By Daily News Staff

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The City of Rhinelander’s Parks, Buildings, and Grounds Committee has approved a $5,000 contribution to the Rhinelander Logging Museum that will help the museum relocate a 100-year-old sawmill to Pioneer Park. The city’s grant would match the sum Oneida County promised to the museum last month.

“The parks committee took a tour of the saw mill and we met with Mae Marquardt last week. It’s going to be a great addition and we’re excited to have the mill as part of the Pioneer Park exhibit,” said committee chair, Sherrie Belliveau.

The contribution will be drawn from the city’s portion of the room tax money generated by local hotels. Room tax money is earmarked to promote the city’s tourism industry.

“It’s a perfect opportunity for us to use room tax funds for a tourist-related activity,” said Belliveau.

The circular-blade saw mill was used to mill lumber on a regular basis until Red’s Sawmill closed for business 14 years ago. The Marquardts have donated the mill to the logging museum so younger generations can see first hand what milling lumber was like before technological advances transformed the industry.

The exact origin of the Marquardt’s mill is hazy.

“My father bought it from Al Hagley in Enterprise. I don’t know where Al got it from,” said Steve Marquardt, Red and Mae’s son.

Frank Ory, a 74-year-old native of Enterprise, believes the exact history of the mill is lost forever.

“It was there when I was born. I don’t know if there’s anyone left you could still ask about where it first came from,” Ory said.

After the Marquardts purchased the mill from Al Hagley, they transported it from its original location in Enterprise to the site of Red’s Sawmill in Stella, where Red and Mae Marquardt used it to run a lumber business that furnished wood paneling and finished wood products.

Last month the city granted the Rhinelander Logging Museum permission to annex a piece of land in Pioneer Park adjacent to the existing exhibit to accommodate the Marquardt’s mill. Logging Museum director Mike Skubal said the $10,000 they have received from the city and county will allow the museum to build a structure to house the mill and also pay for the costs of moving the mill from Stella Lake to Rhinelander.

Skubal said the Marquardt’s mill is an important piece of the area’s logging history.

“The logging museum belongs to the people of Rhinelander. The museum tells the story of Rhinelander and of the Northwoods. In preserving Red and Mae’s sawmill, we’ve preserved another story,” he said.

The Rhinelander Logging Museum is open to the public free of charge.

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