Wisconsin 101

Read more about the article The Lumber Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Lumber rafts on the Wisconsin River near the Wisconsin Dells, c. 1886. Photograph by H.H. Bennett, courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID 6314.

The Lumber Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Prior to the Civil War, most of northern Wisconsin was inhabited by the Menominee and Ojibwe Indians and transient fur traders of European origin. Demand for wood in Chicago and Milwaukee after the Civil War brought lumbermen to the north woods. Initially,…

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February 1, 2016

Read more about the article Bowling in Japan

Bowling featured on this 1964 cover of a special issue of Life Magazine devoted to Japan. Click to enlarge.

Sports & Games / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Antigo / Related Stories / Langlade County / Global Connections / Region 2 - North East / 1945-1965 / Vulcan Bowling Pin

Bowling in Japan

In 1964, a representative of Japanese company Sanko Trading visited the Vulcan Corporation, a bowling-pin manufacturer based in Antigo, Wisconsin. Sanko was seeking a deal for exclusive rights to import bowling pins to Japan. At the time, Vulcan didn’t think much of the…

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February 1, 2016

Read more about the article The Vulcan Corporation

Inspecting pins coming off the Vulcan assembly line, 1954. Photograph courtesy of the Langlade County Historical Society.

Sports & Games / Industry / Wisconsin Made / Broad History / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Antigo / Related Stories / Langlade County / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Everyday Life / Manufacturing & Trade / Region 2 - North East / Vulcan Bowling Pin

The Vulcan Corporation

The Vulcan Corporation was founded in 1909 in Ohio as a manufacturer of wooden shoe lasts. The business really took off once they developed a new shoe last turning lathe. In 1919, Vulcan started a plant in Crandon, Wisconsin, which made “rough-turned”—or unfinished—lasts.…

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February 1, 2016

Read more about the article An Immigrant Family in Rural Wisconsin

European immigrants boarding a steamer to the United States. Harper’s Weekly, November 7, 1874.

Home Furnishings / Antigo / Ethnicity & Identity / Langlade County / Related Stories / Everyday Life / Global Connections / 1900-1918 / Region 2 - North East / Politics & Government / CCC Pillow Sham / 1918-1945

An Immigrant Family in Rural Wisconsin

Rose Mary Drab was born in southeastern Langlade County on April 23 of 1913. Her family had settled there the year before on a small farm south of Antigo. Originally named Drabowski, Rose Mary’s parents left Hungary for Chicago a few years…

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October 1, 2015

Civilian Conservation Corps Camp 657 temporary barracks at Summit Lake, WI, c. 1933. Photograph courtesy of the Langlade County Historical Society.

Daily Life in the Civilian Conservation Corps

The young men who lived and worked at Camp 657 were typical of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees throughout the country during the 1930s. The first enrollees were between 18 and 25 years of age, were unmarried and physically fit, and were willing to allot most of their earnings to their families. In 1937, with the CCC’s popularity growing, Congress expanded the age range to 17 to 28 and later extended enrollment to World War I veterans.

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October 1, 2015

Read more about the article The Great Depression in Langlade County

Farm Security Administration (FSA) county supervisor reviewing a farm plan with a Wisconsin farmer and his family. Photograph by John Vachon, September 1939, courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID 25048.

Agriculture / Related Stories / Langlade County / Nature & Environment / Politics & Government / Region 2 - North East / 1918-1945 / Society & Religion / CCC Pillow Sham

The Great Depression in Langlade County

While local governments across the United States struggled to deal with the sharp economic downturn in the first years of the 1930s, Langlade County initially found itself in an enviable position at the onset of the Great Depression.The county, with a total…

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October 1, 2015