There are many old-time schoolhouses still standing in Wisconsin, the famous one-room school. Brandon Bustead has said, “The one-room schoolhouse was once a signature of the American education landscape.” Richard Fidler had written, “These schoolhouses dotting our landscape are delightful artifacts of a bygone age.” Kris Scott reflected they are pockets of “rural charm.” 

I have spotted over 30 such schoolhouses during my travels through the state. Jerry Apps, professor emeritus of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has published a book on the subject, One Room Country Schools.

Allow me to show you the schoolhouses I have found. Maybe one of them was yours, or one that schooled a member of your family.

When you say Wisconsin, you say cranberries! Wisconsin is the international leader in cranberry production, yielding 60 percent of the world’s crop. Furthermore, University of Wisconsin (UW) research has helped Badger growers achieve this.

Growing cranberries begins in the spring. A road trip through Wisconsin Rapids, Warrens, Pittsville, Nekoosa, and Tomah in the fall will reveal cranberry marshes in full bloom and bright red berries floating atop water pumped into them. The land in these areas is flat, the marshes or bogs are easily seen, and their bright red color at harvest time is fun to see. 

The cranberry country is best experienced during the harvest when the berries are red, popping out at you against the fall foliage. The Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers have identified a “Cranberry Highway” to help you see the marvels of the crop.

Portage County is the state's leader in potato production, and Wisconsin is number three in the nation. The "Central Sands" soil region is why, along with a lot of hard-working people. This is a big-time business. In 2023, the state produced 2.9 billion pounds of potatoes valed at $400 million.

I observed the Dambrowski Farms potato harvest near Shantytown, just a stone's throw north of Portage County, and the Plover River Farms just outside Stevens Point. If you're a kid at heart, watching all these big machines do their ballet out in the fields is more exciting than an old man who is still a boy can handle!

I live close to Plover, so off I went to watch the harvest. I was lucky. The weather was fabulous, and I found the harvest in full motion.

 I love the old-time windmills of Wisconsin.  

The iconic windmill of the Midwest, sometimes known as “wind engines.” Ryan Schnurr has written windmills are “technically profound. pieces of equipment with a history of powering American expansion.”   

Windmills go back to ancient times. They are used to pump water and produce electricity. They were in their heyday during the 1930s and 1940s. They are uncomplicated devices . 

Kasey Moomau has written, “There may be no sound so relaxing as the creak of a mill superimposed on the trickle of water into a stock tank — and no activity so refreshing as taking a hot summer dip in that very tank.”