Visit Wisconsin Rapids – Historic Point Basse – October ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, proudly brought to you by Crockeneceptic for

this Friday, October 10th, 2025, have your host James here, and join by some of our

favorite people.

We have this door point boss with us right now.

We're going to be talking about some events coming up and going on at the area coming up

around the corner.

But first want to introduce our guests, we first have Joni Wolff with us, Joni, always

good to see you.

Good to see you too, James.

Thanks for being here, and Mr. Mike Hittner with us, Mike.

Always good to talk.

Good morning, James, and everybody in radio land.

Appreciate you being here, both of you, and all you guys put into our communities.

And before we get into the spirit walk, which I love talking about with you, Mike, Joni,

I wanted to go back and just rewind a little bit to the reenactment.

No pun intended with rewinding to a reenactment, but how did that go?

How did the event, how did it take place?

The historic encampment was this past weekend, and it was very well attended.

It is an event that portrays the 1840s in the fur trade life in that time.

There were people that they were making baskets, they were showing all of their...

There was a pie maker there for sure, I know.

Oh, that's right, yeah.

Oh yeah, she was making a pie with wild rice, and she was adding honey and maple syrup

to it.

It's supposed to be just like pecan pie though, I don't think Joni got a piece to try.

But it was well attended, and it seems like it was enjoyed by the community.

I know I heard from a lot of people, they enjoyed it.

And there is so much to learn.

These people are so knowledgeable about that era, and so it just kind of blows you away

when you start listening to them and seeing how life was back then and how they had to

live.

I think what's a little different about this group, James, is that they do almost kind

of a first person reenactment, where a lot of...

We do as like third person, so I mean, you know, it's a little different.

To do a first person, you really got to be immersed in this stuff, to be able to talk

about, you know, what was going on, who was president, what treaties were signed, all

this sort of thing, getting all that detail.

Yeah, yeah, and it seems like this group really had that down.

Yes, they do.

It was very enjoyable, very enjoyable.

Really good to hear, especially because I know at least one of the families that I talked

through that went to it were asking right away, oh, will they do this again next year

and that kind of thing.

So, I know that people are going to be excited about hearing about that and next year

and all those things.

Yeah, and they've been doing, I think, about probably about eight years now, I think.

So, it's been a regular event.

Usually the last weekend of September, the first week in October, usually falls about

that time.

Thank you for that, Johnny, appreciate it.

There is always something going on over at this tour point, Boss, you've all done a very

good job.

We've talked about this mic, about spreading out events and everything.

It's hard for me to say what a signature event is, but boy, if you guys have a signature

event, the spare walk could be it.

It is such a well-attended and well-loved, in tradition.

I don't know where the name came up from because it's back in history there, probably 15,

20 years ago, but it, excuse me, really is a name that says it all, really, because

it's not a scary event where people grab you or anything like that sort of thing, but

it's eerie from the sense of these characters.

A lot of times doing first-person characterization and how they come on, tell the story of how

they lived, how they died, sometimes a little gruesome, but that's, you know, that was the

story at that time, but it's a lot of fun for our own people and also for the people

that are doing it.

We've got people from community theater, at least three or four people from community

theater and from different organizations within the city, and then also a couple of our

own two, three of our own people do it.

So it's kind of a mix of everything, kind of, I don't know on it, say it, but because

this came much before who done it, but a little bit of, you know, the who done it.

Sure.

Spirit walk, you know, it's kind of a malgamation, and when you come to Spirit Walk, you'll

see some of those people that were in who done it.

So, yes.

Right away, a big thank you to the volunteers and everybody that, you know, is able to put

this on and work.

It takes time out of their day to be a part of this one, very similar to the other event.

The Spirit Walk is an immersive experience.

It's a really fun, living, walking experience of history and, you know, fright, a nice

fright, a family fright.

And it's, you know, we suggest for people that maybe have a little rougher time with

a harder time with uneven surfaces to come early because then it's light outside and

you can see good and everything like that.

When you go from place to place, because you're going to walk probably a good quarter

of a mile before you're done in the dark in the dark later on for sure.

And we're, they're always led by a, a leader that leads you with a lantern lantern.

And then you go from place to place and then the view, all the ghosts of the past and

some that probably didn't even know we're on the way, and you will find out that they

come out of almost nowhere to visit you.

So yes, it's a very immersive experience, a hot apple cider from our own apple trees

that were pressed at Harvest Fair.

And you get some hot apple cider and get a little camaraderie in our group that does

the tickets kind of, does a really good job of putting groups together.

Normally about 12 to 15 maximum and any one group because some of the buildings have

capacity limits and that sort of thing.

And so it's a lot of fun.

When you're down there too, you know, if it isn't too dark, you can see the historic

Wakeley home and its reconstruction and how it looks now and that sort of thing they're

doing stone along the foundation and everything.

So it looks really great.

Yeah.

There is safety in numbers.

So the grouping is really nice.

That's really fun for everybody.

It's better for everybody.

But no, I appreciate you mentioning the grouping things because I was talking to my

mom about this last weekend and we couldn't place it for sure.

We're almost pretty sure this was the first event we as a family attended when we moved

here in this area.

And I'm not, I believe we heard about it because through my grandparents and we went to

it and we didn't know idea what to expect.

There was no, you know, we couldn't look it up online back then or anything like that

because I'm old and we're here pre-internet.

But we knew, okay, Spirit Walk, that's kind of my mom's thing.

She gets into that stuff.

This should be fun.

We go down there and it just fell in love with that area, fell in love with this area

really and not only the history of it, but the people of it and everything.

It was our first real good experience in this area and something that we had never been

a part of before.

I mean, we're from the city.

We're from Chicago.

And they don't have anything like this over there, like as far as this living breathing

history in some great museums, but nothing like this.

If Joni and I went to Chicago, we'd be scared too.

There's a, well, similar to this door point boss, the history sometimes is worse than

the present.

And it comes to things at this event and the fun of this event, one of the funnest parts

of this event is if you've been to it near past, it's the same as it was then as far as

paying for the event.

Right.

The price is the same.

It's $5 for adults and $3 for students.

Really haven't changed things.

You've mentioned before we try to make things as reasonable as possible so families can come

and spend an evening or an afternoon with depending on what the event is and not spend

on a fortune to do it.

That's our main goal has always been to make it affordable.

Yeah.

And so appreciated by the community and us around here and everything.

It's noted and we always like to make sure to note that.

One of the other things, one of the mention as far as tickets or for this, do you need

tickets?

Can you just come on down?

You just come on down, right?

Yeah.

Very cool.

And it's kind of first come, first serve that puts you together in groups.

I'd say probably don't sense that the last groups go out around eight or shortly after

eight o'clock.

Don't probably come down later than seven, thirty otherwise it might be hard to get a group

to go out, you know, towards the end there.

And if you are waiting for the other groups to come back because there's a bonfire, you

can sit around and keep your government.

I think it's going to be 72 on Saturday.

Yeah.

I was going to bring that up.

Of all the years you guys have done this, I don't know if I've ever had to not worry about

telling people to dress war.

I don't know if I have to be freezing rain and everything else in between.

Yeah.

Almost every type of weather has happened with that being said, this event does take place

in Wisconsin.

So pay attention to the weather.

Well, you're making sure, you know, we all know it could change any second.

Yeah.

And it's kind of interesting this year, the people I've contacted to be the different

spirits and everything for them wanted to be outside.

No.

I don't know.

We got nice billions that have stoves in them.

We have billions that have fireplaces in them and stuff like that.

For some reason, at least four wanted to be outside, you know, some of those community

theater people Steve Martin might get and they want to be outside.

Yeah.

That's those guys.

But the two men I've worked with many, many times that does not surprise me for a bit.

And it's shout out to again to all the volunteers, all these people being a part of this one.

When it comes to volunteering, Mike and Joni, are we looking for more volunteers for the

event?

Always.

Okay.

What can, if somebody is out there and they are interested in volunteering, what can we

kind of tell them to be expected of volunteering, just kind of helping out extra set of hands

around?

Well, it just depends what you want to do, whether it's folding envelopes and mailing

things, being secretarial like right now and Joni does that for the board and everything

like that and the citizens committee, any of those sort of things that you like to do,

if you want to be one of the characters down to citizens of Point Boss, that's great

too.

But not everybody wants to do that.

And so you don't have to do that.

We have maintenance group that works every Monday in a couple of days during the week if

there's things to do.

So we have things of cataloging things.

I know we've got a whole bunch of new, especially ladies' costumes.

There's some men's costumes that came into the basement of the schoolhouse where we keep

that sort of thing.

So when people come, they don't have to spend $250 in getting an outfit together.

You can borrow some things to find out how they like it before they get really involved

in it.

And we've got all a bunch of things that have to be cataloged and put out.

So I mean, there's lots of things.

We have a sewing committee also that meets at McMillan once a month and we get together

right now.

We're working on putting together a raffle quilt for fundraising.

And we also could use help with writing grants, that sort of thing.

Yeah.

And I put a request and I don't know if Joni has heard of it yet.

But Robert Mary Wakeley's bedroom when everybody tours doesn't have any curtains on it.

Robert Mary Wakeley would prefer curtains.

Oh, sure!

I heard that.

I heard that.

I can't get right out.

No to sell.

No to sell.

No, don't.

And Joni, you are so good at this.

I wanted to make sure that we had a chance to bring up the sewing classes for adults.

I appreciate you kind of bringing this, leading us into it a little bit.

Because you guys, this at McMillan, sewing classes for adults, it takes place at McMillan

the first Monday of each month, is that correct?

Right.

From one to four o'clock in the afternoon, and now in November is open so, so if you want

to get together and so, but in December, there will be a special class that we are partnering

with the library to make Christmas mug rugs.

Oh, cool.

Do you know what a mug rug is?

I don't, but it sounds awesome.

You put your coffee mug on.

Sure.

Like this, but made with material right on.

Okay.

Very cool.

Oh, I like this.

Yeah, Kristen, she's, she's got all kids put together and so, be looking for that information

and then in January, our president, Tina Krummel, will be heading up a class on rug

breeding.

Hmm.

Cool.

Very cool.

Pretty much that's what, what they did in those days, James, is they braided rugs.

We've got a, a barn loom upstairs and that's basically what that does.

It went from farm to farm in the fall and the people saved their rags all year round

and then they braided rugs that they'd have for the next year or so and this is a loom

that's too big for an individual house, but we've got it upstairs because we have no

place else to put it.

But it's a, it's a huge barn loom, but it comes apart down to the minutest material so

it can move easily.

Very interesting.

And I don't, I don't know if you know this or not, Joni.

Maybe you do.

I heard about this in the last couple of weeks from my students.

They're from among young, young, young, young people.

There is this rise to learn more about sewing that there's this like gap between generations

that just didn't even know how to sew.

So a lot of the younger generation, I mean, like younger, younger generation is really

getting into sewing, wanting to know more about it.

So this is a perfect time to be having a class like this.

It is.

It's really cool.

I imagine you're gonna get some, a bunch of different types of people, you know, ages

wise and everything with those classes.

You know, and actually has four machines of their own.

Oh, that's right.

So you don't have a machine and you want to find out what this is all about.

That now's the time to do that.

I appreciate that.

It's like when we were in high school, James, all of us wanted to get in the home app

because that's where all the girls were.

I don't know how much sewing we wanted to do.

Yeah, yeah, I think that was one of those.

Yes, I was guilty of that myself.

Like, I appreciate you guys letting us know about that one.

If you want to find out more about that, and of course, the spirit walk, you can go to

HistoricPointBoss.com, HistoricPointBoss.com to find out more information about those.

And just a reminder, James, for everybody that's on two Saturdays, the 18th and 25th,

6 to 8 p.m.

So if you can't make the first one for some reason, come to the 25th or vice versa.

And also, a lot of times we see people come on the 18th, they bring their friends on

the 25th.

So they come two times.

They liked it so much.

And if you're lucky, you're walking out there in the moonlight in the darkness, you'll

hear a coyote.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Just adds to things.

Oh, I love it.

You have the live surroundings, the live soundtrack, if you will, of the great area over there.

It's a great time.

It's a wonderful time.

And especially if you haven't been to the HistoricPointBoss before or in a while, this

is a great one to come on down to.

HistoricPointBoss, Spirit Walk Saturday, October 18th, and then on the 25th, the week later,

6 to 8 each day at 364, Wiggly Road in beautiful Nekusa.

This Mike was mentioning before that 8 o'clock end time, we want to get there around 730,

really.

Right, because they'll go out after 8 o'clock, but they start to stop taking groups at

8 o'clock.

Yeah.

So make plans get on there.

And I'm with you.

Mike, taking both Saturdays.

Yeah.

It's going to be a good one for both of them, and really like a lot of the live productions.

There's no reruns.

They're all unique and different.

Yeah.

And if you saw it one week, the characters say different things the next week, it's

just because it's a lot of ad-lib.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Johnny Mike, thanks so much for the time and everything you guys put into the community.

Thanks James and WFHR.

And a big thank you to all of you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids

Report.