Local Features

There are a few animals that were probably present here but have been lost in the last hundred years or more. In this week’s Wildlife Matters , the Masked Biologist considers past records of the wolverine in Wisconsin. I guess it would be fair to say that the history of the wolverine in Wisconsin is not entirely clear. The records of reported observations or specimens seem to indicate that there were very few and infrequent wolverines present up to about 1870. According to Hartley Jackson’s

For the last two years, Mary Burns’ exhibit featuring weavings of ancestral women of Wisconsin’s 12 tribes has been traveling around the area. Thanks to a group of women from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians though, the exhibit is now being brought to life. Mackenzie Martin continues our We Live Up Here series with the story of 22 weavings and one theater performance that together are celebrating native women in Wisconsin. Mary Burns is a fiber artist in Mercer and a

Since 1933, volunteers in the Eagle River area have been getting together around this time of the year to build an ice castle. How did this tradition start, though? Gary Entz has the story as part of our weekly series A Northwoods Moment in History . On the weekend nearest to the New Year, volunteers in Eagle River gather on Silver Lake to score and cut over 2,300 blocks of ice. Each block is 12” x 10” x 20” in size and weighs roughly 60 to 70 pounds each. These blocks are subsequently hauled to

With the arrival of New Years Day comes new resolutions. Have you made yours? The Masked Biologist has, and it is the subject of this week’s Wildlife Matters . We kick off 2019 the same way we kick off most new years—with resolutions. I think it is human nature to overreach on trying to improve ourselves, especially when we take our families into consideration. Each year, some of the most common resolutions include getting exercise, quitting smoking, losing weight, and something financial

The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national effort from StoryCorps that aims to help young people—and people of all ages—to create an oral history of the United States by recording an interview with an elder. This year, as part of a partnership with WXPR, classes of freshmen at Rhinelander High School participated in the national effort for the first time. Today, we’re hearing one of our favorite interviews that came out of the project, Olivia Monk interviewing her father Jeremy Monk about

With winter officially beginning last Friday, Gary Entz tells us about winter logging this week as part of our continued series A Northwoods Moment in History. During the timber industry’s heyday of the nineteenth century, logging was a seasonal activity. Loggers would migrate to the Northwoods in the fall, cut timber through the winter months, and during the spring thaw use the flooding rivers to float the logs to market. A smaller crew would remain to work through the summer, but many loggers

Do you have a special holiday tradition that includes the outdoors? The Masked Biologist shares the history of the side hunt, and the Christmas Bird Count, in this week’s Wildlife Matters . Every family has Christmas or holiday traditions of some kind. Most traditions form around religious activities, or maybe home decorations, maybe special family get togethers or something relating to food. I can tell you my own family has traditions in every one of those areas. Natural resource activities

The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national effort from StoryCorps that aims to help young people — and people of all ages —to create an oral history of the United States by recording an interview with an elder. This year, as part of a partnership with WXPR, classes of freshmen at Rhinelander High School participated in the national effort for the first time. Today, we’re hearing one of our favorite interviews that came out of the project, Rhinelander High School freshman Sage Flory interviewing

For many children, writing a letter to Santa has always been an important part of this time of the year. Back in 1929 though, the letters reflected hardships in Rhinelander families. Gary Entz remembers those families this week as part of our continued series A Northwoods Moment in History . Thanks to Liana Teter, Brynn Teter, and Cooper Dick for reading the letters from 1929. The Great Depression began after the stock market crash of 1929, and Christmas of that year was the first of the

What is the most common species of dog used for small game hunting in Wisconsin? The Masked Biologist talks hunting dog breeds in this week’s Wildlife Matters . “What kind of dog do you have?” It’s a simple enough question, really. While it is very difficult to survey every household in America, there are estimates from groups like the ASPCA that 44% of all American households have at least one dog, and there are 78 million dogs owned in this country. Basically, 7 out of every 10 households have