Field trip to Ft. Atkinson

To celebrate Jane’s birthday last Wednesday, we had a little adventure in Wisconsin. Due to road construction, we had returned from our vacation in August through Ft. Atkinson, WI. We remembered what a nice town it was and talked about going back someday. Thirty-some years ago, when I was teaching at Mukwonago High School, Jane and I had gone on a similar day trip one weekend. We intended to re-visit the Nasco store and Jones Dairy Farm and visit the National Dairy Shrine and Hoard Historical Museum for the first time.

Here I am outside the National Dairy Shrine and Hoard Historical Museum, squinting into the sun.

Me in front of the National Dairy Shrine and Hoard Historical Museum

We were greeted by a friendly volunteer docent, Joe, who gave us a rundown of the organization of the building, which was much larger than it appeared from the outside. The Dairy Shrine covered the entire nation, Joe explained, but the rest of the museum was just about Jefferson County.

We started in the Dairy Shrine. At the exhibit of the seven breeds of dairy cows, Jane said, “My dad would have loved this.” Jane’s dad would have been a farmer if circumstances had allowed it. Instead he was a sales manager for Mason-Lawrence Ribstone Silos.

The seven breeds of dairy cows

I was surprised there were only 7 breeds. I would have thought there were more dairy cows than that, but off the top of my head, I could only have named Holsteins, Brown Swiss, and Guernseys. The other four are Jerseys (I’ve heard of this one, at least), Red and White, Ayreshire, and Milking Shorthorn. Milking shorthorn?

The displays went around in a circle and included full-size replicas of a dairy barn

Historic dairy barn

And a dairy kitchen. I recognized the cream separator on the right. I think there was one in Uncle Dick’s auction. I’ve never seen one in action, but somehow centrifugal force separates the (presumably heavier) cream from the rest of the milk, which becomes skim milk or “blue john,” as my grandmother used to say. The kitchen included a butter churn (on the floor near the woman) and a hand pump for water at the sink. Fancy!

Historic dairy farm kitchen with running water at the sink!

One thing that impressed me about the museum is the various libraries that were embedded in it. A side room in the Dairy Shrine had books, tables, and chairs where an interested visitor could do research. There was also an interactive screen featuring the history of various contributors to the development of the Nation’s dairies. We didn’t recognize most of the names. We searched for names that we could think of. Neither Mason nor Lawrence were listed. We found Gail Borden, inventor of evaporated milk and a big name in Elgin, IL, where the library to this day is named after him. These days we buy evaporated milk once a year to make the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Imagine what sterile, canned milk meant to people before refrigeration. What a relief for urban mothers to have safe, nutritious, shelf-stable milk to give their children! It played an important role in the rations of Civil War soldiers as well.

The anchor of the museum is the Hoard House, the home of William Dempster Hoard. He was the publisher of the Jefferson County Union and Hoard’s Dairyman magazine. He was also the governor of Wisconsin from 1889 to 1891. Hoard’s Dairyman featured articles on the latest techniques and research. Hoard purchased a dairy farm to use as a demonstration of best practices in dairying. He became known as the father of the modern dairy industry.

The Hoard house, which from the outside makes you wrongly assume that the museum is small

We entered through the kitchen. I was fascinated by a built-in, copper-lined pie safe that rotated shut. I’d only ever seen  stand-alone pie safes, often with tin plates punched in decorative patterns. The idea, of course, is to keep the pies safe from flies. A copper-lined pie safe today would cost a bundle. I don’t imagine it was cheap in the 1880’s. I’m guessing tin and copper were metals of choice because they resisted corrosion.

In-the-wall rotating copper pie safe

The kitchen was next to a well-appointed dining room. This is the parlor.

Parlor

Next to the parlor was the library.

The library

I loved the bookcase.

Detail of the library bookshelves. Wouldn't it be great to have these in your home?

While the ground floor was furnished with period furniture, the second-floor rooms were devoted to various topics, one of which was the birds, represented in taxidermy. There were cases and cases of birds arranged by family group.

Cases of birds by family

There were also four cases of Jefferson County birds made by Thure Kumlien (1819-1888). The birds were arranged in Victorian style, sort of looking natural, as if one could ever see a dozen different species of birds on one branch. The specimens were mostly male.

Male birds of Jefferson County

More male birds of Jefferson County

The next room was devoted to duck hunting. It had a boat specifically designed to hunt ducks on Lake Koshkonong. It looked like it had a wooden frame covered by canvas and painted with some water-resistant substance. The overall appearance was of an oversized kayak.

Lake Koshkonong duck boat

The Lorine Niedecker room featured information on a local poet. She was born on Black Hawk island, lived a quiet life, but eventually gained international fame. I liked the poem that was posted on the wall and wondered if a book of her poetry was in the gift shop.

Another room had creepy Victorian memorial art, such as this lovely arrangement of human hair from the deceased. Gross.

Hair art

We looked quickly into rooms about firefighters and policemen. The map that Joe gave us lists these rooms as “Exhibits,” which suggests to me that they change from time to time.

In the hallway between the Hoard House and the elevator was a picture of some football players with two of the faces cut out. I had to stand on my tip toes to get my face in the opening.

Me as a football player

Back downstairs, we went to the Lincoln Era Library and Exhibit. The walls were lined with displays and reference books. There was a statue of Abe Lincoln looking glum, as he is usually depicted. (PLEASE DO NOT Touch “Old Abe”) Joe had told us the story of Lincoln’s connection with Ft. Atkinson, which was that he was passing through one evening, had too much to drink in a local tavern, lost his horse, and had to walk home. I suppose it wouldn’t be right to show him bellied up to the bar having a right ol’ good time. It would be different, though. But what would the children think?

Abe, looking glum

A large wing of the main floor was devoted to the Native Americans of the area. They were mound builders. One wall had information about areas where mounds could be visited.

“Remember Aztalan State Park?” I asked Jane.

“Of course.”

On that early Bev and Jane adventure when we’d visited Ft. Atkinson, we had also gone to the Aztalan mound. Details have been lost to history, but somehow we got caught walking through very wet grass in a cold mist without proper footwear or rain gear. We dried our socks on the defroster of my Dodge Omni. We still laugh about it. We should go back again. From the information in the museum, it looked as if the site has been further restored in the last 35 years.

This picture shows a recreation of a “keyhole pithouse.” I was unfamiliar with this shelter of the Mound Builders. We all know the teepees of the Plains Indians and the birchbark wikiups of the Ojibwa. The keyhole pithouse is dug a little into the ground, hence the “pit.” A wall of reeds is put under a frame of saplings and covered with hardwood bark. The small tunnel-like entrance is the “keyhole.” It is shown here with a deerskin door. The sign said these shelters were used in the Woodland period (700-1100 C.E.)

Keyhole Pithouse

The diorama also showed a food storage pit underground. The hole was lined and covered with reeds. It contained Indian corn, a grain, hickory nuts, and acorns.

Underground food storage

The “Mounds Theater” had 5 artistic displays of arrows as well as two cases of hand axes and other tools. We didn’t ask to see the movie.

Arrowhead displays

The bookstore had two books related to Lorine Niedecker. One was a biography and the other was one of those silly books that have two lines of poetry at the top of each page with a blank spot below where you can write your own profound reflections. Please.

Jane and I each bought new cow socks to commemorate the day. These are mine. Jane’s have the same cows on a yellow background.

My new cow socks

We went to Jones Dairy Farm for lunch. The museum volunteers told us they had sandwiches and ice cream. They also had hams, sausages, and cheeses for sale, but the really good deals were on enormous quantities. How long would it take to get through 15 pounds of bacon? 

Jones Dairy Farm

We just got the “Jones meat wrap” with ham, cheese, cucumber, tomato and mixed greens in a tomato tortilla. We shared one, and it was plenty. They do make really good ham at Jones. Kind of ironic that it’s called “Dairy Farm” but specializes in pork products.

Jones Dairy Farm flying pig (DO NOT CLIMB)

Nasco was just down the road. It has gone downhill since our last trip. To begin with, the organization is odd. We walked down an aisle that had kitchen equipment on the right and horse medicines on the left. They had very little in the way of science stuff. We didn’t get anything.

In her research on Ft. Atkinson, Jane had come across an Amish Country Store that advertised bulk items. We took off through the country and did eventually find the road. Things were not quite right, however. A power line ran parallel to the driveway. A TV antenna was attached to the house. When we walked into the store, we were greeted by shelves of wholesome Amish cheese doodles in plastic packaging. My idea of bulk is open bins of stuff from which you can get as much as you need/want. Everything in the store was pre-packaged in fairly uniform quantities. Well, it is Wisconsin, home of draconian food safety laws. Another nail in the coffin of resident camps was the new law that required all food be prepared in a restaurant-level certified kitchen. In the six summers I worked at camp, 80 girls and 10 unit staff, prepared 15 meals per session, four sessions per summer, in unit kitchens using a campfire. Number of incidences of food-borne illness: 0. But I’m not bitter, that’s the important thing.

I digress. Eventually, I figured out what was going on. It’s a familiar story. Tucked here and there were coolers that had 2-pound logs of farm-made butter, free range eggs, and pastured meats. The farmers didn’t have a high enough profit margin on the food they actually raised, so they had to bring in the value-added cheese doodles. So sad. We totally do not pay enough for our food.

We noticed on the way out that the sign said, "Amish Style Country Store." That's different. 

We went back to Jones Dairy Farm for “midnight dark chocolate” ice cream cones before we headed home. We ate them outside. It was such a lovely day.

Midnight Dark chocolate ice cream