Fort Atkinson.
From the walkway near the summit of Fort Atkinson’s 112-foot-tall water tower, you can see a swath of Jefferson County’s landscape that includes the Rock and Bark rivers, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and in the distance, the communities of Johnson Creek, Watertown, Lake Mills and Whitewater.
There’s also a vast canopy of trees far below that will be changing color with the arrival of autumn next month.
On top of the 78-foottall base, made from locally produced, cream-colored brick, sits the 34foot-tall silver water tank, which bears a strong resemblance to the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz." Though it offers the loftiest perch and one of the best views in town, it’s only one of the reasons to visit this burg of 13,000 souls. The others include effigy mounds, the 1841 Foster House, the Hoard Historical Museum, the Fireside Theater and numerous 19th-century buildings.
When other communities were building their elevated reservoirs and public water systems during the last decade of the 19th century, Fort Atkinson lagged behind — even though fires often resulted in the destruction of homes and businesses.
After other civic leaders proposed building the tower in 1900, the mayor at the time, Daniel Bullock, condemned the idea as too expensive and unneeded for the thriving town of 3,500. Instead, he argued, people should buy fire insurance policies. At the time, his priority was a new bridge over the Rock River.
But the town’s eight aldermen wanted the water tower, which went on the ballot in 1901 and won by a nearly 6-to-1 margin. It took nine months to construct the tower at Fourth and High streets, according to records.
William Dempster Hoard, editor of the local weekly and Wisconsin’s governor from 1889-1991, praised the “commanding view” from the structure after he climbed it. “The whole of the farther shore of Lake Koshkonong, 15 miles away, is clearly visible. And instead of a small section of the lake, practically all of it can be seen.”
When I visited the handsome tower recently with Tammy Doellstedt, head of the Fort Atkinson Historic Preservation Commission, and Marrilee Lee, director of the Hoard Museum, we clomped up a metal stairway inside the tower to reach the doorway that led to the walkway.
It was Lee’s first time up the stairs, and at first she said she’d wait for us at the bottom.
“It’s a hike only for the brave,” she said, but then relented and joined us.
“I’ve got to get a selfie from up there to prove I did this,” she said as her voice echoed off the insides of the tower on the way up.
However, she declined to take the stroll around the tower on the walkway, even though it had a sturdy railing.
“The water tower is special to the community because it’s part of our historic landscape,” Lee said. “As you are coming into town, it’s one of the things that you see above everything else. It also has a unique design with its brick base. Only a few others like it were built in Wisconsin.”
Doellstedt said the structure was scheduled for removal in the early 1990s, years after it was taken out of service. (The city has two working, but less scenic, bulb-style water towers.) Residents rallied to save the nine-decade-old edifice and persuaded the city council to give the $30,000 budgeted
for demolition for its preservation.
That was a fraction of what it cost to renovate and open it to the public, she noted. Community foundations from both Janesville and Fort Atkinson made donations, and hundreds of donors gave money for the project.
In order for people to ascend the inside of the structure, the rickety wooden stairway, which was only 18 inches wide, was replaced with a sturdy metal staircase that has a dozen landings. And to show what the 33-foottall tank at the summit of the tower looked like, they slit it open to expose its now rusty innards.
Just a block from the tower, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, is the 176-year-old Foster House at 410 Foster St. It was the home of Dwight and Almira Foster, who moved to Fort Atkinson from New York and first lived in a oneroom log cabin.
When they relocated to their new home, which had two stories and five rooms, it must have been like “moving into a mansion,” Lee said. “You have to remember, this really was the frontier back then.”
Across the lawn is the Hoard Museum, 401 Whitewater Ave., which Lee said strives to link local history to national and international events. It has a room dedicated to Native American culture and the effigy mounds in the Fort Atkinson area. The community also has an intaglio on the 1200 block of Riverside Drive. This rare, 125-foot-long effigy is an indentation in the shape of a panther, rather than a mounded effigy.
More information: The water tower and the Foster House are open the first Saturdays of September and October. See the Fort Atkinson Historic Preservation website at
fortpreserves.org and the Hoard Historical Museum at hoardmuseum. org.
For ideas on other things to see and do in the area, see fortchamber. com.
Getting there: Fort Atkinson is 56 miles from downtown Milwaukee via I-94 and Highway 26.