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Living in Beloit, 707 Cranston Road, Beloit, WI (2026)

08/27/2026

Abraham Lincoln visited Beloit twice. But did you know He also helped Beloiters keep their Land for a “small” legal fee.

The first visit came in 1832, four years before Beloit was founded, when the 23-year-old Lincoln camped in the area while serving in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War. He returned on October 1, 1859, arriving at noon and addressing a large audience.

Between those visits, Lincoln formed another connection to Beloit that required no public appearance at all. He helped local property owners defend the land beneath their houses and businesses.

The problem originated during Beloit’s earliest settlement. The land was still part of the federal public domain, and federal law generally allowed settlers to claim land they had occupied and improved. It discouraged people from using those rights merely to speculate in property.

To secure approximately 79 acres for the developing village, Beloit residents entrusted their claims to Robert P. Crane. Crane entered the land under a federal preemption claim on November 16, 1838. He then transferred individual lots back to the people who had originally claimed them.

There was one potentially serious problem. Crane distributed those lots before the federal government issued his land patent on May 9, 1842.

For years, Beloiters bought houses, constructed businesses and improved their property without anyone successfully challenging those deeds. Then Matthew Hale Carpenter discovered the weakness in their chain of title.

Carpenter was a brilliant young Beloit attorney who would eventually become a United States senator and one of the country’s most prominent courtroom advocates. He developed a competing theory: if federal law prohibited Crane from transferring the property before receiving his patent, the original deeds might be invalid.

In 1855, Crane conveyed the property again. It passed through Samuel B. Cooper and Jared L. Demmon before reaching Paul Dillingham, a former governor of Vermont and Carpenter’s father-in-law. The land had effectively been sold twice.

Dillingham selected property occupied by prominent Beloiter Lucius G. Fisher as a test case. He claimed that two lots worth approximately $6,000 legally belonged to him and that Fisher was occupying them without a valid title.

The consequences extended far beyond those two lots. If Dillingham prevailed, numerous deeds descending from Crane’s original transactions could be challenged.

The dispute alarmed the community. The 1879 History of Rock County reported that some property owners paid money to settle the competing claims. Others became so angry that they threatened to shoot Carpenter for developing and pursuing the theory.

Fisher turned to Illinois judge David Davis for assistance. Davis recommended a Springfield attorney named Abraham Lincoln, then best known as a successful prairie lawyer and former congressman.

Dillingham’s case against Fisher was tried in Rock County on February 26, 1856. The jury ruled in Fisher’s favor. The surviving chronology indicates that Lincoln did not yet know the case had already reached trial.

On March 24, Lincoln completed a detailed written opinion titled Opinion on Land Titles in Beloit, Wisconsin. He concluded that Beloit’s original property owners possessed the stronger claims.

Lincoln reasoned that federal law prevented someone from selling a preemption right before purchasing the land. Once Crane paid the government and received his certificate, however, Lincoln believed he could legally sell his interest while waiting for the formal patent.

Lincoln also considered the basic fairness of the dispute. Dillingham had accepted the second chain of deeds while knowing that Beloit families already occupied the property under earlier recorded transactions.

His advice to the residents was wonderfully direct. They should pay nothing, initiate no additional lawsuits and “quietly await the attack” from anyone challenging their ownership.

Dillingham appealed the Rock County verdict to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In December 1856, the court affirmed Fisher’s case, using reasoning that closely resembled Lincoln’s analysis.

The case was then taken toward the United States Supreme Court. A separate Supreme Court ruling involving the same federal land laws weakened Dillingham’s argument, however. Dillingham and Fisher reached an agreement in January 1858, and the federal case was formally dismissed in January 1859.

Lincoln did not appear in the Beloit courtroom and was not the attorney of record during the original trial or appeals. His contribution was the carefully researched legal opinion supporting the residents’ position as the dispute continued.

Lincoln received at least $120 for his work on the Beloit matter. On January 23, 1857, Theodore L. Wright wrote to Lincoln from Beloit and enclosed a $100 bank draft at Fisher’s request.

Four days later, Lincoln wrote a receipt directly onto the letter, acknowledging that he had retained the draft. He signed it simply, “A. Lincoln.”

That original one-page document is now held by the Beloit Historical Society. The accompanying bank draft has not been located, but Lincoln’s handwritten acknowledgment survives.

The connection between the men continued. In 1861, after becoming president, Lincoln appointed Lucius G. Fisher as Beloit’s postmaster.

See link in comments for documentation by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

08/25/2026

America lost its sweetheart today.

Did you know Dolly Parton once took the stage in Beloit?

As the world remembers Dolly Parton, Beloit can claim a remarkable place in her story. On Sunday, April 9, 1972, the 26-year-old Parton performed at Beloit Memorial High School during two shows scheduled for 3 and 7 p.m.

The occasion was the Porter Wagoner Show, not a solo Dolly Parton concert.
advertised the “entire Porter Wagoner show” coming directly from Nashville. The bill included Wagoner, Parton, Speck Rhodes and the Wagon Masters, and the performances served as the annual fundraising event for the Beloit Policemen’s Association.

The Rock County Historical Society noted that Parton received second billing. She was already a successful recording artist and television personality, but the Beloit appearance came during a fascinating turning point in her career.

Parton had released “Coat of Many Colors” in 1971, only months before visiting Beloit. However, she would not introduce the world to “Jolene” until late 1973. “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5,” her film career and Dollywood were also still ahead of her.

Dolly will be in our Hearts forever

08/25/2026

THE WOMEN WHO QUIETLY BUILT BELOIT’S CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE

On March 15, 1908, Mabel Allen Sleeper reflected on the years she had spent organizing women in Beloit. She credited the city’s federation of women with having “secured a public library, public kindergarten, and all sorts of educational advantages.”

Sleeper understood organization unusually well. Before coming to Beloit, she and her husband had spent five years as missionaries in Bulgaria. She taught children, adapted books for young readers, trained women in practical household skills, and helped edit a mission newspaper distributed through schools and the Bulgarian army.

When Sleeper arrived in Beloit, women did not possess full voting rights. They could not participate in city and state government on equal terms with men, but they could form organizations, raise money, circulate petitions, attend public meetings, and make it increasingly difficult for elected officials to ignore them.

On May 17, 1894, Sleeper brought representatives of nine Beloit women’s clubs together to create the City Federation of Women’s Clubs. Its constitution and bylaws were adopted that November, and Sleeper became the organization’s first president.

The participating clubs included the Beloit Club, West Side Monday Club, Arche, Fortnightly, Friendly Room Reading Circle, L.H. Musical, Saturday Club, Social Reading Club, and Tuesday Club. Individually, these organizations had limited reach. Acting together, they could speak for a sizable and increasingly influential portion of the city.

Their original objectives read less like the plans of a social club and more like a blueprint for municipal development. They wanted better public schools, domestic science instruction, public lectures, a permanent free library, free concerts, and a downtown clubroom where women could organize their work.

Careful comparison of the historical sources changes one part of this story. A later Beloit Historical Society account credits the federation with introducing kindergarten to Beloit, but a 1908 history written with information from school board secretary E.C. Helm dates Beloit’s public kindergartens to 1892, two years before the federation was organized.

The federation therefore did not create Beloit’s first public kindergarten. It did, however, become an important champion of early childhood education. By 1896, the kindergarten program had become so popular that double sessions were needed. By 1908, Beloit had five separate kindergarten buildings, four of them constructed specifically for that purpose.

The library story requires similar care. Organized library service had existed in Beloit since 1859, long before the federation was created. Nevertheless, an 1898 national history of the women’s club movement reported that the Beloit federation had “secured a city library” and exercised considerable influence over educational matters.

In 1901, Beloit received a $25,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie for a dedicated free public library building, which opened in 1903. Civic institutions are rarely created by one person at one meeting. They emerge because people keep advocating, raising money, recruiting supporters, and pressing public officials until an uncertain idea becomes an established part of the city.

The federation’s work soon extended beyond education and the library. Its surviving records, summarized by the Beloit Historical Society, credit members with traveling libraries, children’s story hours, reading material for soldiers during the Spanish-American War, and advocacy for free municipal garbage collection.

In 1908, federation representatives approached Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette about tuberculosis legislation and treatment. Members also supported a state constitutional amendment that would extend voting rights to women. Their civic work was not a substitute for political equality. It was part of the campaign to obtain it.

The organization changed its name to the Beloit Federation of Women in 1911, allowing women to participate as individuals rather than only through established clubs. Membership grew from 147 women in 1913 to approximately 400 by 1930.

As Beloit grew, the federation supported parent-teacher organizations, parks, playgrounds, hospital development, public health programs, and other community improvements. It helped support the creation of Beloit’s Municipal Hospital in 1928. During the 1940s, members purchased a $495 infant respirator and contributed $105 for a room and shower for transient women at the Salvation Army.

In 1947, the federation helped organize the Beloit Junior Woman’s Club, giving a new generation of women its own path into community service. The Junior Woman’s Club continues that tradition today.

The Beloit Federation of Women finally dissolved in October 2011 after 117 years. In one of its final decisions, the remaining members gave $4,400 to the Beloit Historical Society and another $4,400 to the Beloit Public Library.

The symmetry is fitting. One gift helped preserve the women’s history. The other went to an institution they had spent decades championing.

These women were not necessarily quiet in their own time. They organized, petitioned, lobbied, raised money, challenged officials, and turned private concern into public action. What became quiet was their place in Beloit’s collective memory.

Sources in comments

08/23/2026

Come join us Today. Everyone is welcomed

For years, most of us have only seen the Arthur P. & Alice Warner House from Chapin Street. Today, its doors will be open from 12-2 PM.

Built in 1915 for Arthur P. and Alice Warner, the house is tied to two revolutions in transportation. Warner invented the magnetic automobile speedometer and, in 1909, became the first person to fly an airplane in Wisconsin.

Whether you are interested in the home, love historic architecture or have simply driven past and wondered what is inside, come explore this remarkable piece of Beloit history. Living in Beloit creator Thomas Pullen, Realtor with ReThink Realty, will be hosting at 1229 Chapin Street.

Everyone is welcome & we’re looking forward to seeing you.

08/21/2026

IT WASN’T THE BUTLER. THEY SAID THE HORSE DID IT.

One of Rock County’s most sensational murder cases began on a farm in Turtle Township. But follow the story closely, and an astonishing amount of it leads back to Beloit.

On Sunday morning, July 14, 1878, a young farmhand named Joseph Watsic walked into a barn along Turtle Creek and immediately ran back out screaming. Lying on the stable floor beneath the horses was the body of his employer, George Mack.

Mack was a prosperous farmer who lived with his wife Belinda, their three children and two hired men on what had long been known as the Mack Homestead. At first glance, his terrible death appeared to have a simple explanation: one of the animals had killed him. In fact, another farmhand, 23-year-old Orrin “Frank” Dickerson, soon traveled to Beloit and told George’s relatives that Mack had been killed by a horse known as “Old Jen.”

It was a believable enough story when people first saw George’s body, but it didn’t remain believable for long. Doctors examining George found injuries they did not believe could have been caused by kicking or trampling. His chest had been crushed, several bones were fractured, his face was badly battered, and there was a deep wound on his head. Investigators also noticed a nearby hog wallow that appeared to show signs of a struggle. George’s hands and clothing were smeared with similar mud.

Belinda “Bin” Mack wasn’t a stranger to Beloit. Born in New York, she had come west with her father while still young, attended school here and later became a teacher. She was 22 when she married George Mack in Janesville in 1863.

By 1878, neighbors were whispering about Belinda’s relationship with Frank Dickerson. George apparently objected strongly enough that he had previously dismissed Dickerson from the farm. After George became ill, however, Belinda brought the young man back despite her husband’s objections. Now George was dead, and within hours the investigation was moving toward Beloit.

Justice E. P. King of Beloit conducted the inquest. The jury concluded that George had died from blows inflicted by a person or persons unknown, and Dickerson was arrested and taken to Beloit for safekeeping. As he was being arrested, Dickerson reportedly turned toward Belinda and exclaimed:

“My God, they have arrested me for killing George.”

Belinda replied:

“Well, you didn’t do it, did you, Frank?”

Dickerson answered:

“God knows I didn’t.”

Those were reportedly the last words exchanged between the two until they occupied neighboring cells in the Rock County jail.

After George’s funeral, Belinda returned to the home of a relative in Beloit, where officers arrested her. That’s where a completely different piece of Beloit history suddenly enters the story.

The 1879 book *History of Rock County* records that after her arrest, Belinda was taken to the Goodwin House in downtown Beloit.

The Goodwin House wasn’t a private residence. It was one of Beloit’s prominent early hotels, standing at State Street and East Grand Avenue. Originally known as the Bushnell House, it had been built in the 1850s by Beloit College professor Jackson J. Bushnell. Abraham Lincoln ate there during his October 1859 visit to Beloit. Samuel J. Goodwin later purchased and renovated the hotel, and it became known as the Goodwin House.

So in 1878, less than two decades after Lincoln had eaten there, an accused murderess with deep Beloit roots was being held inside the same hotel while authorities tried to determine what had happened on the Mack farm.

After initially denying involvement and making several contradictory statements, Dickerson began talking. He admitted helping conceal what had happened, but accused Belinda of actually killing George.

According to Dickerson, Belinda threatened to blame the murder on him if he went for help. Instead, he said, she persuaded him to help move George’s body and make the death look like a farm accident. Dickerson testified that they carried George toward the barn and placed his body behind Old Jen. Then came the detail that made the case almost unbelievable: he claimed Belinda took Old Jen by the halter and backed the animal over her husband’s body.

He said bloody clothing was hidden beneath the privy. Belinda checked him for blood and gave him a clean shirt. Everyone went to bed, and the following morning Joseph Watsic was sent out to feed the animals. That was when George Mack was “discovered.”

Dickerson repeated his account during a preliminary examination held in Beloit, although the 1879 history noted that his versions changed in ways that appeared intended to minimize his own involvement. Both he and Belinda were eventually jailed without bail in Janesville. Authorities watched them closely not only to prevent escape, but because threats of mob violence were circulating as news of the case spread.

Rock County couldn’t look away. When Belinda went on trial on December 10, 1878, public interest was enormous. Two entire jury pools were exhausted and most of a third before twelve jurors could finally be selected.

Doctors, neighbors and members of the coroner’s jury testified. Dickerson took the stand and repeated his accusations. The courthouse overflowed with spectators. The book "History of Rock County", published the following year while these events were still fresh, described the aisles and galleries as “crowded to suffocation.”

Among the witnesses was George and Belinda’s 13-year-old daughter, Etta. She testified about an earlier confrontation between her parents involving a revolver, during which her mother struck George in the head with a pitcher and later dressed his wound.

Belinda took the stand and denied Dickerson’s accusations. After hearing both versions, the jury deliberated for 43 hours before finding her guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life at hard labor in the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun. Her sentence included an unusual additional punishment: each July 13, on the anniversary of George’s murder, she was to be placed in solitary confinement.

Dickerson was subsequently convicted as well and also sentenced to life. That might have ended the Mack murder case, but Belinda appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and won a new trial. One conviction, two very different outcomes

Belinda’s second trial was moved from Rock County to Jefferson County, where the jury couldn’t agree. Six jurors reportedly favored acquittal, four favored manslaughter and two favored a murder conviction. Without a unanimous verdict, Belinda eventually went free and was never tried a third time.

Dickerson’s appeal was unsuccessful. He remained in prison until receiving a pardon in 1891.

Then came one of the strangest turns in an already strange story. Joseph Watsic the young farmhand who had opened the barn door that Sunday morning and discovered George’s body later married Belinda Mack.

There was speculation about why Belinda would marry a man who had been an important witness in the case. We can’t know her reasons today, and speculation shouldn’t be confused with history. The documented fact is remarkable enough: George Mack’s widow eventually married the young man who had discovered her husband’s body.

Follow the story all the way back to Beloit

For everything that happened after George’s death the sensational trial, the conviction, the appeal, the second trial and Belinda’s eventual departure George himself remained in Beloit. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, near the Clary Street side of the cemetery.

His gravestone carries one final piece of the story. Local cemetery historian Peggy Walrath, through Friends of Beloit’s Oakwood Cemetery, has helped preserve a piece of cemetery lore about George’s grave. According to the story passed down over the years, a woman living near Oakwood once saw someone at George’s stone scraping at it with a rock or piece of glass. The person was supposedly trying to remove one word that had been carved above the date of George’s death:

**MURDERED.**

We can’t establish that the incident happened exactly as the story has been handed down, and it should be treated as cemetery lore rather than proven fact. But there is something you can see for yourself: above George Mack’s death date is a smooth area on the stone, right where the missing word is said to have been.

There couldn’t be a better time to discover some of the other history buried there. As part of Beloit Heritage Days, September 11–13 Oakwood Cemetery will host a Historic Walking Tour on Saturday, September 12, from 10 a.m. to noon, beginning at the cemetery chapel.

Nearly 150 years have passed since someone tried to convince people that George Mack had simply been killed by an animal on his Turtle Township farm. We still can’t say with absolute certainty what happened that night. Dickerson told one story, Belinda told another, one jury convicted her and another couldn’t agree.

Living in Beloit now has a home of its own! Visit LivingInBeloit.com has just launched check back often. We’ll be constantly adding stories and building the site as we go.

Please make sure to follow us here. There’s plenty more to come.

Sources: *The History of Rock County, Wisconsin* (Western Historical Company, 1879); Wisconsin Supreme Court records; Clinton Community Historical Society; Beloit historical records; Peggy Walrath/Friends of Beloit’s Oakwood Cemetery.

08/20/2026

We’ve had so much fun opening the doors to some of Beloit’s historic homes lately, so we’re at it again! This weekend, you’re invited to step inside and tour another piece of Beloit history.

At first glance, 1229 Chapin Street looks like a beautiful old Beloit home, but its story is considerably more unusual.

Built in 1915 for Arthur P. and Alice Warner, the brick building standing here today was originally intended to be the carriage house for a much larger mansion planned for the property. That mansion was never built, and instead, the carriage house became the home we see today.

Arthur P. Warner was no ordinary Beloit homeowner. He was an inventor and industrialist whose work helped shape the early automobile era, and his interests also extended into the pioneering days of aviation. More than a century later, the house connected to his remarkable life still stands beneath the enormous trees along Chapin Street.

Look closely and you can still see what makes the house distinctive, from its brick construction and steep roofline to the arched porte-cochere and unusual second-floor porch tucked beneath the roof. It’s a house with plenty to appreciate from the sidewalk, but this weekend you’ll have a chance to see what’s behind the front door.

Living in Beloit is inviting you inside 1229 Chapin Street. Come wander through the rooms, see the architectural details up close and experience a house that has been part of Beloit for more than 110 years.

Thomas Pullen, Realtor with ReThink Realty the creator of Living in Beloit, is again hosting the open house. Whether you’re looking for a home, love Beloit history and old architecture, or have simply driven past this house and wondered what it looks like inside, we’d love to have you stop by.

LIVING IN BELOIT OPEN HOUSE
📍 1229 Chapin Street, Beloit
📅 Sunday August 23rd
⏰ 12-2

Come spend a little time inside a remarkable old house and discover another piece of Beloit’s story.

If you know someone who loves historic homes as much as we do, share this post with them and let them know they’re invited too!

08/18/2026

When Your Parents Slowed Down at This Sign, You Knew You Were in for a Treat

If you grew up around Beloit, there was a time when seeing the Circus Drive-In sign along Highway 51 meant the trip was about to get a little more interesting.

Maybe your parents were actually stopping. Maybe you were just hoping they would. Either way, Circus became one of those roadside landmarks that generations of people recognized without needing an address. The story of this unusual building began before there was a Circus Drive-In.

The restaurant was originally a Golden Point Drive-In. Roadside architecture research dates the building to 1958 and identifies it as one of the early locations of the Golden Point chain. If you walk up to the building today, the evidence is still right above the entrance. More than six decades later, the words THE GOLDEN POINT remain attached to the building.

Even the unusual architecture was part of the attraction. This was a restaurant built for the automobile age, when getting the attention of someone traveling down the highway mattered. The dramatic triangular structure rising above the roof made the restaurant difficult to miss from the road. This was a very different Highway 51.

Before Interstate 90 became the preferred route between Beloit and Janesville, U.S. 51 was an important north-south highway carrying local residents and travelers directly along this stretch of Riverside Drive. Gas stations, restaurants, motels and other roadside businesses were part of the experience of traveling America's highways.

Golden Point did not keep its name for long. Roadside architecture records indicate that by 1963 the Beloit restaurant had become Circus Drive-In.

The new name proved considerably more enduring. For more than half a century, Circus became part of life along Highway 51. This was still the era of the drive-in restaurant, when pulling into a parking space and eating in the car was part of the fun. The covered carhop lanes remain beside the building today, reminders of the way the restaurant once served its customers.

Circus also became more than a place to grab something to eat. Richard "Dick" La Monte, whose obituary says Circus Drive-In brought him to Beloit in 1971, established a kiddie park at the restaurant. For children lucky enough to convince their parents to stop, Circus really could become a roadside attraction.

That helps explain why the memories of this place run so much deeper than hamburgers and ice cream.

Kids grew up. Some eventually brought their own children. Cars changed, Highway 51 changed and Interstate travel changed the way people moved between communities, but that enormous Circus sign kept standing beside the road.

Records show Circus was still a licensed restaurant in 2016. Not long afterward, after more than half a century under the Circus name, the food stopped being served.

Today, driving past the property feels very different. The towering sign is still there, but its message board is empty. The covered carhop lanes are quiet. Weeds have begun reclaiming parts of the pavement. The unusual building that once existed specifically to make passing motorists look over is still doing exactly that, except now there is nowhere to pull in for a treat That is why Circus remains such a powerful landmark.

It represents a kind of roadside America that is slowly disappearing. These weren't simply places to eat. They became markers along the journey. You knew where you were because you recognized the restaurant, the motel, the gas station or the enormous sign beside the highway.

For generations of people traveling between Beloit and Janesville, Circus was one of those markers.

If you were sitting in the back seat when Mom or Dad started slowing down beneath that big Circus sign, you knew exactly what that meant. You were in for a treat.

What’s your favorite memories of this piece of Beloit’s History?

If you’re enjoying these stories Follow Living In Beloit were only getting started

08/17/2026

Just another way of seeing the beauty that has been around Beloit all along.

08/16/2026

I’ve Driven Past This Place Before. I Had No Idea.

Yesterday, I was on my way to Big Hill Park for the Dirty Dash when I passed a place I had driven by before without giving much thought: the Beloit Horseshoe Club. Naturally, I had to find out the story.

Like so many things in Beloit, once you start digging, the story goes back much farther than you expect. One of the earliest names in Beloit's organized horseshoe history is Earl Ramquist. Ramquist moved to Beloit with his family in 1920 and eventually went to work at Fairbanks-Morse. Around 1940, he began taking horseshoe pitching seriously.

Here's the part I love. According to his Wisconsin Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame biography, employees at Fairbanks-Morse pitched horseshoes on makeshift courts during their noon breaks. In the middle of the workday at one of the factories that helped define industrial Beloit, workers were spending their lunch hours tossing horseshoes.

Ramquist and other local pitchers eventually helped build 12 clay horseshoe courts at Beloit's Vernon Avenue Play Park. He became one of Wisconsin's better pitchers, winning the Beloit City Tournament in 1949 and, six years later, the Wisconsin State Championship in 1955. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame in 1990.

Another important name in Beloit's horseshoe story was Earl Paulson, a lifelong Beloit resident and 1947 graduate of Beloit High School. Paulson didn't begin pitching until 1979. What started as Tuesday nights pitching horseshoes with a group became something much larger.

Paulson organized a Beloit league in 1983. The league became sanctioned in 1985, and Paulson became tournament director the following year. Beloit began hosting more tournaments, including Wisconsin state competitions.

Then the story grew beyond Wisconsin. An event called Team World had begun elsewhere in Wisconsin during the 1980s. After competing in World Tournament competition himself, Paulson worked with the City of Beloit to bring Team World to Beloit. In 1990, the tournament came to Telfer Park and found a long-term home here.

Over the decades, horseshoe pitchers from around the United States and Canada have traveled to Beloit to compete in Team World. Organized horseshoe pitching remains very much alive here today. The Beloit Horseshoe Club on Ravine Drive has both indoor and outdoor clay courts and identifies itself as the home of the Team World Tournament.

This Labor Day weekend, Beloit will also host the 104th Wisconsin State Singles Tournament, another chapter in a local horseshoe tradition that can be traced back more than 85 years.

That's what I love about wandering around Beloit. I was simply driving to Big Hill Park for the Dirty Dash when I happened to notice a horseshoe club. That little discovery led all the way back to Fairbanks-Morse around 1940, where workers were spending their lunch breaks pitching horseshoes on makeshift courts.

More than eight decades later, people are still pitching them in Beloit. Sometimes you don't have to go looking for a story. You just have to notice what's along the way.

If you're enjoying Living in Beloit, be sure to give us a follow. We're only getting started!

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