In October of 2005, Hurricane Stan wreaked havoc on Guatemala, located in Central America. Torrential rain and wind continued for a solid week causing rivers to overflow; bridges and roads were washed away and cutting towns off from electricity, clean water, transportation routes, and food.

Dr. Hanson and Farrell met up with the Christian Medical Mission Inc. (CMMI) group in Austin, TX on Friday, May 29. The group of 19, which included Dr. Hanson's three adult children, dentists, physicians, physician assistants, and pharmacists, traveled to the small village of Panabaj, located on the shore of Lake Atitlan and were able to stay for 10 days. This particular village was not only flooded, but due to the excessive amount of rain a powerful mudslide literally wiped out families, houses, and farmland. The landscape was transformed into a flat vastness of mud, sand, and water and 1,500 people lost their lives.

The survivors were considered lucky, yet a week after the devastation aid was only dribbling in from the government and outside countries—the roads were almost impassable. Slowly, the immediately needed aid arrived.

Now, in 2008 the need for shelter, food, and medical care is still great. The "lucky" survivors are suffering immensely from after effects; we would label their mental state as post-traumatic stress syndrome. The people in the village have an incredible fear—a fear of literally everything—but they have true roots and will not leave. Dr. Hanson labeled the long-term effects as "horrendous."

The poor state of health of the population is due to an extreme lack of nutrition and the fact that there is no health care to speak of in the village of Panabaj. "We saw bizarre things," recalled Dr. Hanson. "All I did was pull infected teeth all day long."

He and Farrell, along with the others, worked sun up to sun down, not leaving until all the patients received the care they needed. "They were so thankful," said Dr. Hanson.

The care givers used primitive medical methods to treat the patients. For example, his daughter Kaylea held up a small flashlight so that Dr. Hanson could work on the teeth of the needy.

Aside from pulling teeth, Dr. Hanson removed a large tumor from the lip of one woman who was ostracized by the other villagers.

"That area had a tough civil war prior to the mudslide disaster and I was concerned of the local people's perception of the U.S. and citizens, but I never saw anything but welcomes and thankfulness," Dr. Hanson concluded.

Panabaj and its families are slowly rebuilding and with the aid of humanitarians and in another two and a half years maybe they will be well on their way back to self-sufficiency.

The development of Prairie du Chien Country Club came out of a group of men who loved to play golf and usually would drive quite a distance in order to play. At that time, Prairie du Chien had two nine-hole, sand-green courses. One operated by the city was located across the street from the Villa Louis on St. Feriole Island, or what was the Fourth Ward. The other was on the grounds of Campion High School, a private Catholic school. With the school's permission, you could play that course. When I was 12 years old, I learned how to play golf and the bug was in me ever since. One day, my friend Erby Satter said let's go over to Lancaster, they have grass greens. I said, "Grass greens! How can you putt on grass?" But once I played grass greens, I did not want to play on sand again.

Around 1955, a group of Prairie du Chien golfers would drive to Lancaster, Waukon, Decorah, or other area grass-green courses to enjoy their weekend golf game. Every time we passed the Elmer Portwine Farm, about three miles east of town on the left side of Highway 18, we would say if we had a course here we could be putting our shoes on getting ready to play. I think there was only about 20 or 30 golfers in Prairie at that time.

Out of that group of men, we decided to create a study committee. Members of the original committee were Frank Finley, director of the Crawford County Welfare Department, Gib Harold, who owned the bowling alley, Veryl Floyd, owner of Zephyr Cleaners, Tom Multerer, radio announcer and salesman for WPRE, Walt Schlaugat, owner of WPRE, Howard Elder, owner of the San Hotel and myself. I was an agent for Equitable Life Insurance at the time. We set out to contact as many local citizens as possible to ask if they would contribute $5 to help build a fund to pay for golf course architects to come and look at possible sites and further, would they pledge to buy a $100 share of stock to help build a course.

In one month's time, the committee had contacted enough interested people that we had about $1,200 and pledges to proceed. Not all of the pledges came from golfers but from citizens interested in building something new for Prairie. With that, we hired three different architects to come and look at the different sites. I do not remember the names of the architects. We looked at the Portwine Farm, Ahrens Coulee, the Wetzel Farm on the top of the bluff and the Fritz Messerli Farm at Bridgeport. All the architects agreed on the same site as being ideal, the Messerli Farm.

In the early summer of 1957, this farm was valued at about $17,000. We decided that if we were going to get a golf course, we needed to get at it. We had $95 left in our architect's account. I took $5 from my wallet and went out to see Fritz and Tina Messerli. When they heard we were interested in their farm for a golf course, they raised the price to $21,000. On a handshake agreement, I gave them $100 for a 30-day option to buy their farm for $21,000.

The committee members got busy and contacted those people who had pledged to buy stock for $100. Before the month was out, we had collected $20,000 and we purchased the farm. We did not have enough to pay for the construction of the course but we had enough confidence in our ability to raise the funds. We moved ahead.

About that time, one of our members had been talking to George Vitense, pro at the Blackhawk Country Club, about our plans to build a course. George agreed to come from Madison and look the site over and develop a plan for the course. He also would come out weekly during construction and lay out the next week's plan of work. His fee, $1000. On a handshake, we hired our course architect. In late August of 1957, George Vitense came out and with a pencil and note pad in his hand he walked and paced all over the farm, through corn, beans and a pig pen, and when he was finished we had a pencil sketch of what our first nine would look like.

Loren Slaght was hired to do the earth moving. I agreed that through the week, I would guide Loren in where and how the tees and greens would be built. George came out on Saturdays to approve what had been done and to lay out next week's work. Messerli had crops still to be harvested and if construction would damage any we agreed to pay him for the damage.

Around that time, summer 1957, we decided it would be important to develop a corporation and board to direct the further development and financing. Members of that board were Roy Herried, vice president of Peoples State Bank, Leary Peterson, attorney, Walt Schlaugat, Tom Multerer, Howard Elder, myself, and Rod Satter. Dr. O.E. Satter was asked to serve. He declined but said that his son Rod could serve instead. I had the honor of being elected the club's first president.

Construction continued. The fairway for number six was difficult because it was red clay. It took a great deal of really tough earth moving to get it cut down to be not so hog backed. The number seven green was built over a rock quarry. Most of the construction, including the watering system, was in by early October and the greens were planted with bent grass and covered with straw for the winter. In the spring when we uncovered the greens, the grass had started to grow. We had volunteers assigned to each green to water and weed them. I do not remember who all the volunteers were, but Rex Kaber and I had number eight.

The course was now beginning to look like a golf course. Fairways still had corn stalks sticking up here and there. And, on July 4, 1958, we dedicated Prairie du Chien Country Club. At that time, Harry Lochner was Mayor of Prairie du Chien and he hit the first ball from the number one tee. The board and other friends were on hand for the big day. It was a cold and rainy July day. We teed off, Harry Lochner, Walt Schlaugat, Frank Finley and myself. Other groups followed, including Leary Peterson, Babe Deroin, high school teacher and coach, Howard Elder and Roy Herried.

The following is a few pieces of club history gleaned from a record book of Prairie du Chien Country Club kept by Chuck Elvert from the club's inception through about 1992.

Membership fees in 1958 were $60 for a family who were stockholders. The membership for a single man who was a stockholder was $42. For a single woman, it was $30. For clergy, who did not need to be stockholders, the membership fee was $30. The fee for a student was $18. The fee for an out-of-town stockholding family was $42. The fee for a single, out-of-town stockholding man or woman was $30. It cost $100 to own stock in the club. All members had to be stockholders except clergy and students.

A new clubhouse addition was completed on May 12, 1964. Walz Lumber Company had the low bid of $4,275.

Another addition to the clubhouse was constructed in March of 1966 at a cost of $13,975. Construction was done by Walz Lumber. Also in March of 1966, a new heating system was installed at a cost of $2,501. A new shed was also constructed at a cost of $3,395.

In 1975, a new irrigation system was installed on the golf course.

In 1977, two tennis courts were constructed.

Also in 1977, the club became an official member of the Wisconsin State Golfing Association.

The first hole-in-one at Prairie du Chien Country Club was recorded by Chuck Elvert on Aug. 2, 1961. Elvert's ace occurred on hole number 5.

A second nine was added to Prairie du Chien Country Club in the early 1990s.

4th of July events

BAGLEY

Bagley's annual Independence Day Celebration includes a full day of activities.

The schedule is as follows:

10:30 a.m. parade

11:30 a.m. chicken BBQ

1 p.m. cow chip bingo, kids' games

2 p.m. raffle drawing

Fireworks at dusk

In addition, there will be softball games, bingo, and a flea market. The band, Free Fall, will play for a street dance following the fireworks.

Raffle prizes consist of cash and many items donated by local merchants.

American Legion Post #482, Bagley Community Park and Bagley Volunteer Fire Department sponsor the celebration.

EASTMAN

Although the official celebration begins at 10 a.m. with the parade, Eastman's 4th of July actually begins about 6:30 a.m., when the local men get together and shoot off guns to wake the town and get them going, a tradition, says Jill Forde, that has been in place every since she remembers.

The parade is expected to last two hours, and following that food stands will open and games will begin on the school grounds and ball field. There will be ‘Kids' Olympics' games as well as Little League and fast pitch. Music will be provided in the afternoon and evening by the GMC's. A raffle drawing is scheduled for 8 p.m., followed by, says Forde, "a huge fireworks display at dusk—bigger than last year's."

Forde advises that people coming from outside of town arrive early to find a parking place. The event is sponsored by the Eastman Community Club.

MARQUETTE, IOWA

Marquette plans a three-day celebration from July 4 through July 6. The schedule includes:

Friday, July 4: 7 to 9 a.m. pancake breakfast, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., food stand and flea market

Saturday, July 5: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. food stand, 7 to 10 a.m. pancake breakfast, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., flea market, 10 a.m. parade lineup, 11 a.m. to noon parade

Sunday: 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. food stand, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. pancake breakfast, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. flea market, 1 p.m. raffle drawing.

Activities will take place in the city park on the Mississippi River. Bingo and games are also planned. Events are sponsored by the VFW, American Legion and the City of Marquette.