Tour Madison’s own ‘Lost City’ at Arboretum

A forest of houses — rather than the forest of trees that now stands there — would occupy part of the UW–Madison Arboretum if the Lake Forest Company had built the idyllic development it proposed in 1916.

Housing foundations, walls, open paths that were once sidewalks and roads, and a long cement street now buried underground are all that remain of Madison’s own Lost City.

Arboretum naturalist Susan Simonson says the natural environment ultimately proved too unstable for viable development.

“Construction in some cases was merely swallowed up by the substrata,” she says. “These problems no doubt held up electrical access and proper sewage, not to mention the availability of potable water.”

A tour of the Lost City will be given on Sunday, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m. Meet at the Arboretum Visitor Center. For more information: 263-7888 or mfmurray@wisc.edu.