2025, books, Business, History, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Where in the World Was VS?

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Turns out that Renee and I were both out of town last weekend.   Any ideas where I was?

  • This town was established in 1848 and was initially named Bad Axe. (There is still a Bad Axe Music Store in town.)
  • A Masonic lodge and theatre was rebuilt in 1922 (after a fire) and was a hub of the community for decades. In 1995, after being shut for several years, it was purchased and the theatre was subsequently remodeled with monies raised by the Historical Society and the surrounding community.
  • 40 years ago, a one-room Waldorf schoolhouse was established in town. It is still operating with 125 students, grades kindergarten to 8th
  • This is the home of one of the earliest organic dairy companies, cooperatively owned and managed, opened in 1988.
  • In 2012 a guy named Randy moved to the area, built himself a cabin and then built himself a wood burning stove. Folks started asking him to build stoves for them and within a couple of years he founded a company for wood heating solutions which has been a runaway success.
  • This is the smallest town in America that hosts a book festival.

Any thoughts?

 

22 thoughts on “Where in the World Was VS?”

  1. If I had tp guess (which is exactly what I am doing), I’d say Viroqua, Wisconsin. I can’t confirm much of those particulars, but it is home to a Waldorf School, Organic Valley dairy is in its vicinity and one of my favorite, and one of the largest, used book stores is housed in an old brick tobacco barn there. It also has a good yarn shop and the Driftless Cafe, which is visit worthy.
    On the weekend, in the summer at least, there is an extensive Amish market in town.

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  2. We buy Organic Valley products whenever we can. The milk tastes so good. I was surprised that posting blogs from Canada actually worked.

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    1. I thought that if I named the dairy, it would give it away pretty fast. But I guess it didn’t matter since the Waldorf school was a bigger clue.

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  3. I was surprised to discover a giant tobacco warehouse in western Wisconsin. Actually there are two in Viroqua. There was a time, within living memory, when a good deal of tobacco was farmed in Wisconsin and if you travel along some of the roads south and west of Madison you can still see remnant tobacco drying barns. My understanding is that the kind of tobacco grown in Wisconsin was used for wrappers—the outer layer of cigars.

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  5. It’s a convoluted story. I met David at Carleton. We weren’t friends, but we knew who each other was. He worked with my wasband at the Carleton post office. I met my BFF in April 1983. Six months later, I moved to a different bookstore and ran into David again. Saw him a couple of times in the bookstore. Fast-forward a year and went down to Lafarge Wisconsin for my BFFs wedding and imagine my surprise when it turns out that David is my BFFs cousin. This connection encouraged my growing friendship with David over the years. We have a lot in common and can talk pretty much straight through until morning if we don’t stop ourselves. David inherited the family farm in Lafarge, but he doesn’t want to farm. There’s the big house where he grew up and then the little house on the other side of the road, and I’m using the word road lightly. David prefers the little house but my godson (BFF’s son) and his wife and three little boys yearn for the rural lifestyle and live in the big house. This is where the maple syruping came in last month.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Well, WP is being twitchy and edged me out of my guess. NO FAIR! When I finally got in here, I did not look at any answers so I could guess myself. I was pretty sure VS was in Wisconsin and I was narrowing it down. Then the phone rang (the hospital with instructions for hip replacement Monday), I forgot and saw the answer. Oh, well.

    Viroqua is famous for its edgy, hippy, progressive vibe.

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  7. Went to a wedding there 25 years ago. A miserable day in which I saw little of the town. Miserable for 3 reasons. Biggest was reception was at bride’s parents’ farm, planned to be outdoors but moved into smallish house. Loud and crowded, full of scents, kicking in my FM big time. I could sit in our car or commune with beef stock who had chosen to be in a shed out of the rain. The farmer saw me and came out just to talk. First words were you’re a farm boy. He gave up dairy because he was too old. Switched to feeder stalk. Sandra was best friend of mother of the groom so she helped clean up. I was stuck there for hours. I had attended U of C with guy from there. Farmer said family moved away and that guy had committed suicide. Such an end to that day.

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  8. It’s got a lot going for it for a town of 4,500 people! I’ve heard they have a great food co-op… Only been there once, but ate at the Driftless Cafe, got to the book and yarn shops…

    VS – what all did you take in?

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