Building Wisconsin S Barns

Barns are noble structures that highlight our rural landscape. They remain an enormous source of pride for the people of Wisconsin. Many realize that no other visible human achievement reflects the long relationship they have had with the land. However, little information is available regarding their history and how they were constructed. William H. Tishler, an emeritus professor of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains the process of building these iconic structures in this book with breathtaking photos and drawings. The author highlights the traditions, carpentry skills, and backbreaking labor that have made barns a beloved component of the countryside. He also recaptures the techniques of an ancient form of construction that is rapidly becoming all but forgotten. Based on the author’s decades of teaching and field work and his conversations with elderly barn builders who shared their wealth of knowledge, this book will be treasured by those who enjoy the beauty of rural farms and landscapes, or who want to know more about this important aspect of Wisconsin’s history. It can also serve as a guide to their significance and be useful in helping preserve some of these rural icons for future generations to admire and appreciate.

Barns are noble structures that highlight our rural landscape. They remain an enormous source of pride for the people of Wisconsin. Many realize that no other visible human achievement reflects the long relationship they have had with the land. However, little information is available regarding their history and how they were constructed. William H. Tishler, an emeritus professor of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains the process of building these iconic structures in this book with breathtaking photos and drawings. The author highlights the traditions, carpentry skills, and backbreaking labor that have made barns a beloved component of the countryside. He also recaptures the techniques of an ancient form of construction that is rapidly becoming all but forgotten. Based on the author's decades of teaching and field work and his conversations with elderly barn builders who shared their wealth of knowledge, this book will be treasured by those who enjoy the beauty of rural farms and landscapes, or who want to know more about this important aspect of Wisconsin's history. It can also serve as a guide to their significance and be useful in helping preserve some of these rural icons for future generations to admire and appreciate.

In this new edition of his classic book, award-winning author Jerry Apps shares a unique perspective on the great barns of rural Wisconsin. Digging deep as both an enthusiast and a farmer, Apps reaps a story of change: from the earliest pioneer structures to the low steel buildings of modern dairy farms, barns have adapted to meet the needs of each generation. They’ve housed wheat, tobacco, potatoes, and dairy cows, and they display the optimism, ingenuity, hard work, and practicality of the people who tend land and livestock. Featuring more than 100 stunning full-color photographs by Steve Apps, plus dozens of historic images, Barns of Wisconsin illuminates a vanishing way of life. The book explores myriad barn designs—from rectangular to round, from gable roof to gambrel, from fieldstone to wood—always with an eye to the history and craftsmanship of the Norwegians, Germans, Swiss, Finns, and others who built and used them. Barns of Wisconsin captures both the iconic and the unique, including historic and noteworthy barns, and discusses the disappearance of barns from our landscape and preservation efforts to save these important symbols of American agriculture.

Rolling green hills dotted with Holstein cows, red barns, and blue silos. The Great Lakes ports at Superior, Ashland, and Kenosha. A Polish wedding dance or a German biergarten in Milwaukee. The dappled quiet of the Chequamagon forest. A weatherbeaten but tidy town hall at the intersection of two county trunk highways. Ojibwa families gathering wild rice into canoes. The boat ride through the Dells. The upland ridges of the Driftless Area, falling away into hidden valleys. . . . These are images of Wisconsin's land and life, images that evoke a strong sense of place. This book, Wisconsin Land and Life, is an exploration of place, a series of original essays by Wisconsin geographers that offers an introduction to the state's natural environment, the historical processes of its human habitation, and the ways that nature and people interact to create distinct regional landscapes. To read it is to come away with a sweeping view of Wisconsin's geography and history: the glaciers that carved lakes and moraines; the soils and climate that fostered the prairies and great northern pine forests; the early Native Americans who began to shape the landscape and who established forest trails and river portages; the successive waves of Europeans who came to trade in furs, mine for lead and iron, cut the white pines, establish farms, work in the lumber and paper mills, and transform spent wheatfields into pasture for dairy cattle. Readers will learn, too, about the platting and naming of Wisconsin's towns, the establishment of county and township governments, the growth of urban neighborhoods and parishes, the role of rivers, railroads, and religion in shaping the state's growth, and the controversial reforestation of the cutover lands that eventually transformed hardscrabble farms and swamps into a sportsman's paradise. Abundantly illustrated with photos and maps, this book will richly reward anyone who wishes to learn more about the land and life of the place we know as Wisconsin.

In this new edition of his classic book, award-winning author Jerry Apps shares a unique perspective on the great barns of rural Wisconsin. Digging deep as both an enthusiast and a farmer, Apps reaps a story of change: from the earliest pioneer structures to the low steel buildings of modern dairy farms, barns have adapted to meet the needs of each generation. They’ve housed wheat, tobacco, potatoes, and dairy cows, and they display the optimism, ingenuity, hard work, and practicality of the people who tend land and livestock. Featuring more than 100 stunning full-color photographs by Steve Apps, plus dozens of historic images, Barns of Wisconsin illuminates a vanishing way of life. The book explores myriad barn designs—from rectangular to round, from gable roof to gambrel, from fieldstone to wood—always with an eye to the history and craftsmanship of the Norwegians, Germans, Swiss, Finns, and others who built and used them. Barns of Wisconsin captures both the iconic and the unique, including historic and noteworthy barns, and discusses the disappearance of barns from our landscape and preservation efforts to save these important symbols of American agriculture.

Originally published in 1980, Wisconsin: A Geography is a thematic study of the physical, cultural, and economic geography of the state. It is illustrated with Black and White photos, maps, architectural drawings, and economic charts. The book is a valuable survey of the state's regions.

An exploration of the barns of Wisconsin that includes 107 full-color photographs along with details about the structures.

Barns of New York explores and celebrates the agricultural and architectural diversity of the Empire State-from Long Island to Lake Erie, the Southern Tier to the North Country-providing a unique compendium of the vernacular architecture of rural New York. Through descriptions of the appearance and working of representative historic farm buildings, Barns of New York also serves as an authoritative reference for historic preservation efforts across the state. Cynthia G. Falk connects agricultural buildings-both extant examples and those long gone-with the products and processes they made and make possible. Great attention is paid not only to main barns but also to agricultural outbuildings such as chicken coops, smokehouses, and windmills. Falk further emphasizes the types of buildings used to support the cultivation of products specifically associated with the Empire State, including hops, apples, cheese, and maple syrup. Enhanced by more than two hundred contemporary and historic photographs and other images, this book provides historical, cultural, and economic context for understanding the rural landscape. In an appendix are lists of historic farm buildings open to the public at living history museums and historic sites. Through a greater awareness of the buildings found on farms throughout New York, readers will come away with an increased appreciation for the state's rich agricultural and architectural legacy.