One of Russell Demmith’s earliest memories is coming to Hunters and Fishermans Bar in Lena as a kid with his father.
“I got a Baby Ruth candy bar that was like half a pound or a quarter pound for a nickel, and it would last all day,” he said. “It would be so smoky in here that you couldn’t even see. Everybody was smoking cigarettes, big stogies or corn cob pipes. You could bring a ham in here in the morning, and it would be smoked at night.”
Demmith’s life has come full circle, as the 82-year-old still spends his weekends at the tavern at 133 W. Main St. He’s owned and operated the business for 29 years and has no plans to retire, despite battling a cancer diagnosis for seven years.
While part of Hunter and Fishermans Bar is modern — like the flat-screen television above the bar — other areas of the tavern haven’t changed in years, like the taxidermy collection of 1,000 mounted animals.
Demmith credits Jack Kinzinger, longtime owner of the bar, with having his fingerprints all over the business.
“He was one of the first licensed taxidermists in the state of Wisconsin,” Demmith said.
Most of Kinzinger’s mounts of fish, birds and mammals are displayed on walls in a back room at the tavern, while others are in the main room.
The tavern once had about 1,500 mounts, but Demmith whittled that number down during a remodeling project.
“I took every one down when we remodeled 21 years ago,” he said. “I got rid of about 500 of them. I threw them in a Dumpster. I shouldn’t have done that, but I did. Some of them were in bad shape.”
Demmith’s wife cleaned each mount, a process that took several months.
“We started the remodeling in April, and she finished the week before deer (hunting) season,” he said. “It took her about three hours per animal.”
Some of the mounts are more than 100 years old, and Demmith believes it’s one of the largest collections of taxidermy mounts in the country.
“There’s only one in California that’s bigger,” he said.
Demmith said he’s surprised that the mounts have survived for decades without falling apart.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “(Kinzinger) made his money as a moonshiner. He was a big bootlegger. He was the richest man in Lena. I have a ledger that’s this thick at home of all the people he borrowed money to.”
Demmith ended up purchasing the tavern from Kinzinger’s relatives long after Kinzinger died in 1965. Kinzinger took the bar over from the original owner in 1900 and operated it with his late wife, Pearl.
“Every day’s a new day,” Demmith said when asked why he keeps the tavern open on weekends. “People come from all over. We had three people a week ago Sunday from Africa. They’re engineers working at Marinette Marine. Yesterday, we had them from Oklahoma, from Stratford. I have the Chicago Tribune coming back, and they want to do another story.”
The bar is currently open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and will soon be open on Thursday as well.
The only food available is popcorn, pretzels and potato chips. There also isn’t any beer on tap, as it’s only available in cans and bottles.
Several former Green Bay Packers players have visited the bar and would make the 40-mile trip from Green Bay.
“Everybody from the glory years was here — Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Dave Robinson, Lionel Aldridge,” Demmith said. “Willie Wood was dating a gal from Lena. People would find out and come in. The only one I get now once in a while is Don Beebe. He has a cabin up by the Four Seasons (Island Resort). He bought 300 acres from (Wisconsin) Public Service.”
Another former Packers player, Tony Bennett, the team’s first-round draft pick in 1990, hunted in the Lena area.
“He hunted a couple of miles out of town,” Demmith said. “He owned a sport shop up here with a guy from Lena.”
Former Packers athletic trainer Pepper Burruss also stopped in on occasion.
“He wants to come back and bring Brett Favre with him,” Demmith said. “He said, ‘You got stuff to sign, he’ll sign anything for you.’”
Favre has also been in the tavern while he played in Green Bay from 1992 to 2007.
“He would come in here and nobody would have to buy a drink,” Demmith said. “He bought for everybody every time he came in here.”
Favre would usually show up out of the blue, but Demmith would let people know if he knew he was coming.
“Absolutely,” he said. “That’s a no-brainer. People would like to know when Brett Favre came in.”
Two natives of Iron Mountain, Michigan, have also stopped in: former San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci and current Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo.
Demmith’s cancer diagnosis in 2019 didn’t force him into closing his home away from home.
“The doctors said I shouldn’t be around people because I have no white blood cells to fight infections,” he said. “I definitely can’t go to a nursing home because there are too many germs in there.”
He’s had radiation treatments to fight the cancer.
“I’m holding my own,” he said. “I’m at the doctor four or five times a month at least.”
Retirement isn’t in Demmith plans. He’s been down that road already after working as a mason and at a paper mill in Marinette before he purchased the tavern.
He’d like to see the business stay in the family and said that’s a possibility down the road.
“I’m a people person, and I think that helps a lot,” Demmith said. “People say, ‘What’s your special?’ I say, ‘You’re looking at him.’”
Russell Demmith plays cards with friends on a recent Saturday afternoon at Hunters and Fishermans Bar, a tavern on Main Street in Lena that he has owned and operated for 29 years. (Greg Seubert)
Taxidermy mounts and vintage lighted beer signs help bring customers into Hunters and Fishermans Bar in Lena. (Greg Seubert)
