Wisconsin

Investigate the mysteries surrounding the brutal murder of Wauwatos's Arthur "Buddy'? Schumacher Jr. A must-read for fans of true crime and Wisconsin history enthusiasts.

In 1925, the peaceful Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosafound itself involved in mystery and horror. Eight-year-old Arthur ""Buddy"" Schumacher Jr. was last seen by three of his friends after they hopped off a freight train they'd jumped to get a ride to a nearby swimming hole.

For seven weeks, the community and state searched desperately to find the boy until his body was found just a mile from his house with his clothing torn and a handkerchief shoved down his throat. The police pursued several promising leads, but to no avail.

In this engaging mystery, author Paul Hoffman walks us back to the scene of the crime and through the reasons it was never solved.

What disturbing secrets surround the cold, deep waters of Lake Michigan?

Sudden violent storms and rocky shoals have claimed the lives of countless mortals foolish enough to brave the treacherous surf of Lake Michigan. But is there another, unnatural force at work? A force that spirited away a ship's captain from a locked cabin without a trace? A force that caused a perfectly airworthy jet to fly into the waves, taking all its passengers to a watery death? Perhaps these tragedies are linked to numerous UFO sightings over the lake. Or perhaps a clue might be found in the prehistoric Stonehenge-like structures discovered deep beneath the crystalline blue surface.

Historian and storyteller Gayle Soucek will explore the mysteries behind the area known as the Lake Michigan Triangle.

With 145 color photographs and maps, Northbound Lights: Tracks Across Michigan and Wisconsin presents a visual history of contemporary changes to the railroad networks across these two states in the Great Lakes region. Michigan-born photojournalist, D. C. Jesse Burkhardt, carries readers on a journey that chronicles rail operations in Wisconsin and Michigan. The primary focus extends from the 1970s to 2022.

Northbound Lights explores the demise of several historic railroads and spotlights shortline and regional railroads that have moved in to handle operations on routes in danger of being lost. In recent decades, dramatic alterations in the region's transportation maps have taken place as companies including Soo Line, Milwaukee Road, Chicago & NorthWestern, Green Bay & Western, Detroit & Mackinac, Penn Central, and others struggled to survive. Numerous rail lines were abandoned or taken over by expanding shortlines such as Huron & Eastern and Escanaba & Lake Superior, or by regional railroads exemplified by Great Lakes Central and Wisconsin Central. Other railroads and key routes were swallowed up by large carriers including Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, CSX, and Norfolk Southern.

From City Hall to the Pabst Theater, reminders of the past are part of the fabric of Milwaukee. Yet many historic treasures have been lost to time.

Blocks of homes and apartments replaced the Wonderland Amusement Park. A quiet bike path now stretches where some of fastest trains in the world previously thundered. Today's Estabrook Park was a vast mining operation, and Marquette University covers the old fairgrounds where Abraham Lincoln spoke. Author Carl Swanson recounts these stories and other tales of bygone days.

A fascinating, illustrated history of the melting pot that is the Old South Side.

The Old South Side has always welcomed ethnic groups. In the late 1800s, the area was developed by immigrant Poles, who became the dominant population for over 100 years. They celebrated their traditions, building churches, businesses, and service organizations and bringing over distinctive features from their homeland. While other Milwaukee ethnic neighborhoods gradually dissipated in the mid-20th century because of assimilation pressures, freeway building, or urban renewal programs, the Old South Side remained solidly Polish. Perhaps for this reason, the area became the destination of the fair housing marches. By the late 1960s, African Americans began demanding legislation that would allow them to live anywhere in the city, including the Old South Side. While African Americans never migrated to the area in great numbers, other populations did. A survey nearly a half century later revealed that people of 110 national backgrounds now lived on the Old South Side, with the three largest groups being Mexicans, Poles, and American Indians. Today, the neighborhood faith communities, businesses, sports, and celebrations strongly reflect the influence of these three communities.

Few cities keep their history alive as purposefully as the community of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Today, restored mills and churches serve as a backdrop to a thriving arts and tourist community.

From the original stone mills that are now home to quaint shops to the preserved family homesteads, past and present coexist at every turn in Cedarburg. Settled in the early 1840s by German and Irish immigrants, the city was a hub of farming and recreational activities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The city is now known as much for its festivals as it is for its charming aesthetics.

A revealing account of the tensions that embroiled Wisconsinites as Alabama Governor Wallace took his struggle north of the Mason-Dixon Line

George Wallace ran for president four times between 1964 and 1976. In the Badger State, his campaigns fueled a debate over constitutional principles and values. Wallace weaponized states' rights, arguing that the federal government should stay out of school segregation, promote law and order, restrict forced busing, and reduce burdensome taxation. White working-class Wisconsinites armed themselves with Wallace's rhetoric, pushing back on changes that threatened the status quo. Civil rights activists and the Black community in Wisconsin armed themselves with a different constitutional principle, equal protection, to push for strong federal protection of their civil rights. This clash of ideals nearly became literal as protests and counter-protests erupted until gradually diminishing as Wallace's political fortunes waned.

Historian Ben Hubing explores the tumult surrounding the so-called little man with the big mouth.

Like so many cities bordering Lake Michigan, Racine has a long and storied history. Some of that history is stranger than fiction.

The Live Towerview neighborhood, brimming with stories of the city's earliest burial sites, is a hotbed of ghostly activity. Former asylums like the ambitious Taylor Home Orphan Asylum and the infamous Racine County Insane Asylum are filled with chilling tales of the unexplained. The local Masonic Temple houses the restless souls of some of the city's earliest residents. So do Chances Food & Spirits and Ivanhoe, two of the most haunted taverns in southeastern Wisconsin. Historian Rory Graves uncovers some of Racine's most notorious haunts.

Historian Rory Graves uncovers some of Racine's most notorious haunts.

From the Lawrence Institute to hydroelectricity and paper, this Fox City's rich history is chronicled through vintage images.

Appleton's beginnings found their source at the Lawrence Institute, the university in the woods, on the Fox River. Rev. Henry Colman and Rev. William Sampson chose the bluff on the river for the site of the institute. Amos A. Lawrence donated $10,000, and the building began in July 1848. The city was made up of three villages: Martin (Grand Chute), Appleton, and Lawesburg. In 1857, the villages joined together to form the city of Appleton with Amos Story as its first mayor. Appleton's industry grew on the banks of the Fox River.

Through the medium of historic photographs, Cudahy, Wisconsin: Generations of Pride captures Cudahy's evolution from the late 1800s to the present day. Featuring over 200 historic images from both the Cudahy Historical Society and Public Library as well as photographs from private resident collections, this book tells the stories of the people who settled there: where they worked and worshiped, how they lived, and how they celebrated. Today, Cudahy is in the midst of downtown redevelopment, and community pride continues to grow with each generation.

From the author of Lost Milwaukee comes an exploration of the criminal side of the Cream City.

Milwaukee saw its share of violence as it transformed from frontier village to modern metropolis. The city was barely established when an argument over a bridge linking east and west was nearly settled with cannon fire. A local developer killed his estranged wife, severed her head, and burned it in the furnace of the apartment building he built. A wronged woman murdered her lover on a busy downtown street and was found innocent by a sympathetic jury. Another woman lethally poisoned her family and laughed about it in the press.

From a robbery in which the bandits got away by stealing a streetcar to the attempted assassination of President Theodore Roosevelt, local historian Carl Swanson uncovers dramatic true stories of villainy and murder from Milwaukee's long-forgotten past.

Drink up the history of one of the most famous beer towns in the world.

Milwaukee is most famous for its booming brewing industry, which is directly tied to a surge in German immigration in the 1840s. These new citizens brought along their work ethic, culture, and a love for their native beverage. Not all immigrants arrived from Europe; many, like Richard Owens, came from Britain. Owens has been credited with establishing the first commercial brewery in the area in 1840. Other men followed, many of whom were already experienced in brewing, and seized the opportunity to start new businesses. Brand names were carved on the front of brewery buildings, deals were made with a handshake, partnerships were cultivated, and factory cities were raised. By 1860, nearly 200 breweries were in operation in Wisconsin, with more than 40 in Milwaukee alone. Of the original 40, four have stood the test of time: Blatz, Pabst, Schlitz, and Miller are still brewed in Milwaukee, right where they were born.

Take a journey through the history of Racine, Wisconsin with local author George Fennell.

When Gilbert Knapp founded Racine in 1834 and the first pioneers settled there, no one had the remotest idea that the wilderness would one day transform into a thriving city. Ideally situated on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River, the site was chosen by Knapp because of its harbor potential.

The prospect of farming on the level prairies surrounding Racine also attracted many of the area's first settlers. Racine County is especially suited for growing wheat, which immediately became the county's leading agricultural product. The town of Racine quickly became a prosperous center serving the needs of the area's farm population. Even Racine's industrial base was founded on wheat; in 1842, J.I. Case invented a wheat thresher that helped Racine to grow into one of the foremost industrial centers in the United States.

Author George Fennell, a lifelong Racine resident and a member of the Racine Heritage Museum, has compiled some of the best images from the extensive photographic archives of the museum to narrate this visual voyage of Racine's transformation from a tiny harbor village into the Belle City of the Lakes.

Bucolic Door County has a rich haunted history of spooky shipwrecks, bizarre tales and ghost stories.

Because Door County received its name from ""Death's Door,"" the perilous strait with more freshwater shipwrecks than anywhere else in the world, it should be no surprise that the idyllic county has plenty of ghostly history. In the company of storyteller Gayle Soucek, meet lighthouse keepers whose sense of duty extends beyond the grave. Catch a glimpse of the phantom ship Le Griffon, never seen for more than a moment since it sailed through a crack in the ice in 1679. And it is not just the waters of Door County that carry the freight of haunted tales--Country Road T has its share of spooks, bizarre beasts have caused disturbances in the woods and there are whispered rumors that infamous gangster Al Capone added to the county's stock of ghosts through a handful of brutal murders, including an ex-girlfriend and two unacknowledged children.

The heritage of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, is shaped by water but has rapidly developed into a woodenware manufacturer of world significance.

The heritage of Two Rivers has been shaped by water. The rare conjunction of Lake Michigan with a dual river system compelled the Potawatomi and Menominee as well as the first American settlers. People of the First Nations plied the lake and rivers in search of whitefish, while initial American settlers sought fish and timber and appreciated the commercial potential of the harbor.

As the years went on, Two Rivers quickly grew into a woodenware manufacturer of world significance. When native forests diminished, the community demonstrated patterns typical of a small American town. Businesses, schools, churches and public services grew and thrived. Through periods of growth, decline, and stability, the lake and the rivers have given the community its distinctiveness. Located on a small peninsula almost 90 miles north of Milwaukee, Two Rivers's climate has also earned it a reputation as ""the coolest spot in Wisconsin.""