HIDDEN VALLEYS

Nature and the environment have given Richland County some unusual geological formations. A natural bridge, 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, spans the Pine River at Rockbridge with a shelf of layered sandstone. In Blue River, Eagle Cave is Wisconsin’s largest onyx cave. Visitors can explore four levels of tunnels, and they can hike and camp on the property.

Richland County takes pride in being the birthplace of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and of Ada James, a prominent leader in the campaign to give women the right to vote. The A.D. German Warehouse in Richland Center, designed in 1915 for a wholesale grocery business, is the only warehouse that Wright designed. Ada James was a lifelong Richland Center resident whose efforts helped Wisconsin to become the first state to ratify the 19th Constitutional Amendment, granting voting rights to women.

Richland Center also houses the first municipal auditorium in Wisconsin, built in 1912 to house government offices and theater space, and its residents are proud to cheer on their high school marching band— believed to be the oldest continuously playing high school marching band in the U.S., dating back to 1910.

One of the biggest annual events in Richland Center is the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Finals, where students display their talents at events such as steer wrestling, goat tying, and riding bareback horses.