Around the Corner with John McGivern

(gentle music) I am in Dodge County just east of the Horicon Marsh in a great little community called Mayville. (upbeat music) Nobody does curlers anymore. Hi. This is Paul. You started this? -

Male

Get all the way down. Pull. A great sign tells the history of Mayville when iron was king. I don't even know why we need John Gurda this week, because if you came and read that sign that's all you would need to know. (bell ringing) Hey John I read the sign. Yes. So goodbye, thank you. Let me tell the story. Good I think you should. What is the story of Mayville? It begins pretty typically John. And then there's a twist. Back in 1845, you have a father and son named Chester and Eli May who come up the Rock River from Fort Atkinson looking for a water power safe. So they found one here, where the river make a nice drop, so they built the usual dam, opened the usual mills, and did the usual things you do to attract settlers. And that included giving away lots to anybody who wanted to build a house here. So pretty soon you have a little town called Mayville. -

John McGivern

What's the twist? Twist John, is that when they were prospecting for land around here, they found a huge deposit of reddish rock a few miles south of here that turned out to be a high grade iron ore. So they shipped a load of that down to a smelter in Indiana who turned it into a stove that was kind of a marketing tool. So word spread and pretty soon you had open pit and underground mines just south here that were a very big deal. Together they yielded more than two million tons of iron ore over the years. So it was four miles from here? Yeah. So why didn't they build the town around? Four miles from here. They did, that was called Iron Ridge. Oh okay. But it's much smaller than Mayville. And the reason that Mayville got bigger is that it had the Rock River and Iron Ridge did not. So most of the ore went down to Milwaukee and Chicago. But a lot of it came to a smelter right here on the riverbank. So you had a smelter powered by the Rock River. The product was pig iron that went into everything from railroad rails to gears. And that mill was the employer in Mayville for generations. 1910 it had roughly 500 workers, which was about half the adults in town. And Mayville was very heavily German, but the Mill also employed Serbs, and Croatians, Slovaks, and Italians, and Hungarians, who worked 12 hour days for about $0.20 an hour. So you had lots of immigrants, lots of smoke, and lots of saloons, so Mayville was kind of a little Pittsburgh. Is that right? How long did it last? By the 1920s, the mines had played out and the mill was having trouble competing with more efficient plants in other cities. So they closed it in 1928, but Mayville did a nice recovery. Across the street you have a lot of new industries moving into the old millworks. And Mayville enlarged its other role as a very heavily German trading center for a very heavily German farming region. This area was hugely German. Every school in town taught German in every grade, and you have names like Shelfefeur and Ruedebusch, and Bockhueber, still very much part of the landscape. German. Very German. What about today? They're still here. The past has a long shadow here. Mayville today is still about 70% German, which is very high. It's still quite industrial for a small town, which is kind of a legacy of the iron mill. And the well water here still has a high iron content, so that mineral is still just below the surface. Yeah, population? About 5,000. -

John McGivern

We have boundaries? -

John Gruda

The city of Mayville is a little over three square miles, pretty evenly split between the Rock River as it kind of winds its way through town. It's a lovely little historic town isn't it? It is, yup, almost Mayberry. Almost Maryberry isn't it? And is there good biking? Good biking yeah. We're right, Horicon Marsh is just to our west and great biking there. Is that where you're going? -

John Gruda

I think I am next. Might as well. -

John McGivern

Thanks John. -

John Gruda

See you John. This company is six generations old. There are two people here who are fifth generation and one that's the sixth generation. You guess. Hey kid. They were guessing you. (all laughing) (loud explosion)

John

So five generations ago, who started it? What did they want to do? Chaz Ruedebush, he came over from Germany, liked Wisconsin, bought 80 acres and originally it all opened for the iron ore mines in Mayville. And that business somewhat disappeared when they discovered the Mesabi Range and the iron ore industry disappeared from Mayville. Fortunately there were many other uses for limestone. We've got construction stone. -

John McGivern

So all of that will turn into a parking lot. -

Tony

Right. There's egglime. This is finely crushed limestone for farmers. What's that going to do in the farm fields? That is going to raise the pH of the soil. And then that's all state spec material going to road jobs. -

John McGivern

So this will turn into the roads that we drive on in our state of Wisconsin? -

Tony

It's the base course for the roads, right. -

John McGivern

So it was 80 acres that your ancestors had, is it still 80 acres for you guys? -

Tony

Oh no, no. -

John McGivern

What do you have? -

Tony

Overall, we have 635. -

John McGivern

635, and will you ever run out of rock? Some day. We've done some core sampling on our floor here and there's about another 20 feet of limestone deep. But it becomes incredibly hard. It's not easy work, but we celebrated our 125th in 2000 so we're 142 years old. That's remarkable, isn't it? It is. -

Tom

The operator can actually stand. This is a lawn mower line that we have state powered equipment, which has been in business since 1983. Is this a huge part of Metalcraft? This represents about three quarters of our business, but we make all the metal parts for the lawn mower business as well. So our original business started in 1920s as Peerless Luggage Group. And I don't know how we went from luggage to sheet metal fabrication, but we did somehow. We supply several different industries, construction, military, agricultural, and lawn and garden. We make somewhere around 150 lawn mowers everyday. -

John

What's the tank business? -

Tom

Well several years ago, we decided to get into the business of making tanks. And I'm not talking about fuel tanks in cars. These are like 1,000 gallon tanks. We have a unique operation where we test our tanks with helium rather than dunking them in water. The tank is still full of helium. This is right now? This is right now, yes. And what the operator will do, is he takes a wand and that sniffing wand will sense if there's any leakage of helium. It'll turn red? The tank never leaves this facility if it has a leak. We put it in three years ago. We have not had one tank returned in three years. We pride on being the leader in technology. What is out there today is that you can do the job better. We're always hiring both places. All total employees, 730 that we have. -

John

That's great. -

Tom

Yeah it is. -

John

I also love that fact that you mentioned women make up a large percentage of your workforce. -

Tom

30% of our workforce is women and you'll see quite a few of them are very, very high skilled. -

John

Local people know what MEC is. It's Mayville Engineering Company. -

Eric

Correct. -

John

What is this company known for? So we're a contract manufacture, supporting multiple OEM, large OEM customers, John Deer, Osh Kosh Corporation, Mercury Marine, Harley Davidson. Primarily we're going to do all the exterior sheet metal of their vehicles. So what it was founded on was our shot gun shell reloaders. You want to bring the handle all the way down. -

John

So when you're talking about a reloader, they're reloading what? -

Eric

Shot shells. -

John

Shot shells. -

Eric

So once you go out to the range and you fire that round. So you heard the shot going, correct? -

John

I sure did. -

Eric

Our product basically refills that shell so you can do it over, over and over again. -

John

Done, I just made that. -

Eric

You did. You can do about 125 rounds on this machine per hour. -

John

Oh that's good. This is our 9000E automate, which is ran with electric push buttons. -

John

And how many can they make on this. -

Shawn

You're looking at about 425 rounds an hour. -

John

Oh is that right? And these shells are used for what? Everything, so target, you can load up for hunting. So we do non-toxic reloading as well. And then a lot of it is meant for target shooting. -

John

Target shooting? I am making an Automate. -

John

I love that fact that it is employee owned. -

Shawn

There's 2,000 employees throughout our corporation, 650 right here in Mayville, Wisconsin. And every employee is an owner of the company. -

John

Shotshell assembly P.R.I.D.E? -

Shawn

Personal Responsibility In Daily Excellence. -

John

Oh there we go. As an employee owned business, everyone has their hand in the business so we take pride in what we do. Can we put this one on. Let's see, that's so perfect. Send that to a customer in Wisconsin okay? I'm going to keep that. John you got to be my partner. -

John

It's not fit for life. It's not fit for him. It's not fit for, it's fit for you. Inch forward. -

John

Which really is the point isn't it? -

Susan

Go to your stations. I'm about people moving better and feeling better and enjoying their bodies and being able to enjoy life. Yup like this. -

John

How many days a week do you do this? -

Susan

Backyard bootcamp is just held on Tuesdays, because I need the other nights to train clients. Keep looking straight ahead. I've been teaching classes for about 12 years and personal training for 12 years. Oh good. Five years as a corrective excersie specialist. And what is that exactly? What is that? I correct muscle imbalances. Everybody has muscle imbalances, you know like tight calves, like internally rotated shoulders that cause neck and back pain. You wanna try it? And they improve their movement and they become more active. Where do these people come from? From Mayville exclusively? Surrounding areas, like Horicon, Juno, Iron Ridge. It's one night a week, so you know, if they like it they can drive one night a week. If you take care of your body you're just going to have a better life. It's not about just getting thinner and all that, it's about getting stronger and healthier. I am most excited when people come to me and they say, 'I'm standing up taller, I have better posture, I'm stronger, I feel energized.' That's really what I care about, that's what I'm passionate about, is that kind of thing. You know, strong is the new skinny and who cares about skinny anyway. That's so great. Did you just make that up? I did. That is the old Beaumont Hotel, built in 1896, it's now called the Autobahn Inn. It was restored in 2014. There's a great restaurant in there called NOLA North Grill. Guess who stayed here, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, this is the crown jewel of downtown Mayville. It's a gorgeous place. I want to take a walk around. -

Patty

Yeah, natural soaps, essential oils, cleaning supplies, shampoos, any natural medicine. I would say that's the hugest seller. Wonderful tea section, some are medicinal teas for different things. I've been in the natural health industry for a long time. And did you think Mayville was a great place to open up a store? I did because I had a family here, my children, and this is where I wanted to be. This is the natural medicine section, my specialty is in natural medicine, but we have natural food items, produce, meat. Earl grabs produce and meats and bread and stuff right out of there when he's cooking. -

John

Smells good. And is it all organic stuff? Yeah. -

John

What is this? -

Earl

This is the beet salad. So beets are great, they also help cleanse your liver. We actually compost all of our waste here. After three years we got enough compost, so I built this little garden for us. -

John

You have seating for how many? Probably about 35, 40. -

John

Can you talk about having a business in downtown Mayville? Well I think we all try to stick together. People always say oh, we're competition, I don't think there's any competition in a small town. We all have our roles, we all do the best we can, we're all having fun doing what we love in life and that's what we do. -

John

Are summers busier? -

Patty

Summer is busier with tourists, but it seems like the rest of the time is more busy with all our wonderful locals that support us. -

John

And you wouldn't be open if it weren't for them? No, of course not. -

John

Lets talk about this concept and when did it open? Yeah, we opened a little over two years ago. We're a non-profit coffee house, we provide free life skills development and mentorship programs to the community. We started out with our family nights and we have sometimes up to 40 families that come in here. And we provide free activities, crafts. -

John

I love that there's something going on today. -

Amber

Yup, we're doing our ladies fashion night. Age appropriate skincare, hair hygiene. We're constantly adding things, we probably have 10 to 20 programs a month. Healthy eating on a budget, discipline and how to address those things. Physical movement, how to keep your kids physically active even in winter. Now we're providing teen spotlight night every month, which is our open mic for youth to come in and just play their music. And then we stay open until midnight, which not a lot around here is open until that late. We wanted it to be a place for community, anybody, to come and grow and be the best version of themselves. So why not do that in a coffee shop? And so our coffee house, the profits, help pay for those programs that we provide for the local community. So we're trying to be self-sustaining as well. So people come here for Luna coffee, we've had people say that it is the best coffee they've ever tasted. -

John

What is this, the family room? Yes, this is our family room. Hey kid. This is our safe place for kids and families to come and play. We wanted to have a place that was family friendly, not just a coffee shop where you come and sit. But this has become the hub and I just see the value in it. Why do life by yourself, right? We're in downtown Mayville, you know what it feels like to me? It feels like Mayberry, it really does. People of my generation will be like, oh my Lord, this town looks just like it. And you know why it feels like it? Take a look, Birdy! Hi John. Where do you go with this? Parades and car shows. '62 Ford Galaxy. Eight years ago my son and I put it together and made it a squad car. And we have a lot of fun. I have the North Carolina license plate in front, I got a Mt. Pilot Ford dealer sticker on the back, we got the old Motorola two-way radio with aerial, the power unit in the trunk. Does it all work? Lights and aerial work. Have you used the lights? In a parade I'm sure. In a parade. -

John

You haven't been out there on your own just stopping people? No, I'm retired. I've always wanted to do this. Wait, hold on. (siren) Did you see when these building were built in downtown Mayville? Yeah '97, '96, '89, '91, and not 19, 1897. Yeah, 1857 until 1981 this was a school and the first teacher in that school, his name was Foster, hence Foster Park, in the center of Mayville. Limestone school, how great is that? Now it's a museum. We are on the historical block. It looks like a half a block to me, just so you know. -

Bill

Well, it's a small half block. What's on this half block? Well we have the Hollenstein Wagon and Carriage Factory and the house. -

John

And this one's known as what? This is known as the Mayville Historical Society and the ground floor here is where our better exhibits are. In those days rail was huge, here's the Mayville railyards, 18 track across. This shows you more the pioneer time, 1885. Here was the gristmill, here was the sawmill, the two main reasons why pioneers came here. These are the carriages that were built here, right? This is like the Cadillac of it's day, it's gotta be. Sure it was. Because it comes with fur. It's buffalo. -

John

It's buffalo? Sure, because that's what was here. -

John

Who comes here? Is it open to the public? -

Bill

It's a mixed audience, we have a lot of people that come here locally, we have people from surrounding communities come here. And it's worth a trip to Mayville alone, isn't it? Alone, alone. -

John

You graduated from this high school? I did graduate from here in 2008. One, two, ready go. -

John

How long have you been doing this? I'm actually starting my second year. -

John

Is it teaching choir? Are you a teacher as well? -

John Dobbratz

I'm a choral director, I teach choir, I get to teach four choirs throughout the day and then I have extracurricular choirs as well. I have a show choir and then a competitive acapella group as well. -

John

How many in show choir? About 40, but we're different, we're Mayville, we do musical theater style show choir, we tell a story, and that's what we're always about. -

John McGirven

Population of this school is how many? -

John Dobbratz

We're just under 400. -

John McGirven

They do a musical here at school every year? -

John Dobbratz

We do a musical every year. -

John McGirven

And are you involved with that? -

John Dobbratz

I am in charge of the musical. -

John McGirven

Oh, you are. And I heard that you're school is getting a new auditorium, is that right? -

John Dobbratz

The space itself isn't going to change, but hopefully they're going to update everything and make it work a little bit better. It's a really unique space as you can see, it's not your typical theater. -

John McGirven

Which is cool. -

John Dobbratz

I have athletes that are choir kids, I have academic decathlon people, most of my kids finish in the top of their class and they're honor roll students as well, they're the busiest people in the school and I still steal them for about six months of the year doing really intense stuff. Michael, it's a cardinal, which means we are in where? -

Michael

Mayville. We're talking golf, and it's a really good program. In the conference they're in in Mayville, they don't have a girls conference, so they allow girls to play on the boys side and they've had a girl here in Mayville play four years of varsity golf. She played varsity since her freshman year, which is remarkable. And probably the only time in the state of Wisconsin a girl has gotten recognized in all conference, in a boys league. -

John

Ever, that's good. -

Michael

Yeah, the whole team itself has been run by a coach who has been around Mayville for his whole life. Grew up here, went to high school here, and for half his life he has coached, a number of sports, but he loves golf. Is golf a big program around the state? It is and it's growing in a lot of different communities. Here in Mayville 17 kids last year, three girls, 14 boys, and in a really good conference. As long as Stu Struke has been the head coach here, which is 25 years, they have not been under fourth. There's more than four teams, right? There are more than four teams. Is this where they practice? This is their home course, the Mayville Golf Club. My favorite part of golf. Which is? Carts. You like the carts? Love the carts? You like to polka? Mayville is the town for you. That is called the Mayville Park Pavilion and every February through June, on Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm, polka dances for people of all ages. I am so sad right now that it's Tuesday in July, because if it was Saturday in March, that's right, I'd be polkaing. Mayville American Legion Hall, there's probably over 100 people in here right now. -

John

They came early to eat. That's lemon strawberry. This is the chicken breast. -

John

How much is a sandwich? $3 -

John

$3 for a sandwich? How much for chips? $0.50 This is a deal. Oh yeah, this is the American Legion, we try to make everybody happy. 5.00 you start serving and 6.30 is bingo. Okay, are we ready to play bingo? These bingo players that you see around here, they're hard-nosed bingo players. Are these all yours? Oh you share them. How long has this been going on? O 66 We are at 15 years. -

John

Every other Thursday? -

Ron

Every first, third and fifth Thursday if there is one. 26 Bingos basically. -

John

How great is that? We make a lot of money, we contribute to all the community projects, the golf outings that they have in the community. It's wonderful, it keeps us going. Do you win here much? No, but I'd like to. -

John

You know a lot of people that show up? -

Ron

Oh yeah, it's like a family. Do you have to be a veteran to come in here? To be in the Legion, yes. You do, but not to come here for bingo? No, any player can play. How much is this game worth? $75. -

Ron

There's 20 games and we have one progressive-- -

John

Where is it today? Probably around $2,100. I'm your lucky charm. I'll be rubbing your head. Will you? I'll chase you down and rub your head. -

John

What's his name? -

Amber

This is Mr Orchard Street. Mr Orchard Street? Yes. Do you think he knows he's going to go out? Yes he does, he has his harness on, he has all his racing gear on, this is what he's going to wear when he goes to the races. -

John

Do you think he gets excited? Do you think he gets nervous? -

Amber

He's done this over 300 times. -

John

Are you the driver, is that what you're called? -

Amber

I am one of the only female drivers in the state of Wisconsin. -

John

You are? -

Amber

Mmh-hmm. -

John

I don't even know the sport of harness racing, can we talk about that? -

Amber

Yeah, what we do with harness racing is, this is a special breed of horses, called a standard bred, and they're actually bred to pull carts behind them. So it's about a mile race and we race on the weekend. Is it a popular sport in our state of Wisconsin? It's not as popular as it used to be, harness racing used to be a lot more popular, it was every weekend that there was a fair somewhere in the state of Wisconsin, now it's about two or three weekends a month. We start in mid-June and we go through mid-September. Are you ready? -

John

Do you go outside the state to do it? -

Amber

We do a little bit. Do you have a seatbelt? What state is really big in harness racing? -

Amber

New York, New Jersey, Ohio, there's a track in Minnesota now, Maine. -

John

And those are betting tracks? -

Amber

Those are betting tracks. -

John

But what you do is fair-- -

Amber

We're just for fun. We're all about the fairs and having a good time. -

John

Did your dad do this? -

Amber

Mm-hmm my dad bought his first horse in 1967, when he was 12 years old, and 2017 marks the 50th anniversary that he has been racing harness horses. -

John

That's so great. We're at the Mayville Gun Club, this is Tim Mader, how are you? Very well. Good to see you. So why are we here with you? Because I'm going to explain to you our Flyway Clay Slayers. -

John

And what is that? We are a youth shooting team, that is a combination between Lomira and Mayville, we start our kids out at ten years old and we go up to college. This is called double strap and we shoot competitively. -

John

Do you compete against other schools? -

Tim

Yes, we have a conference and then we also have what's called the Scholastic Clay Target Program, where we travel to different clubs and to different states and compete. So what's the first thing? Safety, safety glasses and ear plugs. How many kids are involved? Right now we have 63. I'm going home. -

Tim

And we'll probably end up at 100 very soon. Competitive youth shooting sports is the fastest growing sport in the United States, besides football. -

John

That's amazing, I had no idea. -

Tim

Yeah, anybody can shoot, you don't have to be the biggest, the fastest, the best, the smartest, if you can shoot targets you can be on our team. -

John

I love that there's a whole different way to say 'Pull'. And it's all good. It's all good. You guys, you're good. So I get to take this home? Absolutely, and you can come back every Monday and shoot. I gotta try that one more time. You got excited on that one. How could you tell? You know what I miss? I miss Downton Abbey. I was so reminded of it today, look, Kora, Edith, Sybil, and Mary. Where would someone go in this? -

Jennifer

Wedding, a '20s themed wedding. -

John

Who comes into the shop? -

Jennifer

People generally find me by accident at this point, they're not expecting to find a vintage shop in little Mayville. Is this yours? No, that's an authentic, vintage, '60s cocktail dress. I did custom sewing and alterations for 13 years and then when I closed that business I opened Sweet Ginger. -

John

It's great stuff. -

Jennifer

It is, it's so much fun. -

John

Where do you find this stuff? Auctions, estate sales, people bring me stuff if they know I'm here. I love your bustier. -

Jennifer

Yes, my corsets, that was something I decided I wanted to teach myself how to do. A lot of times with vintage clothing it's not gonna look right on you if you're not wearing the right under garments. This is a dress that I made from an authentic 1959 pattern that I found, it's a simplicity pattern. So I wanted to recreate it and bring it to life. Does anybody ever come in and say this is what I need, I can't find it, would you build it for me? -

Jennifer

Special cases right now. Right now what I'm concentrating on is making things that if you like it, you can buy it. So you're creating this and it'll hang for somebody to walk in and say it's mine. Do you walk in, see it, and pray that it's not going to be too small or too big? Yes. Those who wonder if small hardworking American towns still exist, I found it, Mayville. We're on Main Street in Mayville, Wisconsin, with the Mayor. You have 30 seconds to tell us why Mayville is the best place in the world to live, work and play. And Mayor Boelk, you can start now. Alright, we have more recreation opportunities here in Mayville, we have canoeing, boating walking, hiking. We also have great public safety. We also have our own golf course, we have our own fitness and aquatic center. We also have great people that live here in the city of Mayville, great place to raise a family, along with our public school system. And we have employment opportunities along with... Bye. Check our city website www.mayvillecity.com That's it, Mayor. All together. So this guy is three? Is he good? No. He's not good? He's not. You know, we sure love Mayville, and this would not be possible without the generous support of the following underwriters. Thanks underwriters. -

Female Narrator

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

Male Narrator

What Goodwill can do with your donations is pretty amazing. -

Female Narrator

And by... -

Male Narrator

The WeEnergies Foundation is proud to support Milwaukee PBS. Together we create a brighter future for the communities we serve.