Preserve the past, embrace the present and look to the future.
That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind the Mountain Historical Society, which has been preserving the rich history of the northern Oconto County community since 1999.
Brenda Carey-Mielke is the society’s president and said not every community has an active historical society.
“It’s part of our history,” she said. “It was a lumberjack community. It was a thriving community, and that’s how it grew. Logging diminished, lumberjacking was a thing of the past and the community started to fade away. It evolved into people relying on tourism. It’s now a tourist area, and that’s what’s going to help our economy.”
Besides operating a museum on state highways 32 and 64 in Mountain, the organization recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain the former Green Lake Picnic Area. The forest service closed the popular picnic area and several other recreation areas throughout northern Wisconsin in 2015 to cut costs.
Carey-Mielke spearheaded an effort to reopen the park because it includes a pavilion built in 1937 that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Barb Palmer is the historical society’s vice president and an original board member. She approached Carey-Mielke five years ago about getting access to the pavilion in the closed park.
“She came to me and said, ‘We have to get that shelter,’” Carey-Mielke said. “I said, ‘What is it?’ We went over there and I saw it was on the National Register, and I said, ‘They can’t close it.’ COVID had just started, and it was hard to get a hold of people. I’m persistent as hell, and I don’t give up. I just kept the drum beating. I just kept the message coming loud and clear, but politely. That’s what it took.”
The National Register of Historic Places is the federal government’s official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or artistic value. In this state, the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Historic Preservation Office administers the National Register program, which includes about 2,300 properties and districts in Wisconsin.
“In the agreement with the Forest Service, there has to be a connection, but there has to be a defining wall between finances and record keeping,” Carey-Mielke said. “We make sure we have that well established, and we have an excellent fiduciary who makes sure that everything is separate and keeps that wall there for transparency.”
Besides the park’s shelter, other Mountain area properties on the list are the dam at Chute Pond County Park and the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower.
“I approached the (U.S.) Forest Service as president of the Mountain Historical Society,” Carey-Mielke said. “We also have the dam at Chute Pond. We have these places on the national registry, and people want to see them.”
Carey-Mielke said the historical society has evolved over the years and uses its new website — www.mountainhistoricalsociety.org — and Facebook page to update members and area communities on the group’s activities.
According to the website, the society aims “to identify, restore and protect those artifacts that represent and identify the rich history of Mountain; preserve and protect our history for generations to come; share the rich history of Mountain through educational newsletters, brochures, tours of our log cabin museum; (and) host educational historic public programs.”
“We have a new group that took over,” Carey-Mielke said. “We rebranded last year and have a new logo. We wanted to give it a new face and just build on positives — no past negative history. We build on our heritage. We just did a newsletter on our Facebook page. The old group just wanted us to send it to the members, and we said, ‘Nope. The newsletter needs to go out to the masses.’ We received donations with someone living in Las Vegas. We received donations from Alaska. We’re nowhere near where we want to be, but it’s getting there.”
Carey-Mielke said it’s important to preserve the area’s past history.
“The Mountain Historical Society teaches people what the past was like,” she said. “It brings in tourism and helps our economy. A lot of people don’t understand that.”
The society’s museum is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend and will be open from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays through Labor Day weekend.
“Knowing your past helps you grow,” Carey-Mielke said. “We want to know what worked in the past and what didn’t work. You move forward, you grow and you evolve from that. We have a lot of people who still live in that past, and that’s OK. We’re trying to educate, inform and make everybody a part of it.”
Carey-Mielke and her husband, Skip, purchased property in the Mountain area more than 25 years ago and moved to the area from Kenosha 10 years ago. She also serves on the Mountain Town Board and was recently elected town chairman in April.
“Some ladies at my church in Mountain asked me to join, and the average age on the board was 80,” she said. “They said I would be the youngest person (on the board). I love the history up here and love the people. I’m a sponge. I love to learn and absorb whatever I can.”
Information on joining the society as a member or volunteer can be found on the organization’s website and Facebook page.
Keeping the lumberjack legacy alive
