Finding Dairyland: In Search of Wisconsin's Vanishing Heritage

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

Explore America's Dairyland and the American Spirit

At the dawn of World War II, Wisconsin was home to nearly 200,000 dairy farms. Today, barely 6,000 remain. The ghosts of the missing can still be seen in withering old farms along lonely highways, some restored, many abandoned or decayed, but all with a story to tell. Immigrants dreamed of owning their own farms, only to be fleeced by the promotion of "cutover" lands in the Northwoods. Freedmen and women arrived in southwestern Wisconsin and became farmers and renowned barn-builders in one of the earliest integrated communities in the nation.

Through hundreds of hours of site visits, interviews, and research, historian and photographer, Scott Wittman extracts the forgotten truths from legend to tell the real stories of those who created The Dairy State.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467148894
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	04/25/2022
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,096,660
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Scott Wittman is a professional photographer, writer, researcher and podcaster living in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin. An avid road-tripping enthusiast, Scott can often be found along the back roads and two-lane highways of Wisconsin, documenting the state's unique culture and heritage, while also searching for remnants of its past physical landscape. Scott's first book, Lost Fox Cities, was published by The History Press in 2019, and his work continues recognizing the contributions, both seen and unseen, of those who have come before us. Scott and his wife, Vicky, live in Appleton with their three sons, Asa, Jett and Rhodes. He can be reached at www.scottwittmanvisual.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 13

1 A Born Identity 17

2 Ghosts of the Northern Highlands 39

3 Echoes of the Driftless 67

4 Spirits of the Central Plains 95

5 Skeletons on the Eastern Ridge 119

6 Surveying the Landscape 141

7 The Reclaim 165

Bibliography 187

About the Author 191