Wisconsin

From City Hall to the Pabst Theater, reminders of the past are part of the fabric of Milwaukee. Yet many historic treasures have been lost to time.

Blocks of homes and apartments replaced the Wonderland Amusement Park. A quiet bike path now stretches where some of fastest trains in the world previously thundered. Today's Estabrook Park was a vast mining operation, and Marquette University covers the old fairgrounds where Abraham Lincoln spoke. Author Carl Swanson recounts these stories and other tales of bygone days.

The lumber kings and paper barons of the Fox River Valley transformed a wilderness of vast, rich timberlands and raging river waters into empires of pine, paper and power. In Oshkosh, lumber dynasties such as Paine and Morgan helped rebuild a nation ravaged by fire and war. Four young Neenah entrepreneurs with no experience in papermaking formed Kimberly-Clark, one of the largest paper manufacturers in the world. H.J. Rogers of Appleton watched his home light up the night after he wired it with Edison's electric lightbulbs, the first in the world to do so utilizing hydroelectricity. These men ushered in an era of opulence shining with steamboat excursions along the river, palatial mansions in plush neighborhoods and lavish hotels and movie houses. Much of this bygone age now exists only in photographs, written accounts or memories. Local photographer and historian Scott Wittman recovers this vanishing history.