WXPR A Northwoods Moment In History

Rhinelander’s connection to Hodags begins over 130 years ago in 1893 when lumberman and surveyor Eugene Shepard wrestled a lumberjack tall tale out of the logging camp bunkhouse, and introduced the creature to the public in an article about the attempted capture of a Black Hodag.

The 8th Wisconsin carried him into more than thirty battles and skirmishes. Amid gunfire and chaos, Old Abe would spread his wings and let out piercing cries. He became a living symbol of the regiment.

The Sylvania Wilderness area is tucked into the south-western edge of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, near Watersmeet, just north of the Wisconsin line.

After a few mild years, this winter of 2025/2026 has reminded the Northwoods who’s boss; mother nature.

Long before flashing lights, diesel engines, and steel blades scraping asphalt, winter travel in the Northwoods of Wisconsin was a slower, tougher proposition

Local libraries have always been more than buildings with books, they’re the beating heart of a community. They preserve our stories, protect our history, and give every generation a place to learn, gather, and grow.

The Northwoods of Wisconsin, with its rough logging boom towns and frontier justice, saw its own share of gun smoke and violence in the early 1900s.

In Wisconsin’s story, where tall pines once fed the logging booms, the rivers also carried life from forest to farm. Flowing from its headwaters in Forest County, the Wolf River connects the Northwood’s to central Wisconsin, and gave rise to more than timber, it gave us the Wolf River Apple, a variety that looms larger than the rest, quite literally.

From the iron hills of Hurley, Wisconsin, came a man who waged war not with weapons, but with secrets. Leon Lawrence Lewis, born in Hurley in 1888 to German Jewish immigrants, would one day be called the “spymaster of Los Angeles.”

Rhinelander Paper Company, quietly played a vital role in getting our troops the tools they needed to fight and win

There was a time when Boom Lake in Rhinelander wasn’t just a quiet, scenic waterway, it was a Northwoods’ racetrack.

It wasn’t all that long ago that seeing a bear in Northern Wisconsin wasn’t just a wilderness encounter. It was a roadside attraction.

What began as a whimsical marketing campaign by the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce transformed into a memorable community celebration of local culture.

The Northwoods is no stranger to winter weather, and ice storms have historically been among the most destructive. But even by Wisconsin standards, the most recent ice storm that slammed northern Wisconsin March 29th and 30th, 2025 was one for the books.

In the heart of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, Lelah Starks tilled out a legacy that would shape the potato industry for generations. A woman ahead of her time, Starks became one of the most respected seed potato growers in the country, blending science with practical farming expertise.

Among storied Northwoods doctors are names like Torpy, Pelham-Newcomb, Sheik, and Cline. But one Rhinelander doctor worked diligently to usher in a new age of medicine during his five decades of practice, Dr. Warner S. Bump.

Winter weather records are a fascinating thing to explore, from the longest stretches with snow on the ground to the heaviest snowfalls in a single season or day. Digging into the record books is a chance to relive the power of winter, and today, we’re taking a look at some of Rhinelander’s most memorable winter weather events.

On Friday, March 12, 1920, the Rhinelander Woman’s Club gathered at the Teachers Training College in the old Oneida County Courthouse for a special “mock election.” This wasn’t just a simple exercise—it was the final exam for a citizenship class that aimed to prepare local women for their first opportunity to vote in a U.S. Presidential election.

Anton Sarocka, known as Tony, was a standout football player for Rhinelander High School. Born in Port Washington on October 11, 1910, Tony graduated in 1928.

Sunday, September 21st, 1924 is listed on the Wisconsin Watch website as the third worst day of tornadoes in state history.Few single communities were impacted that day as much as Three Lakes, Wisconsin, which suffered the worst tornado in it’s history

Few people know that the Northwoods was once exposed to intense radiation for scientific research amid fears of nuclear war. Fifty-one years ago, a site near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, was developed to study radiation’s effects on northern forest ecosystems, known as the Enterprise Radiation Forest Project.