Mule Train, Part the Fourth

And one more (hopefully final) Mule Train Postcard update!*

Regular readers of this infrequently updated blog may remember these posts and discussions about the postcard depicting a Mule Train headed down Monroe Street in Waterloo, Wisconsin: 

• Mule Train 
• Mule Train: Part the Second 
• Mule Train: Part the Third

In the third blog regarding the Mule Train postcard, I had declared the photo to be a fake, in the absence of any evidence to prove otherwise. Well, I am happy to report that I now have that evidence, and can declare the postcard TRUE!

Just to jog your memory, here is the postcard in question:

And now for the proof that a mule train did, indeed, wander through little downtown Waterloo, Wisconsin *cue fanfair*:

From the Waterloo Journal, dated October 5, 1905, Page 1.

* Edited to add:

Oh, but wait! There's more!

According to local newspapers at the time, the reason the Borax 20-Mule Team was in the area, was because it was making a rare appearance at the Dodge County Fair of 1905. They had appeared at the World's Fair in St Louis the year before, and at the Wisconsin State Fair earlier in the month, but this was THE first county fair to secure them.

From the Waterloo Democrat, October 6, 1905, Page 6.

 

From the Beaver Dam Argus, September 15, 1905, Page 4.

From the Dodge County Citizen, September 27, 1905, Page 1 (continued below).

From the Dodge County Citizen, September 27, 1905, Page 1 (continued from above).

From the Dodge County Citizen, September 13, 1905, Page 1.

Ta-daaaaaaaa!

* Quick update from the comments - here's a really cool web page describing how a mule team like this would turn corners, and other fascinating mule team tidbits. Wow! Thanks for the tip, Stamppy! http://www.muleteamkits.com/

Mule Train, part the third

Mule Train Postcard update! 

Regular readers of this blog may remember the posts and/or discussions about the Mule Train postcard HERE and HERE, in which it was speculated that this postcard may have been "Photoshopped." (Using whatever magical technology that was available nearly 100 years ago, in the early 1900s!) 

As anyone who has ever sent or received a postcard can tell you, "fake" or embellished scenes are quite common in postcards, even today. It adds an extra bit of whimsey, and who doesn't like that?

Well, this particular subject rears its horsey head again because in this week's issue of The Waterloo Courier (or just "Courier," as they like to call it, so the Marshall folks won't feel left out), they published a set of old-timey postcards, one of which was the infamous "20 Mule Team Borax" postcard:

As you can see, the blurb accompanying the photo discusses the history of the Borax 20-mule teams, but does not even question the authenticity of this scenario. The blurb also says the mule teams were used until 1989. Wait... What?? Surely that's a typographical error. I can't imagine that it would have been efficient (much less "politically correct") to employ the services of several teams of 20 live mules, rather than a fleet of big old trucks, in 1989.

I do wish someone could come up with a date when this supposed visit from the mule team occurred. Something this unusual would surely have made the papers! Would be nice to have some corroborating evidence to declare this photo authentic. Perhaps some bored intern at The Courier or a volunteer at the Waterloo Historical Society could use their resources to look into this. Until that happens, though, I'm declaring this photo a fake.

That's right. It's been declared. 

Teeming, I tells ya!

Previously, your humble correspondent wrote about attending Waterloo's 49th Annual Wiener and Kraut Day festivities in 2008. In that post, I mentioned that the streets used to be TEEMING with people, back in the day. One might go so far as to say that there were more people than you could shake a stick at! I now have photographic evidence of some of that teeming. The below (very poorly scanned) images are from the 28-Sept-1978 issue of the Waterloo Courier.

In this first scan, you see a couple of nice ladies pouring drinks on the left. On the right is a view of the HOARDS of people lined up to watch a marching band down at the "four corners." (I can't quite make out what's playing at The Mode theatre, but gasoline is selling for about 59 cents/gallon.) Look! Look at them teem!


Here's a scan of a nice nun -- Is that Sister Rose? -- and a young person shopping at a bears and puppets table. On the right is Dean with his Giant Wiener. You can't see it very well, because this is a really inferior quality scan, but just behind the nun's head, there are dozens of other tables and booths set up, all of them with people buzzing around, shopping for deals.



This final scan shows some of the nice folks selling wiener and kraut sandwiches. On the right is a lady -- not sure what she's up to -- and below that is a man driving a very very small semi-truck.



Okay, so this last scan doesn't really show any teeming crowd activity, but that's okay, because the first two are chock full of people! I hope that Waterloo can bring back these kinds of crowds of people for their big Sesquicentennial Celebration this fall.

Dig those wieners and kraut!

Speaking of Wiener and Kraut Day...

Your sporadically posting humble correspondent attended the 49th Annual Wiener & Kraut Day last September 13, 2008, and was greatly disappointed at the turnout of both people and vendors.

Now I realize that it was a rainy kind of day, and that may have kept some of the wimpier people from venturing out, but still... there were maybe fifty people total hovering about the Wiener and Beer Tents, with random groups of two to three people walking the streets. These streets should have been TEEMING with people, milling about the shops, snapping up bargains and enjoying a fresh hot dog or two.

At least... that's how it USED to be, back in the day. You know, back when W/K Day used to fall on the FOURTH Saturday of the month where it rightfully belongs (Even if it might get a little hot every tenth year!) instead of on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Back in the day, all of the shops along Monroe and Madison streets had fantastic sales, and there were fun contests like "Guess the Weight of Dean's Big Wiener," and a mind-boggling mix of goodies in the drug store grab bags. Bargains galore at The Toggery! Back in the day, you had to fight your way through the crowds just to get in line for a hot dog. Back in the day, you could spend hours just slowly traversing your way from Monroe Street to Madison Street, north and south, east and west, and back around again, just checking out all of the interesting vendor tables that lined every square inch of the downtown area.

Back in the day, the various extra-curricular groups at the high school all had their own spot on the street. The Spanish Club selling tacos! The Track Team selling candy! The Senior Class selling t-shirts! Back in the day, the entire town turned out to celebrate! But apparently, that is no longer the case, as the total number of vendors lining the streets could be counted on one hand. The most popular appeared to be this white wagon on the corner, selling things like bubble-gum flavored slushies and fried cheesecake on a stick:

Perhaps this was just a fluke of a year. I didn't attend too many of the W/K Days once they moved it earlier in the month, so I don't know if they were all as much of a flop, or if it was a more gradual decline in attendance. But honestly? This was the most pathetic of all Wiener and Kraut Days that I have ever set eyes upon. Legend says that back in the day, one brave new shop-keep in town had the audacity to suggest that Waterloo advertise their Wiener and Kraut Day activities in towns all over the state, in order to attract a profitably large crowd. This idea was shot right out of the air because, as Legend says, they didn't want the doings to get too big. Too. Big. Well... I think they finally got their wish. Don't you?

I seriously hope that the turnout on W/K Day is not indicative of what to expect at this year's big Sesquicentennial Celebration on September 12-13, 2009. That would be really embarrassing... But hey -- that's several months away from now. Maybe Waterloo will decide to, oh, I don't know... ADVERTISE their celebration -- early and often! -- so that people know about it and can plan their schedules accordingly.

Also, Waterloo? You might want to give your shops a washing and a fresh coat of paint or something. The new roadwork looks all purty and everything, but the storefronts are still pretty shabby looking. I mean, geez... there's still an outline of the old Courier Building right out in the open.

North Monroe Street

Below is a before/after photo of North Monroe Street, in Waterloo, Wisconsin. The photo on top was taken on April 21, 2006. The photo on the bottom was taken on July 4, 2008. Road construction on this southern portion of the road was completed in the early summer of 2008. (The road is still being worked on, further to the north.)


So what's new?

• Light fixtures!
• Crosswalk and parkway are pink!
• Fresh new sidewalk!
• New pavement!
• New bumpy "ramp" on sidewalk!
• In the Veteran's Park on the corner, the large evergreen has been removed, and the plantings have been prettied up!

What's old?

• The "Voelker Building" (built in 1908) at 120 North Monroe Street, which currently houses the Cut and Curl beauty salon, still has an outline of the old Courier building, which wasn torn down in early 2006!
• The disgusting phone booth is still there!
• The rest of the buildings still look run down!
  

One wonders if Waterloo will go on a beautification frenzy, to get the downtown area looking nice again, in time for the big Sesquicentennial celebration in April 2009.

Mule Train, part the second.

Since Stamppy had so many interesting questions regarding the Mule Train photo I posted earlier, I thought I would make a whole new post for my answers, and include a modern-day photograph of that same section of town. Here is the "modern" photo and the mule photo again, followed by question and answer, yay!

Why isn't the lady on the right even looking at the horsies as they pass thru town? Oh, probably because she's seen mule trains before. Did you notice the horses aren't moving? They're just standing there for the photo.

Maybe lady on right was looking at them, but just happened to turn to speak to a friend at the moment the photo was taken. The mules appear to be waiting for something (I hope they're not Waiting for Godot, because, as I recall, he never shows up) -- maybe they're waiting for the bumper-to-bumper-to-buuuuuuumper traffic to ease up. There's a man walking in the back by the wagon -- maybe it's the driver, and perhaps he's stopped to pick up some sausages at the local locker plant.

The shadow of that tree looks a little suspicious, too. The angle of the shadow doesn't match with the angle of the man's shadow on the left.

The shadows all look to me like the sun is coming from the front and left. Note the mule in front with his head turned -- his shadow sticks out more, but because his head is stuck out more.

Have you identified any of the buildings? Would this photo be taken from the 4 corners, or looking in the direction of the 4 corners?

The view is looking up N Monroe, on the west/left side. The two buildings on the left are no longer there -- they are where the Wendt building (The Diner) and the something else building are now. The next long building with the pointies on top is where Raaaaaaay's Tog and Video are. The next building with the upward swoop and a diamond shape near the top is where Minuteman is now. And the next building with three windows is where Audrey has her Place. And that's as far as my "modern" picture goes to.

Why are there 2 different heights of electric poles? And they're so close to each other!

I don't know about the poles... maybe they had one set for telephone/telegraph, and one for electricity?