Wisconsin Stories is a partnership
of the Wisconsin Historical Society
and Wisconsin Public Television.
"The Power of Water"
was made possible in part by Kohler Company
part of Wisconsin's proud heritage since 1873.
We don't have to tell you
just how important water is to Wisconsin.
It's the center of our recreation industry.
Fishing, boating, water parks.
It's the foundation of our agricultural industry.
Field crops, cranberry bogs, trout farms.
It's a key ingredient in our everyday lives.
Drinking water, Saturday night bath...
coffee. coffee.
But you might be surprised to learn
just how important water's been
in the history of Wisconsin.
In fact, Wisconsin was built by and made famous by its water.
That's the "Power of Water," tonight on Wisconsin Stories.
Funding for Wisconsin Stories is provided in part
by an advised fund of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin;
the Estate and family of Lois Backus;
the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation;
and Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson
encouraging you to support history
on Wisconsin Public Television
and to visit Wisconsin's treasured historic sites.
Billy Daniels, Jr.: The great spirit gave us three things
to the Indian.
He gave us water, tobacco and fire.
So, we take care of the three things
each time, we have ceremonies.
That's why you see me here
put tobacco down before I start talking
to give us permission
to be here.
I still use this spring for ceremony.
Before the sun comes up
I'm out here picking up water for elders.
I put 'em in quart jars
so when I go around after I'm done
then I pass it to the elders.
So, it's like a medicine to them.
It takes care of us, you know.
We can't live without water.
So, it's very precious to us.
Anybody, animals and birds, and living things--
It's really special
even to trees that's by us here.
They live on water.
The grass, it lives on water.
Mother Earth, it lives on water.
We help to take care of Mother Earth.
Her blood banks is the water, like us, we have blood banks.
That's her blood banks.
That's everything, it's life.
Will: For the original inhabitants of Wisconsin
water was life
and a means of transportation.
But when a new people came to this land
water was seen as something else, as well
a source of mechanical power.
At the Wade House
one of nine historic sites
operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society
an early example of that power
will live again
with the reconstruction of the Herrling Sawmill.
Mark Knipping: You have to remember when you look around here--
We see trees growing, certainly
but nothing of the scale or the magnitude
that these people encountered
when they arrived here in the 1850s and '60s.
You have to imagine an unbroken canopy
of heavy, heavy forest growth
trees two and three feet in diameter everywhere you look.
Betsy Wade, the wife
of the Wade House builder, Sylvanus Wade
had a comment that she could
gather in her apron all the stars she could see.
Will: What will I see here in a couple years
when the project's complete?
We hope to have a functioning sawmill
up and running for visitors to see
as an educational experience.
We have, really, a very fine collection
of historical photographs taken about 100 years ago
which detail much of this exterior landscaping
and how things worked, how things functioned.
Will: Tell me a little bit about
where the mill itself is going to be built.
Well, we're hoping
to relocate the reconstructed mill
where the original mill stood
just in this location, off here.
You can actually see the sill timbers in the water.
And there's an intact corner joint over here
and one of the 20-foot timbers running in this direction.
Robert Birmingham: In order to excavate
and find out more about the mill site
a dam was built.
And then, we pumped out all of the water
excavated through the bed of the stream.
And to our surprise
we found the entire foundation of the sawmill.
How deep did you have to go
for your excavation?
Well, the mill itself was covered by many feet
of sediment from a blow out.
That is, the dam came apart during a flood
in the early part of the century.
And that sent all kinds of rocks--
And so, the mill was buried
very much like Pompeii was buried.
Birmingham: And also, in that same area
we found pieces of the turbine, itself.
Will: So, it wouldn't have been a water wheel mill
it would've been a turbine-driven mill? Exactly.
With this kind of information
we confirmed that the mill source was a turbine.
And the kinds of fragments that we have from it
will allow us to even replicate
the kind of turbine that was at the mill.
You found a coin.
And we like this because this dates
almost exactly to when the mill began
in the early 1850s.
And this is an 1854 penny.
So, this may have been deposited
not long after the mill had been constructed.
Knipping: All of this is the bottom of the old pond
with a whole lot of silt laid on top of it.
There is a series of old concrete fence posts
that are tipped at crazy angles
over in the distance, there.
They really mark the pond edge as it appeared in 1905.
If this was 1850, basically, we'd build a big obstruction
and back up anywhere from 14 to 22 acres of water
which, historically speaking
was the size of the impoundment here.
And we'd build us a sawmill and start going with it.
Environmental concerns today, though
dictate that we do things
in an environmentally friendly manner.
And part of this means
we are not going to dam up the Mullet River.
There are two species of mussel in the river
which are not endangered
but are thought to be threatened.
We have to be cognizant
of their well being in the river at all times.
So, the plan is we're going to have two smaller ponds.
At the same time, we're going to re-route the river
around this area.
During times of high water, we will be allowed
to divert a certain small percentage of the river water
into our mill pond.
That's where you might think of the water as being stockpiled.
But the river, at all times, will run free and naturally
so that the mussels will be happy in their homes.
Will: We're here in Wisconsin.
Where else have you built mills and worked on mills?
James Kricker: New York state, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee
Florida, Michigan, that probably about does it.
What's the interest in building mills?
Why do people want that?
I think a lot of people see mills
as a real link to our industrial past.
Pretty much every small town grew up around a mill site.
That means an awful lot to a lot of people.
That really was the center of the community
because it provided a variety of functions--
grain and lumber, and such.
What kind of joints are these? Mortise and tenon.
How are you going to join the different beams together?
Most of the timbers have a tenon on one end
that fits into a mortise.
It fits into this one.
They're pegged with an oak peg.
Do you cut all these with chisels?
We have a mortise cutting machine
that does a lot of it.
A lot of it is just handwork.
A lot of the tools we use are 100, 150 years old.
Really? Yeah.
You sharpen them up
and they work as good as ever?
Oh, yeah, better.
Those tools were made when the people who bought them
were very dependent upon them for a living.
So, if you don't build a real good tool
you're not going to last very long.
These days, a lot of the tools that you find
seem to be built to be sold.
Once they're sold, they've fulfilled the purpose
and they don't really have to be used, so.
Different mills have distinct types of structures
for the purpose of the mill.
Sawmills like this are very, very heavily framed.
That structure provides both a base
for the machinery to be fastened to
so everything is connected to everything else;
and also, in the case of a sawmill
you get a fair amount of vibration, and whatnot
so just the mass of all this wood
helps to dampen things.
It's like a big Erector set
except it's big oak beams. Exactly.
Mark Knipping, who's the historian here on the site
had collected quite a bit of information about this mill
and some other local mills.
He had some ideas of the shape and size of it.
He had some photographs to work with.
Photographs were very helpful.
I spent many hours with a magnifying glass
and a little scale rule pouring over those photographs.
I'm sure Mark did, too.
Between us, we were able to come up
with a basic design for the building.
I started to fill in construction details
based on what we saw here
the archaeological evidence, plus other mills.
Knipping: I think the structure is really quite extraordinary.
My grand-dad built structures similar to this
in Sheboygan County.
He was a timber frame builder in his younger days.
And from everything I've seen, and read, and heard
the workers who are doing this
are completely faithful to that process.
The next question is, "Is it going to work?"
We have confidence that it will work.
But there is always a certain amount of trepidation.
Will: What's the most fun part of the whole process?
Kricker: I would say, probably
when we get the first log on the carriage
start the thing up and start to cut wood.
That will probably be the most exciting.
When you've got the water and blades going--
Will you be the first one to push it through?
( both laugh ) We'll see. I hope so.
That will be exciting to see.
Oh, man alive, this is great!
Congratulations!
I can't believe it.
Knipping: When things go, they really go.
I think it's quite a project.
It'll stand in comparison
with any place of similar nature.
Will: It's something to really be proud of.
It's so beautiful.
Yes.
The blade works!
I'm very happy with it.
You should be. Thanks. Thanks, Tracy.
Kmetz: It was shortly after the Civil War
in the sleepy hamlet of Waukesha
that Wisconsin's water revealed another of its powers.
What was at first claimed to be the power to heal
turned out to be nothing more than the ongoing power
of Wisconsin waters to attract visitors
for recreation and renewal.
Deborah Hankel: This is Bethesda Park, where it was first discovered
that Waukesha's waters had miraculous healing powers.
A man from New York
an Irishman named Colonel Richard Dunbar
had been suffering from incurable diabetes
and told he only a very short time to live.
He came here to see this, what was then a horse pasture
that his sister-in-law had purchased.
While he was here, he felt tired
and the diabetes was wearing him down
so he went to one of the natural springs
that flowed in the park.
He drank six tumblers of water and rested for a while.
After that, he felt like something inside of his body
was changing.
When he returned to New York, he had a relapse
of the diabetes and was quite ill.
He came back here to the spring
and began to drink again.
Soon, it was announced in the newspapers
that on August 27, 1868
Colonel Richard Dunbar had come here and been cured.
Within a very short time
people began coming from all over
to take of the waters in Waukesha.
Kmetz: Did he move here?
Hankel: Oh, yes! He moved here.
And he was quite an entrepreneur.
He did a lot of improvements to the park
put a pavilion over the spring, band shell, reading rooms
a large, beautiful Queen Anne Hotel.
There were many springs in this area
so other entrepreneurs developed similar things.
At one point, there were 50 commercial springs
that had either bottling or resorting
or some combination.
It was quite the social place to be.
You didn't just come here for a day or two
you would come to summer in Waukesha.
Kmetz: They'd just walk down here to the spring
and take some of the water?
Hankel: Yes, but you and I wouldn't reach in
to get water from the spring ourselves.
There would be a young boy employed as a dipper boy
and you'd be served your water.
Where did people come from?
People came from all over.
They came in by the trainload.
At the height of the springs era
25 trainloads a day of visitors came to Waukesha.
A day? A day.
Waukesha water was known across such a large area
and particularly the two main springs
Bethesda, of course, the original source
and White Rock, which had done
such a tremendous marketing job with its water.
There was one King of England
who would not even have his dinner
unless there was a bottle of White Rock water
on his table.
Kmetz: When we can't see a lot of the things, you know
the gazebos, or the pavilions
or even the springs, really
is there anything else that remains
maybe in terms of artifacts?
Is there evidence of the springs?
You will find Waukesha springs memorabilia
traded on the Internet.
And it carries a hefty price.
And what would this memorabilia be?
Advertising, water trays
tip trays from resorts
post cards, bottles.
Some of the bottles are very beautiful.
Some of the trademarks--
White Rock spring, the trademark psyche
on the White Rock spring bottle--
It was known all across the nation
and outside of this country.
So, many of those artifacts exist
and are highly sought after.
What do you have?
We have all sorts of wonderful things
all remnants from the springs era.
Kmetz: What a beautiful bottle. You like this?
This one caught my attention
when we were looking at the artifacts.
It had that iridescence there.
And Waukesha, Wisconsin. Right.
Bethesda natural spring water.
Here's another one, Waukesha Imperial.
And look at this.
We've got some liquid in here.
I don't think we're going to drink that!
Here's another treasure!
Look at this.
Look at the color.
Isn't this fantastic?
This would be in Waukesha?
Maybe not, look what's in the background.
Hankel: Maybe that's the King of England's friends.
But this picture is interesting
because that shows us the spring
and how the water was taken from the spring
and given to the visitors.
Is that one of those dippers
that you were talking about?
Hankel: That does look like it's some kind of a dipping device.
See the wire?
And it looks like there are glasses on there.
There appear to be other glasses along the ledge.
Kmetz: What else would say the springs--
another effect on Waukesha from the springs?
Hankel: Well, it developed our downtown
very rapidly.
Unlike most historic downtowns
where you see an old building
and slightly newer, and slightly newer
in Waukesha, you'll see a downtown
that virtually sprang up all at once
because everything happened at once.
What's happening here?
Well, this is the Waukesha Hotel
originally known as the National Hotel.
It's the last remaining springs era hotel
in our community.
How does this make you feel?
Very sad.
But the pressures
between preservation and development continue.
And often, this is the result.
This, of course, is happening at the same time
as we're recognizing the value of the springs
restoring many of our springs
and plans in place to restore many others.
Hankel: This spring house is from about 1920.
It is from the bottling era
at a time when people were more concerned
about safety of the water
and the water being protected.
Oh, wow! Isn't this great?
Oh, look at that!
This is nice.
This is going to be another spring?
Yes, this is the Sotarian Spring.
Where is this spring? It's right here.
It's under this slab? Yes, it is.
It's dark!
If you look around, what you see here
is a preservationist's dream.
Because we had heard rumors for a long time
that there was a spring
in a heart-shaped basin underneath this slab.
Kmetz: It is a heart-shaped basin.
You can see all the way to the bottom.
It's very clear.
Hankel: It's even a little deeper than it appears.
I had guys down in there standing on the floor.
They had to step on a ladder
and reach up to hand you something.
Why is it a "preservationist's dream?"
Because everything that existed is intact
except for the wrought iron fence
that surrounded the spring.
So, really, removing the concrete cap
and putting a new wrought iron fence around it
a little tuckpointing
and this spring exists as it did in 1888.
Right in there, you can see it bubbling.
Yeah, if you look through the sand.
Kmetz: This is the original Hobo Springs?
Hankel: Yes, this is the original Hobo Spring.
Actually, it's not a spring
that ever had a name of it's own.
It's called that because of the use that it had.
What was the use?
We don't really know who developed this spring.
We do know that with the train tracks nearby
that the hobos would jump the train
and come to take of clean water here.
This is what Hobo Spring looked like
when I first came to Waukesha.
It wasn't very pretty. Kind of stagnant.
A woman who lived near me came to my house
and said, "Debbie, you like that old stuff.
I have some pictures you might want to see."
Oh, look at that!
You can see the wading pool area
which we really didn't realize had existed.
So, one of the first things we needed to do
was to determine if the wading pool still existed.
Our hope was that when they had filled it in
that they were lazy
and hadn't bothered to fill it in completely.
Were they? They were very lazy.
And when we began to move the rocks in this area
underneath the first layer
the wading pool was completely intact.
How did things change after this was restored?
I find that every time I come here
there are people here touching the water
parents telling children about the springs in Waukesha
and the history.
And I think that there is a power in the water.
Water has such an important place in our lives.
And it really does touch people.
Kmetz: Our waters have served us well throughout our history.
And now we have the power to return the favor.
When a group of volunteers sought to rebuild the dam
that would provide water power for their restored grist mill
they were challenged by the Department of Natural Resources
to add a fish passageway.
But a challenge is nothing new to the friends of Beckman Mill.
Kmetz: Why are people so devoted to Beckman Mill, do you think?
Robert Fosler: Most of the people are from the area.
And if you hear the stories
most everybody's come here when they were younger
and swam in the creek and the pond.
Kmetz: When you started with Beckman Mill
how long ago was that?
About 11 years.
We restored the mill.
That was about a ten-year project.
It took two years to build the dam.
And it will take the rest of the summer
to complete the fish passageway.
When Beckman Mill was originally running
in the 19th century and 20th century
there was no fish ladder here.
Because this river
had some endangered small minnow species
the DNR came back to us
and said we had to have a fish passageway.
That was one of the requirements
to get the permit to build the dam.
So, we worked with them
and came up with a design that they would accept.
Wisconsin really didn't have a design
that they could give us.
So, we worked out a design based on some European
"rough and fishways" they call them
a natural fishway.
How does it work?
This is just a flat drawing
of the fish passageway.
The water would flow down the fishway
and create turbulence.
The fish would feel that turbulence.
They would move to this side of the dam.
Why would be attracted to the turbulence?
The movement of water
creates conditions they would feel.
And the first thing they come up to
is a riffle system that allows them to raise--
swimming up the riffle, about ten inches in height
then there'd be a pool to rest in.
The next riffle would be about a ten-inch raise.
Another pool, another riffle.
So, we have seven pools; and we have eight riffles.
So, they are like rungs on a ladder.
Bob, are we in a pool or a riffle?
We're in a pool. We're in the first pool.
This is the first riffle.
The steel panels are the level of the water.
We'd be in about two-foot of water
when they're filled.
And eventually, we'll have boulders
piled against the steel
so you won't really see the steel.
So, even though you have
a lot of concrete now, and the steel
you're really aiming to have a very natural feel
to the fish ladder.
That's what the idea of this style is
to make it look more like a little stream coming through.
You're an engineer. Retired.
Was this something new to you
a fish ladder? Oh, yeah.
Was it ever discouraging? No, no.
We knew eventually the DNR would give in.
They kept throwing things at us
and we kept coming up with answers.
So, it was getting close, but we waited them out.
Will: Sometimes, it seems like
the Department of Natural Resources
asks a lot of people.
And most of the time, it's because
they know something we don't know.
Like the fact that dams
are very bad for fish.
Mary Ellen Vollbrecht: We're on the banks of the Milwaukee River
on the east side of West Bend.
This was one of the first
significant dam removals in Wisconsin
where the dam was really the centerpiece
of the community.
And it was removed.
How many dams were there in Wisconsin?
Well, we believe
and we probably haven't counted them all
that there are more than 3,500 dams in Wisconsin
on our 44,000 miles of rivers in this state.
And a lot of them
are like this one, built in the late 1800s
and more than 100 years old.
How big was this dam?
The spillway, or where the water fell over
was 125 feet wide.
The dam extended from just beyond where we're standing
to the opposite bank
just about to the top of that embankment.
When the woolen mill was no longer using it
to generate power
the City of West Bend took over
and they were, because of the dam's age
facing the repair bill
and began to look at what their options were.
Finally, I think
after a lot of community discussion and angst
I mean, you're losing a lake--
People in Wisconsin love water--
And that's a hard thing to give up.
But while it was a hard decision
what's the center of this community today?
Where's the residential use; where's the human activity?
It's along the river.
You'll frequently see
a lot of people fishing right below a dam.
And the fish--
They're not there because they necessarily like to be there.
They're there because they can't go any further upstream.
Rivers are connected, living, dynamic systems.
The fish that are in them
used to have free range.
That's how their populations were established and sustained.
Fishing has become big business
$8 billion in Wisconsin alone in the last national survey.
The kind of sustainable fish populations that we need
to support the angling industry in this state--
We want to provide as much diversity of habitat
in our rivers that we possibly can.
The choice to remove a dam
the original decision to build one
the choice to put in a fish passage--
The best thing is
we have the ability to make those choices.
And every person who lives here
who uses these resources
has an opportunity to have a say
about what happens to the waters that we collectively own.
Kmetz: Bob, this is amazing!
It's just really incredible.
Fosler: It's looking real nice.
So, all these guys
they were moving a lot of rocks this summer.
A lot of rocks.
There's about 350 tons of rock
right in this fishway.
Now you can actually see
what the fishway is supposed to do.
You can see the pools and the riffles.
So, a fish is actually swimming right here
against the current, against the flow.
Right, right.
And they would go fast up into here
and then it has a place to rest.
That's what the pools are for?
Just a resting point.
Do you expect people to come here
to see it as an example of a fish ladder?
I think they will.
The DNR feels there'll be a lot of people come to see it
because it's the first of its kind in Wisconsin
right here, now, in operation.
As you look at it, tell me how you feel.
We're very happy with what turned out.
When you see it on a drawing
it's only in your mind.
When you see it built
you can see it's quite an attractive looking
man-made stream, really.
Are you ever going to rest? No, probably not.
I'll come out and walk around.
That's why we made these big, flat walkways
so when we get older and we need our walker
we can make it through.
So, that's how important water was
and still is to Wisconsin.
Thanks for joining us on Wisconsin Stories.
[Captioning services provided by Wisconsin Public Television.] www.wpt.org
Funding for Wisconsin Stories is provided in part
by an advised fund of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin;
the Estate and family of Lois Backus;
the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation;
and Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson
encouraging you to support history
on Wisconsin Public Television
and to visit Wisconsin's treasured historic sites.
"The Power of Water"
was made possible in part by Kohler Company
part of Wisconsin's proud heritage since 1873.