- Announcer: The following program
is a PBS Wisconsin
original production.
- Angela: Coming up on Wisconsin Life,
an artist creating beauty from barn wood,
a tour guide giving rickshaw rides,
a pair of bakers who went from welding to wedding cakes,
and learn what it takes
to make one of the country's top corn mazes.
It's all ahead on Wisconsin Life.
[bright, upbeat music]
- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
Alliant Energy,
Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
American Transmission Company,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
- Welcome to Wisconsin Life.
I'm Angela Fitzgerald.
Fall is here,
and what better place to celebrate the season
than right here at Lapham Peak?
Lapham Peak is located in the southern part
of the Kettle Moraine State Forest,
a destination known for its glaciated landscape.
This area was once called "Government Hill"
but later named after Lapham,
a 19th-century scientist, author, and naturalist.
His observations recorded on this hill
pioneered his nationally- recognized work in meteorology.
Today, this 45-foot tower
stands as the highest point in Waukesha County
and offers views that stretch to the Illinois border.
Beyond the tower, this park offers accessible hikes,
camping, and a section of the Ice Age Trail.
There's no better time to enjoy the park
than in the autumn months.
I'll head down the tower to see more,
but first, try not to "fall" for this story.
[gentle music]
We meet an artist turning barn wood
into something beautiful.
[garage door opening]
[saw whirring]
- This whole project started
because I wanted a piece of art in my own home
that I couldn't afford to buy.
[gentle acoustic music]
[saw whirring]
It kinda happened accidentally.
I saw a piece of artwork.
It was a barn wood flag
behind JJ Watt's Defensive Player of the Year trophy.
I wanted it really bad, and I couldn't afford it.
[saw whirring]
I knocked on farmers' doors until I had
the gray and the red and the white.
I made it for myself one night,
and like anybody does, they post it on social media.
By morning, I had orders for 12 flags.
It took off almost, actually, literally overnight.
I started with zero tools.
I had to buy a couple tools to start,
and I had to borrow a few tools to start.
I made that flag with zero training.
[guitar music]
I reclaim barns.
I try to use every bit of that in artwork.
It takes 250 hours to take a barn down piece-by-piece.
I start from the top, and I take the shingles off,
and I recycle them.
And then, I go to the roofing boards.
And then, the siding boards.
The brown is the roofing, and the red is the siding,
and all the gray is the beams.
I love seeing the grain of the wood.
[saw whining]
I can smell the dairy barn
where I cut the wood from a parlor,
and I can smell the tobacco
when I cut that wood from a tobacco barn.
I feel like almost every piece is my favorite piece
for a week or two
until I make my next favorite piece.
[upbeat acoustic music]
True Coffee in Monona has maps.
It was-- That architect came to me,
and they wanted to tell the story
of where the coffee beans came from,
from around the world.
The original design of Madison's city flag,
and that was important to me.
This is iconic.
I thought, I'll see if I can't make
an old fashioned out of wood.
People love this one.
This is who we are.
I've always been big into history.
I've always been big into the bigger story.
[acoustic guitar music]
I try to keep that story alive
by putting all that information on the back
with pictures of the barn.
[waves lapping]
I try to find the oldest person attached to that property.
These guys have fantastic stories.
[chuckles]
- Ron: Made a form on the floor.
It was a mess. [chuckles]
- Jeremiah: Honest, sharp character,
and I call them up.
- Ron: And he asked a bunch of questions.
- So who did the building?
- Ron: My Uncle Pete, and my father, and myself.
I was a junior in high school.
We didn't know nothing but work when we were young.
A guy bought it to develop.
They'd just bulldoze her down.
Jeremiah saved it.
[chuckles]
- Jeremiah: It turned out that I used almost
Ron's entire barn
to build this tasting room.
The rafters made all of the tables and the benches,
and the beams made the bar.
The roofing boards are all the walls.
Gosh, I basically tore it apart
and put it back together in a different order.
Got to celebrate 87th birthday at the bar
that he chopped down the trees in 1946.
To see his eyes was a pretty great thing.
- They invited the whole family down there.
It was very nice.
We got a little replica of the barn that Jeremiah made.
- We're a unique group of people,
and...
and we love Wisconsin.
These barns were hand-built
by someone in the '20s or the '30s,
or the 1890s,
and that story is important to a lot of people.
[tapping wood]
[tracing]
[exhales audibly]
[acoustic guitar music]
I get to give that wood new life.
[miter saw whirring]
I never expected this to be a business.
I've tried to start businesses,
a lot of businesses, and failed every time.
[bandsaw whirring quietly]
And this one was a complete accident.
I saw a piece of artwork, and I just,
I really had to have it.
It's super cliche to say,
"Make your passion your job
and never work again a day in your life."
Gosh, I love the fact that I can come to work
and do something like that.
- Angela: Next, let's head to Baraboo,
where a tour guide is taking a ride
through the town's history.
[cheerful music]
- Mordini: My first degree in teaching was in history.
I love history.
I sneak it in whenever I can.
Hello.
- Angela: High school teacher Shelley Mordini
will school you on Baraboo's history.
- Shelley: Isn't this the best ride ever?
And I love riding a bike,
so combined all of those things together.
- Angela: As a tour guide, she can peddle a good story.
- Shelley: I want them to see a beautiful Midwestern town
steeped in circus history
with a few ghosts hanging around
to make it exciting.
[chiming bike bell]
Welcome to the Historic Downtown Baraboo Rickshaw Ride!
Coming up here on our right-hand side
is the historic Al Ringling Theater built in 1915.
He spent $100,000 to build it.
It's built on the one-third scale model
of the Palace of Versailles,
has 700 seats in the main floor and 102 in the box seats,
and absolutely gorgeous on the inside.
I get to meet a lot of interesting people.
Whoo!
[laughs]
I started to keep track of all the different countries
that have come on my tour,
and I'm up to 22 different countries right now.
Some days, I love this more than my husband.
[passenger laughs]
[chimes bell] Al Ringling Mansion was built in 1905.
It's very unique on the inside.
- And where's that?
- Right over there.
- Angela: This tour also requires a lot of pedal power.
- We do have steep hills in Baraboo,
which is why I have a little motor to assist me
in getting up these Hills.
My weight limit is 600 pounds.
One time, I had a family of four,
which kinda worked out to be 600 pounds,
and it was a struggle.
You can't just jump into it.
You have to be in good shape to do it.
- No tour of Baraboo is complete
without a visit to the circus grounds.
- Up that way is circus world.
That's where all the magic is hidden here in Baraboo.
This is where the "greatest show on earth" started.
So here, we are entering in
the Ringling Brothers winter quarters.
Baraboo was the winter home
to the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1884 to 1919.
Interestingly enough,
that was the same year as the Spanish flu,
and that's why they pulled out of Baraboo.
- The circus left more than a few secrets behind.
- Shelley: And the big red one,
that's like the most haunted place.
So, we talk about the ghost that put the "boo" in Baraboo.
- Angela: From ghost to grueling hills,
this pedicab peddler
is filled with passion for this place.
- I want them to experience the history of Baraboo
and really see Baraboo through my eyes,
the eyes of a local.
I give them a great show.
[laughing]
- Whooooo! - Whooooo!
- I'm at Lapham Peak in Kettle Moraine State Forest,
enjoying everything the fall season has to offer.
Not far from I-94 near Delafield,
Lapham Peak is one of Southeast Wisconsin's scenic gems.
[gentle piano music]
This landscape was sculpted by glaciers
thousands of years ago.
Now, approximately half a million people
visit this park every year.
Park's Superintendent, Anne Korman, says
what makes this park special is its variety.
- It's beautiful.
There's a lot of elevation changes,
a lot of varied topography.
You go through mixed hardwoods.
We have mountain biking trails.
We have a lot of hiking opportunities.
There's a lot of short hikes, a lot of varied distances,
so you can go for a short hike, a long hike,
anything in between.
- Angela: The park has more than 17 miles of trails in all.
No matter which one you take,
there's no time to visit quite like fall.
- Anne: It's so beautiful here in fall.
We have mixed hardwoods and pine plantations,
so you get all the colors that Wisconsin is known for.
You get the oaks, the red oaks, the deep burnt brown oaks.
You get the vibrant maples.
You get poplars, birch.
And then you see the deep greens,
the pine trees throughout the forest,
so it's just beautiful wherever you go.
- Angela: Maybe the most popular attraction at the park
is the 45-foot observation tower.
It's the highest point in Waukesha County.
- Anne: Our tower is extremely popular here,
not only at Lapham Peak,
but any state park that has an observation tower.
This time of year when the fall colors are at their peak,
when you get to the top,
you can see 360 degrees around this area.
You can see clear down to Milwaukee
and see the skyline buildings.
And you look off to the west,
and you can see over towards the southern unit,
towards Whitewater, and to the south towards Illinois.
So it's a beautiful, beautiful view up there.
- Angela: Latham Peak is a peaceful place
to enjoy Wisconsin's fall colors and a lot more.
- If I haven't mentioned your favorite activity,
just to get outside,
if you like to sketch,
if you like to just find peace and quiet and read,
or just go for a nice slow walk and listen to the birds,
we have an amazing amount of bird species.
So, if you're just looking to get away from the city
or just get outside and breathe some fresh air,
you're welcome here.
- Every season in Wisconsin is special,
but fall is one of the most stunning,
including right here in Waukesha County.
Let's continue our journey throughout the state.
We go to Lodi
to learn how a family
is reaping accolades
with their creative corn mazes.
[gentle guitar music]
[goats bleating]
- Treinen: So, in 2021, it'll be a hundred years in the family.
- Angela: Alan Treinen has more than a century of farming
running through his veins.
- Since I was that big, I knew I wanted the farm.
- Angela: The Treinens also knew
they wanted to save and share
their rural Wisconsin heritage.
- We started to think
that maybe the whole business could be more.
It could help the farm stay in the family.
[upbeat music]
- Child: A horsey! - Go, horsey, go!
*
- Angela: The Treinens opened their first corn maze
in 2001.
[indistinct chatter]
- Angela: In 20 years,
it's grown into one of the top 10 corn mazes in the country,
according to USA Today readers.
- Angie Lathrop Trienen: So, we've done the Trilobite,
which is the state fossil of Wisconsin.
One year, we did the Kraken.
So, we've done a lot of, like, mythology,
like Greek mythology, Icarus, Athena.
We've done stories like Aesop's Fables,
story of, like, how the elephant got his trunk.
- Alan Treinen: The elephant's child maze, not my favorite.
That was a bugger to catch.
No straight lines.
You got to lay out every inch of that maze.
- Angela: In 2020, this is the design Angie dreamed up.
It's a creature, half a millimeter long,
known as the "water bear."
- They are really weirdly, ridiculously cute
under the microscope.
They have a funny little snout,
pudgy little eight legs with the little claws on them.
They look like a teddy bear crossed with a caterpillar.
The toughest thing is just finding a theme
that kinda fulfills all the things I need it to be.
Interesting, beautiful, will make a good maze.
I actually spend a few months thinking about it,
but I don't really start it
until my husband plants the corn.
And then, I have a 10-day window to get the design done.
- I plant the field lengthwise and crosswise,
so as soon as the corn's out of the ground and inch-tall,
I've got a grid growing in the field.
- When you see Angie's complex and elaborate design,
it's no wonder visitors ask one question
more than any other.
- A lot of people wanna know how we cut the maze.
They're walking in corn that's like 10 or 12 feet tall
and wondering how on earth we would cut it.
- Angela: That would be Alan's job
to take Angie's seed of an idea
and transform the landscape
when the corn is only a few inches high.
- Everybody assumes we use GPS,
and they're surprised when I tell them,
"No, we use a grid."
And we mow the trails initially,
and then we have to come with a tractor and a rototiller.
Favorites are the ones that are easier to cut.
- Angela: "Easy" is not a part of Angie's mantra
when it comes to her mind and the maze.
- First of all, they're surprised
at how big the corn maze is.
When I say it's 15 acres,
which is just short of 15 football fields,
sometimes they're like, "Whoa, whoa,
five to six miles of trails in there."
[gentle music]
- Angela: As a maze designer,
she's up to the challenge to figure out
ways for you to get lost.
It's all part of the mathematics in the maze.
- Angie: Every year, when I design it,
I have these ideas about
what parts of the maze are gonna be hard for people.
[indistinct conversation]
- Woman: We're entering number one.
Hope you guys know where you're taking me!
- Angie: One of my favorite mazes was a gecko,
and the gecko had a lot of mathematical concepts.
It had like a Fibonacci Spiral in the tail,
and Penrose tilings on its back.
I had put in these little hexagons.
I just kind of needed to fill up some space.
Everybody said the hexagons were super hard.
Who knew?
- Child: I'm right by the entrance.
[corn brushing]
- Found him!
- Man: There's two, there's three.
- So, I always ask people, "Well, did you get lost?
Did you get turned around?"
'Cause I feel like I'm not doing my job as a maze designer
if they say, "Nope, didn't get lost."
And that's a fun business to be in.
- It is turned into something I'd never imagined
it would have.
It turned out pretty good.
- Angela: Finally, we visit Milwaukee
to meet a pair of bakers
who found a recipe for success.
As daybreak emerges along the West Oklahoma Avenue.
- Pedro: We start working at six o'clock in the morning.
- Angela: It's time for these bakers to get busy.
- Pedro: Tres leches cake.
This one is one of the most popular
desserts or cakes that we make here.
- Angela: For Pedro Garcia and his partner, Jesús Ramirez,
this all started with just one cake.
- It was funny because when I did my first cake,
it was for Jesús's birthday.
[speaking in Spanish] Y de ahí empezamos a seguir haciendo pasteles.
- Angela: Pedro and Jesús went from making one cake
to opening a bakery.
- Dame mocha - El mocha? Okay.
- Angela: In Spanish, "Todo Postres" means "all desserts."
- Pedro: Some of the recipes are family recipes.
- Angela: Pedro comes from a family of bakers.
- Pedro: My grandma was an artisan baker,
and I have my oldest sister,
which is a cake designer and baker, also.
- Angela: But that didn't guarantee success.
- La parte más-- más asustaba
si tal vez no tuviéramos éxito
- It was scary to start,
thinking about what could work or what couldn't work.
- Angela: And for the most part,
both are self-taught bakers and businessmen.
- Pedro: There's a lot of things that you can't forget
when you're baking or doing sweet stuff.
The base is a sponge cake made out of egg whites,
flour, powders, vanilla extract.
This one is ready.
- Pedro y a mí nos apasiona lo que hacemos
decorar los pasteles
crear diseños de pasteles nuevos
para bodas, para quinceañeras,
fiestas de cumpleaños.
Entonces, yo creo que eso es lo que me entusiasma
y lo que me apasiona hacer
y es lo que hago.
Mi trabajo anteriormente
era totalmente diferente
a lo de lo que es la pastelería.
*
- Angela: Jesús and Pedro went from welding
to wedding cakes,
where they found a recipe for success.
- Mi familia y mis amigos se sorprendieron.
- The change was huge.
[chuckles]
In the oven.
- Angela: They built a name for themselves,
making delicious desserts and cakes,
very large extravagant cakes.
Creo que los pasteles de quinceañera, los de boda
cuando llevan flores naturales y rosas
son mis favoritos para decorar.
- Angela: Word about this bakery got out,
and an invitation to provide a cake for Pride Month
soon followed.
- Para llevar un pastel
en el mes de lo que es el orgullo gay.
Un pastel al capitolio lo significó mucho
nos pusimos muy contentos
estábamos muy, muy contentos.
No nos lo creíamos
que hayan llamado a todos postres para hacerlo.
- Pedro: They choose us to bring the cake for that special day.
It was...
The feeling was great, yeah.
- Angela: Filled with pride,
Pedro and Jesús want to help the next generation
of entrepreneurs.
- Pedro: We belong to both Latin community, LGBTQ community.
It's very important for us to be in touch with them.
[laughter]
- ¡Buenos tardes, amigos de Todo Postres!
- Angela: One way these two are giving back
is through social media,
as influencers within their two communities.
- Muy importante ayudar a los pequeños negocios.
- Angela: Each week, they take time
out of their busy baking schedules
to spread the word, give back, and move forward.
- Si.
- Hicimos este espacio
para invitar a los negocios latinos
aquí alrededor en el área de milwaukee
y nuestro propósito es para que más gente se entere
de los negocios latinas
que están alrededor.
- Angela: From a half-baked idea to a dream come true.
And now a brand-new bakery is just icing on the cake.
- Creo que no es muy común que dos hombres latinos
a lo hagamos ahora
y en estar en este país
es muy bonito, muy importante
estar saliendo adelante.
- I love what I do,
and I think Jesús loves what he does.
It's really nice to see the people feel happy for us.
I knew I was gonna be doing this.
If you have a dream,
you have to make it come true, yeah.
- We've shared stories from across Wisconsin,
all while savoring the season
and the fall colors that come with it.
If you wanna learn more about the people
or places we've explored,
including Lapham Peak in the Kettle Moraine State Forest,
visit WisconsinLife.org.
Do you know someone we should feature on the show?
Reach out to us on our social channels
or email us at Stories at WisconsinLife.org.
Well, I've "fall"en in love with fall in Wisconsin.
Until we meet again, I'm Angela Fitzgerald,
and this is our Wisconsin Life.
Bye!
*
- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
Alliant Energy,
Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
American Transmission Company,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.