Where, oh where...

DairyStateMom and I took a weekend away to West Central Wisconsin, specifically Spring Green. Our primary agenda (besides marking our 5th Anniversary) was to see the American Players Theater.

On our way home today, however, we drove down to Mineral Point and visited the Mineral Point RR Depot museum. What a delight! And driving through the area--as well as learning just a bit about the history of railroading and mining in this area--got me to considering a shift in my own model's setting.

As I've noted before, I don't plan to model a specific, real-life prototype. I want too much freedom to do that. Rather, I choose to model an imagined railroad that will be set in Wisconsin, in a certain time period sometime in the first half of the 20th century. I know that I want to have some logging, some mining, some local common-carrier traffic, and at least token passenger service.

Up to now I've been figuring the northern part of the state, perhaps the Nicolet Forest. The Mineral Point visit, however, has me considering a change to Southwestern Wisconsin. A serious drawback is that I really do want to include some logging, and I have yet to find any indication that there was significant logging in the area. There was, however, lumber processing of various kinds, but just where the lumber came from isn't clear to me.

So I have more to think about. Right now, it's all academic. I don't have much in the way of any kind of rolling stock, so I've got freedom to move in any direction I want to. And on the track plan I have, the small branch line that is to go to a logging camp could, instead, be repurposed to go to a mine (indeed, the original track plan I'm copying calls for a mine at that site).

In short... decisions, decisions...