A few years ago I received a copy of John Gurda’s Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods as a birthday present.  I innocently and leisurely cracked it open and it was almost as if a spirit left the pages and drew me in because I literally could not put the book down and frankly, I became obsessed with local history.  Obsession phase one involved me pouring through all 466 pages of the book taking copious notes.  Phase two involved a meticulous analysis of the landscape wherever I went.  I sought out historic buildings and streets, looked for evidence of streetcars or buildings long gone, and tried to envision the pigs that once roamed the east bank of the Menomonee River in Pigsville.  I was obsessed because of the stories that each place told and I found myself surrounded by compelling stories that spanned the roughly 13,000 years of human existence in Wisconsin.