03/09/2026
UPDATE (SUNDAY, MARCH 15TH, 2026) - DUE TO THE INCLEMENT WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY, MARCH 16TH, 2026, THIS MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Please join the Arena Historians on Monday, March 16th, 2026, as we present "The Welsh in Iowa County", with guest speaker Robert Humphries. Beginning in the 1840's, immigrants from Wales began to arrive in southwestern Wisconsin, attracted by the lead-mining industry and the opportunity to acquire farmland of their own. In this presentation, Humphries will explain how, in Iowa County and beyond, the Welsh created thriving ethnic communities-including in Arena- where they maintained their culture, religious traditions and Celtic language throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Humphries will also introduce some of the Welsh who became leading citizens in the lead-mining region. A native of Newport, Wales, Humphries has lived in southwestern Wisconsin for more than 25 years. Humphries earned his MA in Celtic Studies from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, with "Yn Eu Hiaith Eu Hunain/In Their Own Language: The Settlement and Assimilation of the Welsh in Iowa County, Wisconsin, 1840-1920" as his dissertation. The presentation, which is free to the general public, will take place at Arena Diner (formerly known as Grandma Mary's, in the Brisbane Hall section of the building), 175 US Hwy 14, Arena, WI, at 1:30 p.m. If you are unable to attend in person, we will be live streaming the presentation via Zoom (see attached link.) If you have any questions regarding viewing the live stream, please contact Peggy Peterson at (608) 628-6629 or at [email protected]. (Photo of Richard Lloyd Jones and family, circa 1883. Lloyd Jones was one of the more prominent Welsh settlers to make the River Valley area their home. Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83713916155?pwd=VR4s4wAEuL5QHJNUDe2erUaR8vMnJs.1
