| Wisconsin (Portage County), Amherst — Amherst Fire District |
| | Original Fire Bell
Established 1902 — Map (db m8274) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Amherst Junction — A Line in Time |
| | Can a village live to tell the tale of two railroad lines and a depot?
The railroads originated as a means to transport lumber to mills in the Stevens Point area. As times changed, farm products such as potatoes became the main freight on trains.
An underpass relieved the hazards of having two sets of tracks cross Main Street in Amherst Junction. Voyagers used the sheltered stairway as a passage between tracks.
Salesmen, summer sightseers, and hobos rode the trains to . . . — Map (db m26147) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Junction City — 121 — Du Bay Trading Post |
| | In 1834 John Baptiste Du Bay established a trading post on the Wisconsin River one mile east of here for the American Fur Company. His wife was Princess Madeline, daughter of Oshkosh, Chief of the Menominee Indians. According to tradition, Du Bay’s father, John Lewis Du Bay, a French-Canadian voyageur, spent the winter of 1790 on the same site, which was known to the Chippewas as Nay-osh-ing, meaning “the Point.” Because of an underwater ledge, this was the first place north of . . . — Map (db m1770) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — Buttons from the River |
| | The residents of Stevens Point depended on the Wisconsin River not only to transport logs, but also to provide clam shells for the button industry. The clammers found an abundance of quality shells in the river to support a commercial venture. In 1920, a factory at the foot of Franklin Street opened to stamp out circular button “blanks” from the pearly surface inside the shell. The remaining shell looked similar to a batch of dough from which cookies have been cut.
Clams were . . . — Map (db m5466) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — First Public Building |
| | Here, for 110 years, stood District School No. 2, the oldest public building in Stevens Point. Completed in 1850, its appearance reflecting its New England heritage, it served the pioneer community as school, recreation, and civic center, and oftentimes as church. Here in 1853 the first Roman Catholic Mass was said, and here in 1858 met the first Common Council of the newly chartered city of Stevens Point, Mayor William Schofield presiding. — Map (db m20969) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — Jordan Dam and Power Plant |
| | About 1840, near this site, Bloomer & Harper built one of the important early sawmills in northern Wisconsin. It was long known as McGreer's Mill, named for an early owner. By 1890, over 700 million feet of lumber, much of it sawed here, was floated down river to the Wisconsin. From 1904 to 1965 the power plant, viewed across the stream and built by the Stevens Point Power Company, pioneering the water diversion principle, produced auxiliary electricity for the Stevens Point area. When the land . . . — Map (db m20745) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — Public Square |
| | The first land entry affecting Stevens Point after the Indian treaty of 1836 was made by Andrew Mullarkey in 1844. This land was purchased by Mathias Mitchell who in 1847 platted four streets and the Public Square. A Liberty Pole with homemade flag stood in the center. Here recruits for the Civil War enrolled and community celebrations took place. Since 1870 it has been used as a Farmers' Market, famous for its Old World flavor. — Map (db m20928) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — Stevens Point — Gateway to the Pineries |
| | This plaque commemorates the pioneers who established Stevens Point during the 1840’s, 50’s and 60’s. Community life centered here at the foot of Main Street where supplies were transshipped from wagon to boat for the trip north to lumber camps. Piers and booms held logs for local sawmills, and lumber rafts were outfitted for the trip down the Wisconsin. Stagecoaches stopped at nearby inns and freight wagons unloaded wares at the village stores. Here sawmill whine and scent of fresh cut pine . . . — Map (db m1038) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — The Boy with the Leaking Boot — A Tragic History |
| | One of an estimated twenty-four such statues in the world, this Boy with the Leaking Boot is thought to have been purchased in 1895 as part of an improvement project for Stevens Point's Public Square. The Boy design may have originated in Italy (or Germany, France or Belgium) in the middle to late 1800's – no one seems certain where, or when. Any knowledge of his creator is lost to history as well. But it is agreed that fifteen of the original castings still stand throughout the world, . . . — Map (db m26412) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Stevens Point — The Historic Southside Railroad Complex of Stevens Point |
| | Once the rail hub of central Wisconsin, Stevens Point’s Historic Southside Railroad Complex still contains buildings, engines and tracks that evoke the time when the railroad was the dominant means of transportation in the country. The first train chugged into Stevens Point in 1871, and since that time the railroad has played a major role in the development of the city. One of Stevens Point’s biggest employers, the railroad hired many workers to keep the steam engines and the diesel locomotives . . . — Map (db m1033) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Whiting — Whiting Village |
| | A sawmill was built here in 1852 by Luther Hanchett and Amos Courtwright. It was purchased in 1864 by Alexander and Thomas McDill who later added a grist mill. The site was occupied after 1902 by Wisconsin Graphite Company and from 1916 to 1951 by the John Strange Sulphite Mill. This vicinity, platted as McDill Village in 1873, was incorporated in 1947, honoring George A. Whiting, founder of Whiting-Plover Paper Company. — Map (db m20924) |
| Wisconsin (Portage County), Wisconsin Rapids — Wisconsin’s Greater Prairie Chicken — (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) |
| | These open grasslands in the Buena Vista Marsh, Portage County, were one of the last remaining strongholds of the Greater Prairie Chicken in Wisconsin. Once abundant in the state, this impressive bird nearly disappeared when its grassland habitat was converted to croplands, pastures and forests. Many committed individuals and organizations worked to preserve the “chicken,” purchasing nearly 15,000 acres of grasslands since 1954. Thanks to these conservation efforts, chickens can be . . . — Map (db m1151) |
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