The Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited (SWTU) has a proud history dating back to 1969 when Jim Stewart was our first chapter president and meetings were held at the Maple Bluff firehouse. At that time Trout Unlimited was a fledgling organization in Wisconsin and the nation. We have strong ties with several chapters that were formed by SWTU members that did not live in the Dane County area, such as Aldo Leopold, Blackhawk, The Harry and Laura Norh Chapter, The Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter in Milwaukee, among others. Even today many chapter members that have moved to other parts of the state or the country have maintained their membership in SWTU.
SWTU was also instrumental in forming the Wisconsin State Council of Trout Unlimited.
There have been many chapter officers that have served as president and committee chairs on our state council. SWTU has also had a strong presence at the national TU level by having chapter members that have been officers and board members. In the 1970’s our chapter hosted a “National Trout Unlimited Banquet” featuring Arthur Godfrey as the speaker.
Our chapter began project work in 1968 even before we had an official TU charter by doing a fencing project on Allen Creek near Evansville. In the recent past our chapter’s project focus has been preserving “Black Earth Creek” in western Dane County, an area that is rapidly urbanizing. Other stream projects have been on Rocky Run and Jennings Creek in Columbia County, Spring Creek in Dodge Co., Token Creek, Mount Vernon Creek, Deer Creek, Story Creek, and several others in Dane County. Additionally we have supported other chapters projects by supplying person power and money all over the state of Wisconsin, and especially in western and south western Wisconsin.
Membership has expanded rapidly since the mid 1990’s. We have built our roster by offering services to potential members such as rod building, fly tying and fly casting classes all at little or not cost. Many of our chapter officers have come to our chapter through these classes.
Fund raising has taken a variety of forms from selling club jackets and pins in the early days, to selling custom crafted “Little Streamer” fly rods, and bronze “trout bookends” in the 1980’s. The chapter currently annually hosts “The Icebreaker” event featuring prominent national and local speakers and a host of raffle prizes. The spring auction night is a fun filled major fund raiser where “Dr. Sausage”, “Col. Muskrat”, and “Ole” raffle off fishing gear donated by chapter members.
The Trout Unlimited motto of “Preserving and Protecting Coldwater Resources” has been well served over the years by bringing people together for stewardship and outdoor education. We are proud to say that we have a very diverse membership demographic from youth to senior citizen, men and women, and people from all walks of life that have come together over the years to bring us to where we are today. We hope people will continue to support our efforts for a long time in the future.
Written by John Strauss. See his complete history soon.