Garden clubs bloomed in Superior for many decades, not only beautifying the city, but affecting change. Even today, their plantings and their footprints can be found in Superior. The clubs usually consisted of a group of ladies who would get together and work on gardens in their area. It was a social outlet, where they bonded over gardening and would take care of community gardens in public places.

“It always seemed like they were doing something for someone else, for the betterment of the community,” said local historian and retired librarian Teddie Merenok.

Meronek has studied their impact on the community, which ran actively from the 1920’s through the 1990s. In this month’s episode of Archive Dive, Meronek shares the origins of the first garden club in Superior. The Superior Garden Club, later known as the Central Garden Club, was organized in 1926 by sisters Mabel Stratton and Faith Kennedy. Their passion for gardening came from their father, Robert Kelly, the manager of The Land and River Improvement Company.

It turns out, Mabel and Faith weren’t the only ones passionate about gardening. They were going to cap their enrollment at 30, but everyone in town wanted to belong to it. By 1939, Superior had the largest garden club in the state, with almost 300 people. Eventually the club would be broken down into auxiliaries, sometimes along neighborhood lines. Other garden clubs formed and would spread throughout Douglas County.

“They just loved these flowers, loved gardening and just wanted everyone to enjoy it as much as they did,” said Meronek.

Club members learned landscaping, held flower shows and events, sponsored school clubs, and were ahead of their time in promoting planting gardens that would attract bees, birds and wildlife. The clubs also kept their notebooks, addresses, newspaper clippings and pictures in scrapbooks as colorful as the gardens that they tended.

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered, email Maria Lockwood at [email protected].

“Hitch a ride” on the South Shore Railroad through Douglas County during this month’s Archive Dive podcast. Brian Paulson, local historian and member of the Old Brule Heritage Society, joins us again to explore the vanished communities that sprang up along the tracks of what was officially known as the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway in the early 1900s.

“These were not actually towns. They were not incorporated towns. They were all smaller hamlets or settlements that were located within the large town of Brule,” said Paulson. "The town of Brule at the time, the boundaries were from the Superior city limits all the way eastward to the Bayfield County line and on the north-south line, from the shores of Lake Superior to what is now Highway B. So the township of Brule at the time covered about the northern third of Douglas County and all of these settlements that we are going to be talking about were located within that expansive town of Brule.”

A number of these communities changed names multiple times, depending on who held more money or influence in the area. Hop aboard the Limited in Superior's East End with us to visit Rock Crusher, Andersonville and other communities that have been lost to time. Paulson also shares a story of the South Shore Railroad fixing up their railroad from Superior to Winneboujou in order to look good for President Calvin Coolidge, who spent time in northwest Wisconsin in 1928.

“It’s always a pleasure to share a bit of our local history with the folks,” said Paulson.

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered, email Maria Lockwood at [email protected].

Over a century ago, an arch honoring Civil War veterans stood over the intersection of Broadway Street and Tower Avenue in Superior. 

“It was like our Aerial Lift Bridge,” said local historian and retired librarian Teddie Meronek. “It was so iconic even though many people have never seen it. It’s because of the postcards that people know about it.” 

On this month’s episode of Archive Dive, Meronek shares the origin story of the 90-foot tall arch that was built in 1900 at a cost of $500. The structure that welcomed members of the Grand Army of the Republic didn’t last long, however, as it started to deteriorate from the elements and was taken down in the 1920s.

Today, there is renewed interest in bringing the arch back to Superior. 

“I hope it happens this time,” said Meronek. “I’d love to see it. I think it’s a beautiful thing.” 

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Subscribe here or visit superiortelegram.com for information on upcoming episodes.

Before U.S. Highway 2 brought visitors into Superior from the east; there was the Northern Pacific Railroad. And in the early 1900s there were many small communities along that rail line. Communities that today have almost completely disappeared.

“I don’t like to call them ghost towns,” Brian Paulson, a local historian, said. “Mostly because they weren't towns, they were settlements that were located in the large and expansive town of Brule. And in the 1900s Brule covered a huge area in Douglas County, basically the northern third of the county.” 

Paulson, a member of the Old Brule Heritage Society, explains that the logging boom brought people to the area but the railroad determined where these towns popped up. They came quickly, they served their purpose and then they were gone.

Today, the Tri County Corridor Trail follows the same route the Northern Pacific Railroad once did. On this week’s episode of Archive Dive, we travel east to Ashland along that route with Paulson who shares the stories of these vanished communities, many of which have been reclaimed by nature. 

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Subscribe here or visit superiortelegram.com for information on upcoming episodes.

Welcome to the first episode of Archive Dive by the Superior Telegram.

Each month, host and Telegram reporter Maria Lockwood dips into the archives of historic events, people and places in Superior and Douglas County with local historians.   

In our first episode, we look back at a Superior wedding that transfixed the nation. The Feb. 10, 1945 marriage of America’s Ace of Aces Maj. Richard I. Bong and his sweetheart Marge Vattendahl. 

Local historian and retired librarian Teddie Meronek guides us through how the couple met, how many eggs it took to make their 700-pound wedding cake and the tragedy that ended their marriage just 6 months after they said their vows.

New episodes of Archive Dive air monthly. Subscribe here or visit superiortelegram.com for information on upcoming episodes.

First episode slated for February 9, 2022.