ABOUT THIS LOCATION
Wisconsin is one of the best places to witness the many landforms created by the Ice Age glaciers. Your quest for this Spring is a visit to the Kettle Moraine Southern Unit.
Stute Springs and Homestead is in a Wisconsin State area so you would either need to purchase a yearly sticker or pay a daily admission fee. Stickers can be purchased at the Visitor Center for the Kettle Moraine State Forest-Southern Unit located at S91 W39091 Hwy 59 Eagle 53119. The posted hours are 6 AM – 11 PM daily. Pets are also not permitted. The Parking Lot is located at N42 52.105 W88 32.531 HOWEVER it has been reported that this lot is not plowed.
Your walk to this spring will be along an old country road.
Please be advised that hunting is permitted in this area. For your safety, visitors are advised to wear blaze orange clothing during the gun deer seasons. The seasons change each year, in 2007, the season runs from October 18-21 AND November 17-December 8.
Also, in the winter months, the Homestead road and trails are groomed for cross country skiing. Visitors are welcome to visit the area and spring but please do so without damaging the groomed trails. Thank you.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Stute Springs and Homestead was formerly a 180 acre farm settled by German immigrant Anton Stute in the 1850’s and remained in the family for three generations until 1943. On December 2, 1981, the State of Wisconsin DNR purchased the home from the Estate of Ivy A. Welch. Your journey will begin on the old farm lane leading up to the Homestead. There is a Homestead Trail that is a 1 mile loop that will allow you to discover how the Stute family farmed this rugged glacial landscape in the early 1900’s. There is an informational brochure available at the parking area for a small fee (bring change).
This Waymark was designed to take you to an historical area that shows another use of a Spring in the early 1900’s. Joseph Stute built this springhouse to keep animals, leaves and debris from contaminating the fresh spring water. They pumped the cold spring water by hydraulic ram to the house, milkhouse and livestock watering troughs. The spring also served as the Stute’s refrigerator. Agatha Stute put her butter, milk, lard and other perishables in the big heavy crocks and set them on flat stones in the cold water inside the Spring house to keep them from spoiling.
The Geocache Notification Form has been approved by Paul Sandgren, Forest Superintendent of the Southern Unit Kettle Moraine State Forest of the Wisconsin DNR. Geocaches placed on Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource managed lands require permission by means of a notification form. Please print out a paper copy of the notification form, fill in all required information, then submit it to the land manager. The DNR Notification form and land manager information can be obtained at: http://www.wi-geocaching.com/hiding