Making souvenirs and Cheesehead hats for sale at the Original Cheesehead Factory and Retail Store
Farmers’ Market around the State Capitol on Saturday mornings
just as a joke and it became a business,” adds Waldron. There is no shortage of cheeseheads in Madison, the state capital and one of the nation’s most prominent college towns, a straight shot of 80 miles west along I-94 from Milwaukee. Although landlocked, Madison also boasts scenic waterfronts with its downtown stretching along a narrow isthmus separating Lake Mendota to the northwest and Lake Monona to the southeast. I arrive on a Saturday morning, just in time for the city’s Dane County Farmers’ Market encircling the white-domed Capitol aglow in late morning sunlight. Wisconsin-grown produce stacks stall after stall—in particular, heaps of seasonal pumpkins and gourds on this warm October day. “We’ve been here for close to 40 years,” says vendor Lottie Stenjem. “It’s the people and the camaraderie of the vendors. We’re all just one big happy group that we can work together and we can show what we grow here.” Reminding me of the U.S. Capitol, the state Capitol has the nation’s only granite dome. It stands 284 feet tall up to the fingertips of the 15-foot gilded bronze statue “Wisconsin” atop the dome, her right arm pointing upward as she holds a sculpted eagle on a small globe
with her left hand. Inside, murals, mosaics, and Italian marble columns decorate the walls of the chambers and conference rooms. From the State Capitol, I head down State Street lined with bookstores, pizzerias, restaurants, bars, and shops catering to swarms of University of Wisconsin students. The so-called “State Street Mall” leads directly to the grassy campus center bordered by the columned Wisconsin Historical Society building, the red-brick and castle-like “Red Gym,” and the Memorial Union. The Union Terrace’s multi-level patio decked with tables and chairs overlooks an often boat-filled Lake Mendota—a must stop on a nice afternoon or festive night with live entertainment. Across the isthmus, I gaze upon peaceful Lake Monona from the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, its design first drafted by American architect icon and Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright in 1938. A fountain centers the Rooftop Garden, a courtyard of sorts, with splendid views of the lake, downtown Madison, and the Capitol. A plaque in one corner memorializes soul singer Otis Redding who died in a plane crash on the lake in 1967 while en- route to a Madison gig. For a quirky side trip, the National Mustard Museum in nearby Middleton features more
ON THE WISCONSIN WATERFRONT
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022 | 32
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