Around the Corner with John McGivern

(soft chiming) We're at the top of the state on the shores of Lake Superior. This is Ashland. (plucky music) We're on Lake Superior and this is Chequamegon Bay. So usually we would meet John Gurda on his bike, not today. He's skipping stones, here on Chequamegon Bay. Hey John, good one! Thank you! Six skips. - Six, that's all. You're a good, quite a good stone-skipper. I've done 25 a time. We're in Ashland, a beautiful city. So we're on water, I'm presuming that the history of Ashland deals a lot with water. It does, John, going way way back, for the Ojibwe people who lived here first. Chequamegon Bay was a great canoe route and a great source of fish. The white settlers who displaced them looked at the same bay and they saw a great harbor, protected and deep. The problem was, they had nothing to ship. So that began the change of the mid-1850's when they were rumors of ore strikes in the hills south of here, and talk of a train to bring all that ore to the bay. So you certainly had potential here, but Ashland was founded back in 1854 on nothing but hope. And one of the founders was a guy named Martin Beaser from Buffalo, whose idol was Senator Henry Clay. He named the town Ashland after Clay's Kentucky home. Is that right? - Yup. -

John

So Ashland began to boom? Not yet, not quite yet. All those rumors were just rumors and talk of the train just disappeared. Things were so depressed that by 1863, there were only two people living in Ashland. Two? - Yup! And the county seat had to be moved up the shore to Bayfield. Finally, in the 1870s, you had large scale iron mining, beginning at the Penokee Range, about 20 miles south of town, and the first train carrying ore to market arrived here back in 1877. Then, the boom began. - Okay. And what happened was, within 15 years, Ashland had four railroad lines converging on it. They built some of the biggest ore docks in the entire world. One was 80 feet high and 1800 feet long and these trains would go out to the end of the line and just dump their cargoes into the holds of waiting ships and the tonnage they shipped was amazing. 1885, the tonnage of iron ore coming out of here was 200,000 tons. Five years later, it was two million tons. -

John

Yikes, wow. And it kept on growing. So the result was, you know, Ashland just grew like crazy. 13,000 people here by 1900 and for that reason, to this day, the high school team's still called the Oredockers. -

John

So is iron ore all that came out of this port? -

John

No, John, they shipped whatever they could sell. That included brownstone from quarries nearby that went into a lot of buildings back east and also a lot of lumber from pine forests cut nearby. At one time, there were 10 sawmills here on the lakefront and they just dumped their waste right in the water. Not a pretty sight. If you wanted to swim here, back in those days, you'd have to wade through sawdust soup. -

John

So was Ashland a wild town back then? -

John

It was, like all the lumber towns, but there was always a finer side of life. 1892, a group of Congregationalists found what they called the North Wisconsin Academy to lift the lamp of learning in the North Woods. That evolved to Northland College which has about 600 students today and one of the finest environmental liberal arts programs in the entire country. Both of my sons went to Northland. We'd come here to Lake Superior, summer vacations, camping, and they came back as college students, had a great experience. So you know this town well? Oh yeah, I do. -

John

Can we talk about how the economy of this town developed? It changed over the years, John. By 1900, the pine were pretty much gone, brownstone was no longer in fashion. Iron ore mining continued through the 1960's but that faded too. The last ore dock was torn down in 2013 and it's now a park. So today, Ashland's economy is based on tourism, some manufacturing and of course, Northland makes it a college town. And population today? About 8000. - Okay. And the location? Ashland is on the foot of Chequamegon Bay, on Lake Superior, about 60 miles east of Superior, Duluth. And since we been doing so much water, I think you should give up the bike and get a boat. Can you do that? We just got back from three days kayaking on the Apostles which was just wonderful. - See? See, I knew it was coming. Thanks, John! - See ya, John! This is the old train depot in downtown Ashland. It was built in 1889 and it was an active train depot until the 1960's and the most interesting part of this building to me is the building material. It's called brownstone. It went out of favor in the early 1900's and I don't understand why. They should bring this building material back. I think this building is gorgeous. We're on board the Kiyi, and what does this ship do? -

Researcher

Okay, this ship is a fisheries research vessel for the Great Lakes. We use what's called a Yankee, a 3/4 Yankee bottom trawl and if the trawl's a good trawl, we will catch fish. Roughly they run from this size to this size. This is the chart of the entire lake. Lake Superior's the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and we have stations all along the shoreline that we do in every spring. And when you leave port, do you stay out for extended periods? Yeah, typically two to three weeks. We only work 12 hours a day so we tie up or anchor every night. -

John

And what's your season? -

Joe

Typically middle of May to, we try to go as far into November as the weather will let us. -

Owen

This table right here is where we bring the fish after we've taken them out of the trawl. -

John

Why is it important? In the early 20th century, sea lampreys came marching upstream and invaded the Upper Great Lakes and so we saw the collapse of fisheries due to the sea lamprey just basically taking out the lake trout. Every year since 1958, we been out in Lake Superior, sampling the fish and we record all of that information for each of these trawl tows so we have the complete picture of the composition of the catch, the size of the fish and the total weight. We wanna know what they're eating, we wanna know what is available for lake trout to eat so we can better manage our fisheries on the lake. The lake was very different back in the early '60s -

John

Yeah. -

Owen

And we're back to a more normal state now. -

John

Good. -

Owen

So we look at Lake Superior as a success story. We put as much as 7000 miles a year, covered on, - Yeah, you do? -

Owen

Back and forth across the lake on these surveys, in a vessel that only goes 12 miles an hour. (laughing) If you drained Lake Superior onto the United States, the United States would be under five feet of water. It's true. Is this a big plant comparatively speaking? -

Dave

No, it's really pretty small, comparatively speaking. - It's a small one? -

Dave

This particular plant was originally constructed in 1916. -

John

Did it always burn wood? No. - No? No, they started experimenting with using wood for fuel back in 1978. There was multiple mills in this area that normally had to take their waste and take it out to a landfill to dispose of it. Loggers that bring in, when they go out and do their harvest, they bring in their waste wood and then we have two suppliers that bring in chipped railroad ties. Chipped railroad ties. - Mmhm. -

John

Yeah, and you burn that to supply energy to who? -

Dave

To the surrounding area. We run about 99.9% of the time on biomass. We've been the renewable leader for a number of years which includes our solar gardens, includes our wind resource, includes our hydro resource and the biomass resource. -

Dave

In fact, this power plant is the first investor-owned utility power plant in the nation to generate electricity using biomass. So this is a pile of not wood? -

Dave

No, it's not. That's our tire dry fuel, - What do we got? Our shredded tires. Our plant was approached by Wisconsin DNR in 2003 and we mix in a small amount so it adds a lot of heat, it helps our combustion process inside the boilers and actually helps us reduce our emissions because we get a better combustion cycle. -

John

Well there you go. It's a hotter burning, Who would know that? Yeah. - You. Our plant is capable of producing on average, about 24 to 25 megawatts per hour. On average, a typical home will use 750 kilowatts a month. A month? - A month. -

John

How long would it take to get rid of all of this wood? -

Dave

At about 5000 tons, it would disappear in probably about eight days. So see, Ashland essentials. The Ashland Essentials. This comes out of this plant. That comes out of Ashland, yes. How did this plant end up in Ashland, Wisconsin? -

Josh

Well, Larson Picture Frames started right here in Ashland in Wisconsin by a guy named Roger Larson. He started making picture frames right out of his basement and so this plant was built in 2000 by the man who purchased it from Roger named Craig Ponzio and then he sold it in about 2000 to Berkshire-Hathaway. -

John

So this is a Berkshire-Hathaway. -

Josh

This is a Berkshire-Hathaway company. We use a lot of poplar from the southeast, cherry, walnut, hard maple's coming from upper Michigan and Canada and then we get basswood from here in Wisconsin. Are these cut here on property? No, so these'll actually get boxed up in length molding and go out to our distribution network. So it's mostly the independent frame shops. You go into that frame shop and you say I like this molding, they order the molding from us and they make the picture frame out of that. This is where the knives are made, the knives that actually shape the profile. So you can see, we've got all the heads here and this is the actual shape, the top shape of a profile. So this is spinning in the machine as the wood goes through and it cuts the profile. -

John

Do they give you sharp here? -

Josh

Yes. -

John

Do you have any idea how many there are? -

Josh

I think it's six or seven thousand. -

John

Is there much competition? -

Josh

Oh there's a lot of competition. Yeah, there are a lot, -

John

But your quality is best? -

Josh

Our quality is best, yes. Quality and service. -

John

Quality and service. -

Josh

So what they're doing right here is, they're looking at every single stick before we ship it out. -

John

You're looking for defects? Yeah. That's a defect? I don't see it! Is this molding, base molding? No, that's picture frame molding also. We don't make any architectural molding here in this facility, we concentrate only on picture frame molds. These are actually done for the FBI. Wanted by the FBI. Okay, this is what I love about doing this show. I always get the best view. This time, of Ashland. This is Sue Martinsen and you are the muralist. I am one of the two muralists then. One of the two who have done all of this in Ashland. My colleague, Kelly Meredith and I have done them together for 15 years. We started 21 years ago. How many are total, in this city? -

Sue

In this city, I think 19. -

John

19, and are there plans for more? -

Sue

Oh yes. Hey guys. -

Sue

Now, I need to explain that every single person in our murals is an actual person from Ashland's history. Every building that you see, every train engine, everything that we represent, we can document through historical photographs and that does make us Wisconsin's historical mural capital. We like to call these our outdoor museums and but really, it's more than that. It's an outdoor documentation of their families and what they've done for the community. -

John

And who gives the tours? -

Sue

It's a combination and effort between the Chamber of Commerce and the Bay Area Rural Transit who owns the trolley. How long is the tour, how many do you cover? We, on a Saturday, I do two tours, well, about an hour and 15 minutes, hour and a half, depending. Okay. Now, this is the largest. You know, we don't just talk about the murals, I like to talk about the history of Ashland. When this ore dock was built, it was the largest ore dock in the world. It is painted to scale. For me, it was economic development. Improve the buildings, tell the history, develop the pride, get people to come here and take pictures and buy gas and eat and do trolley tours. - All of that. All of that. - And it's done that. And it's done that. - Yeah. If you're not painting murals, what are you doing? Sleeping. Are ya? (laughing) This is the Chequamegon Food Co-Op. It's become the hub of regional sustainability. Grow local, shop local, support local. And it really seems to be a philosophy that fits Ashland. We're on Chapel Street, it's a very popular street especially in the morning, why? Black Cat Coffee House, great coffee and right across the street, Ashland Baking Company. Come on! I'll meet you on Chapel Street. So, I'm meeting somebody who everybody in this town knows. They say he talks to everybody in town, his name is Gordy and here he comes. Hello, John. - Hello, Gordy. How are ya? - Good. Good to see ya, so this is what I heard about you, can I tell you? - Yeah. Everybody knows you. - Oh yeah. They do? - They do. Because how do they know you, Gordy? Because I'm go around town every day and do my thing. What's your thing? Walking and walking, talking. Is that right? -

Woman

Hey Gordy! Hey! What do you tell people about this town? I tell them it's great. Yeah. - It's a good community. I got that. So Main Street Ministry, Gordy Johnson Junior, ambassador for, you're an ambassador for Ashland, Wisconsin. If people are visitors, do they ask you questions about what to do and where to go? -

Gordy

They do. -

John

What do you tell them? -

Gordy

Try, I tell 'em the hot spots in town. -

John

That's a part of the ministry? -

Gordy

Yeah, that's part of what I do. Give people hope every day. So if people see you in downtown Ashland, they should stop and say hello, before you do. - Oh yeah, and they do. And they do, don't they? - They do. This is Megan McBride who is the director of planning and development for the city of Ashland. This community has the best looking trash cans I have ever seen. So they were made by the high school welding department, and then the art program as well to do unique mosaics. They designed, they constructed them. We kind of gave them our parameters and they worked with our public works departments. -

John

And there's 15 of these and they have four sides. -

Megan

Yes, and they're all unique. About half the mosaics were the high school and then we opened up to the community and had three days a week, community mosaic sessions for anyone of all skill levels. -

John

So it's not just on the garbage cans. -

Megan

Correct. -

John

There's tunnels and there's mosaics all over the place. -

Megan

Absolutely. -

John

So welcome and (speaks a foreign language)? (speaks a foreign language) (speaks a foreign language), what is that? It means welcome in Ojibwe, so we're right next to the Bad River Reservation here. -

John

And when was this done? -

Megan

2016, 2017, this is our main tunnel to connect from Main Street to the lakefront. -

John

Above us is Highway 2, right? -

Megan

Correct, yes. This is, it's a long tunnel, and there's a lot of mosaics in here. What's at the end of this? So at the end, we have our giant lake trout and sturgeon which I can't even tell you the number of man-hours that went into those. -

John

We're talking to you, not only because of the position that you hold in the city, but because we know that you graduated from Northland. -

Megan

Yeah! -

John

And if you could talk about that, That'd be great! - It would be great. It started in the early to mid 1800s, so it's been a big part of the Ashland community for a long time, takes up about 7% of the city's population in terms of student bodies. -

John

What's the main focus of study? -

Megan

It's an environmental liberal arts college. We have a lot of focus on this region so it's a very place based kind of education where it's kind of hard not to fall in love with the area once you come here. -

John

It's beautiful, isn't it? -

Megan

It is beautiful. -

John

And you couldn't see a more picturesque campus. -

Megan

Absolutely, it's gorgeous this time of year. -

John

This is not what I had imagined at all. -

Sharon

No, most people don't. -

Mike

Well, if you would've seen it five years ago, you would've seen a shack of a boathouse, sitting in the water. -

John

Is that right? -

Sharon

Most of them were, most of them were. Well you could see the lake through the floor. My uncle owned a few of the boathouses down here and then my dad. We drew it out and then we had a local carpenter hoist it up out of the water and shore it up. - The same contractor. And we had to use historic construction materials. And it maintains the original footprint. Oh it does? - Yeah. -

Mike

It's where it was. We try to respect the history of these, you know? So the outside, with the corrugated steel, looks authentic. People are often surprised when they come inside. -

Sharon

We've learned how to make everything sort of in miniature. Two sleeping lofts, and all the comforts of home. Yup, this slides out and creates a stairway up to that side. We could sleep four right now. -

Mike

Six if we had to. -

Sharon

Six if we had to, yeah. -

John

And is it weekends and all year, you can enjoy here? Yeah, because it's foam-insulated. We have a ceramic propane fireplace in the corner and that heats it up because it's a small space, very well, even in the cold nights of winter. -

Sharon

Oh it's wonderful. -

Mike

Oh and the view is wonderful, the otters were swimming out a little while ago. Got my binoculars there, people kayak up by the dock to talk to us and, Take pictures. Because we don't own the land, we just own the buildings. So the land itself is a park. -

John

Do they come up for sale much? -

John

They're at a premium, you can't build any more and so anytime any one of these is up for sale, it doesn't last long. We can maintain it and we can retain its footprint and that's it. Your responsibility. - That's it, yeah. And that's how we help to preserve a little bit of Wisconsin history. Right. (referee whistle blows) My brother Michael usually does this, just so you know, he's not here today. Well you're doing great so far. I'm taking over sports. Awesome. Let's talk girls soccer here in Ashland. How many are on your team? We have about 30 or so. The coaches at the feeder program and the directors do a great job of developing our players. When they get to me, it's really nice because they have a good foundation laid and I can just put them into place, tweak some things and continue to work on adjusting to the high school varsity level. -

John

So they did the hard work? -

Jonny

You could say, they've done a lot of it, yeah, absolutely. I heard you played. I did, I did. - You did play. I played at UW Parkside. - You did. It's a Division II school. And then played in the NPSL after that. I mean, I grew up here and played here myself, and so to come back and give back to the community that gave so much to me is a great opportunity. We pride ourselves in playing with respect for one another, for other teams, we always respect our opponents. I always tell the girls, after a win or a loss, remember what it feels like to win, remember what it feels like to lose when you go through that line. -

John

And obviously, it's paid off. We won for the third time, the Rural Mutual Banks Sportsmanship Award. One of the biggest parts of our program is being a respectful opponent. Congratulations. - Thank you. I am outside the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center and do you know why it's so big? Guess why. Because the Great Lakes are so big. Artesian well, there's four or five of these all over Ashland. BYOB, FYOB, bring your own bottle, fill your own bottle. (water splashing) (gentle music) That's the best water I've ever tasted. Is this your own? It is, yes. It's on the property and in the restaurant, we use it to make all of our iced tea, our lemonade, our soups. They'll come here and fill their water bottles up. But when you come to the restaurant and order water, you're getting our artesian well water, right from our private well. It's freezing, it's delicious. Isn't it awesome? Isn't it good water? - Yeah. This is a great building. It looks like a huge boat to me. The developer had the vision of really building a marquee building as the gateway into Ashland so we're right on US Highway 2. This is a really cool building. The concept is, you can stay, you can play and you can eat, Oh good. - In this building, it's called the Blue Wave Building, and so it's a really neat concept. People can come in, check in here at the outdoor store, go to their room, go next door, have a cocktail, grab a coffee, sit outside, watch the sunset. So it's a really, -

John

And the next morning, take off on the lake. Right, right. We rent kayaks, bicycles, paddleboards and then we also sell really high quality outdoor clothing and gear for anybody that's going to do adventures on Lake Superior or just go camping, that kind of thing. -

John

Which is right out your door. -

Katie

It is, it's right here. -

John

It's like this is what you should wear to go there. Exactly. - Is that right. -

Katie

Yup, yup, you can just sleep here when we turn the lights off. -

John

That's how it works. This is actually the start of the Book Across the Bay ski race. These are very coveted rooms, come the, like around the 14th of February, around Valentine's Day when the ski race, And then they, make their way to Washburn. Then they book across the bay to Washburn. Each room is individually decorated with a theme, kind of a North Woods theme. They all feature beautiful rain showers. This is a handicapped accessible room too, and a big part of our business is our local customers. You know, we're in Northern Wisconsin, we're open seven days a week, year round. It's called the Sandbar, breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the best place in town to watch the sunset, yes. Inside, outside dining, we even have outside fire pits as well. Our idea is common food done uncommonly well. Popover time. - This is your mom's, your mom's recipe? My mom's popover recipe, she's gonna love that you're trying this. And what a concept to have, three set businesses that could stand alone, and come under one roof and really be harmonious with each other. Yeah, yeah, it's really about outfitting folks to go out to the Apostle islands, going out with family, so yeah, you can get a little bit of everything here. There's nothing like a good popover. (gentle music) So usually if I'm standing in front of a large lake in Wisconsin, I'm standing in front of Lake Michigan. Not today, we're in Ashland. This is Lake Superior. I didn't know much about Lake Superior, now I do. I'm gonna teach you. Here it is, Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes of North America. It's also the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area and the third largest freshwater lake by volume. That's Wikipedia. Did you want to hear Mc-ipedia? Yeah. Lake Superior is big. When you call it Anglers All, that's quite encompassing, is it not? It says we have it for you, so come on in. These are walleye sized sucker minnows. I have live bait. I see that. -

Carolyn

I have night-crawlers and leeches in the refrigerator. -

John

And what will they catch? Fish. (laughing) Any kind? -

Carolyn

You never know what the fish are going to want to feed on. You don't want to eat the same thing every day. No, I don't. - Right? Neither do they. Yeah, well, interesting, yeah. -

Carolyn

We have not only Lake Superior, the Great Lakes fishing, and the small boat fishing just in the bay. We have the cold water fishery and then in the spring and in the winter and in the fall, this turns into a warm water and a cold water fishery inside Chequamegon Bay. So we have all the species in here. -

John

And you've been in this business a little while? -

Carolyn

35 years. -

John

35 years, how did you get into this business? My husband, he fell in love with the area and he was the one who taught me about fishing and the out of doors. He kind of got all of the guiding going for smallmouth and so our average fish right now is in the realm of 19 inches which is a pretty darn big smallmouth. My husband always wanted to see this fishery left better than we found it. There you go. -

Carolyn

And I'm very proud to say that that's his legacy. I found a great sweet shop in town. Gabriele's German Cookies Chocolates & Gifts. And see the witch in the window there? Yeah, this is what Gabriele says. You wanna see the real witch, come on in. Why do you have a witch up in the window? Because I can't stand out there all day long. I have to work. Sweet witch. Do you know when this building was built? Around 1894, 1895. - Wow, yeah. -

Bo

One of the originals in the city of Ashland. This concept is very original as well. Right here is Deep Water Grill, So we call that, - And this is South Shore Brewery, yes? -

Bo

The middle bar, the middle bar. Call it, okay. Because all this building has three bars and two restaurants, all attached. And this is Northern Lights, see, it's known as a cream ale. So you're a brewer, really. I am a brewer. Yeah, and where's your brewery? Well, in the main dining room, you'll see the pub side of my life over there. We do five core beers. They range in the styles from light to dark. But during the course of the year, we'll do about 23 other beers that are featured here at the restaurant for the most part, This is how it's served. Yes, it's, onto the table, you bet. -

John

So this is three storefronts that has kind of three different concepts. -

Mark

Yes, in The Alley, you get burgers, pizza, casual. The Deep Water is a little bit more formal. This is probably our biggest selling item on the menu. -

John

Whitefish. -

Mark

Absolutely, it's a very mild fish. It comes fresh, right out of Lake Superior. -

John

Seasonally, is summer-- Summer's the big tourism time for Ashland. There's so many reasons to come up North and get out of the big cities and away from the traffic. A lot of great places to see and visit in the Chequamegon Bay area. But this is, this has been known as a destination location for it. Coming up with the closing word for Ashland was easy. We sure did! This is the job you have today. Tell us why Ashland, Wisconsin is the best place in the world to live, work and play. That's easy. - Okay. Okay, we start with people. Great people here, kind, friendly, generous, good-hearted hearty people on Lake Superior, the greatest of the Great Lakes. Great recreation, city with a small-town feel. We are a recreational hub. We are a regional hub for services, we have a state-of-the-art hospital with world-class cancer treatment center, great doctors. We've got amenities such as a marina, an airport, golf course, - Five, four, Downtown theater. - Three, two, one. And there's a store, - That's it, you're done. Do you know the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior? (speaks foreign language) Do you know what it means? It means, (laughs) -

Woman

What does it mean? Oligotrophic, oh, I can't even say it. Well, you want me to say it? No, I don't want you to, If you emptied Lake Superior into, out of, over... what preposition?!? Creating this series is really a joy for us. And we wouldn't be able to do it without the generous support of our underwriters, so underwriters, thanks. Thank you. (soft music) -

Narrator

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Ernest C. & Florence M. Schocke Fund. And by the David A. & Nancy E. Putz Fund. The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, inspiring philanthropy, serving donors, and strengthening communities, now and for the future. -

Narrator

Michels Corporation, serving the energy, transportation, telecommunications and utility industries. Michels, constructing North America's infrastructure for our future. -

Narrator

We Energies Foundation and Wisconsin Public Service Foundation are proud to support public television. Together we create a brighter future for the communities we serve. ATC moves electricity from where it's generated to communities where it's needed. American Transmission Company, helping to keep the lights on, businesses running and communities strong. (lapping waves)