Advertise on podcast: WXPR A Northwoods Moment In History

After a few mild years, this winter of 2025/2026 has reminded the Northwoods who’s boss; mother nature.

Long before flashing lights, diesel engines, and steel blades scraping asphalt, winter travel in the Northwoods of Wisconsin was a slower, tougher proposition

Local libraries have always been more than buildings with books, they’re the beating heart of a community. They preserve our stories, protect our history, and give every generation a place to learn, gather, and grow.

The Northwoods of Wisconsin, with its rough logging boom towns and frontier justice, saw its own share of gun smoke and violence in the early 1900s.

In Wisconsin’s story, where tall pines once fed the logging booms, the rivers also carried life from forest to farm. Flowing from its headwaters in Forest County, the Wolf River connects the Northwood’s to central Wisconsin, and gave rise to more than timber, it gave us the Wolf River Apple, a variety that looms larger than the rest, quite literally.

From the iron hills of Hurley, Wisconsin, came a man who waged war not with weapons, but with secrets. Leon Lawrence Lewis, born in Hurley in 1888 to German Jewish immigrants, would one day be called the “spymaster of Los Angeles.”

Rhinelander Paper Company, quietly played a vital role in getting our troops the tools they needed to fight and win

There was a time when Boom Lake in Rhinelander wasn’t just a quiet, scenic waterway, it was a Northwoods’ racetrack.

It wasn’t all that long ago that seeing a bear in Northern Wisconsin wasn’t just a wilderness encounter. It was a roadside attraction.

What began as a whimsical marketing campaign by the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce transformed into a memorable community celebration of local culture.

The Northwoods is no stranger to winter weather, and ice storms have historically been among the most destructive. But even by Wisconsin standards, the most recent ice storm that slammed northern Wisconsin March 29th and 30th, 2025 was one for the books.

In the heart of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, Lelah Starks tilled out a legacy that would shape the potato industry for generations. A woman ahead of her time, Starks became one of the most respected seed potato growers in the country, blending science with practical farming expertise.

Among storied Northwoods doctors are names like Torpy, Pelham-Newcomb, Sheik, and Cline. But one Rhinelander doctor worked diligently to usher in a new age of medicine during his five decades of practice, Dr. Warner S. Bump.

Winter weather records are a fascinating thing to explore, from the longest stretches with snow on the ground to the heaviest snowfalls in a single season or day. Digging into the record books is a chance to relive the power of winter, and today, we’re taking a look at some of Rhinelander’s most memorable winter weather events.

On Friday, March 12, 1920, the Rhinelander Woman’s Club gathered at the Teachers Training College in the old Oneida County Courthouse for a special “mock election.” This wasn’t just a simple exercise—it was the final exam for a citizenship class that aimed to prepare local women for their first opportunity to vote in a U.S. Presidential election.