A Scary Proposition: Voyageur's Winter/Spring 2008 Issue
by Victoria Goff, Editor
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 A graveyard with a dozen tombstones. Body parts sticking out of the ground-a leg here, an arm there.
A wrought-iron fence with skulls perching on the posts.
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That's only part of what I can see from a window in my home as I write about Voyageur's current Winter/Spring 2008
issue. Halloween is more than two weeks away, but my neighbors across the street are ready to welcome little ghosts and goblins.
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Halloween is also in the air at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where Voyageur is designed and produced.
Since the beginning of this semester, graphic arts students working on the magazine have been intrigued by ghost stories associated with an article
about the former Catholic seminary at St. Nazianz in Manitowoc County. They've even joked about taking a field trip to the seminary and doing a
sleepover.
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Ghost stories aside, author James Frink's article about the St. Nazianz seminary in our Winter/Spring issue is
compelling enough. Frink tells us about three stages of development at St. Nazianz. The first began in 1854, when a group of German immigrants,
led by Father Ambrose Oschwald, established a religious colony there. The second era began in 1896, when the Salvatorian fathers arrived. And
the final stage began in 1968, when the seminary built at St. Nazianz became the John F. Kennedy Preparatory school (JFK Prep).
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Here's a rundown of other articles in our Winter/Spring issue:
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- Richard Mason and Steven Wagner tell Voyageur readers about a long wooden bridge that once spanned Little Lake
Butte des Morts in Winnebago County. Today all that remain of the bridge, built for horse-drawn wagons, are underwater rock piles and submerged wood
pilings. The bridge's wooden construction above water has long since been removed. In their article, the authors recount how a group of scuba divers
and archeologists used GPS in 2006 to map the site where the wagon bridge was built.
- Dr. Michael O'Brien, a prolific historian best known for biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph McCarthy and Vince Lombardi, gives Voyageur readers
a slice of his own history with his memoir of growing up on the West Side of Green Bay in the 1950s. Many of our readers may relate either to growing
up this decade, growing up Catholic, or growing up in Wisconsin. I identified with his account of lazy summer days spent at Fisk Park. My mother, like
O'Brien's, was a working mother, and she took advantage of my hometown's summer park programs.
- I also identified with another article, by Dr. Joan Jensen, in our current issue because I've always loved circuses, especially Ringling Brothers
Barnum and Bailey Circus-the circus of my youth. Author Jensen tells readers about the late 1800s and the early decades of the twentieth century, when
big, well-financed national circuses began putting small homegrown circuses out of business. In particular, she relates the trials and tribulations of
the Skerbeck Circus, a small Wisconsin circus from Clark County just west of Wausau that had its roots in Europe but flourished for a time in the
northern part of the state, touring there and in Minnesota and Michigan. Two interesting aspects of this story are its focus on the role of the
Skerbeck women and the troupe's collaboration with noted black circus entrepreneur, Ephraim Williams.
- Karyl Enstad Rommelfanger writes about Charles Rosstaeuscher, a German brewer who arrived in Manitowoc in 1853. Wilhelm Rahr took him on as a partner
in his brewery business. This proved a fatal mistake when Rosstaeuscher got into a feud with a bartender at Franklin Hall in Manitowoc and accused him
of selling more of the competitor's beer than his beer. The disagreement led to a fight in which the brewer stabbed and killed the bartender. This
began a series of crimes blamed on Rosstaeuscher that challenged how the law would be administered-by law enforcement, the courts and by the people-in
mid-nineteenth century Wisconsin.
- To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Lambeau Field in 2007, we asked award-winning sports writer Cliff Christl to write a piece to accompany a
photo essay we planned for Green Bay's famous football landmark. Christl has also written a book about Lambeau Field.
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We at Voyageur hope these articles will provide you with hours of reading pleasure.
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