The art and fantasies of Herman Rusch are preserved at Prairie Moon Sculptural Garden and Museum near Cochrane. Rusch was born in Wisconsin 1885 of East Prussian immigrants. In 1914, he took over the family farm and married Sophie and together they raised three children. After 40 years of farming he retired and began to collect unusual machines, natural phenomena, curios and personal mementos and bought the Prairie Moon Dance Pavilion to create a museum to display the natural oddities.

To make the grounds interesting, Rusch built his first sculptures around 1958, a concrete and stone planter and the site's largest piece, a colorful 260-foot arched fence. So began a 16-year obsession to create a colorful fantasy world of gigantic sculptures based on his belief that "beauty creates the will to live." Without formal art or construction training, he developed exceptional strucutres exhibiting excellent masonry and artistic skills. Sometimes Rusch added color to the freshly mixed concrete; sometimes he painted the surfaces. He embellished some of his work with seashells, bits of broken bottles, shards of crockery and mirrors.

The site includes a bird house, an Indian scout on pony, a stegosaurus, a Fountain of Venus, a rocket to the stars, a Hindu temple and more. The Kohler Foundation's web site reports that Rusch said he "just kept on building. You don't ever know where it will end up when you start." Of the painted concrete self-portrait that gazes at his sculpture garden he said, "I'll still see what's going on here when I'm not around." He also purchased and added some concrete sculptures created in the 1930s by Halvor Landsverk of Minnesota.

At the age of 89 in 1974 he finished the last of his 40 sculptures. His vision and artistic sense of form and color were also bringing him national acclaim. That same year, he was one of nine self-taught artists to be represented in the seminal "Natives and Visionaries" exhibition in Minneapolis. He ran his museum until 1979 when at age 94 he finally called it quits so he could find a "little more time for fishing and fiddling." He died at age 100 and Prairie Moon was sold at auction and fell into neglect.

Again, the Kohler Foundation stepped in and in 1992 purchased the site. The sculptures required stabilization, surface repairs, cleaning and painting to re-establish the original palette (27 colors were isolated with stereoscopic microscopy). Landscaping revived the garden. After restoration, the Foundation donated the site to the Town of Milton allowing Rusch's art to remain a testament to his claim that, in life, "a fellow should leave a few tracks."

"These art forms speak so strongly to our souls and cultural heritage the Foundation believed it was and is essential that we preserve them so they do not disappear," says Yoho. "They are all fragile and at risk. And with the vision of the Art Center as a repository for vernacular environment builders, we have been able to help save many of them.

"We are unique as a foundation. We're small and once we buy a property and support restoration, our staff remains active in all phases of the project. We then work with the local organizations to ensure that there are ongoing plans for maintenance and preservation," adds Yoho.

The golden age of the vernacular artist environment builder is over - it saw its heyday in the 1920s to the 1970s. But, thanks to the efforts of the Kohler Foundation and the John Michael Kohler Art Center, some of the most nationally significant treasures will remain preserved for public viewing and education for generations to come.