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Sauk County is filled with lovely vistas. Dick and Jane Dana
of New Freedom enjoy the view from their century-old barn. PHOTO: JIM PATRICO
A surprise waits around every bend in the road and over every
crest of the hill in this lovely county. Topographically, it is like a
piece of cloth someone wadded into a ball then let drop to the
floor. When it landed it had wrinkles: ridges and valleys, bluffs and
bottomlands. No wonder the father of all naturalists, Aldo Leopold,
was inspired to write "A Sand County Almanac" while living in a
converted chicken coop here in Fairfield Township. In addition to
dairying and other traditional ag, the county exerts a strong pull on
conservation-minded people even today. The Nature Conservancy
designated the Baraboo Bluffs region as one of its "Last Great
Places" by virtue of unique rocks, plants and animals. Everywhere
the county is an outdoor paradise with bike trails, hiking, skiing,
snowmobile trails and lots of hunting. Yet the small towns here are
mostly thriving, driven by a dairy economy. You'll also find herb
and vegetable farms, organic potatoes and little towns so quaint
they will tug at your heart.
Nature: Parfey's Glen Natural Area, part of Devil's Lake State
Park, has rock formations and a glacial lake that make it one of the
continent's most beautiful spots. All of the dams have been
removed from the Baraboo River in the last few years, making it
the longest free-flowing river in the U.S.
Land Prices: Average prices are $2,500 to $3,000 per
acre--and going up. You might find acreage in the western part of
the county for $1,800 to $2,000 per acre. But on the edge of
municipal areas, prices can be as high as $30,000 per acre.
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 Statistics provided by On Board LLC
Public domain maps courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, modified by James D. Forrester or Eric Pierce to show counties. Released under GFDL. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
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