LOW-COST LAND IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN

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by JIM ALLEN

"Low-cost land"is a relative term these days. All too of ten-in the mouth of a real estate dealer anyhow-it means something like "under $1,000 an acre". Exceptions do still exist, though, and Jim Allen has some good news to share about his own neck of the Wisconsin woods.

High real estate prices are one of the biggest deterrents to people who would like to go back to the land. Acreage is already expensive in any established farming or ranching area...and expanding urbanization, vacation developments and outright speculation are raising prices to astronomical levels in many regions.

There is, however, one part of the country that hasn't yet been ruined by speculators: a place where there's so little demand for farms that thousands of acres are continually going back to the county for unpaid taxes...and where productive homestead sites can be bought for $20.00 an acre in 40-acre tracts.

Northern Wisconsin is probably the best example in the entire Midwest of a so-called depressed area. In about 100 years it's gone from wilderness to major lumber-producing region to farm country and is now—except for the localities affected by the vacation industry—fast returning to a primitive state.

The pattern was set at the turn of the century when the lumber barons stripped the area of its virgin timber. The logged-off land was then sold as 40-acre farms, mainly to immigrants from Scandinavia.

The Finlanders and Swedes worked miracles with the stubborn red clay and built cozy homes, old-world dairy barns and sauna baths. They got plenty to eat from their land and it suited them fine. Many a 40-acre patch of Wisconsin soil fed and clothed a growing family.

As the 20th century wore on, however, it wasn't enough to be well fed and physically comfortable. The new generation coveted the great possessions of their city friends. The 40-hour week, the automobile and the television set—not to mention labor-saving appliances—all had their attractions.

Unfortunately, that old patch of red clay couldn't produce enough cash money for all those innovations. So the young folks went to town to work in factories, mills and offices...or to the mining locations to labor in the giant pits and taconite plants. When the old people passed on, nobody cared enough about the home farm to pay the taxes on it...and the land went back to the county.

True, some of those tracts should never have been farms in the first place. Many were abandoned by their original settlers and are now parts of national, state and county forests. Others of the old places, however, have good soil. Red clay grows excellent hay and small grain...also turnips and other vegetables which can stand cold conditions. Some of the finest apple orchards in the nation thrive in northern Wisconsin.

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