Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this June 2nd, 2025.
Have your host, James here.
We're being joined today by some of our favorite people.
We have this store point boss with us.
We have Larry and Joanne.
Joanne with us, and I'll let you guys take over the conversation in a moment, but right
away, I want to tell you how much I appreciate you being here and appreciate all the work
that you and the great team over there at this store point boss does keeping history
alive.
We really do appreciate all the work and the effort put in by you guys and the volunteers
and everybody.
Got some really fun events coming up that we're going to touch on.
First off, I did want to mention the Blacksmithing class that is happening Friday, June 6th.
This is just a couple of days away, and it'll be at the store point boss.
The Blacksmiths shop was reservation only.
It does sound like the morning classes are covered, but you do have another opportunity
a little bit later.
You're going to want to call ahead to find out if you're able to attend that, if you're
able to, you know, sign up, but I do like to bring it up just in case, even if it is
all booked up, there's always next year.
And you know, something to mark on the calendar, something to keep in mind for next year
if you're not able to.
But it's a fun event, Larry.
I know one that you guys really enjoy over there.
Yeah, it's a pioneer fast, and it's a two day, that June 7th of 8th, starting at 10
o'clock, goes to 5 on 7th, which is Saturday and then 10 to 4 on Sunday.
It's one of our larger events, so we usually have a lot of repeat people that come year
after year and stuff, but we have a lot of good exhibitors, as well as our normal staff
that's there, banning all our facilities that we have all of our buildings.
All of us that work there are volunteers, but we really enjoy being there.
But during the event, we also have a lot of exhibitors that are there doing different
things.
And some of the examples that we have is salt making.
We have a lady that does make soap, right, at the site there, and so you can learn how
to do that.
Johnny, that's with me.
Here she has an event that's called Tea for Two, it's one of my wife's favorite events.
It's tea at.
Tea at two.
Tea at two.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Johnny, can you tell us a little bit about that about what you guys do with that?
Well, I'm a character out there, so the character.
The character?
Yes, I apologize.
I am an actor.
I should have known, but you're absolutely right.
Yes.
The character does.
Yes.
So, my character comes in to visit Mary Wakeley, and I bring a little bit of society that
she left in New York when they moved out to Wisconsin, and a little bit of the finer
things that you don't find in the wilderness on the river there, but we do serve three
different flavors of tea and three different sweets to complement them.
We talk about clothing, relationships, and all kinds of great stuff, and it's always
fun.
We have a great time.
Oh, go ahead, let's give you an issue.
Is a fashion show going to be before the day?
Yes.
Yep.
We have a historic fashion show at one o'clock, and then the tea is at two o'clock.
Oh, it's a fun idea.
So fashion from the era of that time, and then you get to show a little bit of that.
Right.
Historic point boss is a little bit different in that.
They don't hone in on just one era.
It spans a different time zone.
We basically have three different time frames up there.
One is at the cabin or bunkhouse, or skimmy, cabin or the trading post.
That's about the Voyager era that 1600 to early 800s, then they have the Wacley site, which
is the main building that we have there, their home, and that's from about 1840 to 1860.
And then we have the schoolhouse.
And now we have, it's not finished yet, but we do have the Saratoga Talon Hall there.
And that's the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
Yeah.
We actually have three different time frames.
That's actually really nice to clarify.
Thank you for that, Larry.
Appreciate it.
It's a great points, Larry.
I appreciate that.
So when it comes to that, you'll have the little, the fashion show before and then the
tea.
How long have you been doing this, Johnny?
Well, you could have aged me if I tell you.
Yeah.
You asked that question.
That was a really bad question.
I should know better than that, but it's just, it's something that I know how popular
that this particular part of the event is.
And I imagine over the years, you've had the opportunity not only to do this, but see
kids get older doing it that attend every year, which I, I thought about that part of it
before.
That's really cool.
That's a very exciting part of it.
It's over 20 years we've been doing it.
Really?
Wow.
That's, that's wonderful.
I wouldn't have guessed it by looking at you.
Wouldn't have guessed it.
No.
No.
When it comes to that part of it, not only an exciting part of that, but one of the
fun things about this event is the demonstrating of the history and really getting a chance
to not only pay respect to the people that pay the way for us to be here and all, but
to be a reminder for, for the younger generations when it comes to this stuff and being a part
of this in a fun way, there is all kinds of other things going on with the event as
well.
Well, as they say, you only learn through history.
Yeah.
And with that, we have so many other things out there.
If I can just, a few things that a fun thing that we have as Tom Hock throwing, a lot
of people love that.
That's a, become a popular thing now.
Absolutely.
We got to operate over by us here and everything that we've been as a team.
It shouldn't get over there and test it out.
So yeah, that's a cool one, that.
But we even had a gentleman there that's a little about all of our time frame.
He's actually talks and gives a very, has a very good representation of the ice age period
so that's a little earlier than I thought.
A little about it.
He's got an excellent, he camps there, so that's, and he's got a lot of exhibits.
But more to our time period, we have Wisconsin River lumber rafting was a very, very big,
I think that's probably what Point Boss has noted more for than anything, was the pine
even rolled in the, in the, um,
Larry's our expert under the lumbering and, yeah, and he's in the bunk house.
He's great.
Yeah.
I think our first conversation, Larry, was about that particular topic and you, you blew
my mind with some of the stuff you were telling me about it and everything.
It's, I, I think one of the more interesting and more important thing you guys do over
there, really covering that topic, the farther we get away from it, the, for one, the
more fascinated young people are by the, the whole process.
And just, I also think it, again, gives a chance to pay homage to something that we just
don't see as much anymore.
Right.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah.
Because everybody out there, I think that works there, just loves history and, and we love
talking about what we're talking about, you know, so, but then, uh, for those, uh, like
myself that enjoy the finer things in life, we had lots of good food out there.
We have homemade ice cream that we'll be putting out and we have our Mount Wacley's kitchen,
which has a lot of good delicacies there for you.
Fry bread.
Uh, fry bread is one of my favorite ones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, some of the crafty things that our vendors will be doing is, um, uh, some snow shoe
making.
Yeah.
That's it.
We have a gentleman who that does that.
He's very, very good at it.
The spinning and weaving, um, that we have a lot of that up in the house and, uh, I don't
know if somebody else is doing that, one of the vendors, I'm not really, I'm not,
Oh, yeah.
Positive on that.
Oh, I can do it.
I'll look into it.
Well, um, and then, um, we have a group that comes in from, uh, around the Milwaukee
area, there's civil war era, but they are experts, they're, uh, they're, they're,
they're historical timekeepers.
Yeah.
And, um, they, they, they fried doughnut poles.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're, they're one of our main participants in our fashion show, Oh, right.
Because they have some fantastic outfits and they are very knowledgeable.
Yeah.
They really know their stuff.
And that leads us a little bit into our upcoming event in July 26th and 27th is our
new civil war event we're having out there.
And I believe the historical timekeepers are coming to that as well.
They can't, this year, they can't this year.
Okay.
Oh, I know they did the last year.
Didn't they?
I think they did.
Yes.
Yeah.
But, um, the soldiers will be there.
Oh, right.
The federal and the Confederate, we've got infantry artillery and cavalry.
We have a medic and, uh, there'll be demonstrations and drills and, uh, uh, skirmish in the afternoon
for everybody to watch.
We shoot off the cannons and it's, it's fun.
It'll be great.
We'll have you guys back for that.
That'll be in July, civil war days will be Saturday, July 26th, 10 to 5, uh, and, and
then July 27th, 11th, another one.
We'll have your back.
We'll talk more about that then.
Yeah.
And it comes to the, uh, point, point bus, uh, point bus, a pioneer festival, any other
things you guys wanted to touch on with that event.
I know there's so much going on.
Did we cover everything?
Doing the day, um, when I'm not doing tea, I'm going to be doing medicinals and what they
did for, um, medicines and, uh, they were prepared and what they used and things like
that because they didn't have a pharmacy here.
Right.
Boy, I, I, I understand that, but when, uh, you're, you know, I love history.
So there's times where I'm just reading stuff and just because out of curiosity.
And I can't remember exactly what it was, but I was reading into the history of black
revolves the other day and I'm going through the article and they're talking about some
of the, you know, uh, tragedies and some of the heavy events that happened, like most
history does.
And in the middle of the article, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's right.
Like it, even I had to be reminded that they can't just go to the far and CVS or something
like that and pick something up and as, as common as, uh, that is to me, it still, I took
me a minute.
That's a really cool idea to bring that into the topic too and that.
We also have a gal who makes pies in the, um, I want to see it.
It's the cast iron lodge, you know, the, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't jump in, don't
jump in, um, over over the fight or coals and she makes pies and so that, that's always
that's our, our, that's one thing I, I like to really instill in people is that historic
point bosses are living history site and when you have a living history site, you don't
just sit and look at stuff, right?
It's a hands on.
You can go to the three bay shed that we have.
They have one working tools.
We have a gentleman that can guide you through the use and you can actually sit down and
use a draw shave.
You can go to the kitchen and help out in the kitchen of the house making different things.
I'm not sure what they're going to be making this year, but they usually have some tasty
treats to hand out that's made right on the wood stove that's there.
Um, how many museums can you go there and interact like this because that's what you're
getting to do here.
You're getting to, it's the opposite of most museums where they're encouraging you to
touch things and to do things.
Right.
You actually sit down in the chairs.
You don't just look at them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so, you know, a lot of this stuff that we have the craftsmen that are there, but we're
very careful for safety purposes, of course, but, uh, you know, we do have a lot of hands
on things and these craftsmen that are there, not members of point boss necessarily, but
these other members, I'm sure they're more willing to, uh, help a little hands on as
well.
So I mean, like, uh, we have the gentleman that, uh, builds muzzle loaders, you know,
yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's very talented.
He has some beautiful arms and stuff that he has.
Yeah.
So there's, um, also, one of the, um, vendors that comes and they compare the rich to the
poor.
Oh, wow.
And that was, that was huge, um, more, even more so than today, um, and, uh, so that's
very interesting as well.
You know, well, the, the first and foremost thing I would say is certainly how family friendly
and how fun these events are and everything.
But again, you know, the, uh, the here and there are opportunities for us to remind people
of not only, you know, how, what, what people went through and how they may got to us to
this point and everything, but they're, I, I think there's also, uh, hopefully a perspective
that comes with this too and appreciation, not just for the past, but even what we're
going through in this day and age and sometimes realizing, you know, hey, I have some perspective.
I have some understanding, you know, when, um, I know for me sometimes when I think, oh,
this was harder, this was difficult.
I went through.
And then I think about my grandparents and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to stop.
I'm just going to, I, it is not bad.
Actually, my stuff isn't that bad in comparison or something like that.
I think that, that, uh, make light of it or anything like that, but I think that that
doesn't hurt.
It's, it's, it's one of those things that kind of reminds you of, like, hey, I've got
it pretty good or I've got, I appreciate this or something.
But one example, and I've given speeches at different organizations of stuff and one
thing I, I talk about the lumber rafting and things like that and one thing I'd like
to bring out is that, uh, at, uh, a lot of the rapids where they lap, rap, rap to dislumber
down the, the rapids and the, the fast water and the rocks and stuff, a lot of men died
and at the dams, they, they fell off the raft and drowned and stuff and different places
there.
Forty men died at this dam and a forty men died at this rapids and, and, you know, and
things like that.
And I said, uh, my ending to that is kind of like, do you think this would be an OSHA approved
job today?
Right.
Yeah.
So a little perspective on past versus today.
Yeah.
Well, and, uh, the amount of things that, uh, came from all those times, I like that.
That's great.
It's a great one.
And it's a great event.
We're excited about it.
Again, uh, the point, uh, point boss pioneer festival is happening Saturday, June 7th,
10 to 5 and then it'll be going on June 8th, 10 to 4, uh, very, very affordable.
They work, they go out of their way to make these prices the same as they've always
been.
Uh, and so it's affordable for the community.
I think it's a really cool and, uh, really, really classy thing of the point boss to
do.
I think the best way we can honor that is by attending these events and showing up and
making sure to help keep history alive over there, along with certainly volunteering.
I always like to encourage people to volunteer if they can, um, always, uh, love having new
people come down and help with all these events and all the great things going on.
Anything else you guys wanted to touch on before we wrap up?
They feel like we cover it, I think we're, we're pretty good, uh, just come down and enjoy
the event.
Uh, the forecast isn't 100% perfect today, uh, you know, for the weekend, but, uh, still,
we have enough cover.
You don't have to worry about too much about the weather or anything, so thank you both
for the time.
Really do appreciate it.
Uh, we'll talk again real soon, guys.
Thank you.
And we appreciate you joining us out there.
Again, keep in mind you can find out more information, register for these events at
HistoricPointBoss.com, go to HistoricPointBoss.com, be sure to follow them on social media as
well.
It's a great way to reach out to them or to just share their posts on your page and
make sure that they, uh, other people see it again, HistoricPointBoss.com.
And thanks again for joining us everybody right here on WFHR's Rapids Report.
