Buffalo City, WI
Today was a time to explore oddities and whimsical items in this section of Wisconsin. Nothing fancy. No major pieces of high art-Unless you consider delicious ice cream made in Madison Wisconsin but sold to us in downtown La Crosse Wisconsin.
The day began early as we walked along the river and snapped a picture of a, maybe, 20 foot tall sculpture of a Viking. It could use a little more paint to refresh it but it ties in with the types of outside art we saw during the course of the day.
Just 5 miles down the road from our lodging is the Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden. Herman Rusch retired in 1952 at age 67. To kill old age boredom he began puttering around and created a local museum. More importantly, for us at least, after several years of this museum work he started creating huge sculptures.
By the time Rusch reached age 89 he had created almost 40 sculptures. Normally they were made out of freshly mixed concrete but sometimes rocks, embellished with seashells, bits of broken bottles, and shards of crockery and mirrors. Rusch even created a 260 foot arched fence of the same type of material but with precisely aligned conical posts. The posts were made out of alternating bands of chiseled white rocks and pie shaped red bricks. The sculptures include bird houses, a watchtower, a teapot, and a painted self sculpture of him behind a podium gazing at the other sculptures.
Rusch died just after he turned 100 years of age in 1985. The Kohler Foundation purchased the site and began restoration as part of its commitment to the preservation of significant art environments by self-taught artists. Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden was donated to the town of Milton which is nowhere near where the sculpture garden sits. I have no idea why that occurred but the sculpture garden looks well-maintained and is free to the public, dawn to dusk. In 2008 an additional series of sculptures modeled after buildings in Cochrane Wisconsin was added to the park. They were created by a different artist who was from Cochrane, which is just a few miles away.
We continued our back roads explorations. We drove by a local milling complex that creates oat flour and bran for food and animal feed companies. We drove through the driftless area of Wisconsin with its curvy roads and bluffs and valleys. We passed apple orchards, fruit stands, vineyards and wineries as well as small towns and out of the way manufacturing facilities. We passed the maintenance facility for the US Army Corps of Engineers as they dredge the Mississippi River for maintenance of the 9 foot channel for barge traffic. We passed a large solar energy site being developed that would tie in to the high-capacity powerlines in the area that now have excess capacity since a nearby coal power plant has been decommissioned. And, of course, we drove past fields and fields of corn and soy beans.
During our back road exploration, we passed the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge. We had not been here before and we found it impressive. The refuge has oak savanna prairies, river backwaters, woods and meadows. There is an observation deck at the river, an education center, several walking/biking trails and a four mile auto loop road.
Our next stop for local, self-taught artists was at the Wegner Grotto Park. This was another retirement project. In this case, Paul and Matilda Wegner worked together. Many of their sculptures had a connection to their past history such as a reproduction of their 50th wedding anniversary cake. Others were religious, with a prayer garden, glass church, and peace monument. They also had fencing with a stone and glass motif.
Glass, particularly broken glass, is a major finishing touch on all their works. Besides broken, colored glass there are pieces of broken beer bottles, old heirloom china, some seashells and gun powder casings. These sculptures were built around their home which has since been demolished but the garden remains. Paul died in 1937 and Matilda in 1942. The family maintained the site until the mid 1980s. Once again, the Kohler Foundation was instrumental in restoring the site and then donating it to Monroe County for long-term maintenance.
Neither of these two sculpture gardens were crowded with visitors. In fact, we were the only people present the entire time we were at each location. However, both are well-maintained with mowed lawns and beautiful flower arrangements. It was a pleasure to stop at each as well as a surprise.
Lunch was a delicious cod dinner at Culver’s in Sparta Wisconsin. We were thinking of heading home afterwards but there were two other sites, not major, but located in Sparta that would be foolish to pass without stopping by. Sparta calls it self the bicycling capital of America. The Sparta Elroy bicycle path was the first in the country made from an abandoned rail line – according to Sparta. This section of Wisconsin has several connecting bicycle trails including one that goes through three tunnels. One of the tunnels is 3800 feet long and is unlit. Hopefully the bicycle riders remember to bring a light.
Fittingly, since 1995 Sparta has had a 32 foot tall sculpture of a bicyclist on the old penny farthing style bicycle. The bicyclist is named Ben Biken. (Get it?) Ben was created by the FAST company. This local Sparta company makes fiber class sculptures used in parks and for advertising purposes around the country. If you have seen a 30 foot fish, or a 20 foot bear outside a building or park somewhere in America, the FAST company probably made it. FAST stands for fiberglass animals shapes and trademarks.
Well, since FAST is in Sparta we just had to stop by and check out it’s mold graveyard. (See the beginning photo.) This is their backyard where they toss the molds made for various fiberglass sculptures just in case they might need it again sometime in the future. I could not find on their website if they ever did reuse some of the molds. There must’ve been several hundred of these in the backyard of the building. It is open to the public with warning signs that bees and wasps frequently make nests in the old molds. In addition the molds might have sharp edges so they warn you to keep off. With those admonitions in mind, we wandered around a bit and took some pictures of a few of the more interesting molds. Many, however, were unrecognizable as to their form or function.
By this time it was mid afternoon and it was time to head back to Buffalo City via an ice cream stop in downtown La Crosse Wisconsin. The Great River Popcorn Company also sells ice cream. The ice cream is made by The Chocolate Shoppe from Madison Wisconsin. The ice cream was great. I even tried different flavors instead of my usual vanilla or chocolate and their rhubarb crumble was fantastic. Chris was excited by her two flavors of Blueberry Cheesecake and one with caramel, pecan and Oreo cookies. We realized that we have had their ice cream before at a small ice cream store in Afton Minnesota and at the Grandview Lodge in Nisswa Minnesota. We have now noted their ice cream is sold at two locations in Saint Paul. I foresee more ice cream in our future. I purchased a bag of their cheddar cheese popcorn but it cannot compare with the cheddar popcorn of Candyland in Saint Paul.
One might think that we were now ready to finish our drive back to Buffalo City. However, I remembered that La Crosse is the home of the City Brewing Company. As part of their brewery, they have six silos used as part of the beer making process. A number of years ago they had the silos painted so City Brewing could call them the biggest six pack in America. Well, we just had to stop by and finish up with one last oddity for the day. Chris met a worker leaving his shift and asked him if the silos were still used and storing beer. He indicated they are critical to the beer making process but do not hold finished beer but part of a malting liquid used in their products. (If we understood him correctly.)
Driving home, we were about 2 miles from our lodging when we remembered that our route would pass an elk breeding farm, not far from the oat milling company mentioned towards the beginning of this blog post. Since our cameras were in the front seat, we ended the day, we thought, with pictures of the elk.
Dinner was Coke and popcorn and Fritos. Yes, a truly nutritious meal. By this time it was almost sundown so we meandered over to the river and took sunset photos. Not unusual type of day for two travelers even if it was their 49th wedding anniversary.
Ed and Chris
Buffalo City WI, Thursday September 9, 2021
Chris Klejbuk and Ed Heimel travel adventure 
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