07 Portage County

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=47 style=" border-bottom: 3px solid #FF9900;" BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>07 Portage County</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=162 style="border-right: 3px solid #FF9900;" BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Yellowstone Trail"><B><IMG SRC="30164140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="wisguide0.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wis Guide Home"><B>Wis Guide Home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis00.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="How to use the guide/ legend."><B>How to and legend</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>By county:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="12 St Croix County "><B>12 St Croix</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11 Dunn Eau Claire Counties"><B>11 Dunn & Eau Claire</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="10 Chippewa County"><B>10 Chippewa</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis09.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="09 Clark Marathon Counties"><B>09 Clark & Marathon</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis08.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="08 Wood County"><B>08 Wood</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis07.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="07 Portage County"><B>07 Portage</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis06.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="06 Waupaca County"><B>06 Waupaca </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis05.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="05 Winnebago Outagamie Counties"><B>05-Winnebago & Outagamie</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis04.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="04 Fond du Lac DodgeCounties"><B>04-Fond du Lac & Dodge</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis03.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="03 Washington Waukesha Counties"><B>03 Washington/</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis03.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="03 Washington Waukesha Counties"><B>Waukesha</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis02.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="02MilwaukeeCounty"><B>02-Milwaukee</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="guidewis01.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="01 Kenosha Racine Counties"><B>01 Kenosha & Racine</B></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=433 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="06100c00egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B>Please scroll down for draft text. </B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="36cccb30.jpg" border=0 width="716" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Portage County - A Place for All Seasons</div> <bR> <div> <B>M184.5 </B>Wood/Portage County Line</div> <div> <B>M188.7  Junction City  </B><I>Free camp space at school. Farming village. Small country hotel and garage. MH; Camp maintained by School Bd. 2 Acres. AAA </I>  East/west tracks intersect with north/south tracks and interconnecting curves allow trains to transfer from one track to the other.</div> <div> <B>M-192.2</B> The old local school at the bend in the road is now a home.</div> <div> <B>M-193.7</B> At the corner of Elm and Co. M is the foundation of the cheese factory, busy in 1917.</div> <bR> <div> <B>M188.7 </B>-<B>M200.0</B>  The YTA held a “Trail Day” once a year wherein citizens in each town along the Trail were asked to go out to fix up the Trail, all towns on the same day. The press was invited, politicians showed up for “photo ops,” picnics and games abounded. Small towns closed up and everybody went out.</div> <div> Stevens Point had Trail Day June 5, 1915 to improve the Trail somewhere in the Township of Carson, just west of Stevens Point . Big to-do! The newspaper listed all who had signed up.  Point Brewery contributed . . .a team.  <I>More than 200 bankers, physicians, lawyers, artisans, and laborers with teams, wagons, plows, shovels put in a full day’s work improving the road. They spread 225 loads of gravel, had a picnic dinner and their good fellowship “proved such a satisfaction that similar work spread to other parts of the state.</I> </div> <bR> <div> <B>M201.5 Stevens Point</B>    <I>Hotel Whiting, 414 Main St. an exceptionally fine hotel. MH; Auto Sales Co.</I>,<I> corner of Clark and Strongs opp. hotel. Ford Garage, Ellis & Strongs Aves.  Papermill Road is also sought by autoists.  Goes to paper mills just south of city limits.  Wis. River Mill (print paper) & Plover Paper co.(bonds and writing stock.)  Automatic self-rocking cradles are made in Stevens Point exclusively.  Free camp at fair grounds. Better accommodations at the Yellowstone Camp, about 1 mile east of town on Trail (Route after 1919). Level and in a grove. 50¢   Three cabins $1.50 to $2.50 each. BB(1920.); Camp  maintained by City and Chamber of Commerce. 40 acres. 200 cars and 1000 people.  Toilets. AAA</I></div> <bR> <div> In the early 1920s Stevens Point’s Clark St. Bridge across the Wisconsin River kept catching fire due to the creosote-treated wooden deck. Finally, it burned completely in 1923. A ferry served travelers until 1926.</div> <bR> <div> There are 60+ buildings in downtown Stevens Point listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Interesting historic murals have been painted on walls of several businesses in the downtown area just east of the bridge.</div> <bR> <div> <B>M----</B>Old Whiting Hotel. 1408 Strongs Ave. at Clark St. This 1900 Spanish Revival architecture hotel saw the YT travel down Clark St. This hotel became the main attraction in downtown Stevens Point and the place where travelers went for YT information. Today it is called Whiting Place Apartments. The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</div> <bR> <div> Portage County Historical Museum 1475 Water St. (YT) in the Beth Israel Synagogue, focuses on the Jewish influence in Stevens Point.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Point Brewery</B> 2617 Water St. (on the YT) has been in continuous operation since 1857. Daily tours.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>M204.4  Whiting</B>  The original route of the YT (1915-1919) runs east (Co. HH) and north (Church St). While Co. HH travels for a bit through Plover, the 1919-1921 route travels south on Post Road through the main part of Plover.  See Driving Notes, below.</div> <div> <B>Post Road</B> is so named because it was originally designated for the transportation of mail.</div> <div> See <B>Plover </B>in driving notes.</div> <div> <B>M219.5 Amherst</B></div> <div> Intersection of Co B and Co A (badly marked) and North Main and Wilson. <I>The Amherst Inn. Yell</I>o<I>wstone Garage on main route. BB(1920)</I>    Amherst Inn B&B 303 Main St. is still operating. The1887 Victorian Gothic style house was a popular stop for travelers in the heyday of both the Inn and the Trail. </div> <bR> <div> <B>M 223.5 </B>The YT followed Pipe Rd both ways from this point, but the road toward Amherst is not now passable.</div> <div> <B>M 223.6 </B>Pipe School near11029 Thomas Pipe Road. Built probably 1850s. First teacher received $1.56 for a 5 ½ day  week. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. At present it is vacant.  </div> <div> <B>M 224.0  </B>Portage/Waupaca County Line</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Stevens Point Wayside</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" ><B>Code 2</B></FONT><B>  Schmeeckle Reserve</B>, 2419 North Point Drive. UW-Stevens Point’s 275-acre natural area. In the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. Five miles of walking trails. Lovely woods and plants.</div> <bR> <div> Stevens Point Historic note:</div> <div> Code 1 <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Stevens Point owed the YTA for 2 years’ dues in 1921. They were in danger of “losing” the Trail, although the YTA never did move the route from any town over the issue. Seeing its opportunity to get the Trail moved to their city, the city fathers of Grand Rapids (present Wisconsin Rapids) attempted to bribe the YTA to get the Trail from Point. They offered to pay Point’s arrears and an extra $1000 “bribe.”  The YTA did not go for it and Point kept the Trail, eventually paying up.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Stevens Point Historic note:</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" >Code 1</FONT>  Joe Parmley’s description of his ride on the YTA 1915 relay race from Chicago to Seattle: <I>The</I> <I>sandiest stretch from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound must be near Stevens Point.</I> And again in the 1920 YTA folder : <I>from Waupaca to St. Point the road is sandy</I>. Apparently cars got stuck there for years. Today the area is called “Golden Sands” and produces millions of potatoes and other veggies.</div> <bR> <div> Stevens Point Historical Note<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#B07050" FACE="Arial" >Code 1</FONT>  When the State Highway Commission moved Wis18 from<B> </B>what is now Co. B in Plover north to near what is now US10, Park Ridge Drive, the Trail moved with it. Thus, there was the Yellowstone Hotel and Tourist Court built there because that was the Yellowstone Trail from 1920 to 1930. The Hotel was on the southeast corner of present US 10 and Fieldcrest  Ave. The Hotel was razed in the 1970s. It had 30 rooms and 15 furnished cabins; the last cabin is now at the Heritage Park in Plover.</div> <bR> <div> Driving Notes</div> <div> Between Junction City and Stevens Point there are some places along the Trail that are still not paved to this day, but the good gravel of today is a big advancement over yesterday’s dust and mud. </div> <div> The development of the route of the YT just west and south of Stevens Point involved several route changes as roads were developed by the State and development motivated traffic pattern changes.  The approximate dates of the various routes are shown on the map. Maps and other printed references often remained unchanged for years after the route changes, so determining the actual date of change is difficult. The Yellowstone Trail Association did not keep a log of all approved changes across the country, or that record was lost. </div> <bR> <div> The route of the YT was moved to the 1918-1920 (present Co.B in Plover)  route when the state established it as Wis 18 when they first numbered the state trunk system. Heritage Park at the corner of Washington and Willow Drive is maintained by the Portage County Historical Society. An original cabin from a tourist camp/hotel along the YT is there among other period buildings. The Park is three blocks north and east from the corner of Post Road and Co. B, both of which were the YT.</div> <bR> <div> The Comfort Inn on the 1918-1920 route features a <B>Yellowstone Trail Pub</B> with modern decor but historic pictures and maps of the Trail.  It is just west of I-39 and north of Co. B.</div> <bR> <div> The YT had to move when the state moved Wis 18 to the 1920-1930 route when it was improved and the road is still called Old 18. While it is known that the state moved Wis 18 for the 1920 travel season, some maps such as Rand McNally continue to call the southern route through Plover the Yellowstone Trail as late as 1925.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>