Many years ago, a phenomenon occurred in society. Many people across the country taught themselves about art and created collections of folk art. In Wisconsin, several such people created these collections of art. Nine are known, others may still exist waiting to be rediscovered, and others may be gone forever.
One such self-taught artisan was August Klatt, in North Prairie, Wisconsin. Klatt was a home builder, and during the depression, he had little to do. He used materials he had at hand to build a miniature village in his back yard, including houses, a church, a windmill and a mill house with a mill pond.
In western Wisconsin, years after Klatt built his miniature village, a man named Herman Rusch retired from farming in 1952. He began to collect artifacts and odd things of interest, as tools, a washing machine powered by a goat on a treadmill and a scythe that was left in the crotch of a tree and forgotten until the tree grew around it. He rented the Prairie Moon dance hall to make a museum and later bought the dome roofed building. It is near Cochrane, Wisconsin, in the coulee region, near the Mississippi River.
Rusch decided that the area surrounding the building looked barren, so he built a concrete planter and started to plant a garden. Before long, one concrete sculpture lead to another and soon a garden of concrete sculpture surrounded the former dance hall.
He built this 260 foot arched fence that bounds the property on the east side. Even though he built it in just one year, the cone shaped fence posts are perfectly aligned to this day.
His final piece was a watch tower that he built in 1974, at the age of 89. The 13-1/2 foot structure is built of stones quarried from the bluffs that overlook the area.
Rusch died in 1985, just days after his 100th birthday. A self-portrait, or self-sculpture if you will, overlooks his collection as if he were still watching it.
In 1992, the Kohler Foundation acquired the property and collection. A conservation effort began, and Prairie Moon was restored to its former glory. The Kohler Foundation has restored nine such sites in Wisconsin, including August Klatt’s village in North Prairie, and they are restoring other self-taught artisan collections around the mid west.
If you ever find yourself in La Crosse, take state highway 35 north to Fountain City. Just north of Fountain City, before you get to Cochrane, Prairie Moon Road branches to the left. It appears to be the old alignment of Hwy 35, but more importantly, it’s the road to Herman Rusch’s Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden
Thanks to the Kohler Foundation, too, for helping preserve a little more of our disappearing cultural history.