Across the road you can see the entrance to a cemetery. Life was hard for the early settlers and death was a frequent specter in many homes. Injuries, disease and childbirth took many lives long before old age. In the early days a burial on the home place was not uncommon, with nothing more than a wooden marker to mark the grave. As more settlers arrived and towns and churches grew up and so did cemeteries. Taking a walk through an old cemetery can be interesting. There might be a grandmother who lived over 100 years. You may find a Veteran of World War I or the Civil War. Often their headstones will list the regiment they served in.
Part of the Boyceville-Wheeler “Old Roads” series.
Old maps can be fascinating! Our family has a battered 1915 plat book for Dunn County that has probably been in the family since it was new. You might think that our current roads more or less follow along the routes laid out by the pioneers – until you really look at an old map! In the map montage shown here, you won’t find State Highway 170 at all – the idea of a state highway did not even exist until 1917 when Wisconsin enacted the first numbered highway system in the world. Highway 170 was not extended west of Wheeler until 1947! Maybe there were too many marshes to cross? Instead, there were two routes, only one of which survives today.
As you work your way along this series of mostly easy park and grabs, take a moment to look around and compare today’s view to the 1915 map. Some roads from 1915 vanished seemingly without a trace, unless you are an archeologist.