Harder than Hardscrabble: Oral Recollections of the Farming Life from the Edge of the Texas Hill Country Book

The early history of the great state of Wisconsin is one of abundance and eradication.

When the first European explorers arrived, Wisconsin was a virtual El Dorado of natural resources -- pine forests covered the north, hardwoods much of the south. The woodlands teemed with elk, cougar, beaver, caribou, martens and fisher. Rich veins of lead could be found just below the topsoil in parts of the state. Thunderous herds of bison roamed the prairies of Wisconsin's southwest and clouds of passenger pigeons darkened the endless skies.

Within a hundred and 25 years of America's indepence -- 50 years after Wisconsin's statehood -- though, most of it was gone. Trappers and hunters harvested most fur and game animals into virtual oblivion. The lead mines were abandoned, their riches depleted. Frederick Weyerhaeuser and his fellow timber barons stripped the landscape of its mighty red and white pine, leaving a barren wasteland of scrub and slash, ripe for "natural" disaster like the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

Mark Wyman's 1998 book "The Wisconsin Frontier" is the story of those early years. His meandering narrative tells the tale of the early explorers and then settlers who were both awed by Wisconsin's beauty and abundance, and at the mercy of its harsh elements. He combines countless facts, characters, places and dates with a lively and compelling writing style. The result is a fascinating read, well worth the considerable time it takes to get through.

The only quarrell I have with Wyman's narrative is the way he treats Hamlin Garland and Frederick Jackson Turner. Both Wisconsin natives played a major role in changing the way history portrayed the American frontier. Both were prime movers in the transition from Romanticism to Realism, and yet both are relegated to a minor sub-chapter at the end of the book. Their stories and their influence merits considerably more than a literary afterthought.

Wyman's book would have only a sad, sad ending were it published 100 years earlier. Fortunately for those of us blessed to live in Wisconsin in the latter part of the 20th century, however, the opposite is true. Thanks to the resiliency of Wisconsin's wilderness, and the resolve of her people, much that once was is restored. One need only set out on US Rt. 51 North from Beloit and take a day's drive to Hurley to behold the amazing beauty that is Wisconsin today.