Mrs. Madson gives an excellent accout of what it was like growing up and living in the Spring Valley area in the 1900's. Included in her interview is an account of the infamous 1942 flood that destroyed Spring Valley. She also gives a very good account of what it was like being a rural school teacher in Pierce County in the 1930's. Aditionally, she talks of attending the River Falls State Teachers College.

Mrs. Clara Larrieu was born in 1884 in the Spring Valley, Wisconsin, area, before the establishment of the Village of Spring Valley. She was, at the time of this interview, the oldest living Spring Valley resident, and she has many valuable recollections concerning the rapid growth of the community during the 1890's and the iron minine and smelting industries which contributed to the town's rapid growth at the turn of the century. Mrs. Larrieu also supplies some information about lumbering operations in the area.

The interview provides a lively description of Spring Valley as a mining "boom" tmm complete with imported labor, and thirteen saloons. In addition, Mrs. Larrieu details biographical infonnat ion about her husband who held various jobs in the Spring Valley area, including work in a veneering mill, in a lumber mill, and as a Spring Valley postal worker from 1917-1951.

Mr. Graslie, lifetime resident of the Upper Midwest, begins the interview with a brief description of his grandfathers life in Norway and his father's emmigration to Baldwin, Wis. in 1869. He talks about life in Norway, what convinced his father to emigrate, and the route his father travelled. He then goes on to describe his own life in the St. Croix and Pierce County areas such as his schooling, work and a farmer. and work as a carpenter. He also describes the Gilman Cheese Factory. The bulk of the interview deals with Spring Valley, Wis., where Mr. Graslie settled and became a banker. He describes banking in the area, as well as conditions of the village over the years, the settlers who came to the area, and the businesses that existed. His recollections of the mining industry tells of both the men who worked in the mines and those who owned them. He talks about the operation of smelters and the manner in which the operations dissapeared. Mr. Graslie also describes the 1942 flood and a plan that had been made to move the entire village to a safer location.