Issue 13 - Spring 2024
Newsletter Debi Mejak Newsletter Debi Mejak

Issue 13 - Spring 2024

The Bob-O-Link Roller Rink in Post Lake. It was originally built in 1922 as a dance hall. The domed roof was purchased from the Chicago World’s Fair and added to the building in the 1930’s.

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Issue 12 - Winter 2023-2024
Newsletter Debi Mejak Newsletter Debi Mejak

Issue 12 - Winter 2023-2024

Fischer’s Meat Products. Just a little bit south of Summit Lake stands a little white building that is the home to Fischer's Meat Products. The building along Highway B, the old Highway 45, has been a land mark in our area since the 1940s, but the story of the family that runs the business started long before that.

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Issue 11 - Summer 2023
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 11 - Summer 2023

Concise History of the "Post In The Lake" People and Willard Ackley. The Sokaogon Mole Lake band of the Lake Superior Chippewa reside on the Mole ' Lake Indian reservation next to Rice Lake, (zaaga-i'-gan manoomin) in Forest County in Northeast Wisconsin. It was recorded that some 500 Indian warriors i died during the 1806 Battle of Mole Lake. The battle between the Chippewa and the Sioux was fought over the wild rice bed that exists here. The Ojibway refer to wild rice as “manoomin" meaning the food that grows on the water. Wild rice has always been a staple of the Chippewa diet and is still harvested and processed today, in the traditional way.

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Issue 10 - Winter 2022
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 10 - Winter 2022

Jacob's Equipment. Jacob's Equipment was started in the late 1950's here in Elcho, Wisconsin. John Jacobs was born here in 1928 and was the son of vegetable farmers. Growing up in the woods fostered a life-long love for the trees. As he grew into an adult he took the crosscut saw in the woods with him. He worked very hard those first years logging and one day John went to an equipment dealer down in the farm country in Antigo, called Aulik Implement. There he was introduced to a mechanized one man chainsaw called a Mall 12a. The 12a is what took the crosscut out of his hands. After using it a couple years, he went to the Homelite dealer here in Elcho and bought a Homelite Model 17. In those years he became acquainted with a guy from Sayner, Gene Ahlborn. Ahlborn was a Stihl dealer at the time, and he saw an opportunity with John. John had told me that Gene had talked him to going into the chainsaw business and that there was a bright future ahead.

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Issue 9 - Summer 2022
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 9 - Summer 2022

Crandon Mine Project Effect on Elcho Wisconsin. ln 1976 Exxon Minerals, Inc. announced it had discovered a massive zinc-copper deposit near Crandon, Wl. Exxon began the process to gain approval to mine from the state of Wisconsin. There were strong local feelings both pro and con for this mine. Major concerns centered on how a sulfide mine could affect the drinking water, the Wolf River Basin and the environment. To date, there was not a sulfide mine that had not damaged the environment. The tailings pond that would be required was another negative issue. Over the following years, the Wisconsin DNR as well as Exxon and other mining companies that took over the project did many studies. Tourism was a major industry in the area and there was a fear that the mine would affect the natural resources in the area. Some people were in favor of the mine as it would bring well paying jobs to the area and help keep some of the youth here.

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Issue 8 - Fall 2021
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 8 - Fall 2021

Preserving a Treasured Landmark. A historic building was gifted to the Elcho Historical Society in 2019 to house a museum dedicated to reflecting Elcho's rich past and engage future generations with rotating and interactive displays. Grange Hall has a long and distinctive past. It was built in 1911 as an insurance building for the Modern-Woodman of America. It also served as a temporary bank while the burnt down one was being built and the municipal building where town board meetings were held. ln 1912 an organization was formed in Langlade County called The Grange Movement (The Grange). The Grange formed in Elcho in 1916.

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Issue 7 - Summer 2021
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 7 - Summer 2021

Enterprise Water Sports Club. Our son and daughter and their families spent the 2020 pandemic summer working their jobs from our Post Lake cottage. One of the tasks they took on was to clear out the garage that had a lifetime of "important stuff” that should have been tossed years ago but wasn't. Among those things were some "old" water skis including a set of the jumping skis that I used when skiing with the Enterprise Water Sports Club (EWSC) during the late 1950s. The kids hung the jumping skis on the cottage wall and this has stimulated a number of great memories.

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Issue 6 - Winter 2021
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 6 - Winter 2021

Post Lake Resorts. This beautiful lake stretches north into Oneida county from the center of section 23 of the East Elcho Township. Long before the first pines were cut, bands of Menominee and Chippewa Indians camped on the shores of Post Lake. The lake was created by lumbermen in their effort to transport logs south. In the fall, wooden dams were built all along the Wolf River only to be blown up in the spring to transport numerous logs down to the sawmills in the 1800's. Post Lake is four miles long. The water of Upper Post Lake started the log driving on the Wolf River below it and it would continue going from dam to dam until it reached its destination from Schiocton in Oshkosh.

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Issue 5 - Summer 2020
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 5 - Summer 2020

Elcho’s Woodman Hall. As you drive west coming into Elcho from Post Lake on Hwy. K or Rummel Street, you pass by the Catholic Church and you see the old bones of Elcho's Grange Hall. Look on the left and you can't miss it. This building has seen Elcho's transformation over the years from a booming logging town that attracted people from all over the state, to a quaint tourist getaway here in vacationland, Elcho’s Woodman Hall.

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Issue 4 - Winter 2019
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 4 - Winter 2019

Moonshining in the Northwoods. In !920, prohibition in the U.S. began, mainly due to outcries by members of the temperance movement and many "dry" advocates who viewed alcohol as “America's national curse" resulting in crime and moral erosion. The anticipated outcome of the passing of the 18th amendment in 1919 which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or distribution of intoxicants, were lower crime rates, an enhanced economy, and a moral regeneration across the country. These expectations were not met, and what ensued over the next 13 years rewrote history on many levels.

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Issue 3 - Spring 2019
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 3 - Spring 2019

Kraftwood, Elcho’s Hidden Treasure. J.L. Kraft was one of eleven children raised in Fort Erie, Canada. In 1903 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, bought a horse and wagon and became a cheese wholesaler. By 1907 the business had grown and six of J.L.'s brothers joined him. Eventually, another brother, William, and his family joined them. In addition to wholesaling cheese, the family experimented with cheese preservation and provided tins of cheese to the troops during World War I. In 1921 they introduced processed cheese into the market.

ln 1922 the Kraft Cheese Company, based in northern Illinois, decided to expand its operations to Antigo, WI. J.L. fell in love with the natural beauty of Langlade County and in 1923, purchased land west of Elcho on the shores of Lake Mach-Kin-O-Siew (now known as Enterprise Lake) for a summer home. By 1927, the property had been expanded to 400 acres including a six- acre garden.

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Issue 2 - Winter 2018-2019
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 2 - Winter 2018-2019

Elcho Boat Shop/Northwoods Service and Supply Company. A business that has been lost to history. At the time it was in operation, it served as a place for tourists, summer residents and for local workers. This repository of boats, motors, chainsaws, power mowers, and snowmobiles was located on the corner of the northwest block of Rummel St. and Hwy 45. It is where the professional building is now.

In the years after World War II, people were looking for recreation, and they found it with the area lakes, boating and fishing. Big city life wasn't the thing for a lot of people either. Chicago residents Carl Emery and Walter Mink had moved their families to the Northwoods. They got jobs working at Lakecraft Boats on the shore of Otter Lake for a couple years. Emery and Mink decided to service the area by opening the Elcho Boat Shop Northwoods Service and Supply Company and they rented the Handeyside building, the old Ford dealership.

With the assistance of the Mink and Emery families, this article is written to record and preserve the history of the Elcho Boat Shop.

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Issue 1
Newsletter Angel Zarda Newsletter Angel Zarda

Issue 1

Why I moved to Elcho, WI. When we traveled "up north" we would always take I94 as our main route back and forth from Milwaukee. In 1997, we decided to take a different route home, just for a change of scenery. From Crandon, we took Hwy 8 to Hwy 45 in Monico and headed South. It was a beautiful sunny day, blue cloudless skies. Traveling south on Hwy 45, we came into Elcho and I saw Otter Lake, glistening as though the Creator had strewn diamonds across its surface. I said out loud, "this is where I want to live".

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