Ghosts of War

The ground is silent - all that's left are a few buildings, foundations, rubble, and decaying roads.

It's part of nearly 14,000 acres south of the Baraboo Range that is the crossroads of cultures through time and sacrifice.

In the mid-1800s, this was where U.S. soldiers were ordered to enforce a treaty designed to remove Natives from their land and Blackhawk and his warriors staged an action fighting off the army while women and children could cross the river to safety.

In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, the government need a place to produce ammunition for the intensive war effort.  Depending on which report you look at, 80 to 118 farm families were given 90 days to pick up and get off the land.  Ten months later, the world's largest munitions factory was open for business.

The two cemeteries on the property haven't been used since - some graves dating back to before the Civil War - shadows left by dozens and dozens of farm families who got out of the way in support of the war effort.

During the next fifty years the plant hummed into production for WWII, Korea, and Vietnam conflicts.... ten workers died in accidental explosions, casualties of war handling the dangerous explosives.

Since the plant idled after the Vietnam conflict and was finally shut down by the Defense Department in 1997, various groups have been working to determine what comes next for the land and its legacy.

Under the direction of the State's Natural Resources Department, the land, especially its ground water, is being cleaned up and the land restored.

There are various plans in the mill for this land.

After taking a car tour yesterday (one of the rare times its been open to visitors), it seems to me the threads of history need to provide testimony to the lives and history impacted by these lands.

It would be a beautiful place for bike and hiking trails, for wildlife, and the stories of centuries played out along the Wisconsin River.  There's even a scientific and natural phenomenon - a salamander in reservoirs built for the plant that have adapted to life without moving on to land.

It's an ideal spot to trace the history of the Ho-Chunk and Sauk-Fox peoples; the European settlers who created homes and carved farms from the dirt; and the men and many,many women who daily dared dangerous conditions so the fighting men would have the weapons they needed to beat the Axis powers.

It's quiet - quiet as an empty playground - but there are still many stories to tell.