Algoma: It's Cooler By The Lake

Algoma's Crescent Beach, late 1930s

“ Kewaunee County’s crops are possibly running about ½ of normal because of prolonged dry weather.” The quote came from an August 1936 newspaper. This year, 2019, many fields haven’t been planted due to record amounts of spring and early summer rains. Now the heat is playing havoc with fields and gardens, just as it did in 1936 which remains the hottest summer on record. And this year, just as it was in 1936, it is cooler by the lake.

The 1936 season began with great crop prospects, but then came the extreme heat. By late August, the ground was so dry that rain was not expected to be of much benefit for any crops other than corn. Fortunately, 1935 was a banner cropping year thus animal food shortage was not dire. Wisconsin’s early July 1936 corn crop was estimated to be 76% of normal; it declined to 53% of normal just a month later. The Badger state’s crop reporting services estimated the corn crop would top out at 1917 levels, another dismal year. The 1936 crop was the second such year since 1901.

1936 Kewaunee County was a tinderbox, no doubt prompting oldsters to bring up the Great Fire of 1871. Early August saw raging fires in the Towns of Casco, Pierce, West Kewaunee and Franklin. The grass and stump fire on the Smithwick farm near Casco took over 24 hours to extinguish. Ed Bohman’s Casco woods’ fire was thought to be out on a Wednesday and broke out again on Thursday. The swamp near Joseph Fiala’s Pierce Town farm was ablaze, as was a 40-acred swamp in Franklin. That one smoldered for months. West Kewaunee had a grass fire fought by the Kewaunee Fire Department. Fences and areas of fields were burned while buildings were threatened.

Until dry conditions abated, property owners Henry Gericke and John Slaby closed Krohn’s lake to recreational use. A small fire there had burned several feet into the ground before being discovered by Louis Bathke. Reports were that it took many pails of water to completely kill the fire.

According to the University of Wisconsin Agronomy Department, there was a bright side of the dryness: the drought offered farmers opportunities for getting lowlands into canary grass. The dry lowlands were easier to breakup, thus offering a good seed bed by disking and harrowing for seed sown in fall or in spring mud. The valued canary grass offered “feed insurance” in dry weather, and the Agronomy Department said, such a stand would last almost indefinitely as the sod made haying and pasturing possible even when the ground was wet.

Algoma has always prided itself on being “cooler by the lake,” but 1936 left residents scratching their heads. When the temperature soared to 102 in early July, folks held on and waited for the afternoon wind shift, sure to happen. It did, and the temperature plunged more than 30 degrees to 68. Most years, city residents hoped for a nice summer, but 1936 set records residents hoped they didn’t see again. On the day Algoma topped out at 102, Green Bay registered 106, that city’s highest temperature since recording began in the 1880s. Algoma residents did find some humor in that heat though – a snowplow salesman was in the city! He even brought a sample of his wares.

While Algoma was hot, temperatures were far worse inland. Lake Michigan’s shoreline offered refuge from the heat and Algoma residents didn't need a newspaper or  radio to tell them how hot it was away from the lake. All they needed to do is check the cars along the lakeshore highway. Travel was not as easy in 1936 as it is today. Roads were graveled and there were always tires that blew out and needed patching. It didn’t seem to make a difference though as 105 autos were counted along Crescent Beach (shown in the postcard above) on the day Green Bay saw 106.

Algoma was elevated to resort status the Sunday that 535 cars were counted from Chapek’s cabins (in the above postcard, now Algoma Beach Motel site) to past the utility plant north of the Dug-Out where picnickers were swarming the grounds. That was at 6 PM; there were more at noon. License plates reflected the District of Columbia and 12 states, with Maine being the farthest away. Mailman Will Fellows said the lakefront all around his Stony Creek home was overflowing with escapes from the heat.

Surfboats dotted the lake and local commercial fishermen found extra income in taking out the heat-beat tourists. The golf course was crowded with visiting golfers who filled the rooming houses. Dormitory rooms at D-K Normal School were rented to out-of-staters while residents put spare cots and beds wherever they could in their homes.

The heat was even too much for the Boy Scouts Mel Perry, George Ackerman and Ray Ponath who planned a week camping at Gill’s Rock. The heat forced them to return to Algoma 48 hours after they’d left.

Although heat was limiting playground activities at Perry Field, swimming lessons at the beach continued. Oppressive heat forced delays in the Kewaunee-Manitowoc baseball game. Perhaps the Manitowoc team kept its cool best, deflating Kewaunee 10 – 1.  While the cheesemakers picnic went on at the Fairgrounds, Viola Dahlke was crowned the county’s Cheese Queen. Viola would go on to represent the county at the state fair, and if she won there, to the Miss American contest at Atlantic City. Intense afternoon temperatures ruined programs, however, folks turned out for the picnic and a crowd of 3,000 was in the grandstands for the evening crowning. Algoma band escaped the Luxemburg heat by returning to the lakeshore. Reports of 108-degree temperatures in the shade proved Alaska could not live up to its name. It was so hot at Algoma Plywood and Veneer that after men reported for work, they were given the day off with pay. One fellow, Mr. Towsley, claimed that the temperature of his car radiator water dropped 10 degrees between the top of the Campsite Hill and his stop at the post office.

The Record Herald’s editor told readership that “a quirk of nature” built Algoma into a booming resort when it was so hot inland. After all, the city was three miles farther into Lake Michigan than its neighbors to the north.

The dry spell finally broke on a Wednesday morning when a nice slow rain brought smiles. Most of the farm crops were gone and cows had been turned into the grain fields. Some farmers had cut the grain to use as hay and in other places it was burned. It didn’t stop there. The summer of 1936 was bad enough, but then came a record setting cold winter.

Wikipedia tells us the North American heat wave of 1936 was the worst in modern history with records standing until 2012. Compounding the 1936 issues were the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The summer’s heat caused over 5,000 deaths and catastrophic suffering. Huge numbers of crops were lost and thousands of farms were foreclosed on, often leaving the owners homeless.

The heat wave began in June and got worse from there. It went into Canada and eventually covered the continent. In July, temperatures reached all-time highs that stood until 2012. Wisconsin was one of the states experiencing record highs, and records set in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario still stand.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald and Wikipedia. The postcard is from the author's collection.