Leader-Telegram from Eau Claire, Wisconsin • 7

West-Central lni7flSIn)0lnl FAST FACTS: American is the leading type of cheese made in Wisconsin, accounting for 52 percent of the state's total cheese, according to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service. Page 7A SATURDAY October 28, 1989 UadrTtegram 1 Lost couple ask, 'Where are It may not be much, but Rock Elm village was a bustling place 53 ROCK ELM An elderly couple this week Hopped at (he only intersection in this unincorporated village, got out of their ear and asked passer-by a question. "Where are we?" the man asked while searching for a sign. "This is Rock Elm." the passerby, from Eau Claire, said. "Boy, are we tost," the woman Thn DniH said, retrieving a map from their car.

1 1 1 nUUU "Rock Emr queried the man. LCSS TrQVClCCl "Didn't know the place existed. Di mnntu Doesn't took much like it exists WW nUpilOW now. River PollsjV- jS If JjS Rock ElnTjj V- Ellsworth SMI Pierce County The people who live in this once bustling lumber town know differently. They know life is more than big buildings, heavy traffic and fast-.

paced lifestyles. "I've lived here for more than a decade and I don't even consider moving anywhere else," said Mike Zentner. "I lived in the Twin Cities. I would never go back. I've got the good country living here, even if this place doesn't look like much." People in Rock Elm put stock in neighboriiness and tradition.

"People here are not only your neighbors, they're your Zentner said. "With the scenery around here and the peacefulness, it's a great place for us to raise our three children. You can't beat it" Rock Elm, first known as Rock Elm Centre in the 1860s, consists of about a dozen a series of dilapidated buildings, a large Methodist church and a town of Rock Elm garage. The once rushing Plum Creek is now a puddled marsh in the community. The once' energetic two-room school is now a weatherbeaten relic.

The broken feed scale along the main street points to the past. The community of Rock Elm is located just off Highway 72, about seven miles southwest of the village of Elmwood. The community and town were both named after the large quantity of rock elm trees in the area, according to LaVem Flanders, a local historian. The first Rock Elm post office was located a few miles west of Rock Elm, at Waverly. "This were really confusing back then," Flanders said, referring to historical accounts.

"Rock Elm was the town, Rock Elm Centre was the 1 .1 Ct. L.AI1 uavf4v Ptoto contributed This is how the main street of Rock Elm Centre appeared in the 1 880s. The Pierce County community was recognized for its lumbering industry, but as is evident in the photograph, many of the trees surrounding the community had already been cleared. "The village started with the sawmills and lumbering," Flanders said. "But when most of the other larger lumber companies moved to where the timber was, the sawmill here stayed and lumber was brought here." Rock Elm's population grew in the 4880s and 1890s, peaking in the early 1900s.

Lumber companies had raped the land of its timber and began looking elsewhere for wood. "Rock Elm had everything, every kind of business you could imagine, except for a bar and a bank," Flanders said. "The lumbering went out, people left and the place just kind of folded through the Depression." Residents of Rock Elm felt certain the railroad would pass their way, but in the late 1890s, when the railroad was in place at nearby Spring Valley and Elmwood, businesses began to exit Rock Elm. During Rock Elm's more successful years, Sylvester Fox and E.R. Condit owned stores.

Dr. Charles Merrill ran the drugstore, and Charles Hawri and his family operated a hotel, blacksmith shop, sawmill, lumber yard and livery stable. The community also boasted of a millinery shop, creamery, Wjlliam McKernon's furniture store, wagon business and three-story Dairy Flour Mill. The sawmill was considered one of the best in the Midwest because it had a rotary jig, planing mill, feed grist mill and sawmill all under one roof. The first post office was located in a cabin owned by Eli Herman.

It took a week for the postal carrier to cover the mail route on horseback. Many of Rock Elm's first settlers had traversed to the area from Dodge County in southeastern Wisconsin. They were of no particular nationality or religious belief, Flanders said. A Baptist church was the first in the area, but the Rock Elm United Methodist Church has been a mainstay. It's annual ice cream social has become so popular that visitors come by the busload to the community.

"They start making ice cream a day or so ahead," Zentner said. "It's one of a few reasons people would ever come here." The Rock Elm Centre Band, which started in 1 882, was very popular. The Rock Elm Centre Hook and Ladder Co. started in the early 1880s. -It purchased a horse-drawn hand pumper in 1897, and eventually changed Flanders and his wife, Arlene, have spent many years compiling information on the early history of the town of Rock Elm.

It's listed in "Look Back and Remember," a book published this year examining the townfrom 1861 to 1911. Zery Pickett and Joseph O'Connor were the first settlers to the area. News of the vast timber and fertile fields traveled fast and the Rock Elm area soon became a small trade center. I 1 'is-. i its name to the kock fcim rire ue-partment, according to historical accounts.

Gold and diamond prospecting along Plum Creek was commonplace in the early 1890s, particularly since a few diamonds were allegedly found along the creek, about three miles south of Rock Elm. The local Land and Flour Gold Mining Co. was most interested, but no great amounts of gold or diamonds were ever found. The first murder and first criminal case in the town prove to be quite interesting, according to Flanders' book. The first criminal complaint was from a man who claimed another man had stolen two homemade sap buckets.

The defendant was found not guilty and the plaintiff was ordered to pay $5 in court costs. The plaintiff did not have the money so the defendant paid the bill and all was settled. The first murder in the area involved an uncle of the famous writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, according to historical reports. August Waldvogel was paymaster for a lumber com LaVem Flanders Local historian at Rock Elm ii te? i pany and shot a man he thought was trying to rob him. Waldvogel was convicted and sent to prison at where he served as cook and later died of stomach cancer.

"There are a lot of stories about what this place used to be like and what all happened," Flanders said. "You wish sometimes you could have been around here when it was flourishing." Flanders, who's working on a sequel covering Rock Elm from 191 1 to the present, was raised in the Rock Elm area and lived 18 years in the Twin Cities before returning to Rock Elm in 1970." "Why live in a place like Rock Elm? Well, this peaceful area is the kind of place people in the big cities dream of coming to when they retire," Flanders said. "They work to escape the hassle and busy life. I'm just smarter than they are; I'm already here." Staff photo by Chuck Rupnow children attended this two-room school when this lumbering town was in, full bloom. This former school building in the unincorporated village of Rock Elm is one of many in the area which points back to better times.

Scores of Club fakes strong anti-drug stance hard to get people out of the woodwork to say who's dealing Books said he hopes that a monetary reward will publicize the. community's concern and induce people to report drug activities to authorities. "I don't expect them to come running out of the woodwork with tips, but it only takes one," Books said. Books and Tocko were members of the Commercial Club's committee that came up with the idea of a reward for drug convictions. Other members of the committee were Gene Pulvermacher and Paul Tobiason.

The idea came to light after President Bush's speech in September about the war on drugs. Commercial Club members say they are glad to see increased efforts to fight drugs, but they fear that an added emphasis on drug offenders in metropolitan areas could push drug dealers into rural regions of west-central Wisconsin. "We figured all the funds and increased law enforcement in nearby metropolitan areas would By Gary Johnson Leader-Telegram staff STRUM A Strum civic organization plans to send a message to drug dealers to stay out of the Eleva-Strum school district. The Strum Commercial Club is offering a $300 reward to anyone providing information that leads to a felony drug conviction within the boundaries of the school district. "I think it's got some merit," said James Tocko, Eleva-Strum High School, principal, "That's the message that's getting out is that we're so concerned about these kinds of activities we're willing to offer a reward to keep that kind of element out of our community." School and city officials say that Strum's drug problem is no worse than other areas, but there is a problem nevertheless.

"Anybody that says they don't have a problem has their head in the sand," Tocko said. "I know (drugs are) here; we're not ignorant' to it," Police Chief Randy Books said. "But it's tend to move some of this nonsense into rural areas where there is less law enforcement to deter it," said Pulvermacher, a Strum drug store owner who raised six children in the community. "It's possible there will be more and more pressure to set up in the rural areas. "This might be one good way to serve notice that this type of activity isn't welcome in the area." Club President Steve Haukeness said the Commercial Club, which consists of Strum business people and other community members, strongly favored the reward for local drug convictions.

"It was all positive," said Haukeness, a local insurance agent. "It was an intriguing idea when Gene (Pulvermacher) brought it up. I had never thought of it as a way of addressing the problem." Club officials have targeted adults who commit drug felonies for a specific reason they want to get the people who' are bringing drugs into the community. See CLUB, 8A si ill i Steve Haukeness Club may consider other ideas Randy Books Program focuses on dealers.