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1. Jeremiah Williams farm, Bryn Road, hand-colored
2. Genaisse farm (formerly Brookhill farms) 
3. Barn foundation on County G
4. Tree farm, Waukesha County
5. Barns on Brookhill Road
6. Kane/Rees farm on WI 83
7. Corm Harvester, Wern Farm garage
8. Deere harvester, Wern Farms
         

Beginning in the early 1840's, before Wisconsin achieved statehood, more than a thousand Welsh settlers flooded into Waukesha County and the Kettle Moraine district of southeastern Wisconsin, to farm and launch a Welsh cultural region. Today's farmers, many of whom have descended through the last 150 years to fifth and sixth generations, are with neighboring farmers and landowners, attempting to withstand the economic pressures of development and suburbanization. Were the county's future left in the hands of developers, tax assessors, and highway and natural resource planners, this agricultural settlement with its painstaking century and a half of development, would be bulldozed at the earliest possible convenience to make way for thousands of new homes allegedly needed by residents of Milwaukee and Madison in their flight from aging urban areas.

The area is unique in that it was the site of the first significant Welsh community in Wisconsin and served as the staging area for the extension of Welsh communities to other more western parts of the country. To this day there is a continuity in the rural community with many farm families being descendants of the original settlers and whom have tilled the land over six generations. The area also contains the vestiges of modern dairy operations from the early part of the 20th century, when the small 128 square mile county was home to 80,000 head of cattle and the area was referred to nationally as 'Cow County'.

Many public policy issues stem from the county's suburbanization which began in the 1950's and which has accelerated sharply in the last five years. Two Interstate highways have recently extended into the area, providing easy transport into the county from Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. While some farm owners are resisting urban expansion into the area, developers roam the county seeking those whose appetites for quick money outweigh their love of open spaces.
Already there is a shortage, because according the Lloyd Owens....

"You can't make land!"

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