The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County: A Novel

by Jerry Apps

Overview

When the Alstage Mining Company proposes a frac sand mine in the small Ames County village of Link Lake, events quickly escalate to a crisis. Business leader Marilyn Jones of the Link Lake Economic Development Council heads the pro-mine forces, citing needed jobs and income for the county. Octogenarian Emily Higgins and other Link Lake Historical Society members are aghast at the proposed mine location in the community park, where a huge and ancient bur oak—the historic Trail Marker Oak—has stood since it pointed the way along an old Menominee trail. Reluctantly caught in the middle of the fray is Ambrose Adler, a reclusive, retired farmer with a secret.
            Soon the fracas over frac sand attracts some national attention, including that of Stony Field, the pen name of a nationally syndicated columnist. Will the village board vote to solve their budget problems with a cut of the mining profits? Will the mine create real jobs for local folks? Will Stony Field come to the village to lead protests against the mine? And will defenders of the Trail Marker Oak literally draw a battle line in the sand?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299300708
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	09/18/2014
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jerry Apps was born and raised on a Wisconsin farm. A former agricultural extension agent, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His other novels in the Ames County series are The Travels of Increase Joseph, In a Pickle, Blue Shadows Farm, Cranberry Red, and Tamarack River Ghost. His many nonfiction books include The Quiet Season, Garden Wisdom, Barns of Wisconsin, Breweries of Wisconsin, Every Farm Tells a Story, Old Farm, and One-Room Country Schools. Apps received the 2007 Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers and the 2010 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Wisconsin–Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments                   
Prologue                     
1. Ambrose Adler                    
2. Marilyn Jones                     
3. Emily Higgins                     
4. Fred and Oscar                    
5. Ambrose Adler                    
6. Marilyn and Stony Field                  
7. Link Lake Historical Society                       
8. Cemetery Walk                   
9. Ambrose, Ranger, and Buster                       
10. Marilyn Jones                   
11. Economic Development Council               
12. Ambrose and Gloria                       
13. Historical Society Meeting            
14. When Ambrose's Life Changed                  
15. Ambrose and Stony Field               
16. Bank Robbery Reenactment                      
17. Village Board Vote            
18. Fred and Oscar                  
19. Ambrose's Reaction                       
20. Editor's Response              
21. Ambrose and Ranger                     
22. Karl Adams                       
23. Karl at the Eat Well                      
24. Karl and Marilyn               
25. Vegetable Stand                 
26. Karl and Emily                  
27. Fourth of July                   
28. First Protestors                 
29. Free Wi-Fi            
30. Supper Club Remodeling                
31. Trail Marker Oak Days                 
32. Lake Coffee Bar                
33. Busy Summer                    
34. Thresheree            
35. Problem Solved                 
36. Arrest the Protestors                    
37. Oscar, Fred, and the Protestors                 
38. Don't Give Up                   
39. Explosion             
40. Reaction               
41. Perpetrators                      
42. Emergency Meeting                      
43. Cooling Off                       
44. Quiet Time                       
45. Karl Adams                       
46. Dry Weather                     
47. Storm                    
48. Aftermath             
49. Storm Stories                    
50. Another Drilling Machine             
51. Eat Well Café                   
52. Meeting                
53. Stony and Ambrose                       
54. Revelation            
55. Eagle Party                       
56. Phone Calls                       
57. Los Angeles Journal                      
58. Reaction               
59. Billy Baxter Responds                   
60. Overrun with Attention                
61. Karl and Gloria                  
62. Barn Fire               
63. Reacquainted                     
64. Memorial Service              
65. Trail Marker Oak

Editorial Reviews

"Once again, Jerry Apps has tapped into a highly controversial issue to explore contemporary Midwestern values—historical preservation versus forces of change, environmental protection versus economic opportunity. And once again, Apps succeeds brilliantly. He is an articulate and forceful voice for the Wisconsin ethos."—Jerry Minnich, author of The Wisconsin Almanac



"Jerry Apps has given us another gift with his latest installment in the fictional Ames County saga. The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County will transport you to Ames County's community of Link Lake and make you one of the regulars at its cafes and supper clubs. Those familiar with the rural Upper Midwest will feel right at home and newcomers will get a crash course in the rhythms and controversies along the fault lines between economic development, conservation, and historic preservation."—Dennis Boyer, author of Listen to the Land



“A homespun novel finds a small Wisconsin town torn between preservation and progress. Folksy activism provides the impetus for Apps’ return to Ames County, where he’s set five earlier novels in this series.”—Kirkus Reviews



“The latest and perhaps the best in an already outstanding roster of five previous works of homespun fiction. Solidly entertaining and very highly recommended.”—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

2014-09-17
A homespun novel finds a small Wisconsin town torn between preservation and progress. Folksy activism provides the impetus for Apps' return to Ames County, where he's set five earlier novels in this series (Tamarack River Ghost, 2012, etc.). He's also published many nonfiction books about farming and rural life in Wisconsin, and the themes in those volumes invariably make their ways into his fiction as well. In this case, the small village of Link Lake finds itself caught between its past as a farming community and whatever prosperity the future might hold as a tourist destination. There's a battle for the soul of the village between two organizations headed by two strong-willed women. Marilyn Jones, who inherited the village's only supper club when her parents died in a car crash, leads the Link Lake Economic Development Council, whose initiatives invariably meet resistance from the Link Lake Historical Society, headed by feisty octogenarian Emily Higgins. Marilyn fumes, "When are these people going to quit focusing on the past and begin thinking about the future?" Tensions come to a head when a sand mining company strikes an agreement with the village that will require the removal of a "sacred tree." The controversy attracts the attention of a mysterious but widely read syndicated environmental columnist with the pen name Stony Field, whose writings attract protestors to the site. Too many coincidences and surprises strain the reader's credulity (including the possibility that an environmental columnist with an unknown identity could wield such national influence), but a Fourth of July parade, an explosion and a potentially fatal storm threaten to tear the town apart—or perhaps heal its wounds. The result is Lake Wobegon with more environmental activism and historical preservation and considerably less humor.

Kirkus Reviews