It started out as an ambitious project to make the history of Shawano more prominent, but now Shawano Has History has caught the eye of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
The state society has named the Shawano County Historical Society and Leadership Shawano County as the winners of the state’s 2026 Board of Curators Public Program Award, which recognizes those who have launched interesting and unusual public history programs the year before.
Shawano Has History has been installing plaques over the last two years on historical buildings and other public places that tell how those areas came to be in the early days of Shawano. Besides the brief information on the plaques, there is also a QR code that people with smartphones can use to access the historical society’s website, which provides more detailed information on the city’s historical sites.
To date, Shawano Has History has put up 20 plaques around Shawano, mostly in the downtown area, according to local historical society volunteer Michael Oberle, who also maintains the historical society’s website and Facebook page. In addition to installing the plaques, the historical society and alum from Leadership Shawano County have also conducted walking tours of the plaques for locals and visitors, the next one planned for August, as well as conducted classes and discussions through Shawano Community Education.
“One of the things I’ve come to know because I’ve been on this planet for a lot of decades is that things turn out great when you come up with something — Shawanofest is a good example — where you start something and then it snowballs and all these people get involved to make it great,” Oberle said. “That’s kind of what happened here.”
Four different groups from Leadership Shawano County have helped to raise money for Shawano Has History so the historical society can purchase the bronze plaques, which can cost $2,000 to $3,500 depending on what size they are. There has also been a lot of support from the city of Shawano and the Shawano Business Improvement District, and Oberle has a project planned with the help of the Menominee Nation, as the land that Shawano County sits on was tribal land centuries ago.
“We’ve been at Thursdayz at Franklin and the Saturday farmers markets,” Oberle said.
Oberle said he turned in the application for the award early this year, not expecting anything to come of it, so he was very surprised when the Wisconsin State Historical Society contacted him and informed him the local society was getting the award. He said the award is on the level of a local high school teacher winning the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Teacher of the Year honor or the high school basketball team winning the state championship.
“Who would think little Shawano and Leadership Shawano County and the historical society would win this?” Oberle said. “I looked at this last fall, and I thought, well, why not?”
There are still more plaques to be installed in Shawano, according to Oberle, but the historical society is planning to branch out to other areas of the county. He said Bonduel is a potential next step, as the Bonduel Community Archives could be a resource to locate historical buildings and make them stand out for visitors who come to the area.
Oberle is also looking at the historical society meeting with history teachers at Shawano Community High School to further identify historical sites in the city of Shawano and the neighboring towns to further keep history alive in the area.
