but at least Miss Baldwin fits the profile ofrna Dutch beautv- Her name is SarahrnVande Berg.rnAfter visiting Baldwin, I drove a fewrnmiles north in search of an Orthodoxrnchurch that was the center of a Russianrnsettlement in southwest Barron Count)’,rnnot far from the little hamlet of Clayton.rnI disco’ered it in The Atlas of WisconsinrnCulture, a book my father received forrnChristmas.rnThe church was not easy to find. Irnroamed the backroads, paved and unpaved.rnOnh’ after an extensive search didrnI find the liglit-blue onion dome of HolyrnTrinit}’ Church. But maybe that is thernpoint: Out here, surrounded by farmrnfields and rolled haystacks, woods andrnsmall streams, you could easily imaginernyourself back in the old country. This isrnnot a suburban church designed for fourlanernroads, eight-light traffic stops, andrnacres of parking spaces: It was designed tornanchor a people.rnNothing could feel more peacefulrnthan to be out in the middle of nowherernwith the sun peeking through the cloudsrnand the soft, cool breezes blowingrnthrough the pine trees in the cemeterv.rnThe Orthodox double cross was caredrninto the stones. Some of the names werernwritten in Cyrillic. I wanted to see thernliolv icons inside the church, but it wasrnlocked. Over 100 parishioners comernhere, miles from their homes, to one ofrnonly three Orthodox churches in northwestrnWisconsin and Minnesota. Theyrnwant to protect what their ancestors builtrnin 1902.rnI noticed that one of the headstonesrnread “Dzubay,” which happens to be thernname of the publisher of the newspaper Irnwork for. Wlien I first met him, I saw thernname and the icons in his office and deducedrn”Orthodox,” but I assumed that hernwent to one of those inner-city ethnicrnchurches in Minneapolis. When Irnbumped into him at a recent count’ fairrnand told him about the headstone, hisrnface lit up as he recounted his family’srnhistory from the Carpathians to westernrnWisconsin, how and when the churchrnwas built, that his uncle used to be thernpriest at a similar church in Cornucopiarnon the shore of Lake Superior, and that,rnup to 20 years ago, the liturgies used to bernconducted in Russian. He even in’itedrnme to a dinner service the church wasrnholding the following month.rnSome of the family names I found inrnthe cemetery are sHll found in the area,rnbut obviously this wasn’t Rosto-on-Don,rnjust as Baldwin wasn’t Amsterdam (thankrnCod) or The Hague. Time, change, andrnthe forces of intermarriage, roodessness,rnand globalization have altered these encla’rnes as they have the nation. And vet…rn”You had the f)utch in Baldwin, Norwegiansrnin Woodville, and the Irishrnin Hammond,” my Klompen Dancerrnfriend told me. “But now it’s gotten a littlernmixed up.”rnIndeed. Her name was Eileen Helgeson,rnnot exactly a Dutch name, and shernwas from Woodville. When she saw herrngranddaughter on a Woodville float, arnreplica of a Viking warship, she wavedrnand called out loudly. As she did, arnvoung Hmong girl walked by. LikernEileen, she was somewhat out of place inrnher Dutch costume and wooden shoes.rn”They’re taking in anyone they can,”rnHelgeson said of the Klompen Dancers.rnIt seems that the entire country feelsrnthe same way. Wisconsin and the UpperrnMidwest aren’t immune: Mexicans arernmaking their way up to the southeast andrnMilwaukee, while the Hmong inhabitrnsuch midsize northern cities as EarnCrosse, Eau Claire, Wausau, Appleton,rnand Green Bay.rnBut Wisconsin remains a Europeanrn.state; that’s arguablv not true of California,rnFlorida, Texas, New York, and therngreat population centers of America. Ifrnwe in the Upper Midwest become any-rnAre You a Member of The Rockford Institute ?rnW:rngmrnMW/rn>*«fi.rniS^ffrn<“rnouldn’t j’OU like to know what Chioiiic les editors do whenrnthey’re not writing tor Chronicles”’ For a tax-deductiblernmembership donation ot $25, >ou will receive thernInstitute’s quarterly publication. Mum Sticet Memoiandum, youirnsource for all the hard-hitting commentary and Rockfoid Instituternnews that can’t fit in the pages of Chionides To join, sendrna check for $25 tornTRI Membershiprn928 North Main StreetrnRocliford,IL 61103rnf •”t*rnJANUARY 2001/41rnrnrn