For thousands of years, the Winnebago Watershed was home to numerous Native American tribes, including Winnebago (aka Ho Chunk), Meskwaki (aka Fox), and Menominee. Through disease, violence, deal-making, and European settlement, Native Americans were removed by the mid-1800s. Our family has always acknowledged these origins. Most notably, Tom and Sharon Metz dedicated much of their lives towards the advancement of Indigenous studies and public policy.
August Wiesner, a farmhand from Bümfuch, Germany, migrated to Wisconsin in 1884. He took employment at a local butcher shop, and within a few years he’d saved enough money to buy his own piece of freshly-available land. He dug a hole in the ground and called it a house — the Wiesner-Metz family has resided here since.
The farm has served several purposes throughout its history, including dairy farming, fur trapping, hunting/fishing tours, and resort lodging. Henry Wiesner was the most prolific operator of the homestead. A skilled outdoorsman, his hand-made fishing lures, duck decoys, skis, animal traps, and boats are still visible (and in some cases, still in use) around the property. He and his equally resourceful wife, Elfrieda, diligently worked the homestead from the 1920s until the 1980s. Their daughter Sharon was born in the farmhouse.
The family joined the DNR's Glacial Habitat Restoration program in 2003, ensuring the permanent protection of this beautiful wetland ecosystem. We formed Rusty Buckets in 2017.
