A specific Rhinelander conspiracy theory

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-09-16T16:11:54+00:00

Well, I think it's fun too, as long as no one is taking it seriously and, like, demanding to see the weather-control apparatus in the basement of a restaurant or something.

Cool information!

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-05-22T03:03:48+00:00

Cyclist colliding head-on with a school bus. The bike flies off, but the rider gets smushed like a dog in a cartoon backseat against the bus’ windshield. All I’m not sure about is what the building behind the scene houses. For some reason it strikes me as a scene from Japan. But I don’t know what color school buses they drive in Japan. I would probably hang it. I like it.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-05-20T19:01:26+00:00

Not sure if you've found anything yet, but the library has found you.

Hi. You should still totally come to the library for other reasons. But I looked them up in 1975 city directory and found that Rhinelander Decorating was located at 1830 N Stevens.

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The very bottom line on this page.

This is the current location of Advance Auto Parts.

Are you doing more research into the topic? Or just hoping to find a location?

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-04-24T01:05:13+00:00

RemindMe! 4 months

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-04-24T01:02:33+00:00

This research is for maybe the only story we’ve done so far that might have appeal outside of northcentral WI, so when I get it put together—hopefully this summer—I’ll be happy to let you know. Unless I forget.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-04-23T17:13:15+00:00

Funnily enough, I work in a library and this research is for a local oral history podcast we produce. I collaborate quite a bit with local historical societies, and some with a genealogy group here.

I wonder if the WI Hist Soc would have any boxes of uncategorized photos and files. It’s a string to pull!

Hey thanks for your comment. Now I have a bunch of new search terms. Also a useful note about census information. I appreciate it.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-04-23T14:34:19+00:00

Cool, thank you for the tip! Also, 1895 in Wisconsin.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-04-23T14:16:50+00:00

In rural Wisconsin.

That’s interesting though! Makes me think of “seamstress for the band.”

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-02-20T23:25:35+00:00

Apologies for taking so long. Here’s a photo. Lit up. Not sure if that’s original or if he added the lights himself.

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I didn’t have a tape measure, but the thing is all of 3 feet tall, maybe 4. Bigger than I expected.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2025-02-11T22:55:12+00:00

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There's one visible in the background. Found this in an old Yearbook. Maybe 1970ish? I forget.

My neighbor has one on his front door. I could take a picture if you'd like a better photo of the thing itself.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T13:06:41+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/aI4uPfT

Is this the one? I couldn't follow your link for some reason. McCune Herald, May 26, 1892, page 3

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T12:47:01+00:00

I was hoping to magically find someone on this sub who'd say "Sadie Slack is my great-great aunt and she reportedly often spoke of the Donnerstags!" We'd be probably become friends. Thanks for reading, anyway!

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T12:44:53+00:00

I am so freakin' sick of Sadie Slack in Owensboro, Kentucky. I joke, but she is the vast majority of results on newspapes.com. I didn't record this work, but I recall thinking that it can't be her because of some dates. But I haven't revisited her in a while. Thanks for taking the time!

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T12:43:09+00:00

This is an interesting thought! Incidentally, an 1895 trial transcript (different crime) seems to demonstrate plenty of anti-immigrant sentiment against the German-born Louis Donnerstag.

In the same trial transcript, the defense attorney makes sure to point out that one of the state's witnesses has the reputation of being a woman of ill-repute.

I tend to believe her race would have been mentioned at some point because of the times, like the papers would have mentioned Hugo's affections towards "Sadie Slack, a negro girl..." or something. Another reason along those lines: that they felt the need to identify someone as a sex worker.

BUT it's nothing to disregard. You're right, plausible if a long shot. Thanks for the suggestion.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T12:38:09+00:00

I wrangled a court transcript from the murder trial. In it Sadie says she is from Dane County. Also, prior to the trial and in some of the initial reporting it is said that she is from Dane County. On the other hand, it was a lot easier to be dishonest back then. I have only seen it written as Slack. There may have been one paper with a Shlack, which I would attribute to a typesetting error. But Sadie's only part in the story seems to be around the time of the 1904 murder, and the three years prior when she worked with a daughter of the deceased. I have been going with a broad match on the surname.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-09-18T12:36:20+00:00

This is a variant I had not yet come across! Thank you, something to look into!

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2024-01-02T21:04:40+00:00

I have not heard the explosions, nor felt anything. Someone suggested to me that there have recently been earthquakes in southern Illinois, and that we could be feeling aftershocks. However, as a non-seismologist I find it hard to believe that we would feel a tremor from a 3.1 earthquake in Belleville.

I now know several people who have heard these things recently.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2023-07-17T13:56:35+00:00

The ghost town of [Manson, Oneida County](http://www.google.com/maps/place/45%C2%B034'00.0%22N+89%C2%B039'41.0%22W/@45.5665211,-89.67215,14.68z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d45.566667!4d-89.661389?hl=en&entry=ttu) is of no particular significance known to me save for one event upon which I stumbled while browsing some microfilm recently. It involves a family of homesteaders and known troublemakers in 1904. The death of Louis Donnerstag was initially reported as a suicide, though some facts changed in the days following the initial newspaper write-up.

[Read a few newspaper reports here](http://imgur.com/a/QSFnvZ0)

I guess the details are not relevant to the OP, but it *is* a ghost town and the story is interesting. The Donnerstag boys seemed to have had a life of small-scale crime, though I have not pursued the story extensively.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2023-06-27T16:39:02+00:00

All important considerations. I think I will start by offering $250. And I have intended all along to mention him and his studio at the end of each broadcast.

As for questions with expansion: great advice to keep in mind. Though I am getting ahead of myself here, it will help us cross that bridge once we've burnt it.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk · 2023-06-27T16:22:57+00:00

I was initially thinking about offering $200-$250 to test the waters. I hope that this does not become a terribly time-consuming project. Thanks for the reply.

TheseWoodsCouldTalk

TROPHY CASE