Customer Reviews

Ghost Towns of Wisconsin

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Bill Stark's _Ghost Towns of Wisconsin_ reflects a personal adventure into obscure Wisconsin history. Written in his lucid, easy-to read style, Bill traverses the state covering hamlets and towns that once were, but are no more.

Sometimes, the adventure is a little too personal and too obscure. The author neglects to locate for us several minute points of interest described in the text (roads, monuments, and so forth)... and one might think deliberately so. There is simply not enough here to help one find Gratiot's Grove, for example, or even to attempt to retrace some of the author's steps in the Shullsburg area. Yet he goes to great length in providing details of the area surrounding the Blue Mounds, and even includes a rough map of the area!

Despite the generally inadequate text, the black and white pictures are generally good. The line drawings that head each chapter are terrible, and represent a woeful lack of understanding of the clothing of early Wisconsinites circa 1830-1895. Persons interested in using this book to locate specific locations, rather than general locations, may be dissappointed.

This book has long been a part of my weekend life here in central Wisconsin. It has been a blast traveling around the state and looking first hand at what is found in the pages of "Ghost Towns of Wisconsin".

As an example... The location of the ghost town "Gratiot's Grove", it's just 3-4 miles south of Schullsburg just south-east of the intersection of Rennick Rd. and Cty. Hwy U. There are still some cellar holes visible and if you use your imagination, you can see where the city roads were using the size of the massive oaks as an indication. I found Gratiot's Grove using the book. There is also the Gratiot house which is on the north side of Rennick Rd. It's the 4th oldest private wooden structure in all of Wisconsin. It had partially burned sometime in the 1930's but the main structure is still intact.

This is a well written and very readable account of research into a subject that most of us would otherwise be unaware of. I ran across it at the local library, but felt compelled to own my own copy, especially for use on trips around our beautiful State of Wisconsin.