Prairie du Sac Dam

Lake Wisconsin is a reservoir on the Wisconsin River in southern Wisconsin in the United States. It is located in Columbia and Sauk counties, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Baraboo and 25 miles (40 km) NNW of Madison. Today it is home to the Wisconsin wine appellation of the Lake Wisconsin AVA.It was formed by the construction of the Prairie du Sac Dam, which was begun in 1911 and completed in 1914. It is part of the Wisconsin River system of reservoirs. The lake has a maximum depth of 24 feet (7.3 m). It has an area of 7,197 acres (29.13 km2).Its construction effectively ended the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway connection to the Mississippi River, although commercial traffic had ended decades before completion of the dam. The lake provides flood control and is a popular destination for recreational boating and fishing. In 1966, the Wisconsin state record Common Carp was caught in Lake Wisconsin, weighing 57 lbs. 2 oz.The Merrimac Ferry crosses the lake at Merrimac, Wisconsin.

The Tripp Memorial Library and Hall is a historic building at 565 Water Street in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The building was constructed in 1912–13 to serve as Prairie du Sac's public library and village hall; the library had previously occupied two rooms of a local hotel. J. Stephens Tripp, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and a public official in Prairie du Sac and neighboring Sauk City, donated the majority of the library's construction costs. Architect Joseph Dresen designed the Neoclassical building; the Milwaukee-based firm Ferry & Clas served as consulting architects. The two-story brick building's design includes brick pilasters with sandstone caps, a stone entrance surround topped by a plaque, and an iron cornice. The building was used as a library and the home of village government for several decades; it is now a local history museum.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1981.

The Wollersheim Winery (formerly Kehl Winery) is a winery, distillery, and restaurant just east of the twin cities of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States.In the 1840s, the Hungarian nobleman Agoston Haraszthy came across sloped land across the Wisconsin River from what would be Prairie du Sac and planted it with grapevines for wine making. During his short time in Wisconsin, Haraszthy also incorporated the state’s first village, Sauk City, across the Wisconsin River from his winery. The area's winters were too harsh for the grape plants that he brought. In December 1849, he followed the gold rush to California, where he would also have a hand in developing the state’s wine industry. Peter Kehl, a German immigrant, took over the property after Haraszthy left, Kehl built many structures on the property, and planted American grapes to make wine. After Peter Kehl’s death, his son Jacob continued the family winery and started making brandy. In 1899, after Jacob Kehl’s death and a difficult winter, the Kehl family stopped making wine and converted the property into a conventional farm. When Prohibition passed in 1919, any remaining wine was sold, and leftover barrels were used as firewood. In 1972, Robert and JoAnn Wollersheim bought the farm from Peter Kehl’s great-grandson, Russell Kehl, to restore it to a working winery. They planted the hills with grapevines, furnished the limestone cellars with oak barrels and converted the old carriage house into a store. Soon after in 1976 the property was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1984, Philippe Coquard arrived at the winery from the Beaujolais region of France on an agricultural exchange to become Wollersheim Winery’s winemaker. He later married Wollersheim's daughter Julie and they eventually started running the winery.Wollersheim Winery grew rapidly and garnered national media attention with the introduction of its Prairie Fumé wine in 1989. In 1990, Wollersheim Winery bought Cedar Creek Winery, located in the Hilgen and Wittenberg Woolen Mill in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The sister wineries share family ownership and a winemaker, but the two brands are distinct. As Wollersheim Winery’s wine list grew, so did the Prairie du Sac winery. In 1994, a fermentation room was built, allowing the fermentation tanks to move out of an old barn, and also adding a bottling room and case storage space. In 2008, the Coquards built a new building that mimicked the historic winery allowing more visitor space, as well as tasting and shopping areas, with beautiful views of the hillside vineyards. In 2013, they renovated the historic hillside wine cave – originally started by Harazsthy and completed by the Kehls – into an exhibit dedicated to the winery’s history. In 2015, the Coquards added a distillery to the property which allowed not only dedicated space to distill spirits, but also more fermentation space to make wine to be distilled into brandy. As of 2016, the winery produces about 1.1 million bottles of wine per year. Wollersheim brings in about 85 percent of its fruit from out of state and grows the rest on its 30-acre (12 ha) vineyard.

Sauk Prairie is the nickname for the adjacent villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The twin communities are located on the west bank of the Wisconsin River in southeastern Sauk County, where U.S. Highway 12 crosses the Wisconsin River. As of the 2020 census, the combined population of the two communities was 7,938.Although the communities share many commonalities and are often seen as parallel versions of each other, their relationship has sometimes been called a "rivalry" and even a "feud". The consolidation of the two municipalities has been discussed a number of times over several decades but has never received approval. A merger effort in 1939 had too little support to hold a vote. Discussions beginning in 1970 led to a 1972 referendum on consolidation that was approved by voters in Prairie du Sac but rejected by those in Sauk City. In 1983, the Sauk City village board ended months of discussion by voting to table the consideration of a merger. Again, in 1986, the Sauk City Board rejected a proposal to submit the consolidation to a referendum. An advisory referendum, in 1990, to merge the two communities was approved overwhelmingly by voters in both villages, but the binding referendum that followed was approved by only Prairie du Sac voters and was defeated by those in Sauk City. Concerns raised in merger discussions include the cost to taxpayers, agreement on public works projects, and the sense of community identity.The communities operate several joint municipal services, including the Sauk Prairie Police Department, the ambulance service, and a water treatment plant. The Sauk Prairie School District serves both villages. Area businesses and service organizations also use the name, including the local newspapers, the Sauk Prairie Star and the Sauk Prairie Eagle, Sauk Prairie Hospital, Sauk Prairie Airport, Sauk Prairie Area Literacy Council, and the Sauk Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce. The villages maintain separate fire departments, sewage collection systems, and libraries.Sauk Prairie is immortalized in the Sac Prairie Saga, a series of novels, short stories, journals, poems, and other works about the area and its residents written by local author August Derleth.

Sauk–Prairie Airport (FAA LID: 91C) is a privately owned public use airport located 2 miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Prairie du Sac and 3 miles (5 km) northwest of the central business district of Sauk City, two adjacent villages in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin, is the nickname for the two combined communities. The airport is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2021–2025, in which it is categorized as a general aviation facility.Although most airports in the United States use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), this airport is assigned 91C by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.

Freethinkers Hall, also known as Park Hall, is a meeting hall in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Designed by Alfred Clas, Freethinkers Hall was built in 1884 for the local Freethinkers congregation, or Freie Gemeinde in German. The congregation had been formed by German immigrants in 1852, and became the last extant Freethinker congregation in North America. It affiliated with the American Unitarian Association in 1955. The group meets in the hall to this day.

Sauk City is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,518 as of the 2020 census. The first incorporated village in the state, the community was founded by Agoston Haraszthy and his business partner, Robert Bryant.

The Sauk City Fire Station, begun in 1862, housed the city's early fire department, and served as a center of the community. Today it is one of the oldest fire stations in Wisconsin. It looks much like it did in 1870 - a gable-roofed building with a hose-drying tower. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

The Lachmund Family House, also known as the Halasz/Lachmund House, is a historic house located at 717 Water Street in Sauk City, Wisconsin. It is locally significant in the social history of Sauk City. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 29, 2000.It is a two-story, cream brick house, surrounded by a reproduction wrought iron fence. It has a wrap-around front porch. It was built in c.1878 and c.1903. The cream brick had to be brought by river from the railway at Portage; the house seems to be the only residence in Sauk City built of that material in its era.

The Spellman Granite Works is a historic industrial building at 615 Phillips Boulevard in Sauk City, Wisconsin. While it was originally built elsewhere in Sauk City for the Kahn Foundry and Wagon Company, brothers Bill, Harry, and John Spellman purchased it in 1915 and moved it to its current location two years later. The Spellman brothers produced granite monuments and memorials, particularly tombstones and other burial markers. At the time, Wisconsin had roughly twenty granite quarries, and many stonecrafting companies formed to turn rough granite into monuments. The company expanded their workshop in 1921, and continued to grow and mechanize their process over the next decade; by 1945, they had become the second-largest granite monument company in the state. They also played a role in Sauk City's civic life by donating statues for local veterans' memorials and cornerstones for new public buildings. The company continued to use the building until 2005, when it relocated to an industrial park outside of Sauk City; by the late twentieth century, they were the largest of only three granite monument companies remaining in Wisconsin.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 14, 2015.

The August W. Derleth House, also known as Place of Hawks, located at S10431a Lueders Road in Sauk City, Wisconsin, is the former home of author August Derleth. The house was built in 1939; though early in his career, Derleth had earned some recognition for his writing by this point, having been named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1938. Sauk City architect Leo Julius Weissenborn designed the house, which is a one-and-a-half story stone building modeled after nineteenth-century vernacular farmhouses in the area. Derleth wrote the vast majority of his 150 books while living in the house; he was known for both his horror and fantasy stories and his Wisconsin-based regionalist works. He also founded the publishing company Arkham House, which was originally based in his house's attic and later in a separate building on the property; the company was the first to publish H.P. Lovecraft's works in book form. Derleth lived in the house until his death in 1971.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 1991.