Walking the Grounds

Some families pass down wealth. The Gantz family passed down something harder to name — and harder to lose. Walking the Grounds traces four generations of a Midwestern family from the Pepsi warehouse floors of Dubuque, Iowa to the purchase of Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, through tree farms, river rescues, African summits, and the slow, ongoing work of figuring out who picks up what the generation before you built.

This isn't a book about getting rich. It's a book about paying attention — to the work, to the land, to the people around you — and what it looks like to hand that attentiveness down. Dan Gantz writes with the warmth of someone who's laughed at most of it and the honesty of someone who's thought hard about what it all meant.

If you've ever run something — a business, a household, a crew — and found yourself wondering whether anyone else sees what you see when you look at it, this book is for you. It's funny, grounded, and occasionally surprising. And it asks a question that doesn't have a clean answer: who walks the grounds after you?