Fontana Fen This Fall: The Quiet Preserve on Highway 67, and the Boardwalk Still on Paper

How do you build a walkway across a wetland that a 40-year-old deed says nobody can build on?

The Village of Fontana has been working on that question since at least January 2025. The answer so far has been slow, and that matters if you like the Fontana Fen as it is. The 10 acres beside St. Benedict Catholic Church have no boardwalk, no shared-use path and no construction date that every agency agrees on. The Fen is protected well enough that changing it takes years of agreements, and those agreements are still being worked out.

Ten acres held up by water you can't see

The Fontana Fen sits off Highway 67 next to St. Benedict Catholic Church, with its address listed as State Road 67 and Dewey Avenue. Parking is at the corner of Main Street and Dewey Avenue. It's open every day of the year, it's free, and visitors can pick from three annotated walks.

What makes the site rare is underground. It's a calcareous fen within a wet-mesic prairie complex, and its plant community depends on mineral-rich groundwater moving below the surface. Visit Lake Geneva describes it as a rare type of wetland prairie with an internal groundwater system that supports only a few specialized plants. Don't expect bubbling springs or open water. The plants depend on water moving through the ground beneath them.

That's also why digging matters so much here. Anything that cuts into the ground can change how water reaches those plants, and that concern has shaped every conversation about the boardwalk.

The 1986 deed that says no

The Fen came to the Village with strings attached. At the January 13, 2025 Village Board meeting, the Village attorney explained that the land was acquired subject to conditions of use. The deed prohibits building anything in the Fen, and the power to enforce that covenant belongs to the Geneva Lake Conservancy.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation had asked about building a walkway along Highway 67, and the Village supported the idea. A walkway through the Fen needed an amendment to the 1986 document. The board approved that amendment for a pedestrian path along STH 67, "subject to an agreed upon building plan."

The same minutes record a practical detail people seldom hear about. When the Public Works Director and the fire chief asked who would maintain the path, the answer was that it might have to close in winter because snow couldn't be cleared from a boardwalk. Even once a boardwalk is built, the Fen in January may look much like the Fen today.

A path that floats

The January approval didn't settle things. At the March 10, 2025 meeting, Administrator Loomer reported that the Conservancy had come back to the Village with questions and concerns after the vote. She and Village President Kenny then met with the Conservancy, and two more meetings followed with WisDOT, SEWRPC, the WisDOT engineer and the Conservancy.

President Kenny said the Conservancy would likely agree to a pathway "as long as it was something could float and not require pilings." He also said WisDOT was looking into floating pathway options. He described the Conservancy's main concern as avoiding digging and disturbance in the Fen.

That condition shaped the design question. A path that sits on the fen without piercing it protects the groundwater the plants depend on. It's also a less common thing to engineer than a standard path on piles, and the records found so far describe no final design for it.

By February 9, 2026, the Conservancy had brought the Village an updated memorandum of understanding for the Fen, prompted by the boardwalk "that will be installed in conjunction with the Hwy 67 resurfacing project in 2027." The Village approved it with its own edits. Those edits removed a set level of annual Village funding for the Fen and dropped a $1,000,000 liability insurance requirement, because the Village is already covered under recreational immunity.

Two calendars for the same project

The year in those minutes doesn't match what WisDOT now posts. Here is how the timeline reads in each source:

The WisDOT Projects Hub page for WIS 67 carries no publication date, so nobody can say exactly when the 2029 figure appeared. It's the schedule the agency currently shows, and it describes the start as tentative. The page also still lists both path alignments, without a choice between them:

1. Alternative 1 runs the path along the northwest side of WIS 67, taking right-of-way from Fontana Fen Park and St. Benedict Catholic Church.
2. Alternative 2 runs it along the southeast side. Steep slopes there may require retaining walls, and the path would cross WIS 67 twice, at Main Street and at Dewey Avenue.

The wider project covers about 3.75 miles of WIS 67, from South Main Street to Theatre Road. It includes resurfacing, new pedestrian curb ramps, repairs to three box culverts, and a shared-use path from South Main Street to Dewey Avenue to give walkers and cyclists a continuous route. WisDOT says traffic impacts are still being evaluated. The only public involvement meeting listed is the one held June 4, 2024 at Fontana Village Hall.

The Village's own work near the highway hasn't stopped. January 2026 minutes discuss reconfiguring Wild Duck Road in coordination with WisDOT at its Highway 67 intersection, and the March minutes tie the relocation to the planned Public Safety Building and to safety at that intersection. Fontana also approved a 2026–2027 agreement with Midwest Prairies to control weeds and brush and remove refuse at the Fen and other sites. In practice, the Fen gets ongoing upkeep while the plans for building across it wait on a state schedule that has moved.

Walking it this October

All this leaves the Fen as it has been: a short stop at Main and Dewey with three annotated walks and no admission. Fontana has a second Conservancy property that pairs naturally with it, a few minutes away on Mill Street.

The Mill House Native Plant Preserve at 398 Mill Street is the Geneva Lake Conservancy's showcase for native plants. A Little Free Library sits to the left as you enter. The trail on the right goes through pollinator gardens, rain gardens, sloped gardens, prairie, an oak identification area, a children's garden and a bird sanctuary. Behind the Mill House, another trail continues into the Hildebrand Conservancy, which is owned by the Village of Fontana and protected by a conservation easement held by the Geneva Lake Conservancy. Its clear trout stream feeds Geneva Lake. The Conservancy lists leashed dogs among the uses there. It doesn't post hours or an access policy, so it's worth calling ahead before a first visit.

The next few weeks on the west end of the lake include several dated chances to get involved:

• Friday, October 9, 10–11 a.m.: seed picking at Mill House. Volunteers collect native seed for the Conservancy's other properties and can take some home. No experience is needed, and warm refreshments are provided. Questions go to the Conservancy at 262-275-5700.
• Friday, October 16, 9 a.m.–noon: invasive plant removal at White River County Park, 6503 Sheridan Springs Road in Lake Geneva. Removal wraps up at 11:30 a.m., with lunch after.
• Select Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–noon, October through December: seed cleaning with the Friends of Kishwauketoe at the Williams Bay Lions Recreation Center. The group keeps a separate schedule with the exact dates.

The Geneva Lake Conservancy events page has signups and any changes, along with a members-only Cocoa & Candlelight Hike at Helen Rohner Park and Kishwauketoe that hasn't been dated yet.

For a longer outing, Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy in Williams Bay offers year-round access to 231 acres and more than four miles of trails. The Geneva Lake Shore Path also starts in Fontana. Its west-end segments head toward Williams Bay in one direction and Black Point in the other. The path crosses private property and is for daylight use only, which matters more as October afternoons get shorter.

The boardwalk will come eventually, possibly as a floating path and possibly one that closes for winter, but the alignment and the year are still unsettled. Until WisDOT picks a route and confirms a start, the Fen stays as it is, with parking at Main Street and Dewey Avenue.

For Linda, after more than 50 years on Geneva Lake, decisions like this one at the Fen, made through a deed, a conservancy and a state highway schedule, are part of what she watches on behalf of clients along the west shore. If you'd like to talk through how Fontana's Highway 67 plans, Wild Duck Road and the Fen might affect a property you own or are considering, Linda Tongé would be glad to sit down with you. Schedule a Consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.