His father, a farmer, lost 200 acres to the reservoir project in the 1960s, and when Breene wanted to buy his own dairy farm later, he ended up having to buy land outside the management area. “I’d rather be down on Big River.” 

“I always felt bad, because some people had some beautiful places and figured they had to get right out because the reservoir was supposed to be built in the early '70s. Some of the people who were older could have just stayed there, the way it all turned out, and finished out their lives where they were happy.”