A Creek Runs Through This Driftless Land: A Farm Family’s Journey Toward a Land Ethic

Every farm is a story, but rarely is the story told as it is here with such depth, honesty, emotion, and inspiration. Presented here is the remarkable journey of the Cates Family Farm and the people who have learned through the lessons of experience to live in harmony with their landscape and in gratitude for the gifts it brings.

Through three generations (and with young great-grandchildren, a rising fourth), family members have transitioned from seeing themselves simply as “owners” of a farm to instead becoming caretakers of the land and water where they live and work. They have moved from a commodity-oriented mindset to an understanding that the pastures, fields, streams, forests, and the many species, both domestic and wild, that inhabit this landscape are, in reality, a community, not simply a commodity.

This book gives a comprehensive look at the prehistory, history, and present use of this particular piece of land and the peoples and species that have lived here and continue to do so.

The story of the Cates Family Farm can serve as a paradigm for those with an interest in a more restorative, regenerative, perennialized agriculture and an ethical relationship with “place.” It illustrates the movement away from industrialized, chemically dependent, minimally diversified farming to one that more closely mimics nature’s wisdom—an approach to a viable farm business that honors the legacies of the past inhabitants of the landscape and looks ahead to the health and well-being of the generations to come. It is a story of long and hard work, as well as listening. It is the story of a journey toward a land ethic, gratitude, and hope.

—Don Greenwood, former chair, Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board;
retired editor, weekly Home News, Spring Green, Wisconsin, Driftless Area