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In mid-century Wisconsin Dells and elsewhere in Wisconsin, any picture was a good picture if it included an "Indian Chief". In the Dells, it was a gig involving a great amount of theater. Among the most renowned was Chief Silver Tongue (1882-1964) (a/k/a Oscar Norton), a Hopi.  He was an attorney turned singer on the vaudeville circuit who later staged an "Indian Pagent" that ran for 30 years each summer on Stand Rock in the Dells.

Known as a peacemaker and visionary, Hiawatha led the Onondaga or the Mohawk circa 16th century and may never have envisioned shopping centers, songs, trails and trains would be named for him. Centuries later, the American Petroleum Institute most famously concocted a scheme to mark the so-called Hiawatha Pioneer Trail traversing Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota not so much to honor Hiawatha as a way to sell more petroleum products. The trail wove through 1,500 miles of Wisconsin according to a Milwaukee Journal article dated October 10, 1967. The signs for the trail were eventually removed and a bike trail, named after the train, remains in Wisconsin, some signs turn up on eBay as oddities of a bygone era.

Now part of the American kitsch landscape, the "Beautiful Indian Maiden" won't go away. These mid-century postcards fetishize the fringed suede and beaded form fitting attire, feather head dress and braids. The maiden gazes ponderously at the landscape--there to be consumed by the postcard recipient. A simple alteration of the Land O Lakes Butter box (still available at your local grocery store) turns an Indian maiden's knees into knockers (albeit hidden behind a box of butter on a tray). Directions for the alteration appear online. Land O Lakes, Inc. corporate office, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, apparently evolved from a co-op named Minnesota Co-Operative Creameries Association with "new ideas about producing butter" in sticks (rather than tubs in the early 1920s). The LOL website offers no background on the adoption of a "beautiful Indian maiden" as part of its logo. Disney's Pochahontas 1995 film further perpetuates the Indian princess in popular American culture. "Indian Maiden" wigs and "very sexy-looking" Sacajawea costumes are abundantly available on the Interwebs and the fashion world continues to include such imagery only to be reprimanded.

We have come upon references to A.J. Kingsbury's un-politically correct portrayals of Native Americans: "Due to issues of cultural sensitivity, only 144 photographs, glass plate negatives, and postcards have been deemed appropriate by the Ojibwe and Menominee communities for display online." Still there are many that have been published in a small book titled Langlade County: Images of America by Richard Prestor and Joseph Hermolin published by Arcadia Publishing (April 2012). Would this portrait of Ojibwe or Menominee American Indians, possibly made near Antigo, be considered culturally insensitive? How'd that glistening barrel shot gun, glimmering Iron Cross (the punctum for us) and other western medals get there? Why is the central figure shrouded as if hiding? There is something haunting about the details even the text inked on to the negative so carefully--all of which seem obscure 110 odd years later. More mysteries are revealed upon close study of poses and personal construction of the subjects and pondering the text....

On opening day of "gun hunting season" in Wisconsin, men in pickups wearing blaze orange fill the the roads heading north they populate typically tranquil rural side roads. Weeks before the season, Fleet Farm displays show off blaze orange fashions, scent elimination sprays, and products like Buck Bomb Doe-in-Estrus Aersol Fogger and Code Blue Whitetail Doe Urine. The press operators at the local printing plant used to get so distracted preparing for the hunt that we found it imperative to avoid scheduling runs in around the season. Hunter friends describe the sublime symbiosis with nature experienced while sitting for hours in a tree-stand pondering the landscape awaiting the perfect buck.  Fresh air and meditation counter the complexities of 21st century hunting -- the Chronic Wasting Disease some believed would wipe out Wisconsin's deer herd and high-tech gizmos like Stealth Cam Rogue Digital Video Scouting Cameras and GPS. The "Ready Aim" postcard illustrates the uninformed photographer's naive misunderstanding of the issues. A summertime Kodachrome portrays a hunter taking aim at a buck "in velvet" (note: didactic postcard caption above). The legendary night time post-hunt activities include tales of strippers around Manitowoc heading up north with the hunters to dance at the Boom Bay Bar in Rhinelander or on the strip in Hurley a/k/a  Sin City (note: density of bars in postcard above).  These days, liquor stores hang "welcome hunter" banners while meat market parking lots are bumper to bumper with pickups waiting to drop off their  wild game for processing.

Placid waysides appear along Wisconsin roadsides offering shade trees, picnic tables, grills and often a scenic view--in this case of the Sheboygan River. The passerby feels compelled to pull over and take a stroll in these often uninhabited places. Millhome is near Kiel in the town of Schleswig in Manitowoc County.

Post cards became a way to learn about and vicariously experience a depicted place described by a friend in a personalized hand written message. We've found numerous mid-20th century postcards showing both individuals and groups of people absorbed by staring at the landscape while fishing, sitting, strolling or lingering. The stance is often meditative and the activities near the water are never gasoline powered.

This is our friend Cathy's sublime view of Cedar Lake. The water is crystal clear and the sacred silence is broken occasionally by motor boats and hunting rifles.

It's not often that the Great Lakes and Midwest become haunting, poetic subject matter in a pop song. Though the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in Lake Superior, we always sang the line "Old (Lake) Michigan steams like a young man's dreams" from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as we biked along the shore on foggy days. There was another pop song on 45 RPM about the fog and waves of Lake Michigan and the "lonesome moaning" of the light houses in Manitowoc, two Rivers, Kewaunee, and the Two Creeks Nuclear plant called "T.R. Special" by The Nite-Cappers (performed in a Johnny Cash style). It was a favorite on the local AM radio studio in the 1970s and can now be heard on YouTube.

The photographer, Arthur J. Kingsbury (1876-1956), from Antigo, Wisconsin photographed scenes around northern Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century.  A "classy new book" called Langlade County by Joe Hermolin includes his postcard photographs and we could find it only on eBay. According to researchers, Kingsbury photographed exclusively in the real photo post card format and operated a Kodak store for decades.  His photographic subjects included "local Indians" (mainly members of the Menominee and Ojibwa tribes), logging camps, the railroad, and growing tourism industry. A fire destroyed his studio in 1967 along with 60 years of photographs yet the nearby county historical society is working to preserve and disseminate his work.