Natural regions pay no attention to state boundaries. Sometimes they are defined by watersheds, sometimes by terrain.
The Driftless region, which encompasses parts of northwest Illinois, southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa, is a land of winding valleys and rolling hills. It is farmland, and in summer the hillside fields are planted in curving strips to minimize erosion.
It is beef and dairy and hog country. The farms are small, and because of the terrain, will never reach the size of flatland farms.
Little has changed in 40 years in the Iowa and Minnesota portions of the region where country gravel roads wind on for miles across ridges or through valleys.
While prosperity has arrived in northwest Illinois, those areas of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin within the region are among the poorest in their respective states. Wages are low, while the cost of living and the price of land and housing are also low–but rising.
Urbanites, stressed by the hassle of big city living, are casting more than a casual glance at rural life. “The acreages are being gobbled up by people from the big cities,” says Pete Peterson, a broker with Coldwell Banker in Houston, Minn. “They want a little more privacy, they like the small schools.
“A lot of these men and women who are looking at this do not need to be in the cities to do their business. Some of the parties I’ve been dealing with say, `Don’t worry about how far out from town the property is.’ “
Peterson cites a recent sale, a farmhouse with old buildings and 106 acres that listed for $115,000.
“The house did not even have indoor plumbing,” he says. “The man who purchased it moved down from the (Twin) Cities and is thinking of relocating his computer business too. He wants to get away from people. He wants his neighbors a little farther away.”
Northwest Illinois was the first segment of the region to grab the attention of outsiders, particularly Chicagoans. Galena, Illinois’ largest town within the Driftless region (a term that means it was untouched by glaciers, or glacial drift), is a beautifully preserved collection of 19th Century brick buildings.
People like 45-year-old Galena native Terry Heim remember when, not so long ago, buildings were boarded up.
Heim, now managing broker for a nearby development, The Galena Territory, says, “Ever since I was a kid, people from Chicago were coming out and buying up the brick homes and fixing them up.”
But Galena is not for every new home buyer. Filled with boutiques and antiques stores, for many it is too crowded.
The area around Galena is filling up, too. The Galena Territory, a planned development, will have 500 multi-family units and 3,000 home sites when completed. About 12 miles east of Galena, another development, Apple Canyon Lake, will have about 1,000 homes.
People who want a real taste of rural life will look at smaller towns near Galena, such as Scales Mound or Apple River. But moving to an isolated farm or small town like Scales Mound (population 400) from a big city or a suburb can be as big a shock as a plunge in an ice cold pond.
Rather than such extreme isolation, many of those wanting to relocate to the country are opting for slightly larger towns, such as Lanesboro, Minn. (population 858), where a local arts colony has integrated well with the native-born.
Lanesboro boasts a professional theater now operating 10 months of the year, a cooperative arts gallery, an arts council, several good restaurants, 10 bed and breakfasts and three motels.
The source of the town’s prosperity is the Root River State Bike & Recreation Trail, which connects three southeast Minnesota towns, including Lanesboro, and brings the town 800,000 visitors a season.
All this has also increased demand for property in and around Lanesboro. In a move intended to protect the area’s scenic beauty, Filmore County, in which Lanesboro is located, mandates that new homes must be built on at least five acres and allows only one non-farm home on 40 acres.
According to Lanesboro real estate broker Dale Bearson, the median price for a home is between $60,000 and $65,000, while farm land runs between $1,200 and $1,500 an acre.
South of Lanesboro and across the state line in Winneshiek County, Iowa, lies Decorah (population 8,068), northeast Iowa’s largest town, and the one that most resembles Lanesboro.
Decorah has an art gallery that shows local work, a regional literary magazine, a food co-op, and an arts center. Once a month during the summer, Foot-Notes, a Norwegian-American old-time band, plays for well-attended dances at an old country school in Highlandville, a few miles north of Decorah.
Liz Rog, co-manager of the Oneota Community Food Co-op, says that many of those who support the co-op and the arts are trying to learn and relearn ways of making things for themselves:
“For some people that comes down to wanting to grow their own food or build their own houses. For me the manifestation of that desire comes out in terms of community and the growth of our traditions as a community.”
Like Lanesboro, Decorah is a town that feels it has a future. Many residents are excited by the recent purchase and current renovation of the Winneshiek Hotel by Chicagoan Helen Basler, which seems to have injected an extra energy into the downtown.
Thanks to a Wal-Mart, which arrived 12 years ago and began drawing shoppers from across northeast Iowa, Decorah’s downtown retailers are thriving. In addition, the town’s population is slowly growing.
“There’s tremendous real estate activity here,” says Gary Gable, a broker associate for Decorah/Iowa Realty. The median price for a home in Decorah, according to Gable and Al Peake, a sales associate with Friest and Associates, is $80,000.
Peake says that five to 10 years ago today’s $80,000 home would have sold for somewhere in the $50,000s. Those looking to build in the country can expect to pay between $750 and $2,700 for an acre of farm land.
The loss of agricultural land to development has caused some hard feelings in town.
“People around here,” Peake says, “do not want to see people putting houses on prime farm land or on river bluffs.
“We’ve got some beautiful bluffs and rivers in northeast Iowa and don’t want people ripping bluffs apart and tearing trees down to suit their own housing setting.”
Consequently county zoning has become a heated issue. Before zoning, Peake says, “People were buying little acreages, putting a home on them and there was no zoning as to what they could or could not do with the property.”
Now when as few as three homes are built on a parcel, zoning demands that it be mapped for streets and septic tanks. Peake says, “We think that’s a little too far the other direction.”
About an hour and a half drive east from Decorah, across the Mississippi River, lies Viroqua, Wis. (population 4,074), the Vernon County seat.
Viroqua has grown significantly in the last three years. Main Street manager Ingrid Mahan credits the initial impetus for that growth to the Main Street Program, which was initiated in 1989.
The program’s design component was important. It really spruced up the downtown,” says Mahan. “It was a revitalization effort with economic development and new business.”
Mahan also credits the local Waldorf School, Pleasant Ridge, with playing a part in the area’s growth. Waldorf Schools focus on imparting traditional values.
“We’re the only rural setting for a Waldorf. We’ve had several families, mostly from the West, moving here from California and Colorado, getting their children out of the big cities into a slower life.”
Barry and Susan Paul brought their children from Vail, Colo., to Viroqua for that reason. Soon afterwards they opened a cafe offering an alternative to standard Midwestern fare. With so many out-of-state transplants, the business has thrived.
“The area,” Paul says, “has attracted a group of people that might be termed back-to-the-landers. It has also attracted artists.”
Viroqua’s environment and living costs help explain the area’s growth. According to appraiser Suzanne Nelson, the median price for a home is $55,000, while farm land runs $800 to $1,500 an acre.
Mary Christenson, development coordinator for Pleasant Ridge, says the school’s enrollment has doubled since 1993.
“That represents a lot of growth from outside the area. It’s from all over–California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Illinois.”
“The values that people are looking for in a community are here in this rural area,” she says. “People come not only because of the Waldorf School, but because community values play a large role here.
“A lot of things happen (here),” Christenson notes, “because people put their time and money into making things happen for them.”
Few residents question that the region will experience continued growth. As Liz Rog says, “They’re not coming in droves, but coming more than they have been. They’re looking for more quality, for more community.”
