Bypass Dusty!

No, this isn't a PUC post. But now that I have your attention....

Mostly recovered from a mowing mishap Sunday, I hit the road with the Madville Times mobile unit this noon. Coming toward town, I saw what looked like a dust storm... which made no sense, since there's no wind to whip up the dust. What the...

cough cough cough!

Ah, of course. Two days before the Steam Threshing Jamboree brings thousands of Cockshutt aficionados to Prairie Village, someone decides it's a good idea to lay fresh gravel on the Highway 34 bypass all along the south edge of Madison. Makes perfect sense: you lay gravel when you're expecting more cars to drive through and help you grind the rock into the road, right?

Cars and trucks kick up dust on the Highway 34 bypass
on the southwest edge of Madison.
(Note Madville Times mobile unit parked by stop sign.)

Now folks coming to Prairie Village are used to a little dust. But nobody likes rock chips in the windshield. So if you're coming to Madison this weekend and you're not hauling a big camper or trailer load of tractors, you might want to bypass the bypass and stay on the main 34 route through town. Besides, that route's more fun—you can stop at Dairy Queen and get some ice cream!

Man Rolls Truck on Highway 34, Walks Away with Scratches

Paramedics arrive at scene of vehicle rollover at
Highway 34–Territorial Road intersection,
Lake County, SD, 2010.08.24 ~10:30 CDT

Whew—that was close! As we Heidelbergers headed to town this morning, we saw a tan car in the turning lane on Highway 34, west of Prairie Village, that leads to Territorial Road and the country club. The car appeared ready to turn south, off the highway, but then appeared to move back into the westbound driving lane.

Behind that car, an orange and white pickup truck was westbound. Good thing he wasn't on his cell phone. The driver saw the car coming back into the main lane, slammed on the brakes and swerved north. Brakes and tires smoked, leaving tracks on the pavement. The truck missed the car. It hit the north curb several meters down from the Moonlite Inn's west entrance, went in the ditch, caught the dirt, and flipped and rolled sideways.

The cab got crunched a little. Windshield and back window popped out. The fabric cover on the bed tore off and tools and such spilled out of the back. The driver of the truck, the only man inside, opened the door and walked away with scratches. (Your assessments of classic Chevy engineering are welcome.)

Lake County law enforcement and paramedics tend to
rollover victim (seated in police cruiser). Driver of other
vehicle and grandson (right) wait to speak to officer.

This accident happened on the big highway curve right by Prairie Village. The highway will busy this weekend with everyone coming for the steam threshing jamboree. Come to Madison, have loads of fun, spend loads of money, but please, watch where the heck you're driving!
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Update 2010.08.25: MDL publishes the names of those involved: Dean McCool was driving the truck; Judy Conrad was driving the car in front. MDL omits the key detail that Conrad's car was straddling the turning lane and the driving lane.

Ignorance or Hostility? Commissioners Hagemann and Verhey Miss Point on Prairie Village

Friday's MDL included a letter to the editor from Doug Erickson, a Prairie Village board member and Lake County Commission candidate. Erickson writes concerning the Lake County Commission's decision last week to eliminate a $1000 handout the county had considered giving to our local pioneer museum and showgrounds. That $1000 was already much less than the $5000 Prairie Village had requested.

The original article in Wednesday's paper reported that Commissioners Roger Hagemann and Bert Verhey justified their vote against the aid by saying Prairie Village is bringing in more money now than in past years. Commissioner Dan Bohl was not quoted on his reasons for voting against the aid; Commissioners Scott Pedersen and Chris Giles voted for the allocation.

In his letter, Erickson adds some more comments from Commissioners Hagemann and Verhey that don't speak well to either intelligence or the fairness of those two commissioners. Erickson claims that Hagemann said that Prairie Village doesn't give anything back to Lake County. Erickson says Verhey reasoned that since Prairie Village had "$2000 just laying [sic] around for somebody to steal," Prairie Village wasn't in dire need of public assistance.

Wow. Let's tackle Verhey's non sequitur first, since that's an easy pitch. I dread to think that, when an indigent comes before the county asking for financial assistance for medical bills, Commissioner Verhey might say to the poor sap, "Well, the sheriff's report says someone robbed your house last month. Gee, if you've got stuff just lying around for somebody to steal, I guess you don't need any help from us."

As for Hagemann's assessment that Prairie Village does no good for the county, nothing could be farther from the truth. Prairie Village has built the only really successful, long-lasting tourist event in this county, the Steam Threshing Jamboree. Nothing else that happens in Madison backs up traffic on Highway 34 all the way to town (memo to Hagemann: that's a good thing—now send a deputy or two earlier next time to direct through traffic along the shoulder). Prairie Village has the best infrastructure for outdoor cultural events in the county. Prairie Village already hosts the Motongator Joe music festival (well, if you can call "hillbilly testosterone outlaw country" music). Raise some cash, build a permanent sheltered outdoor stage, get Joe to loosen his contract control over Prairie Village events, and you could host a number of big music events there.

Now maybe Hagemann's point was that Prairie Village doesn't contribute directly to the county's budget. The county gets no cut of the sales tax Prairie Village generates, and as an independent municipality, Prairie Village doesn't pay property tax (at least I think that's the case). If that's Hagemann's reasoning, he's out of step with the thinking of most local leaders, who are willing to provide enormous handouts to non-profits like Interlakes Community Action Program that pay no taxes but generate good for the community via other economic activity. And would Roger Hagemann deny assistance to indigents just because they rent an apartment and don't directly pay property tax?

The comments Erickson attributes to Hagemann and Verhey suggest either ignorance or hostility toward Prairie Village. Their attitudes reflect an anti-Prairie Village sentiment that I've sensed on other occasions around the community. Are other folks just envious and bitter that Prairie Village can survive and succeed while the Madison Chamber of Commerce continues to scratch its head and wish Madison had some signature tourism event?

Prairie Village is an enormous economic and cultural asset to the community. The only other operations that bring similar visibility and tourist revenue to Lake County are Lake Herman State Park and high school sports... both of which are brought to courtesy of your tax dollars. Prairie Village provides more direct, demonstrable good to our local economy than all of the vague, unspoken, unproven machinations of the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. If the Lake County Commission can double its deficit to hand the unaccountable LAIC $25,000, the county can afford the $5000 Prairie Village requested to fix up old buildings and tractors, preserve our history, and continue to draw tourists to Lake County.

Prairie Village Steam Threshing Jamboree: Full!

My path to marriage began with a simple question in August, 2001: "Do you like steam tractors?" Erin said sure! and came to Prairie Village for Madison's signature event, the Steam Threshing Jamboree. We looked at tractors, visited the Lawrence Welk Socialist Hall, talked E-Prime over lemonade, crossed the road to the Moonlite for dinner... and the rest is history.

Fueled by romance and the Izaak Walton League's all-we-could-eat pancakes and sausages (so good they set off the smoke alarm... kind of like our own romance), we steamed over to Prairie Village on our bikes (with Madville Times Jr. in the bike trailer) to see the big threshers and tractors and take the Divine Miss K for her first train ride.

Let's see... about a dozen cars lined up waiting to turn into the Prairie Village entrance. Not too bad a wait to the west...

...uh oh. This is the line coming from the east on Highway 34. At 10:00 a.m. Before lunch, we heard traffic was backed up to Pizza Ranch, maybe even as far as Madison's Main Street, about three miles. Plus traffic backing up north on U.S. 81. Tell me again, which stretch of road needs four lanes?

Once in the gate, no worries. We've got cowboys (and cowgirls) on the job. And they didn't turn us away for not wearing Allis orange. This easy rider shows us real cowboys drink Coke on the job. One of his colleagues cheered our bikes: we left one more parking spot available! Good thing we did: when we rode the train around at 11:30, the horse patrol was directing cars to the last parking spots at the far southeast corner of the lot. I've been to the Jamboree off and on over the last 25 years, and I have never seen it this full.

Inside Prairie Village, the only traffic jam is the reasonably orderly convergence of tractors lining up for the hourly parades.

And on Prairie Village's Main Street, much calmer traffic.

On display among the antique cars, a 1921 Ford truck... more like a rolling carpenter's shop! Saws, vises, drill press, grinder... dang! Who needs a hemi? I'll bet Ford could pull out this blueprint and sell a million of these to do-it-yourselfers today!

Ours weren't the only human-powered vehicles at the Village. The Wentworth Depot features another of my dream machines, this rail velocipede from the 1880s. It's a two-seater, so the rail inspector can concentrate on his checklist while the other guy busts his chops cranking along the line. I really, really, really want to sneak into Prairie Village some night and take this baby for a spin. (I suspect I'll want to bring an oil can.)

Here's a full view of the velocipede with its outrigger.

Second choice for vehicle I might hijack at Prairie Village: this two-seat pedal car! Not an antique, but pretty cool with its stick shift. On the downside, I did not see any brakes... gangway!

The Prairie Village Herman & Madison Railroad blue USAF engine runs on diesel. Don't ask what the PVH&M crew were running on when they hung the bloomers from the water tank.

Ah, what might have been: the PVH&M loops through the old Herman townsite. Pioneers in this county thought Lake Herman would be a pretty place for a town. But then C.B. Kennedy wanted to increase the value of the land he'd bought three miles to the east, so rich guys friendly to his interests bought up buildings in Herman and hauled them back to New Madison. Small revenge: right now, there are more people at Prairie Village on the northeast shore of Lake Herman than there are in the city of Madison. (Now, Prairie Village, let's talk about putting up a sign to commemorate the Lake Herman bordello...)

A 9.12er... Wasn't that an experimental model John Deere introduced in Russia in the 1920s? Or wait, wasn't that the combination thresher and 108-bale haywagon Minneapolis put out back in the 1890s? Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until this evening to find out.

Not everything at the Village is an antique. These sculptures actually weren't in the flea market; they were featured in a sculpture garden of sorts by the sawmill in the show grounds. Now if a guy could rig up a chain saw to run on steam power, that would be impressive! (No word on whether the chain saw artist has obtained rights from Hanna-Barbera. If he were selling sculptures of the Enterprise and Mr. Spock, Paramount would be beaming in lawyers in an instant!)

Why yes, that is Austin Powers, rendered in wood. Behave. $900.

The best maintained building at Prairie Village, the iconic 103-year-old Junius Church has greeted travelers along Highway 34 from this site since 1967. I can see it from my house on the other side of Lake Herman. Different congregations hold services every Sunday here during the summer. It may be the prettiest place in Lake County to get married, especially when you step out the doors and see the sun gleaming on the lake.

Oh yeah: Madville Times Jr. enjoyed her first train ride. She clung tightly to her mother the whole way, just like on the buses in Winnipeg. We'll get her used to mass transit yet!

Among other joys of the Jamboree, I ran into Benjamin Stowe, a true railroad devoté. When I worked as summer help at the Village 20 years ago, Ben was there, barely a teenager, working right alongside Joe Habeger and Paul Redfield to build the Village railroad. He tells me this is his 22nd straight Jamboree... and he's still wearing his blue and white engineer's cap. Very cool.

What I like most about the Jamboree and Prairie Village is that this big event came from a few local folks with big ideas. They've plugged away since the early 1960s, doing crazy things like moving an opera house down the highway, building their own railroad, and daring to believe they could throw a party centered around antique machines that would double the population of Lake County for a weekend. They've forged a reasonable success, and they haven't needed focus groups or fancy outside marketing consultants to make it happen. They've taken what we have here on the prairie, our own heritage, and polished it into a cultural gem—a rough little gem, sure, but a gem nonetheless, the signature event of Lake County.

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Update 22:15 CDT: Check out this video from Horseshoe Seven. My friend John caught the Minnesota wagon train heading for Prairie Village Friday right past his house on old 34. Yay, horsies!

Motongator Joe I Attendance: 987

Joe Grinsteiner—a.k.a. Motongator Joe—tells the Madison Daily Leader that attendance at the first staging of his summer country music festival at Prairie Village drew 987 visitors this past weekend. That's small compared to the festival he runs in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, which draws five or six thousand each summer... but then that event has also been going for 11 years. The performance of this weekend's festival is in line with recent one-day music festivals at the Village: Prairie Fire and Dakota Jam each generally drew a few hundred people.

Grinsteiner is determined to build the franchise here: he has signed a ten-year lease with Prairie Village. And lest you think you can do better, Grinsteiner's contract with the Village also bought him first option on any new music events seeking to play at the Village—i.e., Motongator Joe Inc. can veto any competition or at least claim a cut of the take. Looks like Prairie Village is banking on the Grinsteiners to bring in the big bucks for the next decade.

Motongator Joe Country Music Festival This Weekend at Prairie Village

Get all the "Yeehaw!" and beer you can handle this weekend: Motongator Joe and a whole bunch of other country music acts are coming to our fair county to spend three days kicking up their heels at Prairie Village. $30 Check out the schedule for Motongator Joe's Country Music Festival, see what you want to come listen to.

Now I must admit, I'm still wondering how well our community will receive this event. Identifying our community with "hillbilly testosterone outlaw" anything still doesn't sound like the best marketing tack... but if it brings money to town, maybe the Chamber won't mind. Any event that advertises quiet hours for campers that don't start until 1 a.m. makes me a little nervous. (You know how I feel about keeping the peace on Lake Herman and letting folks get their sleep.) Fun and economic development are nice, but so is respecting your neighbors.

But hey, let's look at the big picture: We're getting three whole days of live outdoor music. Prairie Village will be busy, and we'll have a chance to show the Motongator Militia what a nice place this is to visit.