| We headed west and north
from Green Bay aiming for Duluth and Minnesota. Sometimes (often) we find
attractive campsites. This is just to the west of Green Bay. Many folk will
come up here just for the weekend to try a bit of fishing. |  |
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They talk of Minnesota as the land of 10,000 lakes, but Wisconsin has
15,000. Here you can see how few trees have leaves yet. We think the ones
without leaves are paper birches. |
| We made a detour on our
route for obvious reasons to those who know us. We just had to visit the
town of Prentice (pop 627) about halfway between Green Bay and Duluth in the
middle of nowhere. |  |
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It does have a municipal airport - well, field would be a better term,
because that is what it is. |
| Even its railway depot is
second hand. It came from somewhere else and was re-erected here. Actually
it was quite important as the East-West Wisconsin Central cross the
North-South Soo line here. |  |
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We had to wait some time while these log wagons were reversed onto another
line and you know how long US trains can be... |
| The railways here are now
owned by the Canadians so it was no surprise to find a couple of CN locos on
the front - or should it be the back since they were reversing? |  |
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Prentice was founded by Alexander Prentice who came here in search of lumber
and formed the Jump River Lumber company in 1882. This folded in 1895
leaving the tannery as the principle industry. This creamery was operated
from 1915-1934. The building was originally part of the tannery. |
| And this is the creamery
today, although it now houses another business. |  |
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We met a guy who is a local historian and who had been instrumental in
putting up these plaques telling the story of the town. The gears came from
the original sawmill. |
| Another original building
which (along with the creamery) is all that remains of the a tannery. The
Prentice tannery was once (1895) the largest tannery in the US using hemlock
bark to tan the hides. It was the largest employer in the town and employed
several thousand people. It was largely destroyed in a huge fire in 1906,
commemorated in the plaque above. |  |
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A dam was created across the Jump River to provide power for the sawmill and
to form a pond into which the logs came. The sawmill was built where the
camera is. |
| This plaque tells the
story of the surrounding area in the county. |  |
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There was one engineering factory started by Leo Heikkinen, a Finn who
developed equipment which is now used worldwide in the logging industry. He
thought his name would be too difficult to say or spell so he named it after
the town, thus we have the Prentice loader. Today the company is owned by
CASE. |
| Even though it is only a
village by our standards, Prentice has its own fire department which covers
about a 25 mile radius from here. |  |
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This is a photograph of Alexander Prentice. I did some research on him but
have not discovered anything definitive although he was a Scotsman. I am
following a lead that suggested he came here via Canada and New York and
that he also had timber interests at Prenticeville in Georgia. |
| The village published a
book of its history to mark its centennial in 1978. Although now out of
print and the original plates have been lost, it contains many historical
photos and may yet end up on the web. |  |
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Today the Jump River flows peacefully through and there are few reminders
left of its busier past. |
| Except of course that
logging is still the major industry in the area and that the railway
continues to serve it as it did over 130 years ago. |  |
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