T
hroughout the 150-year history of dairying in Wisconsin, thousands of men and women have
milked cows, put up hay, made cheese, invented labor-saving machines, and built up the
fertility of the soil and the wealth of our state. Unfortunately, we can no longer ask them to
tell us about themselves — they are gone, and with them, much of our own heritage.
The Wisconsin Dairy History and Heritage Project will ensure that we no longer lose these voices.
Our historians will record interviews at farm kitchen tables, and in cheese factories, corporate and
co-op boardrooms, rural bank offices, county fairs, extension offices, and all the other places where
the men and women of dairying can be found. These conversations will capture the human history
of dairying in our state.
The Wisconsin Dairy History and Heritage Project will publish the stories it collects so that both
urban and rural audiences around the country can better understand Wisconsin’s essential industry
and the men and women who built it.
By underwriting our work, you will help preserve Wisconsin’s rich rural heritage and ensure it is
not lost.
Why dairy history and heritage?
Drive along Wisconsin’s rural roads and you will see the
picture that defines our state. You will see neat barns and
farmsteads that span generations, tall silos and the waving
green crops of our farm fields, cultivated and managed by
Wisconsin’s well-educated and prosperous farmers. And,
of course, you will see our cows. You will see America’s
“Dairyland.”
But rural Wisconsin was not always so prosperous. Our
famed dairy industry did not just happen: it was created
by countless, mostly forgotten, men and women who cared
for cows, invented new management systems and farmer-
saving equipment, provided financing for expansion and
modernization, produced products people wanted, and
marketed them profitably around the world.
Wisconsin’s landscape itself, its herds of productive
cows, its dairy farmers who still farm their great-
grandparents’ land, its truckloads of world-renowned cheese, and its citizens’ sense of a prosperous,
stable, and sustainable land is the legacy of the people who created dairying.
Help us honor their contributions and preserve their voices.
Contact:
Ed Janus, director
608.288.8060
janus@wisconsindairyhistory.org
4333 Nakoma Road, Madison, WI 53711
PHOTO CREDITS
Front cover: Crawford County landscape, cour-
tesy Jerry Quebe. Executive Summary: Hay wag-
on, ca. 1910, courtesy Klessig Family; Cow kiss
with Dennis Iverson, courtesy Wisconsin His-
torical Society Press, by Mark Fey; Julia and her
calf, courtesy Mark Henrichs. Why Dairy History:
Cheesemaker Sid Cook, © Wisconsin Milk Mar-
keting Board; Field of Wisconsin corn, © Wis-
consin Milk Marketing Board. Capturing the
Stories: Mark and Tom Crave, courtesy Mark
Henrichs; Laura Daniels’ boots, courtesy Mark
Henrichs. History Saved: Sauk County road sign,
courtesy Cook family; Wheel barrow, courtesy
Klessig family; “Get more out of life,” Successful
Farming magazine, 1923; Land of Plenty book
cover, © Wisconsin Historical Society. “Film
strip,” from left: farm scene, courtesy Wisconsin
Historical Society Press, by Mark Fey; Crave
family; Mayer family, courtesy Wisconsin His-
torical Society Press, by Mark Fey. Inside back
cover: Cheesemakers Jeff Wideman, Jeff Work-
man, and Edelweiss employee, © Wisconsin
Milk Marketing Board. Back cover: Christian May-
er, courtesy Mayer family.