In 1957, after years of dwindling membership, the church was closed, with the exception of the occasional funeral, according to church history. Nine years later, Robert McCabe and Clay Schoenfeld, two UW-Madison professors with ties to Hyde, helped form the Hyde Community Association and bring the shuttered chapel back to life. McCabe and Schoenfeld each studied wildlife ecology and purchased land near the chapel. McCabe bought his in 1963 for hunting and fell in love with the area. “He wanted to become part of a community,” said Maureen McCabe, his widow.
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