La Farge, WI

La Farge is a Vernon County village of 730 residents at the 2020 census, built along the Kickapoo River. Water is the first thing to understand here: the river runs through the village, and the wider valley has long shaped how people farmed, traveled, and thought about the place. Before modern employers and recreation, fur trading brought Ho-Chunk and other Native people into contact with European and American traders along the Kickapoo.

La Farge is also the home of Organic Valley, the farmer-owned cooperative whose headquarters sit in the village. Just beyond town, the Kickapoo Valley Reserve carries the river story into a much larger landscape, with state land and Ho-Chunk Nation land managed through an unusual public partnership. The old dam proposal that once threatened to remake the valley is now part of local history, while Highway 131 and the river draw people through the area. La Farge feels like a river town in the fullest sense: its work, scenery, and biggest local debates all run downstream together.