France, of course, was not the only country to export tiny spirit people. Every year in March on St. Patrick's Day, images of leprechauns, mischievous wee folk of Ireland, can be seen everywhere. Most people believe that if real leprechauns exist, the little green-coated ones are far away, busily burying their pots of gold in the British Isles. But one family believed that a leprechaun lived in their rural home outside of East Troy in Walworth County.

Their story is told in Strange Wisconsin by a woman named Amy, whi in the early 1990s was engaged to a man living with the family. Two young relatives aged six and eight also often stayed at the cozy farmhouse, and they began to mention to other family members that a strange, red-bearded little man was living in a wooden box in the kitchen. He was dressed shabbily and smoked a pipe. The children would often ask Amy if she could see him dancing a jig on the wooden table as they could, but none of the adults were able to make him out, no matter how hard they squinted...

Between the Algonquian Little People, the French Les Lutins, and Irish leprechauns, it appears the Badger State virtually teems with diminutive spirits.