Home Is Where One Starts From. -T.S. Elliot

November is upon us, and since Jeff had a few extra days off after Grandma, Uncle Mark and Aunty Tricia left... we decided to look into last minute hotel deals for the Wisconsin Dells/Indoor Waterparks!  We found one we liked, pulled the kids out of school for a couple days, threw some clothes in a bag... and hit the open road! We had a great time!

the beautiful view from our room in Wisconsin

playing in the arcade

the bear in the lobby...

fun in the waterpark

the bridge back to our hotel from the waterpark...they walked hand in hand the whole way... so sweet!

We think about Papa, (Jeff's Grandpa James "Jim" Sugden) every time we're in Wisconsin.  He was born and raised there on 80 acres of some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen!  I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself... we decided we'd email Papa while we were in Wisconsin and try to get directions to go visit his home town and land that he grew up on.  According to mapquest, it was a short 1 hour and 9 minute drive through some hills from where we were staying... not too bad!
It was a gorgeous drive, lots of hills, windy roads through farms and forest alike.  Poor Maddie has her Mommy's tummy though, and apparently gets car sick.  Yep, it was the first time we've ever seen her vomit, all over herself and the carseat... which we considered ditching on the side of the road!  It was nasty!  But she wasn't miserable, pretty content actually so we cleaned it all up and ventured on!  SO glad we did!

We were in unincorporated territory now, little to no cell phone reception and the satellite for our navigation was shotty at best.  We stopped a woman on a tractor to ask if we were headed in the right direction.  She confirmed that we were indeed on the right path.  She gave us further directions which looked something like this:  Continue up here past the big hill on the left, turn right at the second stop sign... follow it all the way in past 3 barns and it should be a few miles up you'll hit 14.  OH!  Okay... :)  Honestly, I'm glad to see there's places like this that still exist.  Small town U.S.A.  Some of the nicest and hardest working people around!

So we ventured on in to Richland Center.  This is the biggest town near Papa's small town, Hub City.  It's about 14 miles south of his old farm land.  It was the only place they could go for clothing or the like, and it's also where he attended High School.  He had to catch a ride on the Carnation Milk Truck for 25 cents to make the 14 mile trek!  Richland Center is rich with history and pride!  It has grown a great deal since Papa's time there.  Now the High School is the size of most, and it neighbors the University of Wisconsin Richland.  We spoke to the locals to gain more insight and learned that Papa's old High School has been gone for quite some time now and is now a parking lot near the Hospital downtown.  We went and took pictures of the parking lot in case he might recognize the geography surrounding it.

Just for fun here's an old photo of downtown Richland center, from the south of this view above... Park Hotel is now Park Apartments.

1878 Richland Center, WI. Looking north on Center Street (now Central Avenue). On near right is the Park Hotel (now Park Apartments), middle right is Chandler's Store (now Anchor Bank), on front left is Krouskop Store (burned in 1883, now Center Cinema).

the Courthouse

Center Cinema

Government Center

Papa's Donuts!!  Right there on Church Street...

the Hospital

We believe this is where Papa's High School used to be?? at the end of the road here....

We stumbled upon a Purple Heart Veteran's Memorial ... a flag for every soldier who was injured or died in combat from the area.  One man dating back to World War I.  It was a windy day so the sight and sound of all those flags waving in the wind just took my breath away.  It was truly beautiful.  We took some pictures, paid our respects and moved on down the road to Hub City, where Papa's land was.  We crossed the Pine River coming in, which we read was responsible for all the beautiful carved out limestone hills in the area!  We had no idea it would be so beautiful!  There up ahead on the right hand side of the 80 North, just passed Hub City... was Soules Creek Drive, just as Papa said it would be.  Mapquest didn't recognize it, nor did our navigation... but Papa's memory is sharp and clear as a bell.  All of the land to the left of it was his families land.  We were hoping to find the house he lived in, which he said had burned down.  But dilapidated building surrounding remained last he was there... 30 years ago!  We went down a long dirt road and found a couple of dilapidated buildings we thought might have been his... but learned upon asking Papa that that had been where he attended Elementary School.  Some corrections might need to be made once Papa views the photos, however, to confirm or correct this information.

Papa's land was 80 acres, all to the left of Soules Creek Dr.

We thought maybe this was and old outhouse?

Old Elementary school maybe?

The boys thought Papa was the luckiest, growing up with so much space! 

Beautiful limestone!

Further down Soules Creek Drive, on the left there was a house that was badly damaged, maybe suffered a fire?  We weren't sure if it was at one time Papa's or not, took a picture in case... we didn't realize that he had 80 acres until we got home and re-read his memoirs.  Had we realized we would have searched further.  We're so intrigued we're considering heading back up more prepared next time with some sturdy boots and a babysitter for the kids.  We may need to get permission from the University of Wisconsin though, as they now own the land for research purposes.

Yep, we trespassed...shhhhh....

On the way out of town, we stopped at a Pier Park there in Hub City.  It was the home to Rockbridge... a bridge (cave) literally formed out of the limestone rock by Pine River.  It is 20 feet wide and 10 feet high.

Archaeological studies revealed that the Native Americans once used the overhang for shelter.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen...right there in the middle of Wisconsin!?  Who knew!?  It was made into a park in 1920, so I imagine Papa might have known of it?  Also nearby, was Mick Memorial Park... in Papa's memoir he mentioned something about someone by the last name of Mick...we're wondering if there's any relation there with whom they named the park after!?

I have to say, re-reading his memoir after visiting the land... sure brought the book to life for us.  Suddenly we had color pictures to go with the stories and it made a world of difference.  Papa says that Tom (his youngest son) is the only one who's been able to visit of all of his kids and grand kids, so my hope in sharing this blog is that the family will get to see through our visit a little bit more in detail exactly where Papa called Home.  I have a deep respect for my children's Great Grandfather, and their Great-Great Grandparents who tended to all that land, with so very little to do so with.  When I think of how cold the Midwest winters can be, and imagine walking to an outhouse in the middle of that, it chills me to the bone.  When I imagine what Papa's mother must have felt when her husband was injured and she and her children needed to pick up the slack of an already daunting feat... I realize just how spoiled we truly are.  Surviving injury, the great depression and so much more we can only begin to imagine!  Well, it just puts things in perspective real quick.  Even in these awful economic times, we are still so very lucky to have all we do.  And I realize none of it would be possible had our ancestors not made such great sacrifices!  They were so strong!  I am truly inspired and impressed!

I want to thank Papa for sharing his life story with us, and thank Teresa for inspiring him to write his memoirs!  I am honored to have shared this experience with Jeff and our children, it is truly a day we will never forget!

Please enjoy the photos and video... and remember if you want to see them bigger, all you need to do is double click on them and they should open up in a new (bigger) window... to play the videos, just press the triangle or double click on them as well.

   We love you, Papa!