Jim Skibo

When Joseph and Myrtle Kretz established Kretz Lumber in 1929, it was just a small sawmill. Today the company just south of Antigo is an employee-owned global company that has expanded into other areas including forest management, education, and now a fine craftsman line, which sells directly to small commercial woodworkers along with hobbyists.

Langlade County Health Officer Meghan Williams’ guidance to people in the Northwoods might sound familiar. It is like the guidance you may have heard from many county health officers.

“We are continuing to follow CDC guidelines. So that includes staying at home as much as possible, physical distancing of six feet between people who are not in your household, wearing a mask when in public, washing hands frequently and disinfecting those high touch surfaces,” she says.

Some people in the area are following those guidelines closely. Plenty of other people are not.

There are many things that make the Northwoods unique, like supper clubs, the Old Fashioned, and summers on the lake. To that list you can add waterski shows. There are more waterski teams in Wisconsin than in any other state.   The Minocqua ski team has been in existence for over 70 years.

The death of George Floyd and the resulting protests have brought scrutiny to all police forces with many people calling for radical change in their practices. This is true in the large metropolitan police forces, but it also is at the forefront of the rural police forces in our Northwoods.

For graduating seniors in Northwoods high schools, things have not gone as planned. Besides having to do online learning, missing out on the prom and spring sports, the school year is ending with virtual graduations. And for those students planning to go to college this fall, there is still uncertainty how that will go.

Across the county, pet adoptions have seen a dramatic increase since the beginning of the pandemic. In areas where the virus is more prevalent, some shelters have even run out of dogs and cats for adoption. Although local Northwoods shelters still do have animals available, there has been a notable increase in the number of adoptions. Jim and Debbie Boman, of Merrill, recently adopted Delilah, a Labrador-Pitbull mix from the Humane Society of Marathon County.

Many in the Northwoods do not have access to high speed broadband internet. That’s a critical gap in modern living, especially with the health emergency keeping people at home. State grants through the Public Service Commission have recently been awarded to some communities and counties to help remedy the situation.

Since Gov. Evers mandated the closure of schools on Mar. 13, educators have been scrambling to teach remotely. In the Northwoods, the level of instruction varies considerably based primarily on the availability of high-speed internet in the households of students.

If this were a normal spring, people would be starting to travel to the Northwoods to enjoy the outdoors. The state, however, is encouraging people to stay in their own communities and avoid travel for recreation. But for those of us who live up here, the Northwoods offers hundreds of miles of biking trails and country roads that make great cycling routes.

Jamee Peters, vice president of the Langlade Area Mountain Bike Association (LAMBA) describes the type of trails available in eastern Langlade County.

Many Wisconsin State Parks have closed along with National Forest recreation areas, leaving many to seek different ways to enjoy the outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wolf River, which starts in Forest County and runs through the entire length of Langlade County, offers opportunities to enjoy the beauty of the Northwoods while practicing social distancing.

Bill Kallner has been fishing the Wolf River for decades. Each time he visits the river he enjoys the beauty and solitude.

When we think of the Northwoods, one thing that comes to mind is the Supper Club. These iconic restaurants, along with all nonessential business, have been closed to in-person business as a result of the COVID-19 virus. These closures have supper club owners wondering about their future. They also have concerns about their laid off workers, the companies that supply them with food and beverages, and their patrons who are unable to enjoy the establishments that are part of their lives.

Each spring the hardwood forests of the Northwoods come alive with activity as the process of collecting maple sap begins. The people doing this work range from large commercial operations to single individuals tapping a few trees. As part of WXPR’s We Live Up Here series, we visited two very different operations before social distancing guidelines went into effect.

Badger Minerals, a subsidiary of a Canadian mining company, wants to begin exploratory testing in eastern Oneida County near the headwaters of the Wolf River. The area sits on an ancient volcanic deposit that often contains high concentrations of zinc, lead, copper, gold, and silver. Recently, a group met in Mole Lake, which sits a few miles from the site, to express their concerns over the proposed mining.

Forest County Potawatomi Tribal Member Nick Shepard began his speech by saying, “I’m here today in support of protecting the Wolf River, again.”

On Tuesday, the Langlade County Board called on lawmakers to protect the Wolf River watershed from metallic sulfide mining pollution.

Although exploration for a possible mine by Badger Minerals would be in southern Oneida County, just north of Langlade County, the concern is the possible pollution of the Wolf River, which runs through Langlade County and eventually empties into Lake Michigan.

The resolution calls upon the State Legislature and Governor to repeal Wisconsin Act 134, which streamlined the mining permitting process.

If you say the name, “Stormy Kromer,” most people in the northwoods will know that you are referring to the iconic wool cap with earflaps that dates back to the early 1900s. What you may not know is that the hat is made in Ironwood, Michigan by Jacquart Fabric Products, a company that even has Rhinelander connections.