The Driftless Area of Wisconsin Ain't For Everybody
By Bruce Shawkey
Much has been written about the beauty and mystique of Wisconsin's driftless area. From David Rhodes and Aldo Leopold to Frank Lloyd Wright, many have waxed poetic about this stretch of land mysteriously untouched by the glaciers of the Paleozoic Era, some 250 million years ago.
But here's a story about a couple that didn't find it so romantic and magical, and moved back to Madison.
For 15 years, Wisconsin writer Tamara Dean lived off the land in the heart of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, known for its rolling hills, bluffs and deep river valleys carved in sandstone.
Dean and her partner David spent that time homesteading, finding beauty and adventure in every corner of their 275-acre property. Her new book of essays “Shelter and Storm” recounts some of their adventures together.
Dean offers a glimpse into what she learned from her time in the Driftless Area — including her quickly corrected misconceptions of what it’s like to homestead with your partner.
"It’s one of the few areas in the world that was never touched by glaciers, but it’s also the only area in the world that has no obvious explanation for that. "
May geologists have been mystified by this area, saying, “Well, this is just not possible.”
When asked why so many people, especially new homesteaders, are called to this region, she replied:
"I think they’re seduced by this magical landscape, like I was. It’s unlike any other place in the Midwest. It has these steep limestone bluffs, gorgeous, sparkling spring-fed streams and narrow river valleys. I think people are really attracted to that. That’s what drew me."
When asked what challenges surprised her the most as an entry-level farmer, she replied:
"I had the impression, because I came from a long line of farmers, that somehow I would be born with this understanding of how to grow crops. Of course, that was naive. I started with a large garden, but gardens and crops are entirely different. When I looked out at my neighbor’s fields, I was trying to also do the math. 'Could I grow 40 acres of organic, diverse vegetables and fruits?' I didn’t want to grow commodity crops like corn and soybeans, but I also found out from asking around and studying what neighbors were doing that commodity crops are supported by the USDA through subsidies, grants and crop insurance. And at that time, there was no safety net for growers of organic, mixed crops like vegetables and fruits. I saw some of our neighbors get entirely wiped out year after year because of these record-breaking floods that the Driftless Area was experiencing, and I thought, 'I don’t have the risk tolerance for this kind of lifestyle, and I don’t understand how a person can make the bottom line positive growing the kinds of things that I wanted to grow.'
She talks about her decision to move back to Madison:
"It was a heartbreaking decision. Some people know of the driftless area as the Midwest epicenter for Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. Unfortunately, spending so much time in prairies, meadows, gardens and woods out in the Driftless Area, I did often get bitten by ticks and I had several cases of Lyme disease. The last one started around 2016 and ended up lasting almost five years. I think it might be like the long COVID cases that people are talking about, where you just don’t have energy, or you don’t know from day to day whether you’ll be able to get out of bed and function. It was impossible for me to maintain the energy for our lifestyle, which included chopping wood, mowing, pruning trees, planting and harvesting. It was very physical. Life in the Driftless Area seemed to present constant drama."
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