Aug. 17-23

25 YEARS AGO: Wisconsin officials celebrated completing the four-lane Highway 29 from Green Bay to Chippewa Falls, fulfilling a 1963 vision. The 182-mile, $450 million project marks the state’s most ambitious highway effort, realized after decades of planning and 12 years of construction. | Mary Binder began working at Marshfield Center nursing home at age 17 and is now honored for 25 years of dedicated service. She received the Genesis Full Life Award for her exceptional care and commitment to residents’ well-being.
50 YEARS AGO: Marshfield’s entry in a mayoral milking contest may have gotten in the first squeeze, but he came up two ounces short in the end. Mayor Donald Penza, Wisconsin Rapids, kept his perfect record by out squeezing Deputy City Assessor Harry Blackwood of Marshfield, sitting in for Mayor Raymond Tippelt. | The Colonial Oil Co. was granted two building permits this week to begin construction of its new truck stop at 2327 W. Arnold St.
75 YEARS AGO: Ice shows are hitting the fair circuits for the first time this year, and the Central Wisconsin State Fair was first to contract for one at the international convention of fair associations. An ice show has been substituted for the usual stage revue this year because of its obvious attraction as entertainment. | Marshfield Lions, at their regular meeting last night, voted to defray the cost of 16 to 18 portable flasher safety signals to be used at Marshfield school crossings.
100 YEARS AGO: Improvements just completed in the Eagle bowling alley consisted of a telephone booth, a partition in the pool department to create a storeroom, re-decorating the walls and ceiling and moving the sales counter and display cases closer to the bowling alleys, all of which enhances the interior appearance of the place to a marked degree. | The new Standard Oil Service station, East Fourth and South Maple streets, has been opened. The attendants are Charles Woodkey and Harold Littlefield. | C. E. Blodgett, a man who is looking forward to a better and bigger Marshfield, announced this morning that “Hotel Charles” was his choice of a name for the new hotel building which he is having erected on the northwest corner of Central avenue and West Second streets.
-- Compiled by North Wood County Historical Society