The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County: Small Town, Big Battle, and the Roots That Hold Us Together

In a quiet Wisconsin village, one ancient oak--and the battle to save it--may uproot everything.

When a powerful mining company sets its sights on Link Lake’s community park, the village erupts in controversy. On one side: economic boosters promising jobs, revenue, and revitalization. On the other: a handful of fiercely devoted locals determined to protect the land, the past, and a towering 300-year-old bur oak known as the Trail Marker Tree.

Caught in the middle is Ambrose Adler, a reclusive farmer with a hidden past, watching his town fracture over the promise of frac sand profits. As the debate intensifies, national voices weigh in--including the enigmatic columnist Stony Field, whose presence could tip the scales. But as tensions mount and protest lines are drawn--sometimes literally--the question becomes: what’s the true cost of progress?

The Great Sand Fracas is a timely and spirited novel about community, legacy, and resistance, where the soul of a small town rests in the roots of a single tree.

Jerry Apps was born and raised on a farm in central Wisconsin. Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and spending time in the U.S. Army, Apps worked as a county extension agent in Green Lake and Brown County Wisconsin. He then worked as a staff development specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Extension. He is Professor Emeritus of the University Wisconsin-Madison and the author of several fiction and non-fiction books about agriculture and rural life in the Upper Midwest.