On Thursday, September 18 at 6:00 p.m., the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society (MHAHS) will host historian, cheese enthusiast and milk bottle collector extraordinaire Paul Vassalotti at the downtown Driftless Historium. Paul will share his vast research into the history of cheesemaking in Dane County, Wisconsin—while guests nibble cheese curd samples!
Cheese production has played a major role in the economy and culture of Dane County since the 19th century. With rich soils and a topography on which cattle thrived on, the dairy industry was a logical fit for the Driftless region. At its peak period in the early 1900s, there were more than 116 factories in just over 200 square miles of southwestern Dane county (MHAHS’s core service area). By the 1920s, this area had the heaviest concentration of cheese factories anywhere in Wisconsin. Who ran them? What where they producing? Where did all that cheese go??
Post-retirement, featured speaker Paul Vassalotti has been actively and intently researching Wisconsin cheese factories and cheesemaking history. Initially, after helping out as a collections and archives volunteer for MHAHS, his focus was southwestern Dane County. Since then, and including a noteworthy role as volunteer manager and archivist of Monroe’s National Historic Cheesemaking Center Museum, he has expanded his geographic interest to all of Dane County, Lafayette, Green, Eastern Iowa, Grant, Richland and Dodge Counties—and beyond! As befits his own ancestry, Mr. Vassalotti is particularly intrigued by instances of Italian cheesemaking in the Dairy State.
Paul also has an extensive collection of Wisconsin milk bottles. Prior to his deep dive into cheese factories, he published a book on known dairies and their milk bottles.
He recently started taking his expertise on the road, sharing region-specific presentations five times in the last year alone!
Do you have Dane County cheesemaking family roots? Do you live in one of Wisconsin’s former Driftless area cheese factories, or own locally-used vintage equipment or milk bottles? Join us on September 18; and if you can’t make it, feel free to reach out with your stories.
The Mount Horeb Area Historical Society is celebrating fifty years of saving and sharing southwestern Dane County history—through events like this! This educational program is free and family-friendly; reservations are not required. For more information, call 608-437-6486 or email
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