If you travel across the Cheddar Curtain enough times, you will see the huge Mars Cheese Castle sign, beckoning like some siren of yore to stop in at the cheese store/deli off Interstate 94 for Wisconsin's most-favorite product or some delicious cheese bread.
Little did we know in Illinois that the 180-foot beacon was a nuisance to some in America's Dairyland and was in danger of being torn down. Apparently because of plans to expand the interstate, the sign would have to be demolished. It had been grandfathered, but signs of that height are now banned in Wisconsin.
To the 60-year-old cheese dealer there was only one thing to do: Lobby a cheesehead legislator to get the state to allow Mars to keep the sign at a location to be named later. Kind of like the way they do things in Illinois. And you thought Wisconsin was a progressive state.
So the sign stays, marking the cheese shop's location and luring us Flatlanders to expand our waist sizes. Wonder if former Gov. George Ryan stopped on his way up north to federal prison and bought some cheese bread to nibble in his cell?
Tear down a relic? NEVER! I remember that sign from when I was a kid, on our way to our campsite in the UP. That was the first landmark that told me we were "really" in Wisconsin.
Got the best bleu cheese ever at that place.
THE HOUND SAYS: Try the cheese bread. It's grreeat!