- Welcome to "In Wisconsin."
I'm Patty Loew.
This week, we head North where this newly renovated building
is a museum so unique, it's attracting visitors
from around the world.
- I've just been astounded at what has happened in Spooner.
- We tip our hat to a Wisconsin invention.
- That's really the hat that we have today
is a baseball hat with ear flaps.
- The Stormy Kromer is Northwood chic.
- I can't imagine that this hat will ever go out of style.
- And you might see those hats this weekend
at North America's largest cross country ski race.
- Go!
- Our Quest environmental reporting project
shows you how climate change could threaten the Birkebeiner.
Those reports next on "In Wisconsin."
- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by:
the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable,
and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes,
neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, we're on for you.
And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease
and dental problems of small companion animals.
- You've probably heard the line from the movie,
"Field of Dreams": "If you build it, he will come."
It's often misquoted as,
"If you build it, they will come."
Which is actually a better way
to introduce our first report.
Some enthusiastic volunteers set out to
create a place so unique, visitors would be drawn
to a tiny northern town.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Liz Koerner shows how they
floated that idea in Spooner.
(hand sander humming)
- Jamie Dunn dreamed of coming in from the cold.
- All of us have done it in our garages
in freezing cold weather.
- What they've been doing is teaching.
- You heat it up? - You can. You can warm it up.
- This gave us a lot better venue to do that in.
- Dunn and other volunteers, like Mike Johnson,
wanted a larger, warmer space to teach canoe building.
So, they spent two dirty, dusty years
renovating this building.
- This was a feed mill and it had been abandoned
and pretty much infested with the kind of critters
that hang out in abandoned feed mills.
We gutted this place.
We basically tore all of the walls and insulation out.
- We had a number of volunteers that showed up once
and realized how bad it was and didn't show up
until we were putting it all back together.
But that's all good.
- The city of Spooner, led by a local businessman Mort Dahl,
made the project possible by
buying this abandoned building and supplying materials
and some skilled labor for the renovation.
(hand sander humming)
The city invested a total of $200,000 in this project
but got much more than just a workshop.
The volunteers also created
the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum,
which boasts a small collection of antique
and contemporary wooden canoes.
Allen Craig is the curator.
- One of the really unique things about the collection
was that it was a museum ready to go, I mean, it spanned the entire timeline.
It spanned all the regional building traditions.
- Most of the boats came from Jeff and Jill Dean,
a Madison couple who had accumulated
an astonishing 27 canoes.
- A lot of different things lead to how I acquired
a total of 27 at one time.
- One of them was their lifelong love of canoeing.
- Wooden canoes are just silent, almost, in the water.
- It's just a pleasure to be on the water in a wooden canoe.
- And the grain of the wood,
the patina it gets with time,
it's just a beautiful material.
- The Dean's started their canoe collecting odyssey
in the late '70s when they documented
the construction of a birch bark canoe
for Wisconsin Trails Magazine.
The canoe was made by Madisonian Tom MacKenzie.
- And we followed the process with him
starting in the spring in northern Minnesota
when he was gathering the spruce roots from these swamps.
By the end of the summer, he had completed this canoe.
- They continued to buy wooden canoes
in part to support struggling craftsman
like those at Wisconsin's Freedom Boat Works.
But also, to collect examples of historically significant work,
boats made by well-known builders
like Vaillancourt,
Garis
and Morris.
- So, if we found one of those canoes,
we --
I in particular, I just wanted to have it.
And I think they are beautiful.
- One of the most famous and possibly the most valuable boat
in this collection was made by Rushton.
- Rushton's often referred to as
the Stradivarius of canoe builders.
So, what we're looking at it here is
a Rushton Nessmuk model canoe
that was built sometime between 1906 and 1916,
early 1917, when Rushton went out of business.
This is wood on wood
which makes it extremely difficult to build,
but also extremely light and extremely beautiful.
- A canoe made in the 1980's has an addition
that might surprise you. A sail.
The first sailing canoes were designed for an activity
that was popular around the turn of the twentieth century.
- They called them poor man's yachts; they were raced.
Families would actually hire sailors to sail their boats
and sit and watch the races much like horse racing.
- The museum also displays a few canoes
not donated by the Dean's,
including a pair of Brule River boats
used by fishing guides.
The guide used a long pole instead of a paddle
and paying customers, including President Calvin Coolidge,
cast their lines in comfort.
- They're perfectly, perfectly suitable for what they do.
- But it was the Dean's offer of their collection
that spurred the city of Spooner to support this museum.
The timing was right for the Dean's, too.
They no longer used most of the canoes and wanted to share
their beauty and history with others.
- What I was dreaming of was to find a museum
that would take them all.
And they could stay together.
I didn't want to break up my little family
around the countryside.
- The Dean's supplied so many canoes to the new museum
that they are already over capacity,
using the rafters for additional display.
The hope is to add space and more canoes over time.
And even though the museum is only open in the warmer months,
they've made a good start in returning
the city's investment, attracting more than
1,000 visitors in their first short season.
And with canoe building classes adding to their bottom line,
the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum
is a testament to a community willing to work hard
to make a dream come true.
- I've just been astounded at what has happened in Spooner.
- Every season, they'll change the display.
Next year features Sigurd Olson.
In August, they plan to raffle that canoe
they were constructing.
For more information about the museum
and its canoe building classes,
check out our website at wpt.org
and then scroll down and click on "In Wisconsin."
Our next report centers around a Northwood's fashion statement.
Call it Up North chic.
It's the Stormy Kromer hat, you know, the one with the flaps
you can pull down over your ears.
It's been keeping heads warm and turning heads
for more than 100 years.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Jo Garrett ventures north
where this unique invention has not only thrived
but survived brutal winters in Hurley.
- Yeah, it's cold.
- It must be right around zero
with a wind chill of about 20 below.
- The Northwoods hub of Hurley, Wisconsin
and its sister city of Ironwood, Michigan.
It's the kind a place where snowmobilers
gas up on Main Street.
(engines roar)
- And I can feel the wind howling up in my earflaps here.
- The kind of place that knows for cold.
And how's the Kromer doing?
- Just fine, just fine.
- The Kromer: the bulwark
against the blizzard of the winter.
It is the hat of the North, known by many names.
- Used to call it the Yooper Cap. - It was a railroad hat.
- It is also known in certain parts
as the Kromer Domer.
The official name is the Stormy Kromer blizzard cap.
Seen in stores and on heads across the North.
- I want a red one. - You want a red one?
Ah, maybe someday we will get you one. - Okay.
- The self-described biggest fan of the Kromer
is this man, Bob Jacquart, of Ironwood.
- I absolutely love this hat.
I love the hat. I wore one all my life.
This is the Kromer. Of course, you want to buy it!
I mean, you want to buy it because it's a great hat.
And of course, you've worn it for 20 years
just like I've had mine for 20 years.
- People hang on to their Kromer's.
- This is the original Kromer.
I bought it from Milbert's,
John Milbert's store in Ironwood.
- Probably 15, 20 years I've had them.
- Kromer's are part of the family.
- This is my gramps that I never knew.
And well this is uncle King.
The fun part is they went rabbit hunting
with white shirts and ties on and Kromers,
the dress of choice.
- Kromer's are part of their history.
- This is the Erspamer family.
This is Teddy who's now, I believe, 72.
They're all wearing Kromer's.
- Ted Erspam, 62 years later, still stuck on Kromers.
- We all kind of grew up with them.
I had 'em from a young kid,
went hunting, I had my Kromer.
So something my dad gave me,
so I've kind of it for years and years.
- He'll tell you that this is his family who --
- The Kromer is an old hat.
A 100-year-old hat invented in 1903
by Kaukauna native, Stormy Kromer.
His story was celebrated in a children's Golden Book.
- But right here, this says, Mr. Puffer Bill
is really George Stormy Kromer who worked
for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad in Wisconsin.
- Stormy was a railroad man who loved baseball.
Add the bitter winds of the Wisconsin winter
and the combination led to this classic creation.
- So, he had an idea to put some earflaps
on his baseball hat, basically.
And that's really the hat we have today,
a baseball hat with earflaps.
- And that elegant design has lasted for over 100 years.
Clearly, the Kromer has staying power.
- Grandpa put it on in early fall and took it off in late spring.
You know, up here, it's a nine-month hat. (laughter)
- It's the patented, pull-down, ear band system
that's the secret to the supreme comfort
of this warm companion.
For 100 years sails were steady.
A company in Milwaukee churned out Kromer's
and all was well until year 2002.
Jacquart recalls the fateful day.
- I was sitting in a coffee shop and the local dealer,
Mark, from the Hobby Wheel in Ironwood,
said to me, can you believe they quit making Kromers?
- No more Kromer's? - I don't know why.
My immediate reaction was, can you get me the phone number?
- Now, this wasn't just any old phone call
because Bob Jacquart isn't your average Kromer fan.
He's also the owner of Jacquart Fabrics,
a business in Ironwood that employs over 170 people
and has a 30-year history of making all kinds of objects,
from awnings to dog beds, out of fabric.
These people know their way around a sewing machine.
Who better to create Kromer's?
- It's just that it belong here. It's almost like it came home.
- Jacquart bought the rights to make
the Stormy Kromer blizzard cap.
The Yooper Hat is now manufactured in the U.P.,
but marketed nationwide, with great results.
Orders are pouring in.
The Kromer has been picked up by countless catalogs.
- I'd like to see one out of 10 people in the United States
know what a Kromer is. I would love that.
- And in one year, sales have tripled.
They plan a few changes, new colors for example.
But they feel it's essential to keep
the original Kromer owner in mind.
They call him, Toivo.
- We call this person the old hat wearer, a Toivo.
So, we always say, what's Toyble going to think?
What will Toivo think?
And we were worried about Toivo.
- This one was my birthday present.
Well, I got this one, maybe ten years ago.
And this one, I got last summer.
I got enough for as long as I live, now.
*
- Some objects are tied to memories, to places,
to people, to share times.
Jacquart shares a story.
- She said, when my husband, Dave, died in 1983,
his fishing buddies came by her house
three days after the funeral and asked for his red Kromer
and took it out on Isle Royal and buried it in his memory.
And because that was his favorite place to fish.
And I've got dear memories of Uncle King
and I can remember the hat hanging on the pig.
I can remember it being there
and I can remember the old black ones
in the warehouses hanging with the sawdust on them.
I see this another 100 years unless somehow modern medicine
changes the shape of the person's head (laughter),
I can't imagine that this hat will ever go out of style.
- The Stormy Kromer has been around almost as long
as the World Champion Green Bay Packers.
And there is, appropriately enough,
a green and gold Titletown Stormy Kromer
to keep Packer fans warm.
This is it.
So far, no reports of the players
sporting the Kromer Domer.
You can bet there will be a few of those hats
at North America's largest cross-country ski race this weekend.
The legendary American Birkebeiner
covers fifty kilometers.
Since the first race in 1973,
the Birky it's been shortened six times
and canceled once due to poor conditions.
This week, as part of our Quest environmental reporting project,
Finn Ryan, with the Educational Communications Board,
introduces you to a founding member
of the Birky and shows you the impact
climate change is having on this beloved ski race in Hayward.
- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Gooooooo!
- Guns go off.
Off you go.
My name is John Kotar.
I am one of the founders of the American Birkebeiner.
And I am welcoming you to our race.
Birky is now a very different thing
even than it was in the early days.
The growth of this race is almost impossible to comprehend.
The first year, there were 35 starters.
And this year, we are crossing 8,000.
It's happening. It's an event.
Far bigger than simply ski event from here to there.
I will tell you the electricity
you will feel connectedness with others.
Everybody is coming in with great excitement,
anticipation, optimism about everything.
And, you can't help but being swept in this.
You will see people ahead of you continuously, like a wall.
You look back and unbelievable, this mass,
this long snake is going as far as the eye can see.
And yeah, I know, the clock is running.
I don't loaf.
- Bananas, oranges.
- Oh, thank you.
- Bananas.
So, feed stations, oh, of course,
you always anticipating grabbing a cup, ski poles still on.
It's very clumsy. Mostly, you will spill everything.
- Get your hot wax. It's free.
- You got some fifteen there?
- I've got blue and I've got whites.
But they say the blue has been working best on the track.
- Okay. - Good luck, guys.
- Now, you aiming at those big hills and you're working hard.
And I think it's up and down emotionally.
(spectators cheering)
You may have to slow down. You may have to stop.
You are so fried, but you can barely move
and yet, you can. You find something else.
Now, you are going down.
You're descending in one beautiful hill after another.
Main Street is pulling you in.
You slug through that sugar.
It's packed with people.
- James Daggit of Minneapolis.
John Kotar of Eau Claire. - Not John Kotar!
Hey, you guys, bib 9004
is wearing one of those magic outfits.
John is only one of three people to finish
every single Birkebeiner.
- There's always something connected to the Birky.
It is so much a way of life.
Right now, it's almost unthinkable.
But, if we did lose this in a couple of decades,
the loss would be horrendous.
Cynical people might say, "Oh, come on it's just a sport."
"No skiing. Big deal. There is something else."
But it isn't just that.
It would affect the region,
the way they see this neck of the woods up here.
So, I try not to think about it all that much.
We can have the race with 3 or 4 inches with the right temperature.
When the two combine, very little snow
and higher temperature, then you really can't do it.
- The regional economic impact of the Birkebeiner
could suffer as a result of climate change.
In 2010, the Birky drew approximately 8,000 skiers,
2,000 volunteers and more than 15,000 spectators.
The race will generate $4 million
for Sawyer County this weekend.
Wisconsin Public Television, along with our partners,
have developed a website called
QuestWisconsin.org for a multimedia approach
to environmental recording.
We invite you to check it out for additional reports and research,
that's QuestWisconsin.org.
For some, warmer weather can't arrive soon enough.
Especially if you burn your own wood.
It's that time of the year when the days are getting longer.
And as the calendar pages turn, you stop and stare
to calculate if that shrinking wood pile is going to last.
Farmer, turned author, Michael Perry,
is doing just that.
He's back this week with another humorous essay
from Eau Claire county.
*
- How are you doing?
Welcome to the family woodshed.
The reason I call it the family woodshed
is because my dad helps me put in the foundation
and the stud walls, my brother, Mills, helped me
put on the siding and let's see, our friend, Carissa,
helped paint it and my neighbor, Jeremy,
helped me put the tin on the roof
and my wife and two daughters
helped put the wood in the woodshed.
(wood chunk clunks)
I have to work on my shot.
Most of all, I'm just grateful we had a roof
over our firewood this year.
This is the first year on the farm that I
didn't have to dig it out of the snow.
And we had a lot of snow this year.
It's pretty much finished, although as you can see,
we're missing the door there.
And there's no door over here either.
Although, I've got the lovely Farm and Fleet tarp
hard at work. Keeps the snow out.
I'll get those doors on maybe next year.
What happened is I ran out of friends and relatives.
(chuckles)
I think we are in pretty good shape this year.
That stuff over there. That was from the county.
The county trimmed back the road here,
and me and the Zeke Brothers got out their old buzz saw,
and we buzzed that stuff off. That was fun.
When I grew up, buzz saws were common and there are
all these old timers, and they have buzz saw stories.
And pretty much the punch line to every buzz saw story
was it went something like this.
Over here, I've got a piece of white pine.
We don't burn a lot of white pine.
It's fun to watch burn but it goes real fast.
It's kind of like burning firecrackers.
It's a quick deal.
I have had a couple of years where the calendar
and the wood pile were meeting at rather abrupt intersection.
We're at that time of year where a guy comes out
and you do this 3-D calculus where you lay
an imaginary calendar over the stack of the wood
and decide if you've got enough cubic cellulose
to make it through. I think we will be fine.
*
- Michael Perry is a regular contributor
for "In Wisconsin" and has done video essays
on his chicken shacks, snow tunnels,
even the family dump, to name a few.
If you'd like to see more of his work, just go to
our website, wpt.org and click on "In Wisconsin."
Now, here is a look at our reporters are working on
for the next edition on "In Wisconsin."
It's a phenomenon known as black ice
on Lake Mendota in Madison.
- At this time of the year, we will get a lot of inquiries.
Like, "I saw this under the ice, what's wrong?"
- What causes this ice to be so crystal clear
you can see fish swimming below the surface?
- This is "In Wisconsin" reporter, Liz Koerner.
Losing your voice could mean losing your job.
- I was really concerned that I wasn't going to be able to teach anymore.
- Therapists at the UW's Voice and Swallow Clinic
hold out hope for anyone who struggles to be heard.
- And you will feel the heat as we take you inside a raging fire.
- Get ready, it's going to flash!
- It's the stage firefighters fear most.
And we'll show you how firefighters are trained
in the heat of battle.
And a preview of our new "In Wisconsin" special
called "Our Birds."
- If we can save the bird here, we can save the bird there.
- Join us for those "In Wisconsin" reports
next Thursday at 7:30,
right here on Wisconsin Public Television.
If you are online this this week, we invite you
to take a look at our interactive blog
called the Producer's Journal.
It's updated each weekday by the people
who work in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
You will find out in advance about special projects
and the places we've been.
It's all in the Producer's Journal at wpt.org.
Just click on "In Wisconsin" and look for this picture.
Finally this week, a trip to Blue Mound State Park.
Did you know it sits on top of the tallest hill
in southern Wisconsin, measuring in at 1,716 feet?
The park is about 25 miles west of Madison.
And features a pair of observation towers
giving you views of the Wisconsin River Valley and the Baraboo Range.
It's a great place to find peace and solitude
in any season right here in Wisconsin.
*
- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by:
the people of Alliant Energy who bring safe, reliable,
and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes,
neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, we're on for you.
And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease
and dental problems of small companion animals.