Wisconsin's Rustic Roads

A road less travelled

Photographs by Bob Rashid
Text by Ben Logan, George Vukelich, Jean Feraca, Norbert Blei and Bill Stokes

Hardcover
ISBN 1-883755-02-6 $35.00

Part guide and part spiritual journey, this visually stunning book celebrates America's only statewide system of historic back country roads. it takes armchair travellers on a richly illustrated journey through the beautiful landscapes of one of the nation's most geographically diverse states, and serves to aid those travellers who decide to embark on an actual trip over these charming bucolic lanes.

A road less travelled. The very concept is, in itself, the very embodiment of the American dream: a place where not everyone goes, a special somewhere reserved for those with the courage and character to make their own choices. Such a uniquely American concept that it was enshrined forever in a classic work by one of the country's most beloved poets, Robert Frost.

It was this most American of traits that compelled early settlers further and further west, beyond the security and comfort of the cities, to vast middle western lands and beyond. In Wisconsin, their legacy remains in the form of Rustic Roads, some officially recognized travel routes that, even today, retain a good deal of the untouched beauty of the lands they traverse, where the spirit of those pioneering souls lingers yet in the legally preserved winds and curves of their meandering paths.

In another pioneering effort, Wisconsin's Rustic Roads, in the images of Bob Rashid and the words of five of Wisconsin's most recognized and cherished authors, pays tribute to these living memorials. This book is a testament to places where the efficiency of a road is not measured by its speed, nor its purpose necessarily defined by a destination, and beckons the reader to such places, just as the Rustic Roads themselves call to the modern day traveller.

Part guide and part spiritual journey, this visually stunning book celebrates America's only statewide system of historic back country roads. it takes armchair travellers on a richly illustrated journey through the beautiful landscapes of one of the nation's most geographically diverse states, and serves to aid those travellers who decide to embark on an actual trip over these charming bucolic lanes.

The entire project began when photographer Bob Rashid undertook a two-year odyssey to preserve remarkable sights along the 67 official Rustic Roads in Wisconsin. His popular photographic exhibit has traversed the state to the delight of thousands of viewers who find themselves as enchanted by Rashid's vision as he was by the scenes that emerged in his viewfinder.

Five of Wisconsin's best-known writers - Ben Logan, George Vukelich, Jean Feraca, Norbert Blei and Bill Stokes - contribute essays that lend their own unique take on the sights, sounds and spiritual significance of these scenic byways.

Illustrated with over 90 of Rashid's engaging, full color photographs and 68 locator maps, this book will be equally at home on the coffee table or on the front seat next to those adventurous souls who also find themselves drawn again and again to head down a road less travelled.

Wisconsin Native Bob Rashid is a freelance whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Travel/Holiday, Wisconsin Trails and Milwaukee Magazine. He has worked in the United States and abroad for Northwest and American Airlines in-flight magazines, and he has covered assignments in Nicaragua, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, documenting the work of American medical teams. He is a member of Monkmeyer Press Photo Service, a photographic stock agency in New York.