[gentle music]
- Andy Soth: Picture rural Wisconsin,
and for many, a familiar landscape emerges,
one of farms with fertile fields,
cornstalks,
and cows.
This landscape can be an idyllic image,
but it doesn't reveal the ways
many rural areas struggle today,
as a slow economic recovery,
population decline,
and fleeing industry has led some
to worry that a quickly changing world
may be passing them by.
How people's lives are affected
by these many changes
may be hidden in the landscape
but revealed in personal stories,
in portraits, as in these
Portraits from Rural Wisconsin.
? ?
- Female announcer: Support for this program
has been provided by the O'Brien Fellowship
in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University
and by the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- The portraits you're about to see
and the people you'll meet
come from a yearlong search for stories,
stories about rural Wisconsin
and the challenges its small farmers,
small-business owners,
and small-town residents are facing
and the ways they're meeting them.
[tranquil music]
The portraits come from travels
across western Wisconsin
up and down its winding roads
on an alphabet of highways,
through summer, fall,
winter, and spring.
I met people working hard to improve their communities
and people whose hard work might not be enough
to keep their farms.
- Some way. I just didn't know how.
- As you'll see, their stories are varied,
but they all share a single sentiment.
- Rural life is still the best life there is.
? ?
- I began the search at the end of summer
in Pepin County,
a place whose rustic beauty
seems the ideal image of rural America.
In a way, you could say that image was born here,
as the county is home to the revered birthplace
of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
- Laura was born here
in 1867.
- Little House in the Big Woods is set here,
the first book of Wilder's
influential Little House series
on pioneer life.
[bell ringing]
- Any boys and girls that want to come in
for a quilt block story...
- Thousands come annually to celebrate the author.
- People come from all over.
- They're drawn by the chance
to get a taste of the past.
- Doing what Laura did.
Run through the fields
with your bonnet flying off
and having a good time.
- If you could, would you try living like a pioneer?
- Yes. - She would.
[laughter]
- But it may be more than playing pioneer
that brings out Wilder's fans.
The book's celebration
of simple virtues also resonates,
according to celebration organizers
like 92-year-old Maxine Johnson.
- Well, I think they like that homespun philosophy
that Laura had.
She always pointed out
that even though many years have gone by,
those principles that were taught at that time
are still the things that we should rely on today.
[marching band playing]
- Today the village of Pepin
celebrates their connection to Wilder and her legacy
in classic small-town fashion.
The community puts on a parade
and they hold old-fashioned events
like fiddle contests
and spelling bees.
- "Chocolate."
C-H-O...
C-O-L-A-T-E.
"Chocolate."
- Okay, I guess
we have our winner.
[applause]
- Children learn about Wilder's
hardscrabble life and then make
a mad scramble for Life Savers and lollipops.
[slow fiddle music]
It's easy to see all that's changed
since Wilder's day,
but her influence remains.
- And the values.
I think her values are just
what families and the world needs to get back to.
- The Little House Wayside
isn't the only place you'll encounter
these traditional values
when exploring Pepin County.
You'll also hear them expressed on your radio.
[radio static crackling]
- Well, haven't played this one for a while,
and here's Tim McGraw
with "Humble and Kind."
It's 11:06.
[Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind" playing]
- ? You know there's a light ?
? That glows by the front door ?
? Don't forget the key's under the mat ?
- We play traditional country music.
- ? Always stay humble and kind ?
- You know, work hard and...
mind your own business
and respect your-- your neighbors,
respect your elders...
all the basics.
The golden rule really resonates
with a lot of these-- these people
in our part of the state or in--
really in anywhere in rural America.
- ? Always stay humble and kind ?
- The county seat of Durand
is inland and upland from the village of Pepin.
- Here at Reel Country 1430 WRDN,
clouds, 66,
with Conway and Loretta.
- And providing the soundtrack for the city and surroundings
is station WRDN.
Station owner Brian Winnekins and cohost
Martha Gingras know that much of their audience
listens from dairy barns and tractor cabs,
so they provide them with the news they need.
- Market update being brought to you...
- And often, they've been the bearer of bad news.
- Really, the biggest challenge
has been the low prices.
It's really been a challenge
for some of these smaller operations
to be able to survive,
because they don't have that economy of scale
of-- of producing a lot of milk
to be able to-- to make up for it.
- When the numbers tell me that milk is down,
if-- if I could be lying media,
trust me, I would say that milk ended $25.
July, milk down four at $15.52.
August, down 14 at $16.41.
[laughing] I wish I could,
because I know that would help my community.
- And the long, steady decline has had an impact
on Durand's downtown.
- Half of our downtown
has empty buildings.
- I still look
this way, wondering whether or not
somebody's coming off the bridge,
and I realize, "Oh.
There's no bridge there anymore."
- That's among many changes to downtown
that Martha has seen over the years.
- My parents had the flower shop,
and when the economy started taking a turn
and we really couldn't support two flower shops,
um, my parents sold.
- Brian sees this economic stagnation
as a major factor in people's dissatisfaction.
- In rural America-- it doesn't matter
if it's Wisconsin, Minnesota, wherever--
they're like, "What about us?
"We seem to be working hard,
"but we don't get any extra-- we don't get bailouts.
"We don't-- you know, if our bank goes down,
"it doesn't get bailed out.
"It gets bought up by a big chain
or ordered to-- to close."
- There's a lot of upset people when they go to the bank now,
and it's like, they don't know who I am,
or don't they? Why don't they know who I am?
It's just based on my social security number,
my income, and numbers.
It's changed.
- These changes to the local community
come at the same time as broader changes to society,
some of which challenge long-held beliefs.
- People in rural America
also feel threatened
that their beliefs
are wrong
and that they're being told
that their beliefs are wrong
from someone who lives in the Twin Cities
or an expert that lives in the Twin Cities
or New York or Chicago or the media.
- An example is gay marriage.
Brian says he knows DJs uncomfortable
playing music for same-sex weddings.
- They've gotten out of the business
because of that,
because they're like, "You know what?
"I'm not even gonna take the chance.
"To heck with it. I'll just--
just won't do it for anybody anymore,"
and that's sad.
[rustic music]
? ?
- Beyond social issues, other changes in rural areas
could increasingly become matters
of life or death.
- These rural areas are totally dependent
on volunteers.
- As director of Durand's ambulance service,
Peter Pillman has witnessed a steep decline in volunteers
for emergency medical positions.
- We have seen
that the number of people
that we have responding to calls
become less
and the burden on our staff
that we do have responding to calls
increasing greatly.
- The same issues that challenge
Durand's downtown
are factors in the volunteer shortage.
Many residents now commute out of town for work,
while others are holding down multiple jobs.
- So, we used to have janitors
or others that could leave work
to go on an ambulance call
and had flexible hours,
and that's no longer the case.
- Even after offering hourly wages
for what had always been volunteer positions,
as well as helping
to pay for EMT training, the ambulance service
has had a hard time getting fully staffed.
- So that's number six.
- But Peter believes the reasons
fewer people make the commitment to get trained
and to give of their time
is not only due to economic factors
but cultural ones as well.
- So what society is changing--
we used to have a lot more where--
say, a small farm, and I'm
using a barn-raising analogy.
We have a lot of Amish in this area,
and you'll still see it with some of them.
When they need to put up a barn,
they invite over all their neighbors
and they all pitch in.
[melancholy music]
- For Peter, the Amish remain much closer
to the type of community
that rural Wisconsin once was.
- It's built on that agrarian foundation
of farmers,
neighbors helping each other out,
and that's something
that I think even us in these rural communities
have lost that and have lost
understanding that.
As that is lost in the community,
as that is lost from the fabric
of our society,
we see that there are less people
being willing to sacrificially serve.
- No, no.
- Okay, y'all ready?
- Yep, ready.
- Back at the radio station,
sacrificial service is a topic
for Martha and her guests.
- Um, I have
Heather Wittig, Jenni Patnode--
I'm gonna say the Johnson sisters.
[laughter]
- The Johnson sisters
is how Martha knew these two
when they were in high school.
Today they're guests on her radio show
to talk about their mission work
in Central America.
- Women in third world countries
don't have anything to manage their monthly cycle.
- When we can give back to them
and give them a pair of underwear
and these hygiene solutions,
they are able to stay in school.
They're not sex trafficked.
- This is a whole movement. - Mm-hmm.
- I thank you both for coming today.
- Thank you for having us.
- After the show, Martha catches up with Jenni
about how her husband, Weston, is doing.
- And then someday, you guys will have to come in
and talk about your farm journey.
- Yeah, we will.
[rustic music]
- The farm journey Martha is talking about
began on Patnode Road,
where Jenni's husband, Weston Patnode, grew up.
When the road bears your name,
it likely means
you've lived there a long time,
as the Patnodes have for four generations.
? ?
- Yeah, at eight, I bought my first calf,
or my dad bought it for me,
and from there,
it just kept growing... [laughs]
And the love and the passion just kept taking off,
I guess, from there on, you know?
- It was love and passion
that led to meeting the love of his life.
- I didn't come from a dairy farm.
I didn't grow up on one, but all of my friends
showed cattle.
- Jenni wanted to be like her friends
so showed her borrowed cow at the county fair.
- We met there,
and he claims
that I was, like, spraying him with the hose
to flirt, but I just didn't know what I was doing.
[both laugh]
So that's how we met,
and then he gave me a ride home after the fair,
and we've been together ever since,
so... what is that?
- 19 years. - 19 years.
Yep.
It was a little bit of adjustment
going from not growing up on a dairy farm
to-- his work hours
were from 5:00 in the morning
until about 7:30,
8:00 at night.
- 365 days a year. [laughs]
- Weekends, Christmas,
so it was a little bit to adjust,
but that was our life.
- Yep. - That's-- that's what we knew,
so we made it-- we made it work.
- But making it work, they say,
started getting harder and harder.
[cow lows]
- The financial part was the big problem.
Milk prices are the same as they were
in the '70s or '80s.
Things got really tight, and...
we... [laughs] Paid the bills when we could
and hoped we could continue to pay them,
and then we kind of started to fall behind,
and it just got...
to where we weren't gaining ground.
- Yes! That's how high I can go!
- They talked to bankers about expanding
and came close to signing for a $2 million loan
but didn't want to risk losing their land
or burdening their children with debt.
- They're nine and five,
so I don't want to tie them down right now,
but, uh... - That was part of it, too.
When we were asked to expand,
they said they're nine and five.
They can't make that decision.
You know, if they're 20 and they said,
"Yeah, we want to go all in,"
we probably could've, but...
whatever they decide to do,
they're just responsible and kind, caring people.
At the end of the day, that's what we're hoping for.
[rustic music]
? ?
- It's been only a few weeks
since they made the decision to get out.
The memories are still raw,
and it's hard to talk about that last milking
and saying good-bye.
- I'll talk. [laughs]
I'll talk.
? ?
Uh, it was hard.
It was something that we knew would be hard,
but we didn't realize it would be
as hard as it was,
and, um,
we didn't realize how hard it would still be.
? ?
So, I wrote a blog,
kind of to just tell everybody
for our family and friends to know.
Tomorrow morning, the alarm clock
will go off early, 4:30 a.m.,
to board our dairy cows on trucks and trailers
for them to live on other farms.
There isn't a book for this.
There probably should be,
but no one wrote about what to do next
when you sell your fourth-generation family farm.
No one wrote a book about how to get
through that last milking,
tears never seeming to end
as you hold each other tight
with no words to be spoken.
No one wrote a book about where to go from here
or how to get over the emotions of the loss
you feel in the pit of your stomach,
the heartbreak.
No one wrote a book that tells you
how to get over that feeling of failure,
even though you know you gave it your best
to the bitter end.
- Through Facebook,
Jenni's post was shared thousands of times.
- Yeah, our phones were blowing up that night...
- Yeah.
- Or for, like, the next week,
just text messages, phone calls,
um, and then like you said,
uh, messages online
from all over the country
and the world.
Um, it was...
quite amazing, I mean, the outpouring...
- Yeah.
- Of support.
- Witnessing the widespread interest
in their story,
Jenni and Weston say that much more
than their dairy herd was being lost.
- I think a sense of the culture
of America. [laughs]
I mean, really, the--
they say, you know, like, Wisconsin,
America's Dairyland, and...
- I think growing up, the...
family helping the next family down the road,
the responsibilities we learned as kids,
the work ethic--
I don't know if you see that as much.
- While Weston weighs his work options,
they all enjoy
the unexpected family time together.
- Even if our kids aren't gonna grow up
milking cows,
it's still important to us
that they still get the same work ethic
into them that you did.
- I still want to be able to raise my boys
in the 400 acres here we have
tucked back in this valley.
Now duck down.
Get down. There you go.
? ?
- As the calendar turned to fall,
the search for portraits moved south
to the Kickapoo Valley.
? ?
[excited screams]
? ?
Fall in the valley kicks off
with the Gays Mills apple fest.
A true harvest festival,
it celebrates the literal fruits
of seasonal labor
from orchards ringing the valley.
? ?
This year's version of the fest
took place under a blistering sun
with triple-digit temperatures.
The year previous, the event was canceled
due to flooding.
The Kickapoo often dictates or disrupts
the rhythm of life in the valley
as it flows and floods along its winding course
through many river towns,
and it's given rise
to responses from both the people and the government,
each with their own way of providing help.
? ?
[cash register rings]
The Last Kickapoo Hillbilly is in the house.
- Hi, Ray.
- Or rather, Crazy Frank's Flea Market
in Readstown.
[rustic music]
Musician Ray Hadley sits in the corner,
strumming and sharing stories,
like his time spent
on leave from Fort Campbell, Kentucky...
- We went to Nashville every Friday night.
- Where he saw country legends like Hank Williams Sr.
- Old Hank, he--
he got pretty mean when he got drunk, and...
? ?
He was always drunk.
[laughs]
- Which just might lead Ray
into an old Hank Williams tune that suits the setting.
[playing "Kaw-Liga"]
? ?
- ? Kaw-Liga was ?
? A wooden Indian ?
? Standing by the door ?
? He fell in love with an Indian maid ?
? Over in the antique store ?
? Kaw-Liga ?
- Ray has lived around the valley
for most of his 85 years, performing
as the Last Kickapoo Hillbilly many times
with his father, Merle, by his side.
Ray was born into the musical family
in the 1930s.
- Ma and Dad always said
that I come with Roosevelt's New Deal
in 1932.
- ? We're working today ?
? Boys ?
? On the WPA ?
- Merle Hadley sang this song
in praise of New Deal programs.
- It was a godsend, actually.
? ?
- The quality of life for Ray and his family
improved through the New Deal.
Work, loan, and rural development programs
from the federal government
played a vital role in keeping people afloat
in the Kickapoo Valley...
- ? 'Cause I got them bad ol' ?
? Bad ol' ?
? Kickapoo River blues ?
- And the Kickapoo River's frequent flooding
has brought the federal government there
many times since.
- We're going backwards.
We're getting closer to the day it happened.
- Charley Preusser is the editor
of the Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout.
He has his own vivid memories of floods.
- See, this is all--
this is all we have for our paper.
Here's-- in this canoe right here.
- A canoe lent by a neighbor.
- And he said, "You can take my canoe
and get down to your office in my canoe."
Then he saw how clumsy I was in the canoe
and said, "I'm going with you," thank God.
Yeah...
- That was just the first kindness...
- It was pretty tough.
- At a time when many neighbors
came to help the newspaper.
- [sighs]
The community showed up.
Wow.
People from out of town showed up.
And I get a little emotional
thinking about it, and, um,
they just helped us
carry everything out,
stack it on the curb,
and everything we had
was thrown in a giant Dumpster.
All the furniture-- everything,
um, except those bound volumes.
- Bound volumes that surely absorbed
some of the dank humidity
of Kickapoo floodwater,
as well as sweat
and a few tears.
- [sniffs]
I-it was unreal.
It s-seemed it wasn't really, like--
wasn't normal.
It was like--
mm, like living in a novel.
So...
- A story told in the next week's paper.
- We were under duress,
which is exactly how we felt.
We lost everything we had
and made our Tuesday deadline.
- After devastating back-to-back floods
in 2007 and 2008,
it was clear something needed to be done,
and only the federal government would have
the resources to make it happen.
- We're sitting here 'cause of federal dollars.
- Oh, absolutely, yeah.
[gentle music]
- The newspaper shared its building
with Robert E's Barber Shop.
- Uh, I went to East Moline, Illinois,
Lincoln Barber College,
and then right straight from there to Milwaukee.
- After many Milwaukee years, Robert Lee
packed up his Braves souvenirs
and moved back home.
Over time, the downtown flooding
in Gays Mills
took its toll.
- Mm-hmm.
- The sidewalk was, like, a inch from the door.
- Well, that building sat right in a little swale.
We-- we got the water first,
no matter what.
- FEMA bought out the old building
and brought it down.
A new structure was built with federal funds
to create a new business district.
It's called the Gays Mills Mercantile,
and it's safely removed from the Kickapoo,
but like the old town,
with its now-empty lots,
the Mercantile has had
some trouble filling its slots,
leading some to jokingly call it
"the ghost mall."
But the newspaper moved there,
still sharing a building with the barber.
- I don't know.
I knew we would never get
the feel of the old Main Street back.
- Well, true.
- Toby, it's Charley
at the Crawford County Independent.
I'm extremely thankful
to have this
office provided by the village
through-- through the work of the federal government.
Federal government response is generous,
and... I think the people here are thankful for it,
but, um...
it is... kind of generic.
- While the Mercantile had a big taxpayer price tag,
Charley sees it as also coming with a social cost:
the loss of character
and sense of community
that the old town inspired,
the same community that helped out in the crisis.
- They were standing there in the mud with us.
Mostly, the federal government was not.
[gentle music]
? ?
- While rivers can be unpredictable,
the change of seasons is inevitable.
? ?
In this hilly region,
fog collects in the valleys
before burning off under the low sun.
The colors change, and temperatures drop...
? ?
And many in the area look forward
to the coming of deer season.
It's what brings the large crowd
to the last day of hunter safety training
at the Gays Mills Community Center.
Young kids get ready to join their families
at deer camps just weeks away.
- Go ahead and cross the fence.
- So, there's a lot of things involved
in what to do in the field
and how to be responsible and ethical and safe.
- Each shell goes
to a certain type of gun, right?
- Okay. - 'Cause you know if you...
He's eager to learn
about how to do things the right way.
I told him he needed to pass hunter safety
before he could even come out with me.
- If you teach youngsters how to hunt and fish
and give them a focus
on the outdoors,
they're less likely to get into other kinds of problems.
[gentle rustic music]
? ?
- With Thanksgiving approaching,
many in the area think of those less fortunate,
including the local motorcycle club.
[The Lost Crows band playing "Gimme Three Steps"]
- ? Ask one favor from you ?
? ?
? A-won't you give me three steps ?
? Give me three steps, mister ?
- The band The Lost Crows
includes members of the club.
- Well, tonight we're having a food drive,
uh, for our local community
at the Societies' Sons Clubhouse
in Gays Mills,
and we get a lot of response from the community
with a lot of donations.
Cash donations, food donations--
we'll take anything that you want to give us.
- ? Go on, take the money and run ?
? ?
? Go on, take the money and run ?
- We're all connected with the communities
around us and help when we can.
You know, we all want to get along.
- All right.
- Societies' Sons--
you know, they wanted people to see
that they weren't just a motorcycle group,
you know, that-- riding around or whatever.
- Retired teacher Renee Salmon
volunteers at the Gays Mills food pantry
where the Societies' Sons donations will end up.
- They donate
with the usual organizations:
the Lions, the Lionesses,
churches, of course.
- Churches provide the volunteer staff.
- The Methodists have two months.
The Lutherans have two months.
The Catholics have two months.
- Renee is filling up backpacks
to be sent home
with hungry students at a nearby school
over the weekend.
The pantry has become a focal point
of community giving.
The motto is
"Doing whatever it takes to be a good neighbor."
- It's definitely-- that's the way people feel,
and-- and I think our--
our-- our clients are so appreciative.
- The need is great,
as witnessed by the numbers who use it.
The pantry's located in the same new building
as the barbershop and newspaper office,
and it's said
the one day a week the pantry's open
is the only day the parking lot fills,
particularly as the snow begins to fall.
- We do see
an increase, a tick up.
- Renee sees the lack of job opportunity
as a major factor in the area's food insecurity.
- Well, we don't have very much, um, industry.
It's more seasonal.
I think people get laid off,
or they need the little extra help
in the winter.
- Just down the road from the Mercantile,
one business is trying to change ideas
about industrial potential in rural areas.
The Applewood Business Park
has streets named after apples,
so you could mistake the name BAPI
for a new variety,
but the inside of BAPI's facility
looks much more like the Silicon Valley
than the Kickapoo Valley.
Ritch Stevenson is the founder.
- We're a high-tech business in a...
"low-tech market,"
uh, and-- and we do quite well.
- They do well as a global leader
in sales and manufacturing of sensors
and climate-control products.
BAPI, or Building Automation Products, Inc.,
has their technology used
in buildings on every continent.
Take a tour, and Ritch will emphasize
that BAPI jobs include
much more than what's seen on the plant floor.
- We employ all the different
career functions,
so we have accounting; we have marketing.
Manufacturing engineering,
and engineering management. [speaks to staff] Wave!
Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering.
We have drafting.
Tech support,
and, uh, professional fly fisherman.
- Mentioning the fly fisherman
isn't just trivia.
It's more of an HR strategy.
- It's a lot more quiet lifestyle
than you have in the city, but there's plenty to do.
My passion is bow hunting.
Canoe, bike, fish, hike,
bird-watch.
- The rural setting and remote location
of Gays Mills
could be seen as an impediment
for many businesses,
but BAPI makes it a selling point.
- We took being in Gays Mills
as an asset.
We're looking for talent that wants
to live in this type of environment,
which is, you know, rural America,
a good quality life,
you know, an easy commute to work.
- Wouldn't live anywhere else.
- Michael McCarthy grew up on an area chicken farm,
got an electronics degree from a nearby
tech school, and settled in at BAPI.
- It is beautiful out
when I'm driving back and forth to work.
I'm not stuck in traffic
or anything, and-- and...
just gotta watch out for deer.
- If Ritch thinks he can sell recruits
on a small-town life,
it's because it's what he values
and what he wants BAPI to play a part in preserving.
[spacey music]
- Growing up as a kid, I remember
it was a vibrant community,
and with all the small farmers in the area to support it,
it, you know, was a bustling little town.
When, uh, we saw
the small farmers shutting down,
you could also see the local businesses
closing as they were leaving,
and you could see the community constricting.
You have to hit the bottom
before you start building back up,
and I'd have to say we're right close to that right now.
- But Ritch is confident BAPI can play a role
in a revival.
- It takes effort and there is
a lot of effort to rebirth
and pioneer a new Gays Mills
and get us
back on the track of growth and prosperity
that, you know, some of the old-timers
remember from when they were kids.
? ?
- And he encourages others to follow
the BAPI model.
- We have room in the business park,
if anybody wants to come. [laughs]
? ?
- Upriver from Gays Mills, in the village
of Soldiers Grove,
their economic development efforts
take on a different flavor.
[smooth percussive music]
It's written right on the board
at the very top:
Hipster Picnic,
a strong dark Belgian brew.
What could be more hipster than a craft brewery
serving some local artisanal cheeses
holding a celebration
for the end of fall?
? ?
It's a solstice open house for Driftless Brewing,
a small operation looking to expand.
A familiar face walks into the party:
Steve George, treasurer
of the Societies' Sons Motorcycle Club
that put on the food drive.
Here Steve is better known
as the village president of Soldiers Grove.
He doesn't see much difference
between the two elected positions.
- Like both places, you always have
your public, uh, input
where you get your complaints.
[laughs]
- He's retired from his mechanic career,
but Steve still does custom bike work
for Harley riders who want a little more oomph.
He has hopes that Driftless Brewery
can inject some fuel into the village's economy.
- We've been very much supported
by our village here,
our village government.
They gave us a low-cost loan
for our small system,
and they're working with us on a grant
for the bigger system for our expansion.
- We always try doing and looking
as promoting business in our area,
and we'll help you get started
so we can create businesses in a small town,
'cause, well, small towns are losing that.
- Steve is well acquainted with that loss.
[rustic music]
In the late 1970s,
he went through what people in Gays Mills
experienced in the 2000s:
seeing his town of Soldiers Grove
moved out of the flood zone.
- That little town down there had, uh,
three gas stations, a car lot,
a hardware store,
seven bars,
and they were all full on the weekends
with people coming to town at that time.
? ?
Many businesses simply closed down,
but one bar made the slow uphill climb
to higher ground.
- Somebody said he'd build a tavern,
somebody else said they'd build something else,
and the IGA store said he was going,
so we started in.
- Soldiers Grove's citizens started in
by emptying out the old store
and then stocking
the same shelves they'd later be shopping from.
? ?
- Oh, I-I think it's got a future,
if we can get things booming again.
[quiet music]
- The tavern known as the Wonder Bar
has remained a fixture since the move.
The grocery store survived against the odds for decades,
before shutting down not long ago.
? ?
If the village and Driftless Brewing
can secure funding,
including state economic development funds,
the space
the grocery once occupied
will have a new tenant.
The writing's on the wall
for construction to increase production
15-fold
and, no matter how you spell it,
a biergarten.
- Cynthia Olmstead: It's gonna be a destination brewery.
If we have a 70-seat taproom
and a full-scale production brewery,
it's gonna be a pretty exciting addition to this area.
It's gonna help the gas station.
It's gonna help the restaurant.
It's gonna help the B&Bs.
Everyone's pretty excited about the potential here.
- We loan them the money to get started,
and you're taking a chance, is it gonna go or not?
And it is. They're-- they're doing very well.
That's good for the community,
so that was a good investment for the village.
- As the holiday season approached,
the search for portraits moved upland
from the valley to Seneca,
one of a series of ridgetop towns
along Highway 27.
[tranquil music]
Its downtown consists largely
of the sprawling Johnson's One Stop.
Walk it end to end, and you'll pass through
a supermarket, shoe seller,
farm supplier,
and hardware store.
[Seneca High School Pep Band playing]
Nothing brings out the town like a home game.
Seneca's distance from other communities
has protected its schools
from having to consolidate, like rival
North Crawford,
but like other schools in the region,
Seneca has a high share of students on free
or reduced lunch.
It's really the youngest who suffer the most
from hunger, and the school
and community is doing something extra
for them.
["Jingle Bells" playing on speakers]
Seneca's single kindergarten is a high-energy classroom,
especially during the countdown to Christmas.
- Two little Christmas trees
standing all...
- When teacher Deb Benish noticed
some students couldn't keep up
on Monday mornings,
she initiated the backpack program.
The packs filled by Renee Salmon
at the food pantry
wind up here,
given to select students to take home
in a way that won't let other students know
they're getting help.
- The amazing thing
is that it's completely funded
by the community.
There's no government funds.
It's just the people that care
about the students in our school
and the families.
While this extra care is taken
to fill in gaps in childhood nutrition,
there's one segment of the area population
that's fed with scientific precision.
[rooster crows]
[gentle music]
? ?
- Eh, you know, you got people
that tell humans what to eat.
Well, I do the same for animals.
? ?
- Ben Olson helps manage nutrition
at Olson Feed Service, just outside Seneca.
The feed mill is the provider
for many of the area's
dairy herd.
They whip up portions of grains
and protein through something
like a giant Vitamix.
- What I try and do is,
in the most cost-effective way,
just try and make sure that animals get
the best diet that they can.
? ?
- That mixed feed is loaded into trailers
and onto trucks,
with each farm getting their own custom mix
based on a nutritional analysis
of what the farmer has grown on their own for feed.
- Including, oh, corn silage
or forages that are already on the farm
to, again, kind of help reduce cost.
That's kind of what it boils down to is--
is trying, hopefully,
help people make a dollar.
? ?
- A dollar that's been getting more and more elusive
as milk prices remain depressed.
- You see that cage that they lower the calf?
- Ben's mom, Tammy Olson, has heard
her customers asking them for help
to trim expenses.
- Put towels, and they...
- They will pore over those rations.
They'll try to come up with something
that might be a little less expensive,
or maybe you don't have to feed
quite so much of something.
- But the real barometer of hard times
has been what she hears from customers
and the small dairy farmers
who gather for a little coffee
many mornings at the feed mill.
- Farming can be very lonely.
Sometimes you're the only one in there milking,
and maybe you don't have a lot of conversation
with anybody outside your family,
so sometimes I joke that we're the feed mill
but sometimes we're the rumor mill
or the conversation mill.
- You can always count
on plenty of conversation
about Seneca basketball.
- But the one game down at North Crawford,
the big boy wasn't there; he was sick with the flu.
We couldn't shake him.
We only beat 'em by ten.
- And also talk about tariffs and trade.
- Well, we-- we gotta get,
you know, essentially, milk out of the country,
grain out of the country, uh...
- Absolutely.
- Recently, though,
Tammy says conversation has often taken
a darker turn.
- I'm like, "How are you doing today?"
and I kept getting the same answer
that, "Well, why are we doing this?
"Who in their right mind
"works in an industry
"where not only are you not making money
"but it's almost as if
you're paying to work in this industry?"
[mechanical whirring]
- Low milk prices can't keep up
with expenses like feed,
putting the squeeze on dairy farmers.
Tammy started watching the news more closely.
- And then I started reading more and more,
and then I found out that western Wisconsin
led the nation in bankruptcies,
and I'm like, "How can I be proud of that statistic?"
We have somebody who wanted to come out and play.
I'm proud of the fact that I'm from Wisconsin
and that I participate
in our dairy production, and...
Oh, he's healthy. Look at him.
I can't be proud of this.
[desolate music]
- The Olson Feed Service's Facebook page
had been tracking a bear seen in the area...
? ?
But Tami started sharing links,
including one about the dramatic increase
in farmer suicides.
? ?
- And I found that
to be very disturbing
and heartbreaking.
I have a daughter who works in mental health,
so I talked to her about it, and...
she said, "Every time you see somebody,
"it is-- that's depressed,
it's a-- you have to help them."
? ?
Normally we have very upbeat, happy people
that walk through here, and we're always
laughing and... joking around,
and it just hasn't been that way.
? ?
Never have we had the sadness
that we've had now.
They're frustrated. They're distressed.
It's despair.
- All things that led Tammy to take action.
[chatter and laughter]
- We want to say thank you.
The support we've received for this
has been tremendous, so just
a few quick announcements...
Uncharacteristically,
I reached out, and I made some phone calls
and sent some emails
to my state representatives,
and much to my surprise
and much to my happiness,
then we are now having
our own town hall-type meeting.
- Tammy put together a panel
of politicians, their aides,
civil servants,
and industry representatives.
- And we have Kevin Walleser; he just walked in
from the Milk Marketing Board,
and I believe we have a seat of honor for you too.
[applause]
- Before the first question,
Tammy gets a round of applause.
- Thank you.
This has really been a labor of love
right straight from my heart.
- The gathered dairy farmers,
whose livelihoods are dictated
by the laws of supply and demand,
have questions about both.
On the demand side, ideas about schools.
- And my thought is,
get our kids drinking good milk.
How do you get good milk into schools?
- Well, then, Kevin, go ahead and answer that one.
- Essentially, they want kids to drink
chocolate milk that tastes like dirty water.
Like, in your after-school vending machines,
it says gotta be
a 12-ounce bottle.
Well, none of the vending machines
work for 12-ounce bottles.
They work for 16-ounce bottles,
so then everything's gotta be retooled.
It's-- it's total government is what it is.
- Okay, we have a question here.
- There are worries about competition
in the marketplace.
- We went to Wal-Mart, my daughter and I,
the other day just to check the--
check out the milk section.
Almond milk all the way across the top.
That's not milk.
Seems like everybody's against us.
They can take stuff from a nut
and sell it as nutritious for milk.
To me, that just blows my mind.
- Then the questioning turns to supply.
- I wanna address this to Kevin.
What are we overproducing right now?
- Nationwide, how much do we need?
- Yeah, nationwide. Where--
- We're probably 15% long.
- We're 15?
- Yeah. - Big number.
- We're probably 15% long.
Uh, we can't drink our way out of this domestically.
- Make your way up to the microphone, John.
- Oh. - Yeah.
- Thank you.
- You know, I went to short course in Madison,
and that was in 1988,
and they told me that
80 cows is enough for one family.
If you got two families, 160 cows is enough for that.
So why--
why does everybody want to overproduce?
You know?
Why can't we cut back on numbers on cows?
This thing of always letting the bigger farmer
get more cows because they want more money,
then they can produce it at $10?
For what? You know?
We can't-- we can't even--
we can't even buy equipment.
We can't do anything to do our own stuff.
These young farmers here--
how the hell do they start farming?
- Exactly. - You know?
What-- what are they got--
what do I say to my two young kids
that want to go into farming?
Do I say, "Oh, no," you know?
- Some emotions are close to the surface.
- And then I think we're all looking for a silver bullet,
we're looking for a scapegoat,
and we're looking for an easy answer,
and I don't think any of those exist,
and I just made a little note here
that kind of bad things happen when people
get backed in a corner, and you have a whole
room full of people here
who feel like they're backed in a corner,
and so I think we can all understand
the frustration that we have.
It's true to everyone in this room.
- Tammy reminds the crowd that those
feelings of frustration
are just what motivated her
to call the meeting.
- John, Judy, and everybody,
I don't know if you realize
how much we appreciate your passion.
We do, and that's what started all this
is when I started seeing that,
so we do appreciate it,
and you have been asked if you could stay after
a little bit, because, um,
some of these people would like to talk to you.
I-- and I hope you can.
- I'm pretty proud of him for standing up and talking.
He spoke from his heart.
I-I was emotional.
I mean, I had to h-hold back a few tears,
just because it's, you know--
I know the struggle.
[pensive music]
? ?
- John Nolan said he spoke his piece at the meeting
and didn't have anything more to say.
Besides, there was milking to do.
? ?
But other members of the Nolan clan
shared their stories.
- Well, we have eight children.
Uh, two of them passed away
in a ATV accident in 2005,
so we have
Caitlin, Dustin, Preston, Kirsten, Aaron and Ashlynn,
and the boys that passed away were Austin and Justin.
- The Nolans are a throwback to a time
when large families operated
small dairies
and the family was a ready-made workforce.
It's been a tradition for the Nolan family
since John's ancestors came from Ireland.
- Family dairy farmers--
they want to stay doing what they're doing,
and I know it means a lot
to generations and generations.
They want to keep going.
I know John, you know,
he'd love to see his--
you know, his kids take over.
You know, after our boys died,
that was one of the big life decisions
John made was, "Should I expand
"and keep this going,
"or should I throw in the rag
and give up?" but...
you know, when you see
how fragile life is,
then you want to keep it going.
- Caitlin, now the oldest,
is eager to show her pride in the family business.
- I just want to help out
and do anything I can do
to help the dairy industry.
- Seven years ago, Caitlin promoted dairy
as Little Miss Squirt.
Soon she'll be competing for dairy princess.
- Growing up on a dairy farm,
you see many struggles,
and not a lot of people understand,
and it's very emotional.
He works very hard, and he loves what he does,
and I love seeing him happy
and doing what he loves to do.
[warm music]
- Two hours north of Seneca,
an hour south of Pepin County,
is Arcadia,
its thriving downtown
a mix of English-
and Spanish-speaking businesses.
- [speaking Spanish] En el nombre del Padre, hijo, espiritu santu, amen.
- Likewise, Holy Family Parish
holds separate Spanish and English services,
and as with the town, it can be a challenge
to integrate the two diverse populations.
[organ music playing]
Father Fernando, from Mexico,
and Father Sebastian, from Poland,
emphasize what they all have in common.
- He chooses this setting
the last supper, the Passover dinner...
I don't have to show people
the-- the things that divide us,
because I think we are all aware of them.
My job is to show things
that kind of unite us,
and-- and faith certainly is one of those things,
the main thing.
? ?
- The faithful turn out for Easter week services,
and Holy Family holds
them together.
All week, services are bilingual,
with English and Spanish speakers
seated together,
worshiping together.
- [speaking Spanish] Es una sola fe celebramo lo mismo,
pero en lengua differente.
Es lo mismo.
- On Maundy Thursday,
the day before Good Friday,
priests humbly wash the feet of parishioners,
and then they can look out
on something they rarely see:
the diverse flock filling the pews
as one congregation.
- Spanish, American,
Spanish, American, American, Hispanic.
Yes.
? ?
[rustic music]
- After Easter, the renewal of spring
comes to western Wisconsin,
the high water's hardly slowing anyone down.
? ?
The fish are biting. - Pretty good day.
Better than being skunked.
- The softball fields are full.
? ?
And the cornfields are being planted.
? ?
Spring always brings signs of hope.
At Driftless Brewing in Soldiers Grove,
it comes in the form of a state government grant...
- For $125,000.
[cheers and applause]
- And a moment for Steve George to savor.
- And I know I'm not supposed to carry on,
but I did write a big speech.
Well, I just wanted to say
congratulations.
[applause]
? ?
- It's Memorial Day in Eastman,
another ridgetop town.
- Just think about the persistence
of our dairy farmers,
who continue to do what they do every day,
when prices are high and when prices are low.
They really inspired me
to reapply to become Alice in Dairyland,
and I hope that they can inspire you as well.
- Incoming Alice in Dairyland Kaitlyn Riley
is the featured speaker
at the Crawford County
dairy banquet.
The evening's highlight will be
the crowning of the dairy princess,
and Caitlin Nolan is in the running.
But before that, there's other business.
Kevin Walleser
from the Milk Marketing Board,
who also farms in the area,
has a short market report.
- Would be great if the milk price would go up,
but it's not gonna be strong for a while.
- Some farmers even use apps on their phones...
- Each contestant gives a short talk,
and Caitlin
raises some of the same issues
her father brought up
at the big meeting in Seneca.
- Cows are producing
too much milk for ourselves
to handle for American consumption.
During this time period of low milk prices,
the best thing to do is stay positive
and promote our dairy industry.
The more we promote, the stronger we will become.
It's all in the hands of our future farmers.
[applause]
[gentle rustic music]
- Soon the big moment will arrive,
and the Crawford County dairy princess
will be crowned.
- And we don't know yet what's gonna happen tonight.
We don't know yet whose name's gonna be drawn,
and I understand if anyone's heart's fluttering
or if anyone's a little nervous about what's gonna happen.
And your Crawford County dairy princess
is Caitlin Nolan.
[applause]
? ?
- Thank you all, and I hope to see you
at the, um, Crawford County
dairy breakfast on Saturday.
Thank you.
[applause]
? ?
- June is dairy month
and the season of dairy breakfasts
on the farm...
? ?
A chance to get
up close and personal
with some cows...
? ?
And have a corny old time.
- Head up. Get your face out of the corn!
? ?
- This breakfast is on the family farm
of Kevin Walleser.
- I'm sure you know the drill.
You don't look at me. At the camera.
- And it's a chance to get the word out...
- All right, what is your title?
- About the new name for the Milk Marketing Board:
Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.
- It does invoke the image of the family, because...
when you talk about dairy farmers,
you're talking about real people,
real people who are passionate about their profession.
- The day of the dairy breakfast,
milk is 5¢ lower
than what was reported on WDRN
ten months before.
- Losses in the milk futures.
July, milk down four at $15.52.
August, down 14 at $16.41. September, down...
- Back in Durand in Pepin County,
there's renewed excitement on Main Street.
The Riverside Grill is generating buzz
with its new expansion into an adjoining building.
The first step was to break through the walls
to build a doorway.
? ?
The construction revealed a long-hidden circus poster...
[smooth saxophone music]
Unseen since 1887.
? ?
Now, with the poster restored,
the room is
newly opened as an event hall.
They're busy preparing for the Durand
Future Farmers of America banquet...
- Right after you called me...
- And supervising the setup
are Weston and Jenni Patnode.
- Texting and calling. "Are we doing it or not?"
- In December, um,
his-- his old ag teacher had called
and just said there's this position opening up.
It's in the Durand FFA school district.
- It's the school that I graduated from
in 1999,
and to be able to come back there and--
it's great.
And McKenzie can walk up here with him.
It was an adjustment to go from milking cows
to managing kids,
but it-- like I said, they've been great.
- We want to bring joy to the chapter
and, like, try and make it fun
for people that are, um, already in FFA
and people that are joining.
- He's been very open,
especially his dairy science kids
are like, "Mr. Patnode, you know,
"our family said you sold your farm.
What happened?"
And so, he's been really honest with the dairy kids.
- There's so many avenues
that'll open up in agriculture,
not just on a farm,
but there's ag business everywhere,
especially in this rural community.
[smooth jazz music]
- Soon the chocolate milk is flowing,
and plates are being filled
and Jenni and Weston can share a moment together
before the special guest speaker begins her talk.
? ?
- Hi, my name is Brooke Brantner,
and it's truly a pleasure for me to be here
with all of you this evening and talk...
- Sharing her experiences, which surely resonate
with Weston and Jenni.
- You know, growing up in that county fair show ring
alongside my brothers and sister, I learned some
of the most valuable life lessons.
I think back to my grandfather,
a dedicated dairyman
who invested his life
to that of a love for agriculture.
He would silently stand there
at the edge of that show ring railing
with tears rolling down his face
because he was so proud
of the future of agriculture.
[rustic music]
And it's in those lessons
that really taught me that it's important--
of doing what you love with who you love
on the family farm.
[applause]
? ?
- Doing what you love with who you love
on the family farm.
That's what's going on in the 400 acres
tucked in this little valley
and in places across rural Wisconsin.
- Farmers are
happy when they're working.
- Back at the feed mill,
Tammy reports spirits have lifted
since the big meeting.
- We're trying to help.
We know we're in this with them.
? ?
- From his perch at the newspaper office,
Charley Preusser sees life going on
in the Kickapoo Valley.
- People in the country are resilient,
and they don't get gloomy.
They're still going to the football game
on Friday night.
? ?
- Steve George looks forward
to riding with friends
to the new Driftless taproom.
- In a small town, everybody helps
each other,
and we don't forget about people.
? ?
- After church, there's time for fun
for the Nolan clan as the two boys play on the playground
named for the older brothers they never met.
- God gave us a second chance with these two boys.
? ?
- They're all, in their own ways,
trying to make rural life
the best life there is.
? ?
[gentle music]
? ?
- Female announcer: Support for this program
has been provided by the O'Brien Fellowship
in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University
and by the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.