A Claim to Fame: Harness Racing at Scarboro



Section from Kewaunee County 1912 Plat Map

 

Not quite mid-way while traveling Kewaunee County Highway A from Luxemburg to Kewaunee, one spots the Scarboro sign and wonders why it is there. Sportsmen today see the sign and think of fishing, however a little over 100 years ago it would have brought thoughts of horse racing. At the time, Scarboro was a small community with a cheese factory, sawmill, gristmill, blacksmith, ice house, saloon, school, church, store and more. Scarboro even had a cigar maker, but what it didn’t have was a post office and, as vibrant as the community was in the pre-Rural Free Delivery Days, the only reason was that nobody bothered to apply for one.

Scarboro’s claim to fame was the race track that attracted harness racers from all over Wisconsin. By 1910 racing events were bringing over 1,000 spectators paying an admission of 25 cents each to watch races on the circular, half mile track. Sometimes the purse was as much as $250, but that was when racers came from a distance. Local entrants such as August Spitzer, Billy Truedell, Frank Novak, John Hrabik, Joe Koss and Elmer Thibaudeau competed for much less - a $50 purse. Those locals represented the cream of Kewaunee County's crop.

Racing was a summer event until 1910 when some Luxemburg enthusiasts started talking about clearing the mill pond known as Scarboro Lake for horse racing. Before racing on the ice took place, Ed Kelliher and Otto Boness raced their horses right down Main Street in Luxemburg and when the race moved to the ice, it wasn’t either of those men who won. It was Camille Stage, the host of  Luxemburg’s Wisconsin House.

Novak-Kelnhofer Milling Company's Scarboro ice house supplied ice to taverns, restaurants and creameries. The ice harvest took precedence, and when it was taking place there were no races. Just as soon as that harvest ended, spectators again enjoyed the sport of horse racing on the ice.

Scarboro was on a roll when the unthinkable happened. Sometime around 1860, Slausson & Grimmer, the Kewaunee lumbering firm, built a sawmill on Scarboro Creek. For some reason a new dam was built in 187l, forming the mill pond referred to as Scarboro Lake, the site of the horse races. On July 7, 1912, lightening struck the gristmill, consuming it by fire. Two weeks later the heavy rains that caused destruction all over Kewaunee County brought the beginning of the end to Scarboro. The dam broke, spilling the water behind it into the valley below. It was a wonder nobody died as they were struck by logs and debris while trying to make it through waist deep water to higher ground. As a people, the community survived, however as a place of business, its vibrancy evaporated. At least for awhile, there was the racing.

Kewaunee County Racing Association had a new track at Scarboro in October 1916 when Door County Advocate took note of Scarboro, telling its readers that the Association was sponsoring events featuring the best horses in “this part of the state.” Featured were such Green Bay standouts as Noble, Pride Mate, Spyhnx and Duck Creek Lad. Sturgeon Bay’s own Paddy Gray was driving Melse. Management felt the crowds would be record breaking for the races that also included trot and pace colt races and races that were exclusively for Luxemburg horses.

A few days later, on the 20th, Algoma Record reported that (what was thought to be) the first annual racing program brought upwards of 2,000 from as far away as Green Bay, Denmark and Gillett. The Casco correspondent to the paper wrote that at least 200 from the village were at the races, and that every auto in the village was there too. The Association's new track was considered to be in great shape for its first year. Enthusiasm was rampant and more races were sure to follow. Though the big names of Kewaunee County racing were competing, most prizes, unfortunately, went to Green Bay horses.

During the following June, the Record told readership that Luxemburg persons were thinking to build a racetrack there. Editorializing, the paper said that if they went ahead there would be enough interest and enough races to last long into the future. By 1919, most races were indeed at Luxemburg, and then at the fairgrounds. Scarboro’s dirt track continued to be use at times - one of those times being a Red Cross benefit in 1929 – although the fairgrounds at Luxemburg has been the most prominent place for horse racing for nearly 100 years.

Henry Veeser sold his popular saloon to Frank Novak who refurbished and enlarged the building, having his grand opening in June 1912. It was just about a month later when the flooding undermined the building. It was not totally lost and went on to remain popular, operated by numerous owners over the years. As Drew's Hideway, it was the last business in the once prosperous Scarboro. The dam was rebuilt, but the forests were receding and there were so many other mills that its mill eventually closed. And the racetrack?  As farmer's field today, it might well be growing corn.

Where at one time everybody knew about the racing, another generation knew of maple syrup. There were a number of such camps in the area, the largest of which belonged to the Minahan brothers - Casco merchant Hugh and his physician brothers William and John. John served medical needs in Algoma and Casco. William gained fame when he went down on the Titanic, not long after their camp opened. Today's oldsters salivate remembering Milton Thibaudeau's syrup and the spring treks to his place.

There was a time when it was believed Scarboro would rise like the Phoenix.  There were those who felt the area would be the next big oil field but it was not to be. It’s another story, one told in an earlier blog.

Sources: Information and ads from the newspapers mentioned and Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010. Postcard and racing photo are the blogger's.