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Finding John Willis
In early April 2012, a few days shy of the 150th anniversary, I visited the place where John Willis died. He was one of the 1,754 United States Army soldiers who died in the two-day battle near the...
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Fox Lake’s Big Band Legacy
Since 1973, jazz lovers in Fox Lake, Wis., have organized the Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee, a community-wide tribute to a local jazz legend. Berigan—born Roland Bernard Berigan in Hilbert, but raised in...
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Highway 41 Revisited
Route 66 is the mother road and mother lode of American auto travel mythology. Wisconsin is not on the fabled route that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, but we are not without a mythic highway of...
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Snapshots of Heritage
Late last year, I heard the first murmurings of a substantial dry plate glass negative collection at the Sauk Prairie Area Historical Society, the majority of which had not yet been scanned, much less...
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Christopher Sholes: Inventor of Typewriter, Keyboard Layout
By Brian D’Ambrosio In 2012, the typewriter may be an anachorism. The increasing dominance of personal computers, desktop publishing, high-quality laser technologies, and the pervasive use of web...
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Farewell To A Landmark
Building 200 in early 1945, with a giant flag on a towering flagpole in the front lot and banners marking awards for production flying nearby. As far as historical landmarks go, Building 200 is among...
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Warren Nelson is Back
I think that is it. That’s all that needs to be written for this entire blog…..Warren Nelson is back and back in a big way!!! Okay, perhaps I should explain myself a little more. Last night I ventured...
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Former Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton’s Path to Happiness
Former Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton’s path to happiness has been illuminated by physical and mental hurdles. By Brian D’Ambrosio Dare to be happy as a child. Find your passion. These are Suzy Favor...
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Wisconsin State Cow Chip Scrapbook
Since 1975, when the Sauk Prairie Jaycees recognized the twin villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac as the cow chip capital of Wisconsin, the community has annually organized the Wisconsin State...
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Joel Huntley’s Serene, Understated Redware Pottery
By Brian D’Ambrosio Potter Joel Huntley’s art is calm, serene and internalized. Working with aged redware pottery inspired by the 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century folk art traditionally produced in...
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A chicken crosses the road
Chickens in Nyanga, South Africa. Photo by Jessica Becker “In spite of my grandmother’s careful tutelage, I have long forgotten how to tat, and to that skill loss, I say good riddance. There is a...
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Doing it for the kids
Wayne Valliere, packing canoe bark out of the birch forest. Photo by Tim Frandy 2012 I am really concerned that kids are not getting useful and appropriate educations based on what we know to be useful...
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The meaning of life
“The Heart of the Matter” report riffs off recent attention given to STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math) by saying the humanities are the bloom on the stem. Photo by Jessica Becker (via...
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What high school kids want
Students in the Overture Center during High School Friday 2012. Photo by Jessica Becker “The first reason why I chose to go on this field trip was to miss school. When I got there, I discovered it was...
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Warrior in the Ring: The life of Marvin Camel, Native American world champion...
Warrior in the Ring: The life of Marvin Camel, Native American world champion boxer Brian D’Ambrosio In the Golden Age of boxing, Marvin Camel—a mixed blood from the Flathead Indian Reservation in...
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Snapshots of Heritage
Late last year, I heard the first murmurings of a substantial dry plate glass negative collection at the Sauk Prairie Area Historical Society, the majority of which had not yet been scanned, much less...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Christopher Sholes: Inventor of Typewriter, Keyboard Layout
By Brian D’Ambrosio In 2012, the typewriter may be an anachorism. The increasing dominance of personal computers, desktop publishing, high-quality laser technologies, and the pervasive use of web...
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It’s gotta be in ya to do it
Wisconsin is well-known around the nation for a proliferation of roadside art. Many of the artists were self-taught, adding to the intrigue, if you will, of farmers and tavern keepers becoming artists...
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Politics and a milkman’s masterpiece
Picture an old time hitched-horse team and driver, but in this instance the horses are a donkey and elephant and the driver is Uncle Sam. “Can anybody do a day’s work with a team like that?” ponders...
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