Grant County, Wisconsin

Up at the butt-crack of dawn, I was on the road by 7 am. Overcast and chilly, I had to slip on the utility sports pants over my shorts to stay warm. Glad I decided at the last minute to throw in the rainish jacket.

Train Museum, Fennimore

Fennimore, Wisconsin is a neat little town. Population about 2,500, it sports two good breakfast places and a gas station I lucked into. Inside were three old guys, standing around, chuckling, enjoying their gas station coffee. They meet there every week. I asked the clerk if Prairie Cemetery was to the left as I went out and the guys jumped in to give directions. By the end of the conversation I had a fully illustrated map of all the township cemeteries. It was mostly not productive as the key Smith's I was hunting for seem to be elsewhere. I wonder if they had their own burial ground on their property. But, I did find several of the families that married into the Smith's and that was great.

The train pictured is called a "Dinky," which is a 3 gauge line train which operated from 1878 to 1926. Trains ran daily between Fennimore and Woodman by way of Werley, Anderson Mills and Conley Cut, through 16 miles of Green River Valley and serving as a key link to other railroads. According to the information at the museum, narrow gauge tracks once were scattered across the country, as railroad builders looked for economy in construction and equipment costs to serve remote areas. As I had no cell reception for almost 24 hours while up there, I'd say it's still pretty remote.

Unique Cafe, downtown Boscobel

After several hours tromping around those cemeteries, I grabbed a bite and hit the road for Boscobel. I have no guide map or information on where the relatives were buried in Boscobel City Cemetery, but I thought I'd wing it. Nope. Bad idea. This is a huge cemetery built into the side of a large hill with no apparent rhyme nor reason era-wise as to how burials went. I was overwhelmed by it all after driving up and down the steep roads lined with thousands of graves and just drove into town to look around before heading back to Iowa. I need to locate the Sexton for the cemetery and see if they have any kind of map or resources that are not available on the 'net and make a day of it all by itself.

The Unique Cafe is the highlight of downtown. It's been in business since the 1930s in a building built in the 1860s which previously housed a hardware store.  Most of the downtown buildings are constructed of this cool stone.

And then there was this guy's garage I found as I headed out of town. Definitely a conversation piece.

By the end of my time there I was ready to head out, but thought I'd try one more cemetery in Iowa to help out my mom on the way home. I got there only to find that it was too hot, my feet were killing me and I needed a nap. I headed home and did just that. I need more vacation time - I think I'll tell the boss!