In October of 1975, Emperor Hirohito of Japan caused quite a stir when he visit Shorewood's Baltz Farm.

The farm recently celebrated its 150^th anniversary and it is still a family-run farm. In May of 1975, it took just one visit to Baltz Farm for the Emperor's people to decide it was the farm he should visit. As far as Joe Baltz knows, they didn't even check out any other farms.

"It was his first and only visit to the U.S.," Baltz said, adding the Emperor also visit Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. on his trip.

Although the trip was to be kept secret for awhile, word got out by August that the Emperor was coming.

"We would have one day U.S. press and the next day is would be Japanese press," Baltz said.

The Governor, Secretary of Agriculture, Ambassador from the U.S. to Japan, dignitaries and more at their farm. Baltz believes they found his family farm attractive because they not only grow crops, but also had livestock.

During his visit, the Emperor climbed up into a combine and watched it harvest soy beans and even visited the livestock.

"One of the funniest pictures is of him holding a little baby pig," Baltz said, wondering what ever happened to that baby pig.

The whole visit probably only lasted about 90 minutes, Baltz said, though it made the front page of all the area papers. A photograph Baltz took even made the cover of the Chicago Daily News.

Baltz's parents did make a trip to Japan and were received in the personal residence of the emperor, something generally unheard of.

"They were treated like royalty," Baltz said.