<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When recently asked to present \u2018something about how things have changed around here\u2019 for the Ontonagon County Historical Society,\u00a0 I said, \u201cLet me think about it before I say \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 There are already many volumes available about the history of the area (see:\u00a0 Knox Jamison, Earl Doyle, and Bruce Johanson for starters), so I didn\u2019t feel qualified to get too deep into the older stuff.\u00a0 Having arrived in these parts as a newly minted JH Geography\/Earth Science teacher in 1975, I am closing in on a half century in our fair town.\u00a0 By the unofficial standards set by descendants of Ontonagon\u2019s oldest founders, this still makes me a \u2018newcomer\u2019.\u00a0 The idea of \u2018newcomers\u2019 and \u2018old timers\u2019 rankles some, but it always fascinates me to walk through the local cemeteries.\u00a0 Seeing the names of pioneer families that echo the names of some of the students I taught gives them, in my mind, a unique legacy not all of us share.\u00a0 Some may think that wandering through cemeteries is morbid, but my wife and I have found it is one of the best ways to revisit the past and honor those who came before us.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While I do not have a Facebook account, I often check out the FB pages used to share\u00a0 information about the local communities.\u00a0 The comments posted about many of the topics indicate there are a lot of newer people who have arrived in the past few decades so my thinking was, \u201cOkay, how about if I concentrate on the things that have changed in my time living here?\u201d\u00a0 I won\u2019t pretend this is a comprehensive modern history of Ontonagon.\u00a0 It takes a while to learn about a place when one first arrives so these are just my recollections of the past forty plus years. Some of these events may not square one hundred percent with how others remember them.\u00a0 As I was preparing this presentation, Bruce Johanson did his own version of \u2018when we first arrived in Ontonagon\u2019 for the April 5, 2023 <\/span>Ontonagon Herald.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Johanson pretty well covers the decade before yours truly arrived so<\/span> you can add his perspective to your reference list.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0First, a little background.\u00a0 My first encounter with (as Johanson titled his first book) <\/span>This Land the Ontonagon<\/span><\/i> took place in the summer of either 1964 or 1965. \u00a0 My father was still working as a detective for the Michigan State Police.\u00a0 Perhaps as a way to get me out of mom\u2019s hair for a couple of days, he took me along on a road trip to the western Upper Peninsula.\u00a0 My older brother Ron was already working at the Red Owl grocery store in Marquette otherwise he would have been on the same trip.\u00a0 I would be fibbing to say I remembered everything we did, but a couple of things stand out in my mind.\u00a0 The first was driving across the old swing bridge on the Ontonagon River.\u00a0 Most U.P. rivers are pale imitations of the mighty Ontonagon River so one\u2019s first encounter with its muddy majesty is worth remembering.\u00a0 Back then the A&W Root Beer stand was directly across the old highway from the Ontonagon Paper Mill.\u00a0 I distinctly remember eating lunch there as the poor carhops dodged rain drops and muddy puddles in the parking lot.\u00a0 The mill across the road was making the typical clatter a large paper mill would make but I knew nothing about the plant or the corrugating medium they were producing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flash forward to the spring of 1975.\u00a0 Between my early May graduation from NMU and a planned \u2018graduation trip\u2019 to see my buddy Mitch in Oregon, two other friends and I decided to toss a tent and some sleeping bags in my truck and visit the Porkies.\u00a0 The minute we turned the corner off River Street to cross the old bridge, my previous trip with dad popped into my head.\u00a0 Sure enough, there was the good old A&W right where it had been ten years earlier.\u00a0 The mill was also still there belching and snorting in its usual fashion under the Hoerner-Waldorf banner.\u00a0 River Street looked very much like every other small U.P. town one could pass through, but the river and paper mill were the two things that commanded your attention on a drive through.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Upon my return to Marquette after my post graduation trip to Oregon, I discovered a letter\u00a0 in the NMU Placement Office announcing a teaching job in Ontonagon. It had arrived the day I found it so it was just luck my letter of application was in the mail that very day.\u00a0 The reply from the Ontonagon Schools was filled out and in the mailbox before the original job posting had been sent out to those who were on the placement office mailing list.\u00a0 By the end of June, I was on my way to Ontonagon for an interview and during the first week of July, I made a return trip to sign a contract.\u00a0 After months of fruitless job searching, my future employment was secured in a quick three week span.\u00a0 On both of these job related return trips, I took a few minutes to drive down River Street and across the old swing bridge and yes, the old paper mill and the A&W were right where they had been on my previous trips.\u00a0 I needed to begin apartment hunting, so\u00a0 I started my Ontonagon Herald subscription so I could begin looking through the want ads..<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As long as we have mentioned the A&W, the other restaurant that came into play on my next visit was Syl\u2019s Cafe.\u00a0 On the return leg of a trip dropping off furniture in Duluth for a friend\u2019s first semester in medical school, we detoured through Ontonagon to look for my housing.\u00a0 Syl\u2019s itself was relatively new having been founded by Syl and Sulo Laitila in 1972.\u00a0 The front door was located dead center of where today\u2019s till and bakery case sit.\u00a0 A long, two-sided counter with stools bisected the restaurant, with booths lining both walls.\u00a0 A jukebox took up the front left corner of the room and was blaring a heavy rotation of <\/span>Fox on the Run <\/span><\/i>by Sweet and <\/span>Waterloo<\/span><\/i> by Abba.\u00a0 The waitress asked if we were tourists and we shared that I was looking for an apartment. During our lunch, she brought Syl over to talk to us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Syl was gracious enough to take us over to the new apartment she had recently completed attached to the former Lange Funeral home.\u00a0 As she showed us around, we entered by a side door and Syl said, \u201cIf you rent the place, don\u2019t make a wrong turn and go down those stairs – you will end up in the embalming room.\u201d\u00a0 As this was the first place I had seen, I wasn\u2019t ready to commit quite yet so Syl offered a couple of phone numbers for us to check out.\u00a0 I ended up renting a small two bedroom apartment from the Mazurek family on Pennsylvania Avenue right next door to what I would later learn was the original Siloa Lutheran Church building.\u00a0 We will get to more on the church front later, but I never forgot how helpful and friendly Syl was.\u00a0 The cafe today, remodeled extensively and still in the family, is now run by her granddaughter Kathy and is one of four downtown businesses the family is currently involved in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were other restaurants operating in Ontonagon in the 1970s and 1980s including The Lost Bowl, Wagars, The Copper Inn, and The Candlelight Inn.\u00a0 All of them are long gone.\u00a0 While I can attest to visiting all of these establishments, the Candlelight probably carries the most memories for me.\u00a0 Located just outside of town on the property formerly occupied by the Cackle Shack (before my time so an old(er) timer will have to explain that one), it was run by Arnie and Evelyn Wirtanen.\u00a0 It was there I attended my first school \u2018inservice\u2019 lunch, played numerous Christmas (and other) parties with the Easy Money band, and met my wife Christine.\u00a0 Evy and Arnie were characters and always treated us like family.\u00a0 It surprised no one when we had our wedding reception there.\u00a0 Sadly, the old CI changed hands numerous times since the Wirtinen\u2019s days and is now a crumbling, empty shadow of what it once was.\u00a0 Rumour has it the bar area has now caved into the basement and further inspection shows the front roof line is now caving in..<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There have been several other business changes in the downtown area.\u00a0 The block that burned on Labor Day weekend in 2008 contained the original Connie\u2019s Ice Cream Shop, now located in the old Mobil Gas Station across from the Holiday Station store.\u00a0 That same block of buildings also housed a health food store and the previously mentioned Lost Bowl Cafe and Roehm\u2019s Pasty Shop. \u00a0 The Camp One clothing outfitters across River Street also succumbed to damage from the second great Ontonagon burnout of \u201808.\u00a0 The building where the Michigan Works office now stands was home to a unique bakery and restaurant called The Pastry Palace II (PP I\u00a0 was in White Pine) as well the Sears Catalog store.\u00a0 One of the newer eateries downtown is currently Ontonagon\u2019s one source for authentic Pakistani food.\u00a0 Up North Cafe began life as a pizza\/ice cream shop that soon doubled in size to become a full service restaurant.\u00a0 Each new owner has put their own stamp on the menu, but when Faraz and Melissa began offering occasional buffets sampling dishes from Faraz\u2019s homeland, it brought another new flavor (pun intended) to Ontonagon\u2019s food offerings.\u00a0 It also gives Audie Bitschenauer a chance to practice his Urdu.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We started with the A&W so we should end the restaurant section with its transformation to Ontonagon\u2019s version of the Golden Arches (minus the arches).\u00a0 The Miles family built a new dining facility just west of the papermill.\u00a0 Dubbed \u2018McMiles\u2019, it featured indoor dining and also a drive up order by phone \/ pick up window system.\u00a0 When the restaurant later closed, it was operated for a time as the Ontonagon Christian Center.\u00a0 When that, too, closed its doors, the building went back on the market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Other commercial establishments in the business district included the Ben Franklin Dime Store, The JCPenney catalog store, Fraki\u2019s Supermarket, The Hecox \/ Chapman\u2019s Hardware Store, Gambles Hardware store,\u00a0 Kempen\u2019s Jewelry Store, Inne Town Pharmacy,\u00a0 two Lumber Companies owned by the Menigoz and Hawley families, Co-Op Store, and an IGA\/Red Owl Grocery Store.\u00a0 The latter eventually became the home of the Ontonagon Historical Society Museum.\u00a0 I was a fairly new member of the Historical Society board when the entire museum collection was moved from the original location in the old Co-op store.\u00a0 Emptying the myriad of shelves and glass display cases, loading them onto multiple trucks, and then moving them into the new museum was a task of epic proportions.\u00a0 The old Co-op was later converted into the Heritage Antiques shop, fittingly so as the building still retains an air of \u2018history\u2019 even though it is now a commercial business.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were still enough bars to shake a stick at when I arrived in town.\u00a0 Watering holes like Macs, The Dry Dock, Swedes, Denny\u2019s Den, Johnny\u2019s Bar, Tubbies, The Green Onion, and The Shamrock are now gone, survived only by Stubb\u2019s Museum Bar and Roxey\u2019s in the heart of downtown.\u00a0 Many of the buildings that housed some of the above-mentioned establishments are no longer with us, others are in poor shape, and some have been repurposed into new ventures. Though Tubbies was located a bit west of town (as was The Green Onion), it is another place that I remember fondly.\u00a0 The one and only time I visited the establishment, the Easy Money band was playing.\u00a0 I had played with some of the guys at the first Hootenanny Athletic Fundraiser at the school in the spring of 1976 so I was invited to sit in for a couple of numbers.\u00a0 Their regular drummer, Donnie \u2018the Muleskinner\u2019 Hawkins was working shift work so the band asked if I would be interested in playing gigs with them when Donnie couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 It was an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse and even after I became the regular drummer, it was always fun to have Donnie sit in to sing (and sometimes drum) his signature tunes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Gambles Store was first converted into the rehab facility associated with the local hospital.\u00a0 It has since been remodeled into a new business, Anytime Fitness.\u00a0 The original Shamrock Bar burned some years ago and was rebuilt.\u00a0 That structure has now taken on a new life as The Squeeze on Main.\u00a0 Hecox\/Chapman Hardware store purchased the adjacent Ben Franklin space and expanded their operation.\u00a0 This building eventually was sold and converted into a consignment venture that is seldom open.\u00a0 One wonders how they can make money if they are rarely seen open for business.\u00a0 One building that survived the downtown fire of 2008, Hegg\u2019s Plummery, has changed hands and since been closed and put up for sale.\u00a0 Extensive renovations of the former Roger\u2019s Insurance building across Houghton Street from the former First National Band has transformed it into the Olde Swing Bridge Roasters coffee and gift shop.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Holiday Station Store at the Five Corners (an intersection later remodeled to take some confusion out of the poor drivers who constantly had to decide who had the right of way) remains (and as this article goes to print, it will apparently become a Circle K franchise store).\u00a0 The former Citco Gas station on the other end of River Street has more recently been taken over by the Krist Oil company.\u00a0 The other service stations have slowly died off and\/or evolved into other ventures.\u00a0 The old Sinclair station near the Holiday became an A&W\/Subway for a while.\u00a0 When those closed, it became a gift shop\/law office\/piano studio.\u00a0 The Mobil gas station\u00a0 directly across from the Holiday was, as previously mentioned, refurbished into the \u2018new\u2019 Connie\u2019s Place (serving ice cream, sandwiches, and a variety of coffee based drinks).\u00a0 The Standard gas station located in the middle of River Street now houses Peninsula Graphics. \u00a0 Blake\u2019s Shell station got out of the gas and fuel oil part of the business, but remains open as a repair shop.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Incidentally, the <\/span>Cha Cha Changes<\/span><\/i> title used for this article is an homage to the late David Bowie\u2019s song.\u00a0 It was meant to be a one part FTV but I heard so many anecdotes and stories from people after the April 2022 Historical Society dinner, I had to expand this into a two parter.\u00a0 Many thanks to my former colleague Jean Eckloff for asking me to present this program.\u00a0 In Part 2, we will continue the story of the changes that have occurred in Ontonagon since 1975.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, I borrowed Bowie’s song title for this FTV title… guess I better use the video as well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When recently asked to present \u2018something about how things have changed around here\u2019 for the Ontonagon County Historical Society,\u00a0 I said, \u201cLet me think about it before I say \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 There are already many volumes available about the history of the area (see:\u00a0 Knox Jamison, Earl Doyle, and Bruce Johanson for starters), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,12,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-local-music-news","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2889"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2892,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions\/2892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}