The Town that Quit Wisconsin: An Unbelievable Step Back In Time at Winneconne’s Historical Museum

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Last year, we explored the wild story of Winnani quitting Wisconsin. Your comments were filled with a big question. Was it all just a clever stunt or something more? Well, the Winnie Historical Society reached out and invited me inside their private museum archives.

[00:00:21]Today, we aren't just talking about the 1967 secession. were stepping inside their vault to see it firsthand. From the original sovereign state border toll passes to the majestic legacy of the Leander Chote and the very rails that built this village, we're going behind the glass for an exclusive deep dive into the artifacts that keep Winnan's bizarre history alive.

[00:00:52]Hey sightseers, sightseeing Sally here.

[00:00:54]I'm back in Winn County, Wisconsin doing a deep dive into the village that seceded temporarily from the state of Wisconsin.

[00:01:07]And with me is Angel, the president of the historical society here in Winnie.

[00:01:13]and Angel is going to get a little bit more in detail about what we got right and what we got wrong with the story. So in 1967 in January a printing salesman came to the village of Winnie County to talk to our village President James Cochland. When he came in the door he said I almost didn't find you because I couldn't find you on the map. The map from 1967 omitted Winnie County.

[00:01:43]On the Wisconsin state map, you had all the other locations around here except for Winnie County.

[00:01:52]The village president talked to all the other local business owners and one of the business owners was Ver Kitchen who owned the Arrowhead restaurant on Main Street.

[00:02:04]She wrote a letter to the map company saying that we were omitted. The map company sent her a message back saying that it was missed in proofreading.

[00:02:17]They've already made the maps. They weren't really going to redo them. So, it would be fixed in the 68 map. What you're saying is essentially the map company came back and said, "Too bad, so sad. You're stuck with what we made for the next year." Right. Yes. Exactly.

[00:02:42]Then the local business owners all got together, had a secret meeting, and came up with a plan to how best can we get Winnie County on the map. Thus came the contest. Ooh, a secret meeting, eh? And a contest. That sounds pretty ingenious.

[00:03:04]Tell me more.

[00:03:04]>> The contest was put out and it was publicized by all the local papers and it even went nationwide. So, this was a big contest. In the April 6th issue of the Winn County News, there was information that Governor Warren Nolles would be named honorary chairman of the contest for ideas to get Winnie County back on the map.

[00:03:26]>> Well, that's an interesting take because I had no idea that the governor was originally in on the whole thing. From what I had read out of what was that oddballs Wisconsin book, I kind of got the sense that perhaps the governor wasn't aware at least initially about the contest or or really the whole secession attempt. So this actually puts a new, you know, light on what really happened. From reading this book about what happened and more of the story about it, it actually says that it went as far as Washington DC and the governor was involved. Wow. That's that's pretty incredible when you think about small town here in Wisconsin.

[00:04:11]Probably not heard of by anybody out of the state. And here we are making national history.

[00:04:19]Exactly.

[00:04:25]Your delightful contest has come to our attention. Thus, we hereby submit our joint recommendations on how to put Winnie back on the map. While the village of Winn County is by no means insignificant, it would seem that the Wisconsin State Highway Commission should be alerted to its great potential.

[00:04:45]Enclosed are several news stories which are guaranteed to put Winnie County on the map for all eternity. Please excuse our brevity in breaking the news, but your 50word ruling prevents the elaboration of details. To our knowledge, you place no restriction on the number of suggestions which could be submitted. Therefore, please consider each news story as a separate entry.

[00:05:07]Sincerely, Janice Badkey and K.

[00:05:10]Clipstein. So, if I'm really understanding this correctly, these two women who were in Washington DC, >> Yes. came up with this idea and they wanted to be able to submit it, but there was what, a word limit? A 50 word.

[00:05:25]>> A 50word limit. Yes.

[00:05:26]>> So, they just submitted their idea through multiple entries.

[00:05:32]>> Yes.

[00:05:33]>> And was able to outline their idea of seceding from the state.

[00:05:39]Is that what I'm getting? Yes, >> that was pretty clever of the two women. You know, a way to circumvent the rules, so to speak.

[00:05:50]>> Contest winner was then awarded a stay a weekend trip to Winnani.

[00:05:56]>> Wow, that was that was a pretty sweet deal. Then they got to come and visit basically.

[00:06:02]>> Yes.

[00:06:03]>> For free.

[00:06:04]>> Yes.

[00:06:07]to pick a day for when Winnie County would secede from the state of Wisconsin. They chose July 20th, 21st, and 22nd because that corresponds with some boat races that we used to have on the Fox River.

[00:06:22]>> Just out of curiosity sake, does that now correspond to when you all still celebrate secession days?

[00:06:32]>> Yes. Sovereign State Days is always July 21st, 22nd, 23rd, whatever falls in in that last weekend in that week 20 the week of the 20s in July.

[00:06:44]>> Okay. And do you still do the boat races too or >> We do not do the boat races. The boat races stopped a long time ago.

[00:06:50]>> Okay. From there, the idea blossomed and they just ran with it. And when we got here, the >> we created the flag. So they created a flag and um so the sovereign city of Winnie County has its own flag. We have the dodo bird which is an extinct piece species that hinted at Winnie Countyy's fate. In the upper right is a skunk with his tail raised illustrating the village's plight.

[00:07:19]The sprig of poison ivy adopted as a state flower for obvious reasons. And in the lower right, a sheep head scorned a scorned fish known to inhabit local waters.

[00:07:32]This dress was worn by Vir Kitchen during the first secession days in July of 1967.

[00:07:39]And you have a picture in here of it, don't you?

[00:07:43]>> Yeah, there's a picture right here of her wearing the dress on the platform.

[00:07:50]Over here we can see them raising the state flag or the newly sovereign state of Winnan's flag.

[00:08:01]And then over here we've got this gentleman here. This was William Slapman who was the secretary of state of this sovereign state of Winnie County. And then this is George Ktos who was the admiral of the navy.

[00:08:17]>> Wow. They even went as far as establishing their own navy.

[00:08:23]>> Yes.

[00:08:25]In a whole cabinet.

[00:08:28]That's a lot of work for just a publicity stunt, you know. It It's very creative and again just a really innovative way of bringing people >> and it did work cuz Winnie County has never been left off the map again.

[00:08:46]>> And it was no joke. Quinny did actually establish a toll bridge. You can see the sign or what's left of the sign that they used. Here are some stickers.

[00:08:57]This one here is the very first one that they handed out. So, everybody that paid a toll got a sticker commemorating the fact that they paid their toll or showing proof that they paid their toll.

[00:09:09]And along with that, we also have some old photos that also establishes credibility to the story. I suppose for those of you who haven't seen the other video, the idea behind the tollbridge was that because Winnie was now seceding and becoming a sovereign state of its own. They no longer felt that motorists should be able to just drive on through their town or their village without, you know, providing some sort of monetary contribution to what was now going to be a new state or place separate from Wisconsin.

[00:09:49]because of course if if they were seceding from the state they wouldn't be receiving those dollars from the state.

[00:09:57]So to go along with the whole publicity stunt they created the tollbridge. Now, before we move on from Sovereign State Days, I just want to mention for those of you interested in learning more about Winnan's secession attempt, you can always come out during Sovereign State Days and check out the displays here in the historical complex or while you're here at the historical complex, you could talk to perhaps Angel or any one of the other volunteers and they'd be happy to answer your questions. Moving on. Whereas Winnani isn't just all about its secession attempt, there's a lot of rich history here in the historical complex, we're going to check out some of the other items on display.

[00:10:52]Given that we are actually in Winnan's old train depot, it makes sense then that we would step into this room here that's dedicated to preserving Winnan's early train history.

[00:11:07]Over here we can see some of the items that were used back in the day with respect to running a railroad or a rail station. We've got multiple oil cans here because of course you would have needed to do a lot of oiling on those old early trains.

[00:11:34]One of the highlights of this room is the velocipede. And this particular one was donated by the Walter Williams family. Walter himself worked for the railroad. Walter was a section foreman.

[00:11:48]And this device, much like a bicycle, would have been driven, as you can see from the sketch there of the individual driving it. It would have been driven along the tracks as a means for rail workers to inspect the tracks.

[00:12:11]Another item of interest that's here in this rail room doesn't have anything necessarily to do with the railroad. It is this old bridge key here. And we'll talk about that a little bit later, but I just want to point that out and you all can remember or hang on to that thought.

[00:12:31]Over here, we can see some of the items that were used. These hooks here were used as a means to basically transmit or relay messages. And then of course you got the messenger or mailbags that were used along the line. From what I understand the line ran from Amro to Winnie and as such really wasn't a long train ride per se where you got a lot of passengers. Correct.

[00:13:06]>> Yes. It was more of a just a day trip because Ammer to Winnie County is just a day trip.

[00:13:12]>> Well back then. Now it's what a 10-minute drive. 15.

[00:13:16]>> 15.

[00:13:18]I spy something with my little eye that I know meandering Marty would have an interest in. This old fire extinguisher or fire extinguisher system.

[00:13:32]Interestingly enough, this particular set has been made safe. Back in the day, the liquid that would have been in there was a chemical that when released would remove all the oxygen out of the room.

[00:13:50]Because the members here of the historical society were concerned about the safety of the people should this fall off the wall, they didn't want all the oxygen to suddenly be removed from the room. When there was no fire, they were able to find a company that was able to remove that liquid and then they replaced it with a harmless blue liquid that you see in there. Now, sorry, Marty, all the good stuff has been taken out. Moving on, we can see that this part of the old train depot is set up for the depot agent. We can see on his desk you would find the different sorts of things that would have been necessary for him to complete his job back then including an old telegraph.

[00:14:47]You've got the Western Union blanks telegram booklet or pamphlet.

[00:14:54]And then for more modern times afterwards you would have used instead of a telegraph or telegram you would have used phones. And you've got a couple of different examples. This one being of course much older than this version here which I'm sure a lot of you recognize.

[00:15:16]There's also this really nice display here showing some of the names of the depot agents from back in the day along with the various stamps that the railroad agents would have used along with the wax seals for envelopes and important things.

[00:15:36]A lot of old artifacts here from Wakani's early days that make this a really unique exhibit.

[00:15:47]Before we move on from the train depot, I just want to point out one or two more things here in this main room that are from Winnan's early days that I think are probably some of the more fascinating pieces of history. But of course, you all can be the judge when you come out and check it out for yourself because you may have a different view as to what you find interesting. For me though, I found the fact that they used to have an old candy factory as part of Winnan's early history. And here in this corner, they show some of the artifacts from that candy factory. These are boxes that the candy were placed in. And if you notice, they have nursery rhymes or related nursery rhymes. And then, of course, the artwork to go with it. Along with that, you've got the old taffy hook from the candy store, one of their old bowls, and this marble piece here, which if you know anything about candy making, the importance of keeping certain ingredients cold.

[00:16:59]That's why they use the marble, cuz the marble would stay cold.

[00:17:03]If you're somebody who likes to reminisce and remember the good old days, this would be the perfect place to do it. Because as we look around the room, you can see that here in Winnani, they have collected a number of old artifacts from businesses around town.

[00:17:21]Things like the old bank thermometer from Union Bank of Winnie to keychains to old ashtrays.

[00:17:31]There's a lot of history here that's all waiting to be discovered by you.

[00:17:38]We're now inside the little building. It looks like a little house from the outside. This building actually was used as an infirmary for the children's country home that was here in Winnie years ago. This would have been in the early 1900s.

[00:17:58]And as you can see, they have it set up to reflect what a home would have looked like back in the day. The children's country home, if you didn't know, was a place where families could send their children if they weren't able to care for them. So, it wasn't just an orphanage like a lot of people thought.

[00:18:19]It was actually uh used for families who were struggling who they would send their boys to come work at the farm, maybe send some of their girls if it just was a place where children could come if their parents just didn't have the means to care for them.

[00:18:38]Looking at some of the old artifacts here. I was just reminded of the place we explored last week, Red All in Suring. Who remembers me talking about Red and Saring? Well, interestingly enough, they have powdered sage here, or at least the old container from it sitting in the display along with Nabiscoco Premium Sultas, Campfire Marshmallows, Johnston Milwaukee Charm Soda Crackers.

[00:19:12]Huh. Apparently, those are pre- Nabiscoco.

[00:19:17]They were possibly the original soda cracker. possibly.

[00:19:23]Don't take my word for it.

[00:19:28]Some of you might recall when we visited Lena, Wisconsin, and we explored their one room schoolhouse. Well, now we get to see the inside of this one room schoolhouse.

[00:19:40]This one room schoolhouse was built in in 1889 and it was moved 15 miles in 1980.

[00:19:51]Now if we look around we can see a number of old typewriters and various books that would have been used by those studying.

[00:20:04]Who remembers using one of these old typewriters a royal or a mole or molly? I'm not really sure how to pronounce that one. I'm familiar with the old Underwood style typewriters, not because I ever used one, but because I've often read books or stories talking about a writer typing on their underwood. In fact, I think there is an old Stephen King novel or novellet that focuses in on a writer who writes using an Underwood typewriter. Just a little FYI fact. For those of you who are from the area, you might be interested to know that here they have an extensive collection of old yearbooks dating back to the very early days of Winnani school system.

[00:21:08]Here's something that some of you might find rather interesting. I'll just grab this piece of paper because you won't have the reflection on it. But basically, it's the rules of conduct for teachers.

[00:21:22]According to this, I would have broken a ton of their rules and would have been disqualified as a teacher because you must wear at least two pett coats, which you're not going to catch me wearing pett coats these days. And your dresses must not be shorter than 2 in above the ankle. Raw raw. They got me with number nine, which is you may under no circumstances dye your hair.

[00:21:51]Yeah, I think I would be in violation of that as well because highlights I think would be considered dyeing your hair, right? And then of course you've got things like you must be home between the hours of 8:00 p.m.

[00:22:06]and 6 a.m.

[00:22:08]How many times did I violate that back in the day?

[00:22:13]Sorry, not sharing that.

[00:22:17]And you're not to keep company with men.

[00:22:23]Does that mean women back then could not be married as a school teacher? I'm thinking so. I think I read somewhere along that line that early school teachers were basically had to be single women.

[00:22:48]Last time I was here, I was curious about the Kwyly Doll Museum. Well, I have the answers as to how this portion of the complex came to be. According to what I was told, Kay was a philanthropist from Ashkosh, Wisconsin, and she had an extensive doll collection with o with with exactly 500 dolls in her collection. And as she was getting on in her years, she was looking for a place to establish a site for her collection. and she wanted to build a building to hold her collection.

[00:23:33]She had no family. She had no children.

[00:23:36]She had never married. She approached the city of Ashkosh with her idea of building something to house and display her dolls. And interestingly enough, they said no.

[00:23:52]She then came to Winnani and asked the village leaders if they would be interested in doing some sort of collaboration with her and they said yes.

[00:24:02]And there is a massive amount of dolls in here. Like I said, she had 500 dolls in her collection. Of all the dolls here, that's 95%.

[00:24:13]Another 5% or so have been added over the years by some of the village residents.

[00:24:27]For instance, we can see some dolls here that were created by Jan Jablonski.

[00:24:35]Look at those. And then next to it are some other dolls on display.

[00:24:42]Wow, quite a unique collection.

[00:24:50]Definitely something you wouldn't find in most museums, much less a small town museum.

[00:25:00]Next up, inside the legendary Leander Chote. Now, it's my understanding that the Leander Chote operated from 1908 to 1918 and it is one of the last, if not the last steamboat excursion vessel to operate or to be built in this area. And what's unique about it along with what I've already shared is that a portion of it was taken and put on land and made into a home for several different families on Lake Butmore. One of the families when after they had put it on land, they added onto it these porches that go around the exterior of the original steamboat. And when they did that, they included these pocket windows, which are really unusual. And Angel is going to demonstrate for us how the pocket window works.

[00:26:24]And then of course they would have had a screen in place here that would have allowed, you know, a nice summer breeze into the porches.

[00:26:37]That is a really unique feature, one I have never seen before. I have seen pocket doors in play, but never a pocket window.

[00:26:47]From these pictures that are on display, you can see the evolution of the Leander Chote.

[00:27:04]This is really unique. You won't find anything else like this, I don't think, anywhere in Wisconsin or perhaps even in the United States. This room here would have been where the paddle wheel would have been. Obviously, you can see that they added a fireplace here that would not have been there. And how they've decorated it goes back to one of the historical society's presidents, Jerry or Geraldine Driscoll. She served 27 years as president for the historical society. And a way to honor her, they've taken her furnishings and set them up here in this room.

[00:27:56]This room here is another one of the addon porches.

[00:28:02]There's a portion where we can see what the hull of the steamboat looked like.

[00:28:07]We'll get to that in a moment. But first, I want to point out this old hunting uniform.

[00:28:13]So much different than the blaze orange everybody wears now.

[00:28:18]Something that you may not know about Winnan's early history is that they used to have a boat manufacturer here in town known as Corn Brothers. And this old wooden boat here, look at look at how well preserved that is. That is one of the old boats that they had made.

[00:28:40]It's pretty incredible.

[00:28:52]Usually I say, "If only these walls could talk." Well, only if this old Evanrude boat motor could talk. Back in the day, this was owned by a gentleman whose nickname was Mulligan, and he ran a resort and tavern uh in town, and he was known to be a rather colorful character.

[00:29:16]And for those of you who watched last week's video, you know that we were talking about Evanrude a tiny bit in Saring.

[00:29:28]If you haven't seen last week's video yet, I'll link it or I'll have it linked for you down below. This next part is really fascinating as it shows the main part of the steamboat experience that people would have had back in the day. This was the old saloon and this would have been where the passengers would have hung out during their excursion along the Wolf River.

[00:30:00]And you can see that this room is set up with a lot of old dark wood.

[00:30:12]If you listen quietly, you can almost hear the guests laughing, the tinkle of ice in their drinks as they cruised along.

[00:30:27]Getting this here was no easy feat. As you can see, they had to jack up the structure and place metal or iron bracing underneath it. And then it took one last voyage out on the water and was floated to just a little waste from here. Right.

[00:30:50]>> Yes.

[00:30:52]And then they had to after they got it floated down here, they had to get it back on land and then drive it over.

[00:31:06]What an incredible feat.

[00:31:10]A lot of manpower to get that here.

[00:31:15]Angel tells me they had to do it during the middle of the night. I suppose it was to prevent any kind of problems with the traffic and look.

[00:31:32]And speaking of looks, as promised, you can see what the actual side of the steamboat looked like, how it curves.

[00:31:42]This room that we're in here was added on. It was one of the porches that I mentioned earlier that was added on. And then walking back in here, we would have been at the front of the steamboat. And like I said, this was the saloon or the area where the guests spent their time when going out on their steamboat excursion.

[00:32:12]Some of you might be wondering why there is a room dedicated to Beauty Moore's history. That's because this was, as I said earlier, situated on land on Lake Beautore. And this room here is a part of Butim Moore's historical society that is done in collaboration with Winnan's historical society.

[00:32:46]And this gentleman here that's pictured here is credited with being the founding father of Beautymore.

[00:32:56]For those of you curious about the steamboat's original architecture, in the galley here, you can see things like the original beadboard that was used to make the walls and the ceiling. And along with that, there was a swingway counter that is now covered in for mica.

[00:33:20]In addition, if we go into the bathroom, you can see that there was an old claw foot bathtub in here.

[00:33:38]The old steamboat has a second story to it. We're now in what would be known as the captain's quarters. This would have been his office. And then back over here would have been his bedroom or where he would have slept.

[00:34:06]They have displayed here pilot rules for the Great Lakes and they're connecting and tributary waters.

[00:34:16]Excuse me. tributary. I just want to point out again the woodwork that's in here. Look at the ceilings and the walls.

[00:34:30]From what I understand, this steam boat was a premier experience back in the day. This was considered a luxury excursion.

[00:34:44]And no doubt the captain got to enjoy his luxurious quarters as well.

[00:34:56]Now, here's something you might find fascinating.

[00:35:00]Who knows what a Hoyer lift is? Did you know that the man who designed and created the Hoyer lift was from Winnani, Wisconsin? The man being Theodore Hoyer. For those of you who don't know, Theodore Hoyer was paralyzed in a car accident at the age of 16 back in, I believe, 1936.

[00:35:30]As a result of that accident, he became interested in designing or developing aids or devices to help those who needed him. One of those devices being the Hoyer lift, which if any of you have ever worked in the nursing industry or at a nursing home, you know that these devices are used on a regular basis to assist lifting those who can't move or lift themselves.

[00:36:06]Who would have thought all this interesting history would be found right here in the village of Winnani.

[00:36:17]Our last stop for today is the bridge tenders building.

[00:36:24]We'll get into that just a moment.

[00:36:27]First, I want to point out this section here of the old Winnani Bridge that sits outside along with this plaque card explaining the history of Winnani Bridges.

[00:36:44]They even had an old iron bridge here during the years from 1888 to 1934.

[00:36:51]Now, if you recall towards the beginning of the video when we were still inside the real depot, I had pointed out a key that I said we would talk about later on. Well, this is the point where we're going to talk about it because that key was used to operate the center portion of the iron bridge. The iron bridge was a swing bridge and that center portion of the bridge would pivot open using a turntable style draw and the key was used to crank the large gear system.

[00:37:32]Going inside the bridge tenders building is an immediate blast from the past. At least for me growing up in Two Rivers there, we had several bridges and back in the day they required bridge tenders to operate them. And as a kid, I can remember hanging out watching the guy in the little building operating the bridge. Well, I always was curious and wondered what what they did or how that worked. Here in the bridge tenders building, we can see just exactly the types of controls that were necessary for opening Winnan's bridge. Now, I imagine these controls fairly standard and what we're looking at is probably very much like what our bridge tender back into Rivers had to use when operating our bridge. Before we go, I just want to take the opportunity to thank Angel for taking time out of her day to show me around and let me experience more in depth Winnan's history. It was a fabulous experience.

[00:39:00]Thank you. Thank you. So, with that, we're going to bid you all ado. Until next time.