‘History Makers Tour’ coming to Rhinelander in April

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected. The location of the upcoming History Walk exhibit will be the Hodag Dome not Hodag Park. The Wisconsin Historical Society press release announcing this initiative included inaccurate information as to the location.

The Wisconsin Historical Society’s History Makers Tour is coming to Rhinelander this spring with a special sports-themed exhibit to be installed at Hodag Dome during the month of April and a folklore-focused program scheduled to coincide with the annual Hodag Heritage Festival in May.
According to a press release announcing the Rhinelander offerings, the History Makers Tour, which launched in 2023, is a partnership with local history organizations, libraries, cultural venues and community groups to bring history directly to local communities through interactive displays, artifact highlights, author talks and other public programs.
“The History Makers Tour gives communities across Wisconsin unique opportunities to explore and celebrate the diverse histories that make our state special,” said Sara Batkie of the Wisconsin Historical Society. “We are excited to bring a slate of special events and experiences to the north central region this year and look forward to engaging residents and visitors alike in discovering more about the people and stories that helped shape Wisconsin history.”
The installation at the Hodag Dome will focus on Wisconsin sports.

“There’s nothing that brings Wisconsinites together more than a little friendly competition,” the release states. “Whether it’s for a champion franchise, a university team, or one of our many racing competitions, we love to be part of a cheering crowd all year round. Luckily for us, our state has no shortage of teams and types of sports to root for. So step right up, get your game face on, and discover some of the amazing stories behind the highlight reels through this outdoor installation.”
Then, on May 16, folklorist Dr. Lowell Brower will speak as part of the annual Hodag Heritage Festival at the Pioneer Park Historical Complex. Brower’s program is called “Wisconsin Whoppers: Sensationalistic Storytelling, Tall Tale Tourism, and Cryptid Currency in the Badger State”. He will discuss Wisconsin’s legendary figures, tall tales and regional folklore, including the origins and meanings behind iconic stories like Rhinelander’s own Hodag.
The Wisconsin Historical Society websites describes Brower’s program as follows:
“From ‘fish tales,’ to hodag hunts, to big-top spectacles, Wisconsin’s folkloric history is rife with self-aggrandizing legendary, self-deprecatory humor, and self-conscious fabulation. Reveling in upper-midwestern folk humor, and capitalizing on the ostensive potentials of exaggeratory legend-telling — combining the arts of master tale-tellers, carnival barkers, and down-home humorists — local municipalities, businesses, institutions, advertisers, and individual storytellers have marshalled the folkloric arts throughout Wisconsin’s history, in service of drawing attention, money, tourism, and notoriety to themselves, their products, and their discourses. And through these engaging, enticing, and often otherworldly stories, they’ve shaped both insider and outsider perspectives about what it means to be a Badger!
Operating from the premise that legends and tall tales can’t help but reveal the values, worldviews, fears, anxieties, hopes, dreams, and capabilities of their transmitters, we’ll spend some time thinking about what the stories we tell can (and the hodags we hunt) tell us about who we are.”
According to the release, the mission of the History Makers Tour, which is sponsored by Culver’s, is to connect people of all ages with compelling stories, people and places that have shaped Wisconsin’s past as the Society continues to serve communities across the state in advance of the opening of the new Wisconsin History Center in late 2027.