In her book, The Bauer Story: How We Fought for Our Land, Dunn County native Clara Bauer describes herself as a “farmer's wife-partner-mother of four.” In 1973, she became both an anti-nuclear power activist and grass roots organizer when a representative of the Northern States Power Company (NSP) attempted to purchase the farm owned by her son Harold and his wife Lucille.
When the Bauers investigated NSP's plans, they learned that the company was attempting to acquire 4,600 acres to build the Tyrone Energy Park, a nuclear power plant in Peru, Wisconsin. Over the next nine years, Clara and her family fought to thwart NSP's attempts to condemn the Bauers' farm, and to prevent NSP from constructing the Tyrone nuclear power plant.
In July of 1973, Clara and Lucille Bauer formed Citizens for Tomorrow, Inc. (CFT). CFT began as a small group of landowners who opposed the forced condemnation of their land, and became a grass roots anti-nuclear organization.
After a series of court injunctions, condemnation hearings, and an appeal to the Supreme Court, Harold and Lucille Bauer's land was turned over to the NSP in 1977. The payment checks were refused by the Bauers and placed in escrow.
In December 1978, the Public Safety Commission (PSC) began hearings on the need for the proposed plant, and in March of 1979 the PSC formally rejected NSP's application, citing low demand growth in the area of the proposed reactor. NSP then decided to build a coal-powered plant on the site. Finally, in 1982 an agreement was reached: NSP returned the Bauers' land, and received the money that had been in escrow for five years.
In their struggle against the Tyrone plant, Clara Bauer and the Citizens for Tomorrow, Inc. worked with many other concerned individuals and groups. Their tactics included litigation, legislation, outreach, publicity, and direct action. As an individual, Clara wrote letters to every single U.S. representative and senator, all 50 governors, and every Wisconsin state representative and senator. As a group, CFT held meetings in the proposed site area, brought in speakers to talk about the dangers of nuclear power, and printed a pamphlet entitled “Why We Oppose Nuclear Power.” In addition, demonstrations and pickets were held at the proposed site, at NSP stockholder meetings, and in the state capitol in Madison.
