Finding Dairyland: In Search of Wisconsin's Vanishing Heritage

by Scott Wittman

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.

192 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2022

Reviews

[Jeff Rosendahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woe are we! All the small dairy farms in WI are disappearing because of no fault of their own. Wittman here has a book that has some good research in it, and interesting photos, but it's overshadowed by his constant moaning about the changes that have taken place in the dairy industry. However, change is constant...it's up to us to adapt. I'd be interested in hearing from him about the changes that have taken place in the brewing industry in WI....we have a lot more small, craft breweries (and wineries) than we used to, is that also a bad thing? Kudos to him for including a lot of research about the cutover area of northern WI, and also giving a lot of space to the Pleasant Ridge and Cheyenne Valley communities. And really, for all his complaining about how some small, northern towns used to be all that and more when they were hubs for small family farms...most of those small, northern towns are still there even without the small family farms. Towns will survive by transitioning from Timber to Wheat to Dairy to Tourism/Recreation to _____. Maybe he needs to do another book showing how those towns are managing to survive.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for content and message, 3 stars for writing style.

As a native Wisconsinite growing up in the country, I'm sad to see how many farms have gone under and how the beautiful farming landscape is being mercilessly destroyed by developers.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was so interesting to picture what life was like in all different parts of Wisconsin and learn about the history of the different settlers, the barns and how they lived. Excellent research.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

He picked out mostly sad stories to write about Wisconsin's declining dairy farms in the first six chapters of the book. The last chapter discusses a positive farm story about his in-laws' farm where they were part of a public-private financing partnership.