Wisconsin 101

OBJECT HISTORY: Bark Spud

The bark spud is an iron tool used to remove bark from cut timber. Most bark spuds have a steel head with a hard wooden handle. The head is rounded or dish-shaped and has one cutting edge. The sharp wedge on the end of the bark spud slides between bark and wood on a log…

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September 10, 2020

Industry / Maritime Industry / Superior / Object Histories / Douglas County / Manufacturing & Trade / Region 1 - North West / 1877-1900 / Transportation & Tourism / The SS Meteor

OBJECT HISTORY: The SS Meteor

The SS Meteor was launched as the SS Frank Rockefeller in Superior, Wisconsin by the American Steel Barge Company in 1896. The last remaining of only 44 “whaleback” ships ever built, she was designed by a Scottish immigrant named Alexander McDougall. She is 380 feet long, 45 feet wide and 26 feet deep. You may notice that the SS Meteor looks somewhat different…

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September 10, 2018

Building a Tourism Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Equipment manufacturers played a major role in developing fishing as a part of the tourism industry in northern Wisconsin. Each year nearly two million people fish in Wisconsin’s waterways. They catch about 72 million fish of various species.Fishing lures expanded in popularity…

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May 24, 2018

Industry / Maritime Industry / Superior / Related Stories / Douglas County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1877-1900 / Region 1 - North West / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / Transportation & Tourism / The SS Meteor

Great Lakes Shipping and the SS Meteor

The SS Meteor sailed the lakes longer than most ships of her day, and in her many reincarnations she offers a portrait of how some of the industries on the Great Lakes changed– and what those changes meant for Wisconsin. Launched in 1896, the then-named Frank…

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May 21, 2018

Industry / Maritime Industry / Superior / Related Stories / Douglas County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1877-1900 / Region 1 - North West / Transportation & Tourism / The SS Meteor

The American Steel Barge Company

Duluth, MN and Superior, WI face each other across the Saint Louis Bay. In the mid-nineteenth century, as grain harvests of the northern plains expanded, logging grew, and as iron and copper mining developed in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, shipping…

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May 21, 2018