1 00:00:02,536 --> 00:00:04,204 ? 2 00:00:08,642 --> 00:00:13,580 - In the 1880s, the lumber industry began to wind down, 3 00:00:13,647 --> 00:00:16,116 and Eau Claire's dream of becoming 4 00:00:16,183 --> 00:00:21,355 Wisconsin's second-largest city started to fade away. 5 00:00:21,421 --> 00:00:24,658 - In the 1880s, you can already sense 6 00:00:24,725 --> 00:00:28,862 that the timber is not going to last forever. 7 00:00:29,696 --> 00:00:31,899 People start moving out of Eau Claire. 8 00:00:31,965 --> 00:00:33,433 And so, 9 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:35,736 you get a very rapid decline 10 00:00:35,802 --> 00:00:38,272 in the population of Eau Claire. 11 00:00:38,338 --> 00:00:40,574 - Between 1885 and 1890, 12 00:00:41,241 --> 00:00:44,278 a quarter of Eau Claire's population left. 13 00:00:44,344 --> 00:00:47,181 So if you think of that in today's context, 14 00:00:47,247 --> 00:00:49,850 you'd have 15,000 people leaving Eau Claire 15 00:00:49,917 --> 00:00:51,418 in a five-year period. 16 00:00:51,485 --> 00:00:55,556 So, I mean, that would really change the nature of the town. 17 00:00:55,622 --> 00:01:00,194 - Despite the population drop, Eau Claire remained large enough 18 00:01:00,260 --> 00:01:05,065 to carry on as a regional service and retail center. 19 00:01:06,233 --> 00:01:09,736 And Eau Claire still had great railroad connections-- 20 00:01:09,803 --> 00:01:11,205 with several lines, 21 00:01:11,271 --> 00:01:14,908 and as many as 75 freight and passenger trains a day 22 00:01:14,975 --> 00:01:17,110 passing through town. 23 00:01:17,411 --> 00:01:22,082 But it wasn't enough to stop the economic decline. 24 00:01:22,382 --> 00:01:24,818 - City leadership begins to realize 25 00:01:24,885 --> 00:01:27,988 that they are going to have to diversify. 26 00:01:28,055 --> 00:01:31,458 And that means Eau Claire has to become 27 00:01:31,525 --> 00:01:35,529 more of an industrial manufacturing city. 28 00:01:36,363 --> 00:01:40,634 People don't think of anything other than that. 29 00:01:40,701 --> 00:01:42,769 - Then we slowly reinvent ourselves, 30 00:01:42,836 --> 00:01:48,509 and we reinvent ourselves with small companies, generally. 31 00:01:48,942 --> 00:01:50,544 - The rebirth began 32 00:01:50,611 --> 00:01:53,514 with the companies that Eau Claire already had: 33 00:01:53,580 --> 00:01:56,250 Like the McDonough Manufacturing Company, 34 00:01:56,316 --> 00:02:00,287 which continued to make equipment for sawmills. 35 00:02:00,354 --> 00:02:02,589 The Drummond Meat-Packing Company, 36 00:02:02,656 --> 00:02:05,425 originally started to supply the lumber camps, 37 00:02:05,492 --> 00:02:07,494 continued to expand, 38 00:02:08,228 --> 00:02:12,299 processing the livestock brought in by nearby farmers. 39 00:02:12,366 --> 00:02:14,668 The Phoenix Manufacturing Company, 40 00:02:14,735 --> 00:02:16,370 located near the confluence 41 00:02:16,436 --> 00:02:18,539 of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers, 42 00:02:18,605 --> 00:02:21,642 also made the equipment needed for sawmills, 43 00:02:21,708 --> 00:02:25,212 from the band saws to the steam engines 44 00:02:25,279 --> 00:02:28,682 and all the machinery and parts in between. 45 00:02:28,749 --> 00:02:33,854 Phoenix met great success building their own version 46 00:02:33,921 --> 00:02:35,522 of the Lombard Log Hauler, 47 00:02:35,589 --> 00:02:38,759 now noted as the first commercial vehicle 48 00:02:38,825 --> 00:02:41,762 to run on continuous tracks. 49 00:02:41,828 --> 00:02:45,999 Powered by a steam engine, and fitted with sleigh runners, 50 00:02:46,066 --> 00:02:49,269 the hauler was a kind of giant snowmobile, 51 00:02:49,336 --> 00:02:53,540 powerful enough to pull long loads of the remaining logs 52 00:02:53,607 --> 00:02:55,275 out of the forest. 53 00:02:57,144 --> 00:02:59,079 The taxpayers of Eau Claire 54 00:02:59,146 --> 00:03:01,615 subsidized some of the new industries, 55 00:03:01,682 --> 00:03:05,018 like the Eau Claire Pulp and Paper Mill, 56 00:03:05,085 --> 00:03:09,089 and a linen factory on the Eau Claire River. 57 00:03:09,156 --> 00:03:12,659 - Various other companies start to develop 58 00:03:12,726 --> 00:03:15,195 that use wood as a product. 59 00:03:15,929 --> 00:03:18,532 There's a number of box factories, 60 00:03:18,599 --> 00:03:23,804 which, prior to the cardboard age, is the way you ship things. 61 00:03:23,871 --> 00:03:26,707 - Northwestern Steel & Iron Works 62 00:03:26,773 --> 00:03:29,343 began by making cement mixers, 63 00:03:29,409 --> 00:03:32,846 and the gasoline engines to power them. 64 00:03:32,913 --> 00:03:34,715 They expanded into 65 00:03:34,982 --> 00:03:38,619 making steel molds for casting concrete pipes. 66 00:03:38,685 --> 00:03:42,256 - Ironworks that you cast concrete in, 67 00:03:43,090 --> 00:03:47,060 but they also cast concrete block, cinder block, and so, 68 00:03:47,127 --> 00:03:48,996 they made the forms to do that. 69 00:03:49,062 --> 00:03:54,168 They actually cast blocks to build their own new factory, 70 00:03:54,234 --> 00:03:56,003 and then built it with blocks they cast. 71 00:03:56,069 --> 00:03:58,305 They would make the form 72 00:03:58,705 --> 00:04:01,808 that you would then cast a funeral planter in. 73 00:04:01,875 --> 00:04:05,345 You know, so all of these sort of eccentric things. 74 00:04:05,412 --> 00:04:07,381 What do you do after the lumber industry collapses? 75 00:04:07,447 --> 00:04:08,916 Well, you do something inventive, 76 00:04:08,982 --> 00:04:11,151 and you hope that it survives. 77 00:04:11,218 --> 00:04:14,021 And maybe it branches out and makes other companies 78 00:04:14,087 --> 00:04:17,524 that then do become a big part of the economy. 79 00:04:17,591 --> 00:04:20,561 - Northwestern Steel & Iron Works branched off 80 00:04:20,627 --> 00:04:21,828 from concrete machinery 81 00:04:21,895 --> 00:04:25,199 into making pressure cookers and canners. 82 00:04:25,265 --> 00:04:29,369 They got a boost when the U.S. Department of Agriculture 83 00:04:29,436 --> 00:04:31,538 declared pressure canning 84 00:04:31,605 --> 00:04:36,176 the only safe way to preserve non-acidic foods. 85 00:04:36,243 --> 00:04:38,812 And the coming of World War I 86 00:04:39,146 --> 00:04:42,549 made preserving food a patriotic duty. 87 00:04:43,584 --> 00:04:46,720 - By the time you get to World War I, 88 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:49,489 the National Pressure Cooker Company 89 00:04:49,556 --> 00:04:53,527 is producing 80% of all pressure cookers 90 00:04:53,594 --> 00:04:55,262 sold in the world. 91 00:04:56,530 --> 00:04:58,198 - In the 1930s, 92 00:04:58,599 --> 00:05:01,602 the company designed a small pressure cooker 93 00:05:01,668 --> 00:05:03,237 with a twist-lock lid, 94 00:05:03,303 --> 00:05:05,772 sealed by a rubber gasket. 95 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:08,542 Much easier to open and close, 96 00:05:08,609 --> 00:05:10,344 it was called "Presto," 97 00:05:10,410 --> 00:05:13,547 and was the first stovetop pressure cooker 98 00:05:13,614 --> 00:05:17,084 convenient enough for everyday use. 99 00:05:17,651 --> 00:05:21,321 - A part of the diversification of the city 100 00:05:21,388 --> 00:05:23,590 dealt with getting into 101 00:05:23,657 --> 00:05:28,128 industries that are often not seen as industry. 102 00:05:28,195 --> 00:05:31,131 - The expansion of Sacred Heart Hospital, 103 00:05:31,198 --> 00:05:34,501 and the construction of Luther Hospital, 104 00:05:34,568 --> 00:05:38,472 signaled the start of a new age in medicine. 105 00:05:38,539 --> 00:05:40,641 - The other industry that's very important 106 00:05:40,707 --> 00:05:44,178 is the industry of higher education. 107 00:05:45,312 --> 00:05:50,384 - The future UW-Eau Claire opened its doors in 1916, 108 00:05:50,450 --> 00:05:54,821 the last site chosen by the state for a teachers college, 109 00:05:54,888 --> 00:05:57,558 then called a Normal School. 110 00:05:58,158 --> 00:06:01,461 - As in the case of most of these Normal Schools, 111 00:06:01,528 --> 00:06:04,565 the students were almost entirely women 112 00:06:04,631 --> 00:06:08,702 training to become teachers in one-room schools. 113 00:06:08,769 --> 00:06:10,437 But it got 114 00:06:10,904 --> 00:06:15,576 Eau Claire's foot in the door of higher education. 115 00:06:18,078 --> 00:06:19,813 - And as the automobile 116 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,850 began to replace horses on America's streets, 117 00:06:22,916 --> 00:06:26,153 a new industry began in Eau Claire. 118 00:06:26,987 --> 00:06:32,226 The Gillette Safety Tire Company chose to locate in the city, 119 00:06:32,292 --> 00:06:36,730 after a chance visit by one of the company officers. 120 00:06:36,797 --> 00:06:39,233 - And he met with the Civic Association in Eau Claire, 121 00:06:39,299 --> 00:06:41,602 and they impressed him enough with the fact 122 00:06:41,668 --> 00:06:44,338 that Eau Claire had ample and cheap electricity. 123 00:06:44,404 --> 00:06:48,075 They had a good and reliable workforce, 124 00:06:48,575 --> 00:06:53,947 and there was no other tire industry within the area. 125 00:06:54,014 --> 00:06:56,316 All I can say was just a good chance, 126 00:06:56,383 --> 00:07:00,254 good fortune on Eau Claire's part that it landed here. 127 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:04,958 - Raymond Gillette, a former sawmill manager from Michigan, 128 00:07:05,025 --> 00:07:09,630 formed the company to make a new, blowout-resistant tire. 129 00:07:09,696 --> 00:07:11,732 - His brother, Herbert, 130 00:07:11,798 --> 00:07:14,168 who was more inventive than Raymond Gillette, 131 00:07:14,234 --> 00:07:17,704 came up with an inner liner for the tire, 132 00:07:17,771 --> 00:07:22,643 and they developed it into the Gillette Safety Tire. 133 00:07:22,709 --> 00:07:28,415 - In 1917, company officers and local leaders looked on, 134 00:07:28,482 --> 00:07:29,883 as the plant manager 135 00:07:29,950 --> 00:07:33,287 ceremonially built the first tire. 136 00:07:33,987 --> 00:07:35,455 - That got Eau Claire going 137 00:07:35,522 --> 00:07:37,824 because they had a different tire. 138 00:07:37,891 --> 00:07:41,528 - Marketed with an old lumberjack expression-- 139 00:07:41,595 --> 00:07:43,497 "a bear for wear"-- 140 00:07:43,564 --> 00:07:46,934 Gillette's tires lasted longer than other tires. 141 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,636 - Which was important because in the early years, 142 00:07:49,703 --> 00:07:52,005 if you got 500 miles on a tire, 143 00:07:52,072 --> 00:07:55,642 that was starting to push the maximum. 144 00:07:56,877 --> 00:07:59,746 - The working conditions in the early Eau Claire tire plant 145 00:07:59,813 --> 00:08:03,150 and all of the tire industry, for that matter, was dirty. 146 00:08:03,217 --> 00:08:04,918 It was hard. 147 00:08:04,985 --> 00:08:06,653 It was unsafe. 148 00:08:07,087 --> 00:08:09,957 There was a lot of asbestos and dust and chemicals 149 00:08:10,023 --> 00:08:12,259 that nobody knew anything about. 150 00:08:12,326 --> 00:08:17,497 Sometimes, in the hot weather, if it was 90 degrees outside, 151 00:08:17,564 --> 00:08:21,802 it would be 110, 115 in some parts of the plant. 152 00:08:21,869 --> 00:08:24,438 There were people that were carried out and laid outside 153 00:08:24,505 --> 00:08:27,474 until they recovered and then would have to go back to work. 154 00:08:27,541 --> 00:08:30,911 It took many years for that to get better, 155 00:08:30,978 --> 00:08:33,514 but it, it eventually did. 156 00:08:33,580 --> 00:08:37,751 - As Gillette began to merge with the U.S. Rubber Company, 157 00:08:37,818 --> 00:08:41,688 it won a contract to produce Riverside brand tires 158 00:08:41,755 --> 00:08:45,926 for retailer Montgomery Ward, followed by another 159 00:08:45,993 --> 00:08:49,863 to produce Atlas tires for the Standard Oil Company. 160 00:08:49,930 --> 00:08:52,232 They also began to supply 161 00:08:52,299 --> 00:08:57,070 up to a third of the tires put on General Motors' new cars. 162 00:08:59,006 --> 00:09:00,707 The company also became 163 00:09:00,774 --> 00:09:04,945 the country's biggest producer of bicycle tires. 164 00:09:05,012 --> 00:09:08,882 - They used to advertise by comics, showing how 165 00:09:08,949 --> 00:09:13,053 their tires were so much better than everybody else's. 166 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:14,955 - During World War II, 167 00:09:15,022 --> 00:09:18,292 U.S. Rubber sold the plant to the U.S. government, 168 00:09:18,358 --> 00:09:23,163 which converted it to make 30-caliber ammunition. 169 00:09:24,731 --> 00:09:27,034 When the government sold the plant back, 170 00:09:27,100 --> 00:09:28,435 U.S. Rubber began 171 00:09:28,502 --> 00:09:33,073 a massive re-conversion and expansion project. 172 00:09:33,540 --> 00:09:36,510 And after christening the new plant, 173 00:09:36,577 --> 00:09:37,911 the company declared it to be 174 00:09:37,978 --> 00:09:41,882 "the most modern tire plant in the world." 175 00:09:42,850 --> 00:09:46,053 Now doubled in size, Eau Claire's tire plant 176 00:09:46,119 --> 00:09:49,890 was ready for a post-war boom in tire sales 177 00:09:49,957 --> 00:09:52,559 that would last for decades.