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The river runs through it: Pepin County joins the Chippewa Valley
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| Through the efforts of Terry Mesch, left, Jerry Weiner and Bill Warner, Pepin County and several area businesses have become members of Momentum Chippewa Valley. They are pictured along the Chippewa River in Durand.
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By Barbara Lyon
From its start in Ashland County, the Chippewa River twists and turns and meanders its way through northwestern Wisconsin. Entering Chippewa County, the river broadens to become a force to reckon with as it completes its course through Eau Claire, Dunn and Pepin counties.
That’s right — Pepin County. Although the term “Chippewa Valley” was originally coined to refer to Chippewa, Eau Claire, and Dunn counties, the river valley itself runs through Pepin County.
Now that county is finally joining with the rest of the “Valley” in economic development efforts.
Pepin has a long history of being economically linked to the Valley. From the 1850s to the 1880s, the white pine was king and the Chippewa River was the liquid highway transporting the forests’ bounty to the Mississippi. Each spring, as the ice melted, enormous strings of hewed timber began the long journey to the Mississippi.
In addition to the fertile farmland that attracted immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany, the logging industry also brought settlers to the Chippewa Valley. Although the days of keelboats and pike poles are long gone, the Chippewa River still serves as a vital link to the riverside settlements that sprang up on its banks.
New member
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born at this site near Pepin Feb. 7, 1867. The small cabin, similar to the one used on the "Little House on the Prairie" TV show, has a couple small rooms and a loft. The historical marker is also a wayside along highway CC in Pepin County.
In January, Pepin County joined forces with Momentum Chippewa Valley (MCV), the regional economic development consortium whose members also include private and public partnerships throughout Chippewa, Eau Claire and Dunn counties.
Nine months earlier, two Durand businessmen approached MCV’s board of directors to “test the waters,” as they discussed the feasibility of membership for Pepin County and its local businesses.
“We were speaking a little bit out of school, speaking on behalf of the county when we are private sector individuals and not part of the grand county strategy,” admitted Bill Warner, marketing manager for Durand Builders Service, Inc. He and Jerry Weiner, president and CEO of Security National Bank, presented a summary paper in March 2003.
“We pointed out that we are tied very closely with the region, even though we are a very small part relative to the other three counties,” Warner said. “We thought there would be some mutual benefit in working together.”
Momentum Director Darcy Way and the board heartily agreed.
“We’re now a four-county block,” he said. “We’re excited about the possibilities. This is a great example of how people can collaborate and work together. We’re all at the table together and Momentum Chippewa Valley is viewed very favorably in Madison.”
“Our pinnacle event of the year,” Way said, “is the Chippewa Valley Rally. It’s key to have Pepin County involved to more fully represent the west-central region.”
The warm response from the MCV board encouraged Warner and Weiner to approach the Pepin County Board of Supervisors’ finance committee to acquaint it with the organization and why they thought it would be beneficial for the county to join.
“We explained that it would get us more on the radar screen, so people are aware of what we have here,” Weiner said. “We have things here that are very attractive; it’s just a natural flow. There’s a lot of traffic coming up from Wabasha and Red Wing and other places that touch Pepin County. We’re a kind of natural bridge, if you will, between Dunn, Chippewa and Eau Claire counties and Minnesota.
“The whole idea of Momentum Chippewa Valley is not to compete, but to cooperate, to promote the region,” he said. “And our joining, quite frankly, allows us to cooperate and to leverage off some of the fine work that they’ve already done.”
Weiner is in a good position to understand the value of the organization. Working at the time in Eau Claire, he was involved when area business people formed Momentum 21, as it was then known, to find ways to mitigate the imminent closing of the Uniroyal plant, one of the region’s largest employers.
From that beginning, MCV evolved and embraced a mission “to develop cooperative public and private partnerships among the communities in the Chippewa Valley that will sustain and expand upon regional economic development efforts.”
“We thought Pepin County, being small and in a more remote part of the state, often is left out of development discussions, often left out of programs, left out of a lot of the resources that larger areas take for granted,” Warner said. “Rather than create something from scratch . . . an alliance with a large, effective, vibrant regional organization made a lot of sense.”
Economic development coordinator Terry Mesch pointed out that Pepin County is one of the state’s border counties.
“We’re members of the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission and Mississippi River Parkway Commission and lot of things that are oriented south and west as opposed to north and east,” he said. “And yet geographically, if you think of watersheds . . . we are more naturally connected to the Chippewa Valley.
“The primary question from the county board was, ‘What’s in it for us?’ ” Mesch said. “Economic development for one thing, and tourism is a big thing. More likely, though, it’s going to be the ability to make connections and rub shoulders with business people and businesses that already exist in the Valley.”
A member of the Chippewa Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, Pepin County offers scenic beauty, a rich history, artistic appeal, and five gourmet restaurants — unusual in a rural setting.
“We bring a number of things to the Momentum Chippewa Valley table,” Mesch said. “Aesthetics, for one. Whether you’re talking culturally or historically, we’re unique and exciting. Stockholm and Pepin have developed a reputation as a kind of art colony, something that attracts quite a number of people. And we appeal to educated people because we are immortalized in literature both from Laura [Ingalls Wilder] and Caroline Ryrie Brink, who wrote ‘Caddie Woodlawn.’
“From an environmental point of view, we have the Lower Chippewa River Natural Area, just designated by the DNR,” he said. “It’s the largest contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in the Upper Midwest, if not the eastern half of the United States. Durand is located smack-dab in the middle down the Chippewa River from Eau Claire, all the way to the Mississippi. ”
Remarkable not only for its peaceful beauty, the area contains more rare species (125) than anywhere else in the state as well as native prairie, a whopping 25 percent of Wisconsin’s total.
Mesch views its potential as a valuable resource and an important learning tool. He noted that the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire already has several research programs in progress in the area and nearby UW-River Falls has recently added a natural resources major to its degree offerings.
All three recognize that the number of production facilities that will choose to locate in Pepin County is not very large.
“We’re not in the ‘smokestack chasing’ game. But if, in five years, one company with 20 employees locates here, that’s a very big deal,” Warner said. “It’s not as big a deal in Menomonie or Eau Claire. But a company that’s going to be here is one that doesn’t have to have instant interstate access or a rail spur.
“But the niche manufacturers could be here, if the owner likes the environment. They have to be looking for a very hospitable, picturesque, convenient location where you can get a large number of candidates for your workforce who work extremely hard and who would rather be local than having to drive somewhere else to work.”
In addition to Pepin County, four other private sector businesses have become MCV members: Bauer Built, Durand Builders Service, Nelson Telephone Cooperative and Security National Bank.
“It is a way to cooperate with other counties to help the region,” said Weiner. “If someone moves into Menomonie, for instance, that can help us in Pepin County. They may come down to those five gourmet restaurants that Terry mentioned. Or they might decide they don’t mind driving the 20 miles from Durand to Menomonie and be willing to purchase a home here.
“The main thing for us was to get on the map and be included as a part of it.”
Barbara Lyon is a reporter for the Dunn County News in Menomonie. Contact the Chippewa Valley Business Report at (715) 723-5515, or through www.chippewavalleybusinessreport.com.
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