Except for our usual summer week on Washington Island, we haven’t traveled anywhere in almost two years. With the weather forecast for a warm sunny week, it was time to make an escape! So, we loaded up the car and headed to a place that often appeals to people from southern Wisconsin; we went “Up North.” Although it’s fast and convenient to head north from Madison on I-39, this time we decided to stick to the two-lane roads and enjoy slow drives through small towns where we could stop on a whim without waiting for the next exit.
While driving through Wyocena (pop. 768) on State Highway 22, an interesting old building caught my eye. Maybe it was actually two buildings stuck together. On the left was a grocery proudly designated as a”Certified Food Store.” It was no longer open for business but it had beautiful rusty metal benches in front of the windows and large pots full of fabulous fake flowers on each side of the door. The nature of the building on the right was less obvious. A table and chairs stood out front so maybe it was a restaurant. However, through the windows you could see boxes of “Ice-Snow Eliminator” and plastic models of Santa Claus. Maybe it had been a hardware store. A scythe, hoe and three-tine garden fork sitting by the railing seemed to support that guess.
(As usual, click on any photo below to enlarge, use arrows to scroll through the images, then click on the “X” to return to this page.)
It’s always very easy to get around in small towns. For example, in Pardeeville (pop. 2115) , also on Highway 22, you can go either left or right. At this corner, going left brings you to the modest but attractive First Presbyterian Church. The doors were decorated with beautiful artificial leaves for the season and colors were beginning to show in the trees on the church grounds. It was a very peaceful setting.
Outside of the small towns are plenty of farms and fields, especially fields of corn ready for harvest at this time of year. In this part of the state you should drive carefully in case you encounter Amish families in horse-drawn buggies. Wisconsin is home to a number of Amish settlements and has the fourth largest Amish population in the United States, after Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.
I really enjoy waterfalls, but I didn’t expect to see one in front of me on the road leading into Montello (pop. 1459). But, sure enough, in downtown Montello, where Highway 22 intersects with Highway 23, you’ll find the waterfalls of the historic granite quarry in Daggett Park. The Montello Granite Company’s quarry opened in 1880 and was operated until the 1960s. The property was then sold to Mr. Irv Daggett. After selling some of the property, he paid for the construction of the falls in the quarry and donated the land to the city.
The granite is pretty, even where there are no falls, and the history of the granite from the quarry is quite surprising. After the death of President Ulysses S. Grant, the people in charge of building his tomb conducted a worldwide search for the strongest granite. Out of nearly 300 samples, Montello’s granite was deemed the best. So, if you ever visit Grant’s Tomb, you’ll see granite from tiny Montello, Wisconsin.
In addition to the waterfalls, you can see a very small church, resting on top of a granite slab above the waterfalls. I’m not sure why it’s there, but I read that a church had been situated where the quarry is now located and it was removed to access the granite. Maybe it’s just a reminder of that church. If you want to see a much larger church all you need to do is drive down the road to find the St. John’s Lutheran Church or, as it says above the door, “EV. LUTH. ST. JOHANNES KIRCHE.”
Heading north on State Highway 49, we passed through the town of Scandinavia (pop. 350). This might be the smallest community that we passed through. In case you’re wondering about the size of the town, it’s the 522nd largest city in Wisconsin and the 14763rd in the United States. We made a short stop by the Tomorrow River State Trail. This is a 29-mile rail trail built, as rail trails are, on an abandoned railroad right-of-way. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, this “trail travels through scenic glacial terrain and farm country from Plover in Portage County to just outside the village of Manawa in Waupaca County.” So, if you’re looking for a new place to ride your bike or hike, you might want to try the Tomorrow River trail.
Having not eaten since breakfast, hunger was setting in as we moved north on US Highway 45 to our final destination for the day, Three Lakes (pop. 2134). Despite its name, Three Lakes actually sits in a chain of 28 lakes. The Three Lakes Chain of Lakes is the largest freshwater chain of lakes in the world. So, if you’re looking for lakes and lusting for lunkers, this is the place to be. There’s another attraction for us here, my sister-in-law and her husband own a cottage on Planting Ground Lake, one of the chain. So, we had a place to assemble a simple supper and put our weary souls to rest.
