If you're cruising through Dunn County on I-94, chances are you've noticed a very tall flag pole up on a very tall hill. But, a lot of people don't know what else is on top the 2nd tallest hill in the state.

In this mornings Wandering Wisconsin segment, we're off to Elk Mound-- to check out a pretty amazing view from the top.

Marv Cartwright's father helped build the park. "You're up on the Elk Mound hill. It's the 2nd highest hill in Wisconsin and you can see all over the county from up here.

That ridge down there is more than five miles, I know that.

And you can see Eau Claire, that water tower.

On a good, clear day, you can see quite a ways.

This road was put up back in WPA days, back when Roosevelt took office and it was put up here to give the guys work cuz money was awful scarce back then. My dad worked on this. Most of it was done with a pick or a shovel. I don't know if they used horses, probably to haul the blocks up. We used to live right over there and we could look up and see how much progress they were making on the bottom of the road.

Lot of those guys, like my dad, he never had nothing to brag about... he kept busy. I know quite a few of those old guys around town that worked on it.

WINDY When this was built this had all windows, screened windows, doors, picnic tables and cook stove in the bottom deck.

They had tables and fireplaces. It was really nice.

The road was closed, on account of the no guardrails. They reopened it... they had quite a shindig!

It's quite an accomplishment for them to get up here, for the people to come and enjoy the countryside.

There's two different stories on the sandstone blocks this is built on. Some people try to tell us it came up from Downsville, but I think they came from Carl Rosenberg's old livery barn. There used to be a barn down at the bottom of 'H'

There's a place down there that's dedicated to the rural carriers of Dunn Co. There's dirt from every mail route in Dunn Co. in that thing, that place down there.

I carried mail out of Elk Mound, too.

My old route, there's dirt in there from it.

Cuz they took it from each route. When I started carrying I had route 3. I know there's dirt in there from that.

That's alright. I think it's alright.

A lot of tourists used to stop in at the station where I worked asking "how can I get up there?" They wanted to see what was around.

This has been in here four/five years, the new pole.

They also have solar energy that keeps on it all night. We can see it from our house down the street to make sure that it's lit.

It does draw a lot of compliments around, how much they can see from up here and some of them come up here for picnics.

I have run into people that say "oh, Elk Mound, that's the hill there."

Yeah, I suppose it's known for it. Some people will remember it as a big hill in Elk Mound.

It's gonna be here a long time. It's a well-built building.

Come up here and enjoy the countryside. It's really pretty countryside around here."

The park is open daily through October. It closes for the winter when the road becomes too dangerous.
Marv and his wife, Charlotte wrote a book on the history of the park and the village.
If you'd like to buy a copy, you can call them at 715-879-5241 or check out Elk Mound's website. We've provided a link under "Related Links" below this web story.