Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Warrens's September
Cranberry Festival
(
www.cranfest.com
)
is one of the most pop-
ular in the state. A red explosion with cranberry products as far as the eye can see, it's a
good time to take a bog tour. Organized tours on bike are offered over Memorial Day; 20-
to 30-mile tours roll through cranberry marshes, sphagnum moss drying beds, great blue
heron nesting sites, and old European (and one Mormon) homesteading enclaves.
Back in Tomah proper, head to Milwaukee Street and Superior Avenue—better known
as “Gasoline Alley,” after local boy-done-good Frank King's comic strip, which used Su-
perior Avenue as its inspiration.
Bike trail capital Sparta—it's on the La Crosse River and Elroy-Sparta State Recreational
Trail—isgreatforacyclist'strail-endcooldown.CanoeingisalsogoodalongtheLaCrosse
River all the way to the Mississippi. Sparta also has the
Deke Slayton Memorial Space
and Bike Museum
(208 Main St., 608/269-0033,
www.dekeslayton.com
,
10am-4:30pm
Mon.-Sat., in summer, shorter hours in winter, $3), devoted to the local boy turned NASA
astronaut...and bicycling, since it is one hub of Wisconsin biking. More eye-catching is the
amazing
F.A.S.T Corporation
(14177 Hwy. Q, 608/269-7110,
www.fastkorp.com
), north-
east of Sparta in Angelo, along WIS 21—that's “Fiberglass, Animals, Shapes, and Trade-
marks” to you and me. Chances are you've spotted one of the 20-foot fiberglass sculp-
tures of animals, logos, and so on at a business somewhere. The grounds are often liberally
strewn with the product, which is why locals refer to it as the “Sparta Zoo.”
Even farther north along WIS 27/71is another roadside-kitsch attraction—the
Paul and
Matilda Wegner Grotto
(608/269-8680, dawn-dusk daily in summer, free), two miles
south of Cataract, a half-mile west of the 71/27 split, another in southwestern Wiscon-
sin's lengthy list of folk-art mini masterpieces—concrete sculptures with broken glass and
crockery facades, imbued with equal parts patriotism and religious fervor. The philanthrop-
ic Kohler Foundation rehabilitated the site and donated it to the county.
RURAL WISCONSIN'S AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE
Today the majority of Wisconsin's African American population is concentrated in
southeastern counties, particularly Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha.
