TRAGEDY STRIKES CRANDON, "WISCONSIN'S LITTLE KENTUCKY"

The world's headlines today have focused on tiny Crandon, Wisconsin, population 1961, the seat of Forest County, where a 20-year old sheriff's deputy named Tyler Peterson killed five young people and wounded a sixth before being slain by a police sharpshooter in a case that is still unfolding. Peterson took his oath on February 7th, 2007. As the news reports always tell us, there are many interconnections between the residents of any small, isolated community like Crandon where everybody knows each other. For example, all the victims -- and the shooter -- had attended Crandon High School.
It is one of those small-town tragedies that always seem to turn up in some community where the residents would "never expect it to happen here.... Maybe in Appalachia -- ."
But Crandon being Crandon, the connections may well be even closer, since it is estimated that at least half of the residents of Crandon are descendants of a handful of immigrants from Kentucky, of all places, who arrived there about 100 years ago.
Take, for example the case of Mrs. Aaron Ison. When she died in 1958 at the age of 100, she had 60 grandchildren, 125 great-grandchildren, and 25 great, great grandchildren. Her descendants include not only two Crandon lines of Isons, but also Howertons, Wilsons, and Whitts.
The settlers brought a number of traditions with them, including enormous families, like Mrs. Ison's, Protestant faith and a tradition of independent whiskey making.
Some say early settlers additionally showed an Appalachian-like indifference to generally accepted prohibitions against consanguinous unions. It appears some may have had no choice.
The descendants of the Kentucky settlers are proud of their shallow gene pool and moonshining history, both of which are celebrated each July during Kentuck Day Festival and Sidewalk Sale.
Crandon was the site of intensive lobbying for 27 years over a proposed zinc - copper mine. The mine was never built, and the saga came to an end when the land entered tribal hands in 2003. Crandon is the only incorporated municipality in all of Forest County, the home of the now-prosperous Forest County Potawatomi Indian Tribe which rakes in money from its Milwaukee casino. There is not a street light or a parking meter in the entire county.
Crandon has a beautiful courthouse, and an attractive Historical museum in its downtown, where the community's past is explored and illuminated, including the raffish bits about moonshining, which was an industry there long before Prohibition. Interestingly, a Vodka Distillery has been proposed for Crandon. And, perhaps a memorial.
--Michael Horne