of the local history project.  Burton, whose family was from Gays Mills, was a filmmaker from Milwaukee, who moved back to the Kickapoo Valley to make the film.  She created the 15-minute film titled “Land of The Crooked River” from a script partially written by Dale Muller and narrated by Orlie Baker of Seneca.  The KVA History Project film (now a classic!) includes rare film footage from August 1939 of the last train on the Kickapoo railroad as it departed the station at Soldiers Grove.     

            In the end, the various results of the KVA’s local history project about the Kickapoo Valley were really marvels of their particular time.  The interviews, collections, essays, publications, oral tapes and film all strove to tell the story of a unique and particular place and its people.  That is something that others, including this humble scribbler, continue to this day.

KVA HISTORY PROJECT

Kickapoogians, “have an established unsavory reputation, extending throughout the state of Wisconsin and even beyond; that it is a territory some fifty miles long, wild and undeveloped, inhabited by illiterate people who are designated timber thieves, horse thieves and desperados.”

            That description of the “unsavory reputation” of residents of the Kickapoo Valley comes from the introduction to the classic local history book, The Kickapoo Valley – The Gem of Wisconsin.  The book was written and published by two women from Viola, Gertrude Frazier and Rose Poff, in 1896.  The entire purpose of the book was to present evidence that this reputation was undeserved and in their words, “wholly false”.

            (Before going any further, let the word go out to all good history lovers that a new shipment of the “Gems” book has arrived at the Friends of the Reserve gift shop located at the KVR Visitor Center north of La Farge.  Under the leadership of Chuck Hatfield, the “Gems” book was republished and rereleased in May 2007 after having been out of print for over 100 years.  An original copy of the book that was owned by Joyce Blackmore, noted Rockton historian, and donated by Brian Turner was used as a copy for the republication printing.

After the “Gems” book was released, Chuck and I along with wives, Gwen and Carolyn, went on a tour of the Kickapoo Valley from Wilton to Wauzeka talking to groups about the book.  The original order of the books was soon sold out and another batch had to be printed, then another after that.   Recently the gift shop had run out of the “Gems” books, but once again, the book may be obtained at the Friends gift shop.)

Gertrude Frazier and Rose Poff’s book was one of the first efforts to tell the stories of the people of the Kickapoo Valley.  Over the years there have been many others, including these scribbling’s that appear in the La Farge Episcope on a bi-monthly basis.  One of the more comprehensive efforts to record the history of the Kickapoo Valley and its people came about during the late 1970’s as part of a government funded project that had great impact and significance.

In 1977, the Kickapoo Valley Association (KVA) received a Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) federal grant.  The purpose of the CETA grant was to provide employment and training for people in the areas of public service.  The KVA, a group formed earlier in the decade to promote the Kickapoo Valley, used the CETA grant in a variety of ways.

There was a river project that included a cleanup of the Kickapoo River to open up more areas of the river for canoeing.  This particular project was not too popular in some circles in the La Farge area as the community was still simmering from the stoppage of the dam project.  Some ardent pro-dam activists saw canoeists on the Kickapoo as one of the factors that contributed to the dam project being stopped.  So, on several summer weekends during these times, the “Beavers” (a secret chain saw wielding group of guys who often gathered in local watering holes before proceeding to the river under the cover of darkness) would saw down trees and drop them into the Kickapoo River to thwart canoeing.  Interestingly, the “Beavers” efforts provided plenty of work for the young men working on the KVA’s river project, as they assisted the local canoe livery owners in keeping sections of the river open to canoeing.

Another aspect of the KVA’s CETA grants was an agricultural survey done with landowners and farmers along the river way to look for problems and seek solutions caused by flooding.  There was also an Energy Alternatives Project developed under the CETA grant.  The work and findings under that aspect of the grant led to the development of Soldiers Grove as the first solar community in the country.

But the showpiece of the KVA’s CETA grant was the Local History Project.  The KVA’s History Project (1977-79) was vast in its reach and impressive in its accomplishments.  An Advisory Group was formed by the KVA and the Monroe, Vernon and Crawford County historical societies to provide various perspectives and concerns as historical information was gathered.  Dale Muller and Jeanne & Bernard Smith represented La Farge on the 10-member advisory group for the history project.  Working with a staff of people hired to conduct the history project, the members of the advisory group provided insight to various avenues to pursue for the project.  The staff and advisory group met regularly during 1978 and 1979 as the history project was unfolding.

The Local History Project included a number of endeavors to collect and share the unique history of the people of the Kickapoo Valley.  A “Study Unit Project” was developed for schools and teachers to use in presenting local Kickapoo Valley history in their classrooms.  After the unit was developed, a seminar was held on the UW-Richland campus to introduce the concept and materials to area teachers.  Eventually, the unit was distributed to all the schools in the Kickapoo Valley area.  Margaret Lee of La Farge headed up the study unit project.

A documentary film was also produced.  Under the leadership of Frances Burton, the 16mm color documentary, “The Land of The Crooked River” was eventually completed and released.  The fifteen-minute film is a classic in presenting the unique nature of the Kickapoo Valley and its history.

A history textbook was also a part of the KVA Local History Project.  The textbook would include all of the information gathered in the different aspects of the local history project.  Although the history textbook was never published, much of the research, collected materials, and even the preliminary organization have been done, and that awaits an energetic crew to complete.

At the heart of the Local History Project was an effort to collect local history by conducting oral history interviews.  At the same time, an ear was tilted towards the collection of folk history and tales through the interviewing process.  As the local and folk histories were being gathered during 1978-79 there was also an effort to share some of that information with the public.  This was accomplished through the publication of the “Kickapoo Pearls” newspaper-magazine.  The first issue of the “Kickapoo Pearls” was published in June 1979 and subsequent issues were released in July, August and September (the “Harvest Moon” edition) of that year.  Each publication of the “Kickapoo Pearls” had a printing of 2,500 copies and as the news and excitement about the publications spread, the tabloids soon were in short supply.  People were excited to learn about the lore and legend of the winding Kickapoo!

Saturation Point!

During September, the Kickapoo Valley was awash in floodwaters.  It was not a record-setter like we had back in 2008, but it was a significant flooding event for the Valley.  If one watched the weather patterns over the last few months, this flood in the fall season could almost be anticipated.  The Kickapoo Valley has a saturation point and once that is attained, then flooding is almost sure to follow.

            The flood of September 22-24, 2016 reached a height of a little over 14 feet as recorded at the measuring station on the Kickapoo River at La Farge.  This is almost two feet below the record setting flood of June 2008, but it still qualifies as a “100-Year Flood” according to the flood measuring system adopted by the Corps of Engineers.  Now, we must remember that the “100-Year Flood” label does not mean that type of severe flood comes along every century or so.  What the designation does define is that type of severe flooding has a 1% chance of occurring on a yearly basis.  Clear as the muddy waters of the Kickapoo, right?

We need to back up a few months to see how this all set up for the Valley’s saturation point to be reached.  That term “saturation point” has been in the state news a lot in the past few weeks.  After the heavy rains in southern Wisconsin of this past September, the National Weather Service office out of Madison has released figures to show that water saturation is at record levels in area topsoil.  Although these measurements have only been kept since 1995, the September 2016 figures are record setters for the month and some of the top saturation levels ever recorded.  Here in the Kickapoo Valley, those record saturation levels have been quite apparent for a while.

Here at our place on Bear Creek, there is a field next to the highway that is jokingly referred to as a hay field.  Filled with weeds and marsh grasses, the field has relinquished several big bales of “horse hay” to cousin, Mike Steinmetz, over the past several years.  Mike even has baled up two cuttings of the marshy mixture in the good dry years.  “Good years” are the ones when it is dry enough to get the hay machines on the field to get the hay crop harvested.  This has not been a good year.

I talked to Mike about possibly baling up the marsh hay before the 4^th of July.  It was a little wet then from several heavy rains in June, so the harvest was delayed some.  That was really not a good idea, as it seemed to rain every other day in July.  Meanwhile the weeds in the field soared to the sky as the harvest was delayed – a bumper crop of Yellow Rocket, Wild Parsnip and Globe Plant.  Finally, on July 25^th, Mike cut the “hay” in the field.  When he was done driving through the marshy morass of muck, he told me that I should grow cranberries in the field next year.  He waited a week for the cut grass to dry out.  It never did.  As he baled up the soggy mass of weeds and grasses, water was spewing from the baler.  Saturation point had been attained – and that was on August 1^st.

The month of August was another rainy one, with some type of rain on nearly half the days – precipitation was much above average for the month.  Then came the real rains of September.

There was 4.25” of rain on September 6-7, another inch on the 9^th, another couple of inches in the week of September 12^th thru the 16^th, on the 19^th we had a rain shower with hail just for a little change, and then to make things really interesting, we had 6.25” of the wet stuff during the week of September 19^th thru the 25^th.  Although we are on the last day of the month as I’m writing this and it looks rainy, September’s rains will total in the 14-15” range – record setting for the month.  And that was AFTER the heavier than normal rains of the previous three months had put the Kickapoo Valley at the dreaded SATURATION POINT!

There was a “Preview of Coming Attractions” for us back after those early torrential rains the first week of September.  The creeks were out of the banks everywhere and Bear Creek went over Highway 131 at the bridge on the south end of town.  That day, September 7^th, was also the day that La Farge hosted a regional conference on development of small towns.  Government officials from though out southern Wisconsin descended on the village for the forum.  I gave a little history bus tour of the town that morning, prior to the forum’s beginning session.  As I herded several dozen people onto the bus in a pouring rain, some mentioned that they had gone through floodwaters that morning to get to La Farge.  Then they boarded a bus with the name “TITANIC” on the side!  When I told them that only special town tours of La Farge included a Kickapoo Valley flood while on board a TITANIC bus, some failed to see the humor in the morning’s situation.

Face Book and IPhones give a whole new perspective to Kickapoo Valley floods.  The photos are much more plentiful and the news travels much faster on a personal level.  The photo of Ken Choninger’s car buried in a washout hole at the bridge in Valley went viral on social media.  Scenes of washed out driveways taken from many different vantage points has an eerie end-of-the-world quality to them.  People who once lived in the Kickapoo Valley, but who now are high and dry in more secure locations, sent frantic messages wondering if everything had been washed away.

 Truth be told, it was a rather run-of-the-mill flood by old time standards.  Yes, the water went across Highway 82 between Nuzum’s and the cheese factory like it always does.  Andrews Flat filled up with the overflow floodwaters of the river and some of it flowed down Mill Street past the new clinic.  The water did run over old Highway 131 at Seelyburg for a couple of days.

But there were NOT any logs floating along Main Street like in 1907, 1935 and 2008.  As a matter of fact, we do not have any sawmill in town any more for the logs to float out of.  The edge of the floodwaters did not edge up to the parking lot of the Co-op like in the really big ones of the past.  It was not a “GREAT” Kickapoo River flood in La Farge although it was much more of a river-flooding event downstream in Viola, Readstown and Gays Mills.  Another reason that this year’s flood had less of an impact on La Farge was that over twenty former residences in town are no longer in the path of the floodwaters.  Those houses located in La Farge that used to sit in the floods’ path were bought out using FEMA and DNR funds after the 2008 flood.  Most were razed and hauled away to the landfill.

Another lively discussion that took place about the flood, concerned the Corps’ dam located north of La Farge.  If the dam had been finished, would it have curtailed the effects of the flood?  OF COURSE IT WOULD HAVE!  The main purpose of that federal project was to control floodwaters in the Kickapoo Valley.  It would have held back the floodwaters coming down from Ontario and that would have meant less flooding for La Farge, Viola and Readstown.  Remember that part of the La Farge dam project also included levy systems to protect the villages of Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills.  If those had been completed and the six retention dams had been built north of La Farge, also part of the federal project, the flood of September 2016 might have been looked at with yawning indifference.  But the big dam at La Farge, the down-river levy systems and the up-river retention dams never were built, so now we just keep backing away from the rising floodwaters.

Quoting from Volume 1 of my history book about La Farge, one resident who had barely survived the great flood of 1935 said, “I will never sleep in that house again.  Get me away from that damn river!”

Memories of the "New" Old 1936 Gym at LHS

With the recent reincarnation of the 1936 gymnasium at La Farge Schools back into a usable gym, the memories of times in that place have been flooding back for many of us.  Under the guidance of Al Oaklief, I learned the basics of basketball in that old gym.  When my time to play basketball for La Farge came, it was in that old gym where those first junior high school games were played.  Moving on to my high school years at LHS, I played two seasons in the old gym.

            Oddly, I have few actual memories of the games that I participated in (perhaps caused from my very modest skills at the sport), but I have lots of distant recollections of watching games in that old gym.  As a little kid, our seats for basketball games were in the northwest corner of the 1936 gym on seats made by piling up the sections of the disassembled stage. That stage was rarely used, mainly for student plays, concerts and graduation ceremonies, but when disassembled and stacked in the corner, it was the place for youngsters to view the games.  

            I think I went to some LHS basketball games during the 1955-56 season when my brother Dick played on the Wildcat team in his senior year.  That Wildcat team of 1955-56 arguably had the finest season in school history.  They won every game in their home gym that year, won the Kickapoo Valley Conference title with a 13-1 mark and advanced to sub-sectionals in WIAA post-season play.  That LHS team compiled a 22-2 season mark.  Perhaps being an eight year old at the time, I don’t seem to have any specific recollections about the gym from that season.

            But the next season was a whole different story.  There is one game in that 1956-57 season that stands out for me yet to this day.  My brother Kent played on that team, but my memory is about a shooting exhibition put on by LHS Senior Rod Kennedy.  Rod Kennedy was a prolific scorer for the Wildcats that season.  He scored 30 or more points in fourteen games that season with a high of 42 against Soldiers Grove!  La Farge had a good team that finished second in the KVC and had a season record of 18-4.  The game that I remember was the last home game of the season played against Readstown.  It was a hard fought 67-61 victory for the Wildcats and Rod Kennedy scored 37 points.  I remember that Rod kept shooting fade-away jumpers from the corner right near where we were sitting.  It seemed that we could look right down on Rod as he fell out of bounds just as he released his shot.  And it seemed that they all went in!

            There is another game like that one stuck in my memory from the 1960-61 season.  It was again from the last game of that season in the old gym and the conference champion Soldiers Grove Cardinals had come to La Farge.  Grove had beaten the Wildcats earlier in the season by a score of 89-74, but they had no chance on this night as they ran into a buzz saw named Dean Hamilton.  “Hambone” poured in 37 points and dominated the boards with 27 rebounds in one of the more impressive performances ever played by a Purple & White clad player in that old gym.  LHS won by a score of 80-64.  (I remember that there was a record hop after the game and the scoreboard was left on with that score gleaming through to the dancers below.)  La Farge would finish that season with a 13-6 record.

              Those memories of Wildcat players scoring nearly forty points in a game in the 1936 gym are understandable for the wide-eyed youngster who usually didn’t score forty points in a season.  But perhaps my favorite memory from that old gym are of a shot made by a player who rarely even played in most games.

            It was the 1961-62 season and La Farge did not have a good basketball team.  The Wildcats A-team struggled offensively for most of the year in compiling a season record of 4-14.  I played on the B-team as a freshman that year and that team had a 5-10 mark, so there wasn’t much great happening in the old 1936 gym during that season.  But for one wonderful Friday night on December 1, 1961, the stars in the heavens aligned and the Wildcats were victorious over their downriver foes, the dreaded Viola Bluejackets!

            Up to that point in the young season, La Farge had not won a game at either the B-team or A-team level.  Viola traveled to La Farge with a good team, one that would challenge for the league title before eventually finishing third in the KVC.  The Bluejacket A-team was undefeated for the season, but things would change after that evening.

            To begin, the Wildcat B-team won their first game by defeating Viola by a score of 21-16.  I’m sure that I had nothing to do with the win as I generally played very little, but I do remember the euphoria of that victory.  As the La Farge B-team players poured out of their new locker room, it was all smiles.  We took up seats in the southwest corner bleachers (after all, that’s where the cool high school students sat) to watch the A-Team game.

            La Farge got off to a good start and led 14-8 after the first quarter.  It was still the Wildcats in the lead 22-16 at halftime, but the Bluejackets caught fire in the third quarter.  Viola outscored La Farge 18-10 to take a 34-32 lead heading into the final quarter.  It remained tight for all of that last quarter and Viola was nursing a 42-41 lead as the old round score clock hanging high on the east end of the gym turned red to signal that the end of the game was near.  La Farge had time for one hurried shot and it would come from a very unlikely source.

            Sources vary as to when that fateful last shot was taken.  The account in the story of the game written for “The Windjammer”, the LHS section of the La Farge Enterprise newspaper, said that there was less than thirty seconds left in the game.  In the account of the game written for the 1962 “Memories” yearbook, the time is listed as seven seconds left.  I thought the shot was taken as the game ended, but then I remembered that the Viola team did have an unsuccessful try at a last shot of its own, so that seven seconds is probably right.  Who would take that last shot for La Farge surprised everyone in the old gym that night.

            Floyd Waddell was a nice guy.  Personable, friendly, and good-looking, Floyd was liked by most everyone who ever met him.  However, he was not a good basketball player.  Floyd was a junior on the Wildcat team that season, but he seldom played.  He was forced into action that night against Viola after senior guards Butch Donaldson and Leonard Nottestad fouled out of the game earlier in that last quarter.  As the final seconds to the game ticked away, Floyd was the last person most people expected to shoot.  But as fate would have it, somehow the ball was in Floyd’s hands at the end.  Standing some twenty feet from the basket, he was unguarded so Floyd let fly from the right wing. 

            That shot was not a thing of beauty as Floyd’s shots seldom were, but at this time in the history of the 1936 gym it would shine!  As Floyd’s high arching shot descended, the basketball hit high on the backboard’s right side then caromed straight down through the basket!  To the astonishment of everyone, including Floyd, the bank shot had found its mark to give La Farge a 43-42 win!  The place went nuts – the first win of the season had been accomplished over our biggest rival!  The Viola bluejackets were undefeated no more!  Floyd Waddell was the hero of the night!

            I think that there was a record hop held after the game that night.  I seem to remember sitting up in those bleachers in the southwest corner of the old gym looking down at the dancing couples below.  I think that I can recollect Floyd dancing with his girlfriend (and future wife), Karen Miller, basking in the sweet aura of victory.

            Ironically, that basket in the old gym to beat Viola that night was the only basket that Floyd Waddell scored all season.  It was a rare shot indeed, but it has lasted in my memory to this day.