More local news

Three Royall Alumni Inducted Into Hall of Recognition

As part of the Homecoming celebrations, the Royall Alumni Association takes the week as an opportunity to recognize outstanding Royall alums. Each year’s inductees are presented with a plaque, …

Wonewoc-Center Celebrates Homecoming 2024

Wonewoc-Center is celebrating their 2024 Homecoming Week this week, September 30 through October 5. The week will be full of fun activities for students to participate in, such as dress-up days, and …

Royall Celebrates 2024 Homecoming

Royall High School will be celebrating their 2024 Homecoming Week this week, with the big game set for Friday, October 4. To kick off the week, students at Royall went to school in their pajamas …
The Dahlia Patch is entering its second year, with four total beds featuring 600 dahlias, along with several filler varieties. The business is a recent endeavor undertaken by Hillsboro area local Tori Farrar at her family’s farm just outside of Hillsboro.

Local Family Grows A New Business

In January of 2019, Tori and Trever Farrar decided to purchase a property located just east of Hillsboro. The property was an old homestead, and had sat unoccupied since 1954. The remaining buildings …

Gundersen St. Joseph's To Offer Drive-Thru Flu Shot Clinics

The fall equinox has come and gone, school is back in session, and you might be noticing some of the leaves starting to change. October is less than a week away as of this printing, and before we …

Elroy Quilt Show Looks To Grow In 2024

More than a decade ago, Elroy area residents Gale Hitchcock and Jean Morton decided they wanted to establish an annual quilt show in Elroy. They partnered with the Elroy Area Advancement Corporation …
Obituaries
Virginia J. Kalb, age 81, of LaValle, WI, passed away on Saturday, August 17, 2024 at the Reedsburg Area Senior Life Center. She was born on the family farm at Mt. Hope, Grant Co., WI. She moved to …
Peter Lynn Fitch, age 70, passed away on October 1, 2024 in Elroy, Wisconsin. Born on May 31, 1954, to Max and Bernice Fitch. Peter was known for his outgoing personality, personable nature, and an …
Kenneth R. Field, Jr., age 76 years, of Wonewoc, Wisconsin, passed away on Thursday, September 26, 2024 at Gundersen St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hillsboro, after a short and valiant fight against …
Community News
Tom Martish has focused much of his work on his experiences living in a rural community, and plans to discuss what it is about a rural community like Hillsboro that has brought current residents to town. While many were born and raised here, plenty have moved to town from other areas—so what is it about Hillsboro and rural communities that attracts residents? Find out at this month’s Library Drop In, set for Thursday, October 17, beginning at 6:30P.M. in the Hillsboro Library community room.
Local Musician To Lead Discussion On Rural Living
The back-and-forth between rural and urban settlements has been a long-standing trend amongst humans ever since our ancestors began to shift from their original nomadic lifestyles into more permanent …
Tom Johnson, an Elroy resident, poses with his Royall High School letter. After more than fifty years, Johnson received the letter he was denied back in high school.
Elroy Resident Receives Sports Letter After 50 Years
When Elroy resident Tom Johnson started his high school career at Royall, he was involved with sports, like many boys his age. He played on the school’s basketball and football teams, and was …
Marion Colin has spent the past three months interning with Ocooch Dairy just outside of Hillsboro. A French university student, Colin was hoping her internship would help provide her with some additional insight into the farming industry, as she will soon need to figure out what aspects she’d most like to specialize in.
Ocooch Dairy Hosts International Intern
In early July, the Mlsna family took on a new intern at Ocooch Dairy. While hiring new employees is nothing particularly new for the large-scale farming operation, this new intern was not your …
Students and staff have been taking time on Friday this school year to focus on building their reading stamina by focusing on reading during their Tiger Time. They’re welcome to pick their own reading materials, so long as they leave the screens off during the time in question.
Building Reading Stamina With Dedicated Reading Time
In the Hillsboro School District, staff has built in a dedicated timeslot into the day focused specifically on targeted intervention efforts for their students. This timeslot has become known as …
The whole point of a color run is to come out looking like you got into a fight with an army of paint cans—and lost. Some volunteers along the route, such as Jacob and Jayden, were more than happy to take this point to heart.
Color Run Encourages Community To 'Live Life In Color'
Each month, the staff at Milestone Senior Living select a theme to base the month’s activities around. For September, they selected the theme ‘Live Life In Color.’ A fun theme to be …
An ATV Poker Run is planned as part of this year’s Party in the Park celebrations in Union Center, taking place on Saturday, September 14.
Union Center To Celebrate Annual Party In The Park
Union Center will be hosting its annual Party in the Park event on Saturday, September 14. This event first began with the Union Center Betterment Club, way back around the turn of the century. Over …
When the impending closure of the UW – Richland campus was announced at the end of 2022, it came as a shock to Richland Center and area residents. Despite a strong showing of community support for the campus, and multiple efforts to save it, UW – Richland closed its doors at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. A new documentary, created by UW- Whitewater professor Ken Brosky, details the final days of the UW – Richland campus, as well as several other two-year campuses.
New Documentary Details Closures Of Two-Year Campuses
In November of 2022, Richland Center residents learned that that the UW – Richland campus was to be axed by the state university system. Jay Rotham, president of the UW System, had issued a …
Mike Wray points to a faded bit of graffiti left by hobos on the walls of the old hobo hotel in Wonewoc. These markings, many of which were made in pencil, have faded over the years, making them difficult to read. Wray and his son took photos of some of the more promising candidates, hoping to use modern photo-editing software to make the markings more legible.
Historic Preservation Efforts Aim To Restore A Piece Of Local History
Over the past year, Wonewoc area resident Richard Kilmer has been working to restore a piece of the village’s history: a nondescript little wooden shack located hardly a hop and a skip away …

Boro Block Party Set To Return September 14

Erich Mobley and his band G.Y.O. will once again be serving as the opening act for this year’s Boro Block Party. They will be followed by the Spicy Tie Band, a rock n’ roll party band that plays a selection of popular hits from the 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s.

Last fall, the City of Hillsboro hosted its first Boro Block Party. The event, which featured headlining act Chris Kroeze, was inspired by prior community-led discussions of organizing an event for …

Library Program Teaches Traditional Japanese Art Form

Dawn Tevis (right) demonstrates how to prepare a container of water for suminagashi—an ancient Japanese art form that translates into ‘floating ink,’ using ink dropped into water as a printing method.

Ten years ago, Winona resident Dawn Tevis was looking to make a handmade book themed around the moon. She had been getting into book art, learning how to bind books and create unique covers, and her …

Calendar of events
Sports
Wonewoc-Center’s Kelsey Justman leaps up for a rebound of the Panther net between Royall’s Bria Gruen and Gracie Stanek.

Royall On A Roll

The Royall girls’ basketball team will carry a seven-game winning streak with them into the new month, which they will kick off with a shot at redemption in the most crucial game yet in the …

Hillsboro Girls Rebound From Back-To-Back Losses

Coming off back-to-back losses for the first time all season, the Hillsboro girls’ basketball team hoped for a return to form to put a bow on January. They got just that with an excellent …

Hillsboro Wins In OT Against Brookwood

The Hillsboro boys’ basketball team now owns a four-game winning streak following a week that saw them win a trio of contests. Late last week, the Tigers went on the road and scored a …

Wolves’ Win Sandwiched Between SBC Losses

The Wonewoc-Center girls’ basketball team suffered a pair of losses in conference play over the last week, but they did manage to sandwich a non-conference win between them. To end the …

Royall Completes Season Sweep Of Hillsboro With Home Win

The Hillsboro girls’ basketball team is through 14 games in the 2022-23 season with only two losses on the ledger. However, both of those defeats came at the hands of the same opponent: the …

Royall Cruises To Wins Over Wonewoc-Center, Brookwood

Heading into a key conference clash with Bangor in the race for the Scenic Bluffs boys’ basketball title, Royall appears to be firing on all cylinders. ROYALL 72    …
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