For a small town with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, Spring Green is large on history, natural beauty and creative energy.
Located along the Wisconsin River in Sauk County, Spring Green was home to the Ho Chunk Indians when the first wave of European settlers arrived at the turn of the 19th century. Haling from England, Wales, Germany and Norway, the immigrants looked to the fertile lands of Wisconsin as a place where farming, mining and lumbering could support families.
Along with the immigrants came Old World artisanal and artistic skills. The Spring Green newcomers became quickly renowned for their fine furniture, jewelry, and a wealth of other decorative arts. Among the earliest Welsh families to make Spring Green home were the Lloyd Joneses who farmed the valley area just below Spring Green. One daughter, Anna Lloyd Jones, would meet itinerant pastor and artist, William Carey Wright, and together would bare Spring Green’s most well-known resident, Frank Lloyd Wright.
While the Wright family moved about frequently in Frank Lloyd Wright’s formative years, he spent his teen-age summers with his uncle, James Lloyd George, on his hillside farm south of Spring Green.
In his autobiography, Wright spoke about the beauty and inspiration he derived from the magical lands of Wisconsin:
"I learned to know the ground plan of the region in every line and feature. For me now its elevation is the modeling of the hills, the weaving and fabric that clings to them, the look of it all in tender green or covered with snow or in full glow of summer that bursts into the glorious blaze of autumn. I still feel myself as much a part of it as the trees and birds and bees are, and the red barns."
One is similarly inspired today by the Spring Green vistas that Wright so prized for nearly 70 years. From densely green river valleys to vertical sandstone bluffs, such as Borglum Rock, the natural essence that drew Wright to the area remains.