D'Amato: How Sand Valley Golf Resort is Transforming Central Wisconsin

(Photo: Gary D'Amato / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

How Sand Valley Golf Resort is Transforming Central Wisconsin
By: Gary D'Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

" TOWN OF ROME – Not unlike an oasis in the desert, the Sand Valley Golf Resort has sprung from an inhospitable landscape and is in the process of transforming a region.

The still-evolving golf resort, in just its second full year of operation, has brought tourism dollars to one of the most depressed counties in Wisconsin, raised surrounding property values, created hundreds of jobs, spurred an airport expansion and invigorated local businesses.

And that’s just the golf piece. Which is only half the story.

Sand Valley also is the centerpiece of an 8,900-acre restoration project. The land, once blanketed by agricultural red pines planted in rows and harvested for the region’s paper mills, eventually will revert to the unique ecosystem nature intended it to be – sand barrens flowing in and out of black oak and jack pine savannas and home to the endangered Kirtland’s warbler and Karner blue butterfly... "