Town of the Week

Crandon, Wisconsin
May 6, 2000

Head over to Crandon, Wisconsin; just listen in.

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When Sam Shaw resigned as superintendant of schools in Madison, Wisconsin in 1885, he signed on as a real estate agent for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Shaw moved to northeastern Wisconsin that spring where he plotted a town which was to become the seat of Forest County.

This area, east of Rhinelander, was an unborked forest of heavy hardwood and high moraine ridges which settlers called "Little Kentucky." Shaw persuaded the few people living on the shore of Metanga Lake to change the name of the little community from Ayr to Crandon, in honor of the tax commission of the railroad, Frank Crandon. When the train came rolling in in 1901, Crandon's logging future was secure.

Today, this town of 2,000 people manufactures wood products at the Beemis Plant, makes trolleys for the nation's cities, and enjoys the exploits of the high school Cardinals. In the near future, Crandon's northwoods serenity could be changed dramatically, if it becomes the home of the Crandon mine. If permits are granted, the mine will be a major sulfide operation, digging 55 million tons of ore, recovering zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold, in an area the size of 340 football fields. It's the home of the Forest-Republican, great fishing and hunting, and our Town of the Week, Crandon, Wisconsin.