The Dairy Farm of Your Imagination Is Disappearing

To lure drivers off Interstate 65 at Exit 220, about 70 miles southeast of Chicago, the roadside ads lean hard on wordplay. A metal corncob the size of a speedboat carries the words, VISIT EAR OFTEN! A sign with a cow on it promises A DAIRY GOOD TIME FOR THE FAMILY! Another billboard shows a wide-eyed kid with a fruit-flavored ice cream in his hand: BERRY TEMPTING!

You’re in for even more of this sort of thing if you take the exit. At the BP gas station, the little food market inside is called the Dairycattessen. There’s Central Bark, a green area to let your dogs run around in, and an adjacent Cowfé where you can get cheese sandwiches and milkshakes. The water tower is mottled like a Holstein, but just about every other structure in sight conforms to the red-and-white motif of the classic American barnyard. Among them is a hotel with two towerlike extensions painted to resemble grain silos and an indoor pool with a slide that looks like a big wet cow’s tongue. These attractions, however, are for later, after you visit another barnlike building two doors down. On its face, big white letters in a Playskool-esque font announce: YOUR ADVENTURE STARTS HERE.