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Faded Symbol of a Town's Heyday

Will pride of Potosi once again flow from storied old brewery?

Some local dreamers are trying to make it happen.

by Susan Lampert Smith

POTOSI, Wis. - Every interesting place has a claim to fame, and this village in farthest southwest Wisconsin has two.

The sign where you pull off the Great River Road announces that Potosi has "The Longest Main Street in the World." The brag dates to the 1950s, when "Ripley's Believe It or Not" featured Potosi as having the longest Main Street without a cross street.

I don't know if the record holds, but Main Street here is still a three-mile, ear-popping run from the ridge top down to where it ends in a gravel road on a spit leading out into the Mississippi River. In one of the last tight curves before the river, you come across Potosi's other pride: the old Potosi Brewery.

Even in its ruined state, it's still an imposing edifice of limestone and brick, tucked against a steep valley wall where the artesian well that provided the "sparkling pure spring water" for the beer still flows.

And dreamers here in the valley, who remember the glory days of the brewery, are working toward a day when the beer will flow again, too.

More than 300 people have paid $50 a head to fill the Sunset Hall in nearby Dickeyville on Feb. 4 for a benefit banquet, and another 75 have signed on as sponsors. The event sold out quickly, evidence of local enthusiasm for reviving the pride of Potosi.

"This brewery was the symbol of Potosi, the same way the Statue of Liberty is the symbol of New York or the Golden Gate Bridge is the symbol of San Francisco," said village president and brewery foundation vice president Frank Fiorenza. "For a certain generation, if you say Potosi, they think beer."

Actually, for many generations, Potosi meant beer. The limestone section o the brewery was built 1852 to slake the thirst of miners who filled "Snake Hollow," the town's former name, during the lead mining rush. The miners moved on, but the beer continued to flow.

During the brewery's heyday, the steamship "Potosi" made the circuit to Dubuque and back, carrying horse-drawn wagonloads of beer to the city, and peddling floating pony kegs of beer to thirsty fishing camp inhabitants along the way.

The brewery survived Prohibition by bottling soda pop an "near beer," and celebrated its end by expanding again, brewing as many as 75,000 barrels of beer a year. "Good Old Potosi," and "Holiday" beer brands were known around the Upper Midwest, giving Potosi a second claim to fame as "the smallest town with the biggest brewery in the country."

But the Potosi Brewery couldn't survive the industry trend toward mega-breweries, and when it closed in 1972, it was one of eight breweries left in Wisconsin, down from 79 at the end of Prohibition in 1933.

The building was plundered by owners who knocked holes through brick walls to drag out equipment, and three years ago Grant County ordered it sold for back taxes. The high bidder planned to demolish what was left for bricks and building material.

"I called up the county and said, 'Are you aware this building is on the National Register of Historic Places and can't just be destroyed?' " said Fiorenza.

Then, five local saviors stepped forward. Together, they chipped in $6,330 to buy the building then turned it over to the non-profit Potosi Brewery Foundation. Since then, the group has made slow but steady progress toward restoring the front of the building, with the goal of creating a micro-brewery, restaurant and museum.

An engineer's report showed that the building's shell, built with heavy rock and iron walls, remains solid.

" In spite of how terrible it looks," said Fiorenza, leading a tour over crushed floor tiles and rickety stairs, "it's still a solid building."

Within a year, the foundation hopes to enclose the outer walls and put on a new roof. It has already raised about $60,000 of the $120,000 it needs to match part of a $150,000 grant included in the last state budget. The entire project will cost at least $1.2 million, and may take five years to complete.

But as the sold-out dinner indicates, support for the project "has exceeded our wildest dreams," Fiorenza said.

The group is doing brisk business in replica Potosi brewery merchandise, including coffee mugs, candy bars and T-shirts. Across the street from the brewery, the Desert Emporium, a flower and gift shop, operates in the old brewery office. (Ask to see the marble bathroom floors and urinal, a suitable ending place for beer.)

Dorothy Schaal said the store has sold more than 130 benches and planters made from wood with the old brewery stamp, and has a waiting list for more. Carpenter Larry Kalina donated his labor, so the entire $45 made from each piece goes to the brewery foundation.

The brewery project generates excitement from those who remember the old days, when 100 people worked two shifts at the brewery and truckloads of beer wheezed up the Main Street hill, bound for as far away as California.

Don't be surprised to see them once again bottling up the pride of Potosi and selling it.

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