Timothy Ridge Farm came into existence twenty-five years ago when we purchased 74 acres from Gene and Helen Flannery, long time residents in the area.  But, of course, the history goes back much further into the folds of the past than that.

   James B. Hibbard, retired as the Archivist from the University of Platteville, through his research has uncovered a large piece of more recent history--maps, tax and court records along with photos that bring to life developments in the middle of the 19th century, including the arrival of a rail line to bolster cattle shipments and the beginnings of dairying beyond the local subsistence level to include milk, cheese and cream production.

      In 1835, a map of the area closest to the farm shows what is described as an "Indian trace," a path of Native Americans running from the west to the Sugar River near Brodhead to the east. 

       I am pleased to acknowledge that this is the  ancestral territory of the Ho-Chunk Nation.  They hunted here, surely camped in season and harvested berries and other offerings from the land.  A few miles from our farm, there is abundant evidence of their presence from centuries earlier.

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