GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA. 
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road, running from Chicago to Minneapolis and St. Paul, 
traverses the county, following close to the Mississippi River and 
passing through Fountain City, Cochrane, Alma, and Nelson. 
The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway from Fair- 
child reaches into the northeastern corner of the county and 
terminates at Mondovi. A branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul Railway follows the Chippewa River to the Mississippi 
on the Buffalo County side, but is of little service to the county, 
since for most of its extent it lies within the flood plain of the 
Chippewa River, and is very difficult to reach. The extreme 
southern end of the county is crossed by a branch of the Chicago 
& North Western and also by the Green Bay & Western railroad. 
The distance from Alma to Minneapolis over the Chicago, Bur¬ 
lington & Quincy Railroad is 89 miles and to Chicago 353 miles. 
From Mondovi to Chicago over the North Western line the 
distance is 327 miles, and to Milwaukee 246 miles. The Missis¬ 
sippi River affords water transportation, but at present is used 
to a comparatively small extent. 
The main dirt roads throughout the upland portion of the 
county are usually kept in good condition, as the predominating 
soil material naturally makes a good roadbed; but hills are 
numerous, and the grades are often steep, so that hauling heavy 
loads is difficult. Throughout sandy portions of the county, 
where foreign material has not been applied, the roads are nat¬ 
urally sandy. All parts of the county are supplied with rural 
mail-delivery service, and telephones are common throughout the 
country districts. 
Local towns provide a market for varying quantities of farm 
produce and suppty shipping points from which produce is ship¬ 
ped to outside markets. Winona, Minn., just across the Mis¬ 
sissippi River, constitutes a market for produce from the south¬ 
ern part of the county. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, and 
cities within the State receive produce from Buffalo County. 
Buffalo County lies in the unglaciated part of Wisconsin and 
in its geologic formations, topography, and soil conditions is rep¬ 
resentative of a very large area in the southwestern and western 
part of the State. Three general physiographic divisions are 
easily recognizable: (1) The uplands proper, which are gently 
undulating to strongly rolling and in places even steep and 
rough in topography; (2) the terraces and level valley areas 
