Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Monday,
March 10th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
Right now, we're gonna talk to some of our favorite people.
We got the historic point boss,
and we got Tom Brenmer here with us right now,
and we're gonna talk about their sugarmush event,
along with some other fun things going on over
at the historic point boss.
Tom, good to see how you been.
It's great to be here.
Been good.
Good, good to hear, man.
I always appreciate the time and love
catching up with you guys over at this historic point boss.
It's been a busy time for you guys over there.
You had a lot of great events going on,
and we got another great one right around the corner.
The sugarmush event at the historic point boss
comes up this Saturday, March 15th, 10 to 4.
Tom, let's talk about this,
and let's tell people about this event
as if they haven't heard of it before or something.
Well, it's our annual spring.
It's like resurrection for us because we've been
not at the site since December.
Right.
We've been there, but the public hasn't been there.
And so we, it's a real annual thing in Wisconsin.
In history, it was a great thing, almost necessary,
because there was no sugar growing up here,
a little bit of honey, but mostly maple sugar was the thing.
And harvesting in February and March was the big deal
for thousands of years.
One of the things that I appreciate so much
about what you guys do over there,
certainly keeping history alive.
And even for some out there helping them learn things
that they may have not known about this area,
or they're taking some pride in their history.
But then there's the things too
that I think that are just universal,
and I think are always a nice reminder of the perspective of.
You mentioned something there about sugar,
not being that accessible.
There's going to be people listening to this right now
that they can't wrap their minds around that.
What are you talking about?
If I want sugar, it's right there.
But this takes us to a different time
when that was not the case.
It doesn't grow here.
No.
And even in Southern US, very little,
you saw them down that way.
But maple syrup, maple sugar was the big thing forever.
Well, and in this, I think that right now,
especially, it's great for us to learn.
Anytime we can help people learn,
hey, this doesn't come from here,
or where it comes from, or not only gives us a chance
to shout out and give some pride in some other areas,
like we try to do with our own.
But I think just interesting.
Just interesting to find out about this,
and how far we've come with trade
in so much of this, with our own goods,
and their goods, and some of that.
Tom, one of the other parts of this too
that I enjoy is just talking about maple syrup.
Any chance I have to talk about maple syrup,
I love being able to do that.
I'm a big fan, and I'm not alone.
That's just one of the more popular parts
of this event as well.
Yeah, well, you'll be able to see maple syrup being made,
boiled in a big cauldron as they would have done
of 150 years ago.
But you'll also get a chance to see how it was done
long before that, where we have a hollowed log
and we use heated rocks to heat the syrup,
to condense it, to make it into syrup,
and then into sugar.
That's actually two-step process.
And the native people didn't use maple syrup
they maybe did when they were making it.
But once they had to put everything away to keep it,
and drying was a big thing,
and maple sugar is literally dried maple syrup.
Yeah, I mean, it's cooked down further
until it crystallizes, and it's pretty historic.
That's the only thing they could do.
And they made tons of it, literally tons of it.
Tom, what are some of the things that will be going on
what the event people can look forward to?
Well, besides the making of the syrup itself,
they're going to be making some small silver dollar
buckwheat pancakes, so that the guys can,
people can try a little maple syrup
and a little buckwheat pancakes.
This year, they're not going to be made in the wakeless house.
Interesting.
Well, we're under reconstruction there,
and it's not available this spring,
so in the bunkhouse where there is also a wood fired stove,
we will be making pancakes.
We'll be talking about tapping maple trees
and some things out near the log cabin.
We'll be, there'll be some people working
in a blacksmith shop, in the carpenter shop, in the barn,
and in one room school.
So there's lots of things to come and see and do,
and each one will be kind of themed around the maple harvest,
but the big thing will be the boiling of the sap.
I remember getting to take part in this event years ago,
long before I worked at the station here and everything,
and one of the things that I thought was really cool
that I didn't understand, and I learn more and more
about this history all the time,
is how any one thing we're talking about,
just something like this, making maple syrup,
or sugar in general, even just sugar,
how it took a village.
Oh, you know, now a days we go, it's one stop,
I go here for this particular thing,
I go to this place for this particular thing,
and when we're talking about something like this,
it took the community, it took so many people
to get these things built, it's kind of cool
to hear that process.
Especially in the native community,
they would go to a sugar bush,
where it's a large grove of maple trees,
but then each family had its own little section,
and they would then, but literally had to work together,
the women did a lot of the making of the syrup,
because the men were cutting wood
and keeping the fires going.
So the women and children, many times,
were hauling the birch bark baskets that they used.
There's a way to fold birch bark,
so it's waterproof or will hold water,
and they would bring that in and cook it in the log,
or later on after contact,
they had some large cauldrons,
couple of which we have replicas,
or they're actually old ones that we'll use,
but it literally took everybody,
they moved there, from their winter quarters,
they moved into that and stayed there for a time,
and then would move to their gardens and that later on.
It's another great thing to mention there too,
and the idea of that,
and I think that one of the fun things to history
that I feel like a lot of us do,
you get a little perspective from it,
a little bit of understanding.
The life can be a grind sometimes,
it can be a long day,
especially we're on a Monday here,
the beginning of the week and everything.
I think you've taken these experiences, these events,
and they give you a lot of perspective
and a lot of appreciation of what we have,
and I think thank you to the people,
the trailblazed and got us to this point.
There's one that Mike brought up last year,
the first time that we encountered it,
is that just before the Civil War,
in the North, many people did not want to use
white sugar because it was slave manufacturer,
in the Caribbean and that area.
So they relied a lot on maple sugar,
and there was a place in Michigan we learned about,
where they made thousands and thousands of pounds
of maple sugar as an industry,
and then had it shipped east and sold.
So that the people living the anti-slavery people
in the Northeast didn't have to use white sugar
and still be able to sweeten their food.
Wow, it's strange, I mean, it was a phenomenal,
I don't have the numbers here,
but yeah, just phenomenal, the amount of tonnage
that they were able to put together to sell interesting.
As a community, I'm sure that that was a great influx for them.
Oh, yeah, the economic impact that had in Stouch.
It's really interesting.
Now Tom, you mentioned that you guys haven't been able
to be on the grounds for a couple months and everything.
How did the prep go for this?
What kind of work do you guys do to get the land ready,
to get the buildings ready for the sugar bush event?
Well, our buildings are pretty good,
as far as not having to, this year we got through
without any real repair.
Oh, good.
But you have to clean them up a little.
I mean, let's face it, you know.
And we were getting ready there.
And then because we've been working
on the Wacley House itself,
we haven't had the time either to put into that.
So it's kind of good that we didn't have any damage.
If the weather holds good and it stays reasonably dry,
then the grounds will be not be too soft
and things will work good.
Great.
We're really good to hear.
And one of the things that about this event too,
that I enjoy is certainly us talking about maple syrup,
learning the history of it and everything.
But the chance to just check out the grounds,
especially, like you mentioned that you guys haven't been
there in a couple months.
It's been a while since you've been the store point boss.
I think this is one of those signature events
that not only welcomes everybody,
but everybody can have fun from,
everybody can learn from.
Right.
Well, I want to remind that people of that.
We've actually got a new building that we've never had before
with the Saratoga Town Hall.
That was, I remember as a kid,
it was an ancient old building then.
But it was moved out to the site last fall
and a foundation poured and there's a walk out basement thing
underneath which it never had before.
But now they've reset it.
The walls are set up.
The roof, I believe, will be done this week.
I certainly hope so.
The weather holds and it sounds like it will, yeah.
So that's something you'll be able to at least see
from the outside is what's going to happen
with that town hall.
And I think it's going to be a real addition.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And then in December of this last year,
the wake of the house was raised for the second time
off the foundation.
Moved this time into the front yard,
the old foundation completely torn out
and a new foundation put in there.
This is a major investment by a local foundation,
like in hundreds of thousands of dollars
to redo this.
But the basement of the foundation that's there now
will stand for another hundred and 150 years easily.
It's well done.
We're backfilling it as we speak.
In fact, if people want to come out and volunteer,
if you like playing in the dirt,
this is the week to come and visit us
anytime during the week from about nine
till probably two in the afternoon.
They'll be working backfilling around that building.
We're sitting, we're sitting all the dirt
to make sure we get back any artifacts
and we have found a bunch of broken pottery bones,
not human, but animal bones, things from around
the foundation of the house.
How they got there?
We're not so terribly sure,
but somebody had a pit somewhere.
Yeah.
But we've found several good sized ziplock,
the gallon ziplock bags full of broken pottery
of many different kinds.
And now, once we get caught up on this project,
then to sit down and try to identify
okay, about what era did each of these come from
because you can check that stuff out.
And it's going to be really, really interesting.
And it would be great for people that want to do research,
you want to volunteer, if I got a deal for you.
It's all great points, Tom.
And as usual, you set me up perfectly
because I did want to bring up volunteering over there.
And we like to bring that up whenever we get together.
Certainly, we want younger people,
we want more people down there at their store point
boss to help keep history alive,
to give more and more of our kids a future here with this
and this great organization continuing.
But then there's the other part of this too, you mentioned,
as far as some of the new additions over there
and we could use some volunteers to help out
with some of these things.
I would say it was a couple of weekends ago,
I took my dad driving around town
and he worked a lot of construction in this area.
So we'll go past the building that he worked on
maybe 20 years ago and it's still up and standing
and look in his face and the pride he has in that building
that him and his co-workers built and everything.
Imagine being able to feel that kind of pride
over at this store point boss.
Imagine feeling like you were truly a part of history.
You were truly a part of keeping history alive
just for getting your hands in the dirt.
You get to feel that pride from doing something like this.
Take an hour out of your day, come on down,
help out a little bit and I'm only gonna get a good workout
in, I'm gonna get some good exercise in
which we could all use a little bit more probably.
But you're also gonna be able to leave there
taking that pride that is eternal.
Your muscles might be sore for a little bit here afterwards
but that pride you'll have forever.
That's forever.
Being able to take that pride
and knowing that we're keeping the history alive.
You know, many years ago, like 35 years ago,
my mom was still around and she knew
what we were doing down there and one day she said to me,
I think that's nuts.
That's just an old pile of sticks and she was
correct physically and yes, because it was a mess
and I looked at it and said, so is your house mom.
And she just kind of stared at me and you know,
she became a volunteer after that, not a lot
because of agent infirmity but she was able to come out
and contribute a little bit of physical support.
But when I told her that, she thought for a second going,
yeah, I raised my family there.
Okay, other people raised their families there.
Can you imagine a man, a wife, two children coming
in June, having another child in December
and living where you're 100 miles from the nearest road?
I mean, I can't imagine it myself.
No, I can't.
I honestly, it doesn't, so it's preserved that history.
It's just, it's absolutely phenomenal.
Yeah, I could be able to do that.
And you can have a hand in that, everybody.
Yes, yeah.
And whether if you're busy,
if you're not able to be a part of this event
or help out the project that they have going over there,
the Tom mentioned earlier, there are events year round
going on over this store point boss,
which, not only do we encourage you to attend
and be a volunteer whenever you can,
but to certainly be a member and get your season tickets.
You'll have that covered that way.
You don't even have to worry about tickets
for all these great events.
But you're also, again, knowing that you're investing
in one of the greatest things we can in our future.
When we're talking about a store point boss,
yes, we are, this is a lesson in history.
This is some pride in history,
but we're really talking about the future here.
We're talking about some keeping something around.
And while there are plenty of textbooks
and plenty of websites nowadays
that you can go up and look up the history of Nicoso
or the history of this area,
there is only one place you can go to literally touch history.
Oh, feel history, smell history,
walk on the ground of history.
There's only one place you can do that.
We're a living history center.
That's, we have great museums.
We have several, three in this area
that I could mention right now.
I mean, with paper industry and with the Alexander house
and with Salford County,
I mean, they're great, every one of them.
And we are different than them.
Not better, not worse, just different.
Yeah.
And when you come into our place,
if you want to sit in a chair, you sit in a chair.
If you want to taste the pancakes on Saturday,
you can do that.
Yeah.
Um, it's, it's so unique.
Yes, but I love living history places.
I, I, I stop at them when I, when I have a chance,
when I'm going somewhere, um, you know,
I've, I walked on the same boards
that labor him Lincoln walked on.
That's the, you know,
it's such an amazing feeling.
Yeah, yeah.
It's, you know, it's like, ooh.
Mm-hmm, it goes bumps just thinking about it.
Yeah.
And, and that's the kind of thing in the kind of feeling
you can get over at the store point boss.
One of my, everybody again,
their sugar bush event at the store point boss
is taking place March 15th, Saturday,
March 15th, 10 to four, for tickets time,
how much of these costs,
how much can people expect to pay for this?
I knew you were going to ask me and I don't know.
Well, I, I, I put you out the spot on purpose.
I was just, just, just mess it with you a little bit there.
Thanks a lot.
In part because, uh, because we're friends,
but also because you guys do something
so unique over there, these, these,
whatever you paid a while ago, everybody,
you're still paying.
Well, yeah, they don't change the prices over there.
They make them affordable.
I'm going to go out and limp here and say it's three bucks.
I know.
Five for adults, three for students.
Five for three, okay, I knew there was a three.
Pre-schoolers and members are free.
Those are, they, they are not going to find
many more affordable things for you and your family
than this event.
You're going to spend the better part of a day.
Yeah.
By the time you get to each thing and participate,
Larry or Don's going to have some
carpenter stuff going on in the, uh, in the carpenter shop
that you can help participate in.
The blacksmith shop, you can't really get in there
because that's dangerous, but you can certainly
watch him work.
Mm-hmm.
Like I say, the pancakes out in the fur trade cabin,
we can go over the fur trade.
We can, that's 200 years of the economics of Wisconsin.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's all there was here
until just before the Civil War was the fur trade.
It's an integral part of the history of this stage.
Absolutely.
And especially locally, it really is.
And it's a chance to take in history, live history,
you know, learn more and have some fun while you're at it as well.
And again, if you're a school or a teacher out there listening
and you'd like to have your students come and take tours,
or if you want to volunteer for any of these things.
And to families out there, we certainly
encourage you to bring the kids to these events.
Same thing with volunteering.
Bring the kids on down.
Bring people to help out with this.
Many hands make like work, of course.
But also one of the most important parts
about this to adults out there when you bring kids around.
Their brains are sponges.
And they see you caring about history.
They see you putting into their community.
They're more likely to do that when they become adults.
That is a big part of this and the kind of handing
down of history that we do with this, not only this great event,
but all the good things you guys do over there.
When school groups come, and I'm as guilty as the next one,
you kind of wonder, are they really getting it?
And then at the next event,
kid comes in with grandma and grandpa and they'll go,
they'll start telling grandma and grandpa about something
they see there that they learned on a school group.
I mean, that's our payday.
We don't get paid, but that's our payment is,
wait a minute, I made a difference in this kid.
He learned something and it sounds corny,
but it's not, it really, when you sit back and look at it
after a while, it's like, wait a minute.
No, it's an incredible legacy.
It really is that you, everybody over there
at historic point, boss, deserve to take some pride
and some, in appreciation.
And let's help them out everybody.
Not only attending these events,
but volunteering, whatever we have a chance to,
you can get your tickets and find out more
at historicpointboss.com.
That's historicpointboss.com.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
Absolutely.
And Tom, a nice job here by the way.
Yeah, you and I don't do a lot of solo shows together.
Nice work.
Yeah, yeah, hung in there.
You did a great job and we appreciate it.
Hey, I can talk your arm off when it comes to that.
I mean, it's been not quite half my life
that I've spent part of my time down there
and it's really, really important.
It really is.
And we encourage you to bookmark their web page
at historicpointboss.com.
Follow along with all the work that they're doing
on their social media accounts, everybody,
and help keep history alive over at the historic point, boss.
We'll meet you there for the Sugarbush event happening
Saturday, March 15th from 10 to four,
over at the historic point, boss at 364,
Wiggly Road in beautiful Nikusa.
Tom, say hi to everybody over there for us.
We'll talk again soon.
I'm going there right now.
That's why I'm so elegantly dressed in my white coveralls
and whatever, because we're going to go play
in the dirt looking good, have some fun.
We'll talk to you all real soon.
