The lights of Portia: a holiday tradition
For 22 years, Jack Oehring has continued the tradition of creating a wonderland of Christmas at his farm near the extinct town of Portia in eastern Vernon County. He has made different displays carved out of wood, hammered out of stone, or twisted out of metal, and lights them all.
In 1987, Jack took an inch square picture of a deer from the Conservationist magazine and blew the picture up using an enlarger to the size he wanted, and then cut the picture from wood. The next year he made a wooden nativity scene and carolers. Things progressed from there. Now there are two sets of houses, decorated doll houses, all kinds of wooden cutouts, up to a 20-foot steel angel decorated in lights. There are even reindeer, a polar bear and a Christmas cow.
Around the first of October each year, Jack begins to check the light bulbs, which he probably purchases by the gross since there must be around 40,000 of them in the many displays. He begins putting the lights up the first week in November and turns them on Thanksgiving evening. The lights are on from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. each evening until after Christmas. Christmas music fills the air adding to the surreal atmosphere of bright twinkling lights surrounded by dense timber and dark velvet skies far away from any city lights.
Even after the lights and displays are installed, it takes constant maintenance. Jack said that "on any given night, something will not be working, and the wind causes him them most trouble." After the first of the year, Jack will begin taking the lights down and storing them in critter-proof containers.
A trip to see "The Lights of Portia" has become a Christmas tradition for the Foreman family. The Foremans have taken children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; as have many other people in the nearby communities.
"There aren't as many people coming by as there used to be," Jack said. He remembers counting more than 150 cars in one evening in earlier years. It could be the price of gasoline and the economy. Jack has cut the time he leaves the lights on trying to save a bit on the cost of electricity. He doesn't know what it will cost this year, but he figured it cost about $300 last year.
"When I'll be doing something outside and a car comes by with kids hanging out the window just having fits over the lights that makes it all worthwhile," he said; and even though he is past 70 years, he has no intention of quitting. "I do it because people enjoy it,."
To see "The Lights of Portia" from Walker, go east on EE to 3100 Road, turn left on 3100 Road and go north 3/4 mile. Jack Oehring's home is on the left or west side of 3100 Road. The lights reflecting on the night sky will lead the way to the Winter Wonderland.