The Village of Gays Mills lies in a valley among the steeply chiseled bluffs of the region known as the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin. The area’s unique topography is the result of escaping the land-flattening glaciers of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago, thereby earning the “Driftless” designation. Gays Mills also sits along the banks of the Kickapoo River which winds its way through the valley and gives the land its ambiance and appeal. The river also carried the area’s first explorers and inhabitants.