The village of Soldiers Grove (pop. 616), snugly settled in the white oak, pine and basswood hills of southern Wisconsin, is slowly coming awake again, like a patient after a successful heart transplant. In this case, the village is undergoing urban surgery. "Soldiers Grove's survival," boasts one resident, "has been a matter of gumption."
The town's business district, four square blocks of shops, bars and other enterprises, including a feed mill and a cheese factory, lay in the flood plain of the Kickapoo River. Five times in the past 75 years, the village was hit by devastating floods. After one, the citizens...
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