Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 - John McGivern: I am in a city in Wisconsin that is surrounded by water, and it's a hub for shipbuilding on the Great Lakes.[bright music] - Announcer: We thank the underwriters of  John McGivern's Main Streets because without them, we couldn't make this show.- There's no place like Oconomowoc.Explore, play, shop, stay.Visit Oconomowoc!- Your community's best selfie spot is Your-Type!  - You'll find your bright spot in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.- My father taught me that to make great bakery, you have to do it the right way.O&H Danish Bakery, where kringle traditions begin.- Yes, Greendale is beautiful on the outside, but it's what's inside that counts.Who doesn't love opening a door to their happy place, whether it's indulging your sweet tooth, winding down, or exploring your creative side?Come on in!You just gotta see Greendale!- The Wisconsin Northwoods are calling.One word, one place.Minocqua.- Announcer:  John McGivern's Main Streets  is grateful for additional financial support from Horicon Bank: the Natural Choice, West Bend Insurance Company: the silver lining, our nonprofit, the Friends of Main Streets, and from the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.Thanks, underwriters! 'Cause these are our Main Streets   Something 'bout a hometown speaks to me   There's nowhere else I'd rather be   The heart and soul of community's right here   On these Main Streets  - John: I'm in Sturgeon Bay, and with a population of just under 10,000 people, it is the largest community in Wisconsin's Door County.This city on the east side of Wisconsin is about three hours north of Milwaukee, right in the middle of Door Peninsula, and it's surrounded by water.It's split in two by a bay of the same name, Sturgeon Bay, and you have Lake Michigan on the east and the bay of Green Bay on the west.Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.The city of Sturgeon Bay is on both sides of the bay, right, Emmy?- Emmy Fink: It is; so first, what was established was the community of Graham, on the east side of the bay.That was in the 1850s, and settlers came from Europe, Scandinavia, but it officially became Sturgeon Bay in 1883.- How did the other side of town come about?- Emmy: So that area was known as Sawyer.- John: Okay.- Emmy: And the only way to get there was on a toll bridge, which was also a railroad.Well, in time, the friends on both sides of the bay decided to just merge together, but they liked that Sturgeon Bay name, so they kept that.- Really a beautiful area, but the problem: hard access to Lake Michigan.- It's hard to imagine, but the bay did not go through to Lake Michigan, so, just think, these ships had to make this dangerous journey up through the top of the peninsula and back down, which that area is known as Death's Door.- Had you heard of Death's Door before?- Only because they're a distilling company, but, you know, you do a little history, and... - You know.- Now I know, but, yeah, then the canal was built.They brought it over to Lake Michigan, and it really put Sturgeon Bay on the map.- John: And just look around.You can tell that it's still a working waterway.- Emmy: Absolutely.It's all maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, and there is such a story here, such a legacy behind shipbuilding, and they are so proud of that shipbuilding legacy on the Great Lakes.- So much to learn.- It's beautiful.- John: Let's learn more, Emmy, okay?- Emmy: Okay.- John: We couldn't come to Sturgeon Bay without talking about shipbuilding.- Justin Slater: Fincantieri Bay shipbuilding.- John: Fincantieri is what I heard.- Is that it?- Yes, sir.- John: Where are we going first?- Justin: Today, we're gonna go up to the top of our large gantry crane.We call it Big Blue.- John: Why do you call it that?'Cause it's blue, right?- Justin: It's big and blue.And it's used in the process of building the ships here and supporting our repair process.- Oh, hello!- So.- You have a graving dock.You also have a floating dock, you told me.- Justin: Yeah, so-- - John: And the floating dock, what's the difference?- Justin: So a graving dock is built below the surface of the water.The floating dry dock is filled with water, sinks, and then pumped out.- Can we talk history about this place?- Justin: Bay Shipbuilding started life in 1902 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.- John: Okay.- Justin: In 1968, the ships were getting too big for the river that they were on, so they moved the shipbuilding facility up here to Sturgeon Bay, and then in 2008, Fincantieri purchased Bay Ship, Marinette Marine, and a couple of repair yards and formed the Fincantieri Marine Group in the United States.- John: Can I get on a ship?- Justin: Certainly.We're able to go on the  Herbert Jackson  today.- John: What's the Herbert Jackson  do?- Justin: So it is a bulk carrier.It operates here on the Great Lakes.It came in for some repairs.- Man: We made it.- John: Wow, this thing's huge.What does this carry?- Man: This carries mainly iron ore. - John: How many people work on this thing?- Man: Twenty-five.- John: Twenty-five.- Man: Thirty.There's Cole.- John: Hey, my name's John.- Cole: Cole.- John: Good to meet you.- Cole: Likewise.I'm the officer in charge of the navigational watch.That's my official title.- That's your chair right there?- Yep.- Where do you nap?How are you?I'm John, good to meet you.- Nice to meet you.- You're the captain?How long you been captaining?- Three weeks.- Three, what?- Three weeks ago.- What the-- - What's going on here?- Man: I know, John.- John: It's a good gig, huh?- Cole: It is, great gig.- John: Thanks for talking to me, you guys.- Captain: Thank you.- John: Have a good season.- Captain: Thank you.- John: Thank you.- Emmy: Have you noticed a theme around town?Nope, they're not sturgeon; they're bass.Bass around the bay.There are 27 of these fish all around town.If you would like to lure one in yourself, go on the online auction.It actually benefits the local art programs.- People in Sturgeon Bay are committed to being awake.There are three coffee shops on this block alone.It's called Little Seattle.To Little Seattle here in Sturgeon Bay.- John: So Waterfront Mary is who?- Patti Hanson: Our daughter.- Your daughter?- Our youngest daughter, we named it after her.- Was she like, "Well, thank you?"Let's talk about what goes on here.- Jon Hanson: We have a restaurant, full menu, plus we do a fish boil six nights a week.- Six nights a week.- Yes.- John: You couldn't have a more beautiful spot.When did you take this place?- Jon: We bought it in 1992, and we opened it about six, seven months afterwards.- Patti: We picked Sturgeon Bay for obvious reasons, and we've never left.- Jon: 'Cause it's such a fantastic place to live.- John: We're here for a fish boil, just so you know.- Emmy:  Yes, we are. - John: We're very excited.So let's talk process.What's gonna happen?We have a big pot of boiling water.- Mike Jensen: Yes, sir.So what I'll do is I will go grab the potatoes and carrots.- John: Okay.- Mike: Drop 'em in there, put one pound of sea salt in it, let it cook for 10 minutes.- John: What kind of potatoes are they?- Mike: Baby reds.- John: Baby reds.- Mike: Yep.- And why don't you put the onions in now, too?- Those will be coming in about three minutes.Onion in for another 10 minutes.- I feel like we're doing Survivor  or something.- Mike: Yeah, kind of.- And you can tell it looks good?- Yeah, it's looking great.Everything's moving around, water's good.- Here goes the cod.- Here it goes.- You're the cod people.- We are the cod people.- Do they do cod at other places?- No, we are the only ones in Door County that actually do cod.That'll go in for 10 minutes.Let her cook for a little bit.I'll ring a bell, and then the show goes on.[bell ringing] Come on down for the fish boil!Welcome to Waterfront Mary's, folks.I'm Mike, I'll be your boil master tonight.How is everyone?- John: And what do you then throw on to flame it?- Mike: Kerosene.- John: Kerosene.- Mike: Two, three.[fire whooshes] [cheering and applause] - John: So then that's all served on one platter?- Mike: A plate will come out with potatoes, carrots, onions.- John: Okay.- Mike: Marble rye bread, lemon, melted butter.- John: Uh-huh.- Mike: And then when you're done with that, then we'll bring you out the Door County cherry pie a la mode.- There you go.- Hey, guys.- Wow!- We're very excited.- Emmy: It looks fantastic.Mmm, poor man's lobster.- Poor man's lobster.- Emmy: I love the idea of cod, and I love that this is the only place that they do it.This is delicious!Mike did a great job.- John: Emmy's packing it on.Are there seconds?[Emmy and John laughing] There are three lighthouses in Sturgeon Bay.Two can be seen from the north entrance to the canal.This one right here is like the postcard of Sturgeon Bay.It is the North Pierhead Light, and it's one of the most photographed things in all of Door County.That is the Canal Station Lighthouse, so different than its neighbor.This is what I really think of when I think of a lighthouse, and the third one's on the opposite end of the peninsula, the entrance to Sturgeon Bay.It's called the Sherwood Point Lighthouse.So Sherwood and Canal are only open one time a year.That's during the annual Lighthouse Walk.It happens in June, but you can't get in that house.Why?Because that's a private house.Somebody bought that lighthouse at an auction for $44,000.I paid more for my Volkswagen!I did.There is a whole lot of history right here on the waterfront in Sturgeon Bay.- There is.So we're at the Door County Maritime Museum.Ten floors to explore, and I'm telling you, I don't think I've ever seen a vertical museum.- John: Vertical, yeah.- Emmy: I mean, every floor is gonna be a new story.- John: Okay, I'll start at the tenth floor.I will do all of the even floors.You will do the odd floors.- But why?You're the odd one.I'll take even.- No, no, no, I'll do the even.She just called me odd.No, come on, come on.- Kevin Osgood: This is the highest indoor observation point in all of Door County.- John: Floor 10, and if you were to say this is what floor 10's about, what would you say?- Kevin: The working waterfront of Sturgeon Bay.You see it moving, you see the ships, you see the pleasure craft, you see the hotels, everything.You start at the top, and then you start to descend back through history and learn how we got where we are today.- Here we go.- Absolutely.Where it all started.- Kevin, So this floor is all about the peninsula.- Kevin: The whole area was carved out by glaciers.- Emmy: 400 million years ago.- This has been here so long, and we're so lucky to have it, and we need to take care of it, and that's the message we want everyone to take away.- Emmy: I love it.- Kevin: This is 8.This represents the people of the peninsula, and almost 80% of this floor focuses on the Native Americans that first came here and hunted here and lived here.- John: This really honors that.- And it also shows what happened, how things transitioned.This one starts where the previous floor leaves off.- Emmy: Mm-hmm, I absolutely love maps.- You're looking at a map that was done in the 1850s, so a lot of it was just guesswork.So lighthouses were really important because the charts were really not that helpful, so you needed to know where you were with lighthouses.After navigation, there was commerce, right?- John: Yeah.- Kevin: The major industries that were here, you know, the fur trade, limestone quarries, logging, even ice harvesting.- And commercial fishing, which still goes on.- Commercial fishing, yes, absolutely still goes on.- And tourism.- Kevin: All the resources that were here for trade, how do you get it to the cities around the Great Lakes?So shipbuilding with wooden ships was first, easily transitioned to metal rivets and welding, and then World War II came along, and this became a boom town.At one point during the war, they were turning out a new ship every five days from shipyards in Sturgeon Bay.- What a beautiful legacy.- Kevin: This floor is all about recreational boating.It's been a part of life in Sturgeon Bay from the earliest days.- John: Kayaks and paddle boats.- Kevin: And canoes.- John: Canoes.- Kevin: You can see Life  magazine did a big spread on recreational boating here.- We're bringing everything full circle on this floor because it's the web of life.- Kevin: This is all the life that's in the water here.- We're gonna learn about this fish right here.- The lake trout.These are the invasive species.- Emmy: Wow.- Kevin: And then there's introduced species.One of those-- salmon.- I'm learning so much.- Kevin: This is where the shipwrecks are, and Door County's 300 miles of shoreline has more than 250 shipwrecks around it, and you know what the number-one reason is?- Fierce storms.- Human error.- Human error.- Kevin: Human error.Now you're sinking, you're on the bottom.[John laughing] The message on the first floor sort of summarizes everything.All the industry, all of our tourists, everything.You either come here or work here because of our connection to the water, and we have to take care of it.- Did you know there were tunnels built underneath the street all over downtown Sturgeon Bay?Why were these tunnels built?[playful music] - Beneath 3rd Avenue, there was a series of underground tunnels that carried steam.Were you thinking Prohibition tunnels?Not everything in this state is about booze, people.- John: Let's first talk about the building.Historic building built when?- Reagan Smoker: 1884.- John: On 3rd Avenue.- And this used to be Cedar Street.Hence, Cedar Crossing.- John: I was wondering.Was this your business before you came here seven years ago?- So I was in retail management.I came from the East Coast, big city.Came back to where my grandparents grew up.Came for the summer, loved it, and this was a great opportunity to kind of come back and slow things down in a different way for me.My uncle and I, he was truly talking about something that he wanted to do when he retired.- John: Take over?- Reagan: 2017 is when we took over, and we gave it a little fresh space to the restaurant and to the bar.- You have a bar, you have a restaurant, you have an inn, you have a bakery.- Reagan: We do.- John: And do you run all of it?- Reagan: I do, yes.We have a lot of amazing people in here.It is not just me.- John: Okay.She really likes you guys.[all laughing] So there's nine rooms.- Yeah.- John: But before they became nine rooms, were they apartments up there?- Reagan: There were.The shopkeeps lived upstairs.We definitely wanted to freshen.- John: Yeah.- Reagan: We just wanted to make it homey, the doilies.- John: Doily, it brings the image.We're going into the restaurant.If it's packed out, how many people are in here?- Reagan: So we have, between the restaurant and the bar, we're gonna have about 80 people in our building.Frank is our "deer" friend.[laughing] - John: Ta-da!It's pretty cool!I know what you're thinking.It's a little over-the-top with that wallpaper.I don't care; I love it.- Reagan: This is a great building to celebrate in.I feel like that's what we really like to do here.It's the little things in life, but what we do is just give people a smile.- Sturgeon Bay has two downtowns, the east side and the west side, and you can get to both by the historic steel bridge.It opened in 1931, and there was an effort to demolish this bridge, but local musicians and their friends, such as Jackson Browne, came together for something called the Steel Bridge Songfest in 2005, and they saved this bridge, and they continue that effort to preserve this historic architecture.[funky blues guitar music] She's a singer/songwriter, she's a teacher.How are you?- Cathy Grier: I'm great.Nice to meet you.- I'm really excited to meet you.How did this happen for you?- Cathy: As a songwriter, I heard about the Steel Bridge Song Festival in 2016, and so I drove all the way from New York City out here for a week, and while I was here, somebody said, "You're gonna move here."And then I looked around at the real estate, and I said, "Maybe I will."[both laughing] - John: There you go.-  The right track  - If I were to ask, like, how do you describe yourself as a musician?- Cathy: Eclectic, feeling, heartfelt advocate of doing music to help people bridge ignorance, hate, love, all those things, and I think as long as you open yourself up and ask questions, you can agree to disagree, but we can always find that one common thing.- John: Blues, do you love blues?- Cathy: Yeah, that's my main focus, but I don't think of myself as a true blues player.I am blues in heart and soul, and I love the blues style.[cheering and applause] [blues guitar music]  Oh...  - So being from New York, does this at all feel like home to you, or is it really different?- Cathy: So I was in New York City for 20 years, but before that, I was in Paris and South of France for almost 10 years, and I've traveled so much in my life that I'm home wherever I make my community.- John: Yeah, yeah.- Cathy: Yeah.I just happen to love what I do, and I happen to be a performer, so... - John: And don't you feel lucky doing it?- Cathy: Absolutely.Sometimes, I call people out of the audience.- Really?- Yeah, why not?- Yeah.[cheering and applause] - And I have a cigar box.I go out in the audience, and sometimes I take it off and hand it to people and ask them to play it.- John: Here you go.- Cathy: Yeah.[playing blues] Yeah, you got it.Oh, yeah![chuckles] - Oh, yeah.- Cathy: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.[applause] - The Holiday Music Motel is quite the landmark because of its retro decor.It was the first motel built in Door County in 1952, so every room looks different.It has its own collection of mid-century modern furniture.We're talking lampshades, bathroom tile.You name it, they do it right.Especially artists and musicians, they love to come here.Apparently, they really channel their creativity.- It wouldn't be a main street without a little shopping.Oh, wait, you don't know what you're looking for?Well, have I got the place for you.3rd Avenue, the Marketplace.They've got everything.[gasps] Resort wear!You do know what you're shopping for, and it's for your kids?Oh, no, oh, your grandkid?Well, then you gotta come to the Dancing Bear 'cause you'll find it in here.I am sitting in front of my favorite shopping.It's like this thrift consignment shop, where talk about finding anything and everything.Like this.Like, this is for sale, this great little bench.I just don't know if there's room in the crew van.Gail, would you mind sitting on the roof of the van?- Again?- John: We're at Door County Forgeworks.You're a forger.- Ric Furrer: Blacksmith, usually.Blacksmiths historically were making tools for the village that they lived in.- Yeah.- Mm-hmm.- So what's a forge?- Ric: Forge is the item that does the heating.Think of it like an oven.- John: And what do you forge?- People ask me mostly for swords and knives, so that tends to be what I focus on now.- John: Can we take a look?- Ric: We have pieces that I've made.Here, pull that one out of there.- John: Can I?- There's a chef's knife.- Wow, I love the design.It's really cool.So will this ever be used?- I hope so.- By you?- Well, I'd rather sell it.- You would?- But-- - So this is what we have here![both laughing] - So here is a kitchen cleaver.- There you go.- Look at this!This is gorgeous.- Thank you.- Yeah.- You are gonna experience a little bit of hot reality here.- I can't wait.You have a look in your eye of pity for me.Do you know?[Ric laughing] - I forge, mostly now, it's pattern-welded steel because that's what people ask me to do.- It's cooking!- It is warm.So what's happening is the water is boiling out of the borax.- John: Borax.- Ric: Yeah.And it chemically cleans the steel.- John: That looks like cotton.- Ric: It is, but it can withstand a tremendous amount of heat.- John: What does somebody who learns that art of blacksmithing, like, what do they-- is there a path they usually take?- Ric: There are apprenticeships that were historically done.That's changed a little bit now.There are blacksmith programs at universities now.- Can I get it?- Yes.- I'm bringing it over.- Yes.- John: Oh, my God, look at this thing!Is there something you'd rather make?- Ric: Well, I have projects that I enjoy doing, but I really enjoy the idea of the next project, not the reality of the current one.- My heart-- My heart is... - Ric: Blacksmiths do the heavy, hot work... - John: Yeah.- Ric: Because the resulting piece is black.There are whitesmiths.They're the ones that do the finish work.Lather, rinse, repeat, that's all it is, but we'll probably do that two more times, and then I'll take over under Baby Hugey there.- John: Okay.- Ric: And that hits three times a second with about 80 tons of force.- John: You do it.[hammer striking] - Ric: So that's kind of what you're gonna end up with with that cherry handle.- John: Very cool.- Ric: Yeah.- John: Yeah, there's some steam, right?- Ric: That's smoke.Lift it up, there's your quenched knife.So that's hardened.So there's your... - John: Oh, my God, look at me!- Nice!- Yep.- It looks good, doesn't it?- That'll work well in a kitchen.- Whenever I hear the word "forge" now, you are what I will think of.- Aww.- Just so you know.This is what a forge guy looks like.[both laughing] - John: Oh, you're good.- Here's my Sturgeon Bay tip.We found this adorable chapel-turned-restaurant called Dromhus.Now, it means "dreamhouse" in Swedish, and you know what sounds dreamy to me in Swedish?These meatballs.Mm, dreamy!- John: This has gotta be a very important building because it originated on this side of town, which is the west side, and then they moved it to the east side and moved it back to the west side to save it, to preserve it.What is that building?- You know, you could've just asked me.I have the answer.It's the Door County Granary Building.It was built in 1901, and the reason it's so special is because it's one of the last remaining wooden granary elevators on the Great Lakes.Pretty special.- So smart.Emmy Fink.It's an orchard.It's called Robertson Orchard.It began in 1879.I was raised on-- in a neighborhood in the city of Milwaukee, so if I ask you a question that you're like, "You've gotta be kidding me," I just don't know, okay?How many different types of cherries are there?- Kris Robertson: You gotta be kidding me.[John laughing] - John: How many generations have been farming this land?- Kris: My son Skipp is a fifth generation.- John: He's the fifth.- Kris: Yeah.- Let's talk about the responsibility of the fifth generation running the orchard.Do you feel it?- Skipp Robertson: I feel it, John.- Do you?So were you raised on this land?- I was.- Yeah.So you know cherry farming, huh?- Yeah, I've been here for 67 years.- I have been here since I was born.- I see that Skipp has some kids, so I'm sure there's generations to come, yes?- Kris: Yep.- Do you believe that this will continue?- If they like it.- If they like it.Apples is what I hear, but cherries is really kind of your focus, yes?- Cherries, yeah.- Montmorencys and Balatons are the two types of tart cherries that we have.- Lindsey Robertson: Using those more for baking, for pies, those kind of things.- Skipp: And in reality, it should really be called semisweet.- So then we have 25 different varieties of sweet cherries.- Sweet cherries more for eating right off the tree or, you know, having a snack at home.- John: He said as a kid, he liked the sweet cherries, but not anymore.- He used to sit on the shaker.His teeth were just black from eating cherries, stained.- Is that right?- Yep.- We haven't even touched on your apples yet.- Skipp: We have apples as well.- John: What kind of apples?- Lindsey: Ginger Gold, Redfree, Zestar, Honeycrisp, Cortland.- Cortland, Wealthy.- Jonamac, Idared.- Paula Red.Did you say McIntosh?And we have three different varieties of pears, as well.- Did you know what you were getting into?- I did know what I was getting into.- Oh, good.[all laughing] - They need some time, don't they?- Ah, they need a little bit of time.I'd probably, say, give it three more weeks.Tart cherries are self-pollinating.Sweet cherries need to have a cross-pollinator with it.- So this guy's smaller, it seems.Why?Is it because it's younger?- If we let a sweet cherry just keep growing, it'll get over 30 feet tall.- Yeah.- And the same thing with the tart cherries.I grew up here.To me, I didn't realize how good I had it as a kid, being able to walk out of the house, go right out to the tree, grab something that looked riper than the rest, and eat it and enjoy it.- John: The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.You've heard that before, right?- Of course I have.[John laughing] - John: Good job.- I am always up for an active adventure, and here at Potawatomi State Park, they have everything.You can rent bikes, kayaks, paddleboards, you name it.It also is the start of the Ice Age Trail.It's a thousand-mile journey following the last continental glacier in Wisconsin.Such an awesome place.Put it on your bucket list.[upbeat music] You know, with our Wisconsin roots, we've made so many trips up to Door County, but when I'm driving up and I see the Sturgeon Bay sign, I always think, "the beginning!"- Well, that's funny because I have come up here where Sturgeon Bay was the beginning, the middle, and the end.I mean, I really love this community.- All right, I'm coming with you the next time.- Good, let's do it!No kids though, okay?- Emmy: Okay.- John: Don't bring the dog. There's nowhere else I'd rather be   The heart and soul of community's  I'm gonna be very, um, there for you.- God, don't!That throws me off every time.- Raah!- We are here at Potawatoma-- Potawatoma--Potawatoma-- I can't do it!- Go in that li-lighthouse.La la la hoo!- Kevin: No, I don't wanna walk with John.[all laughing] - Taking one for the team again.- Woman: Get outta here.- Announcer: We thank the underwriters of  John McGivern's Main Streets because without them, we couldn't make this show.- There's no place like Oconomowoc.Explore, play, shop, stay.Visit Oconomowoc!- Your community's best selfie spot is Your-Type.  - You'll find your bright spot in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.- My father taught me that to make great bakery, you have to do it the right way.O&H Danish Bakery, where kringle traditions begin.- Yes, Greendale is beautiful on the outside, but it's what's inside that counts.Who doesn't love opening a door to their happy place, whether it's indulging your sweet tooth, winding down, or exploring your creative side?Come on in!You just gotta see Greendale!- The Wisconsin Northwoods are calling.One word, one place.Minocqua. - Announcer:  John McGivern's Main Streets  is grateful for additional financial support from: Horicon Bank: the Natural Choice, West Bend Insurance Company: the Silver Lining, our nonprofit, the Friends of Main Streets, and from the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.Thanks, underwriters!- They can tell who the new guy is.Take a look at the boots.I still have my price tag on.[all laughing]