Annual Meeting and Fall Banquet

When? Thursday, October 27 at 6 pm

Where? new Rock Springs Community Center

For over 160 years a treasure lay buried in a Baraboo backyard just a few inches from the surface just waiting for the right treasure hunters to come along. The treasure was unearthed two years ago and has become the largest of its kind ever found in the state. Although the treasure is gold in color, it is also broken and relatively worthless to the uninformed.

The story begins in 1851 when a family from Staffordshire, England moved to Baraboo to start a new life and create a new business. Philip Pointon was a potter and in 1850 he and his wife, Ann, arrived with their seven children at the new county seat of Sauk County. Philip started a pottery in the woods at the west edge of the village which flourished manufacturing crocks, dishes, garden jars, jugs, and many other useful items. The pottery was so successful that two wagon teams were kept busy delivering the finished wares to surrounding communities.

Two tragedies struck in 1857 with the death of Philip Pointon in March and the pottery being destroyed by fire in November, never to be rebuilt. In 1906 a Pointon descendant donated a tobacco jar with lid to the fledgling Sauk County Historical Society and the pottery faded from collective memory. Over one hundred years later that tobacco jar and another jug attributed to the Pointon pottery caught the attention of two friends from Mukwonago, Henry Hecker and Peter Maas, who collect early Wisconsin pottery and research early potteries. After contacting SCHS, exchanges of information were made but there was little physical evidence to go on. That is until October of 2020. A Baraboo couple had no idea what was underground in their backyard.

Find out what Henry and Peter found at the 2022 SCHS Annual Meeting and Fall Banquet which will be held on Thursday, October 27 at 6 pm at the new Rock Springs Community Center located at 251 Railroad Street. A delicious meal prepared by Heavenly Smoked Roasters will be served followed by a short business meeting and the presentation. The night will be capped off with the drawing for the SCHS quilt raffle with last chance for tickets to be purchased that evening. Dinner reservations will be accepted until 5 pm October 20, 2022. Don’t miss this fascinating meeting to find out what was hidden underground!

Registration for this event is closed.