September 12, 2023 • 25 mins
Marshfield, Wisconsin's "Hub City," continues to grow and offer more for visitors to experience. It starts with Central Avenue, the main artery offering some fantastic shopping, great restaurants and more to explore along with the Jurustic Park Downtown Walk. Within blocks, a wide variety of other attractions abound year 'round. This city of 20,000 is anchored by Marshfield Clinic, a world class medical center that has attracted a diverse population and gives the town bigger city vibes.
In this episode, Eric Paulsen talks with Matt McLean from VISIT Marshfield about all of this, plus the upcoming Maple Fall Fest that, coupled with Blue Heron Brewpub's Oktoberfest, will prove to be a great place to visit the weekend of September 16 & 17, 2023.
Maple Fall Fest will feature amazing food, drinks, kids activities, games, baby goats to pet, even pumpkin bowling and Nerf-style ax throwing. There will be performances from the Main Street Conservatory of Dance, grilling fun with Mad Dog & Merrill, even Wildwood Zoo Tours. And yes, lots of maple.
The Zoo is a major feature of Wildwood Park, puncuated by two Kodiak bears in a large, 40,000 square foot natural area complete with a pond and an overhead bridge. A variety of other animals can be viewed and learned about at this free zoo, too.
We also discuss the Chustnut Center for the arts, the Heritage Museum, Wenzel Family Plaza, Visual Arts Gallery, Upham Mansion, and nearby attractions including Powers Bluff, the Nasonville Dairy, and upcoming events like Marshfield's Winter Rotary Holiday Lights. Wenzel Family Plaza hosts an ice skating rinks in the winter months, too!
It came up in conversation that Marshfield recently hosted the World's Longest Meat SnackStick, a creation of nearby Wenzel Farms. This, coupled with the fact that the city has the World's Largest Round Barn, led to some spontaneous ideas. We discuss it all in this episode of the State Trunk Tour Podcast. Find out more on StateTrunkTour.com and VisitMarshfield.com!
In this episode, Eric Paulsen talks with Matt McLean from VISIT Marshfield about all of this, plus the upcoming Maple Fall Fest that, coupled with Blue Heron Brewpub's Oktoberfest, will prove to be a great place to visit the weekend of September 16 & 17, 2023.
Maple Fall Fest will feature amazing food, drinks, kids activities, games, baby goats to pet, even pumpkin bowling and Nerf-style ax throwing. There will be performances from the Main Street Conservatory of Dance, grilling fun with Mad Dog & Merrill, even Wildwood Zoo Tours. And yes, lots of maple.
The Zoo is a major feature of Wildwood Park, puncuated by two Kodiak bears in a large, 40,000 square foot natural area complete with a pond and an overhead bridge. A variety of other animals can be viewed and learned about at this free zoo, too.
We also discuss the Chustnut Center for the arts, the Heritage Museum, Wenzel Family Plaza, Visual Arts Gallery, Upham Mansion, and nearby attractions including Powers Bluff, the Nasonville Dairy, and upcoming events like Marshfield's Winter Rotary Holiday Lights. Wenzel Family Plaza hosts an ice skating rinks in the winter months, too!
It came up in conversation that Marshfield recently hosted the World's Longest Meat SnackStick, a creation of nearby Wenzel Farms. This, coupled with the fact that the city has the World's Largest Round Barn, led to some spontaneous ideas. We discuss it all in this episode of the State Trunk Tour Podcast. Find out more on StateTrunkTour.com and VisitMarshfield.com!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:25):
And welcome to episode thirty eight ofthe State Trunk Tour. Here in twenty
twenty three, I'm Eric Paulson,had tour guide for your State Trunk Tour.
We follow Wisconsin highways end to end, note about everything along the way,
and sometimes check out what's going onin specific places. And today we're
going to take you to Hub Cityin central Wisconsin. We're talking about Marshfield.
Lots going on in that city.You know, they're anchored by Marshfield
(00:47):
Clinic. They have a beautiful downtownand a great area to shop and eat
and enjoy a lot of great stuff. A lot of new things going on
in Marshfield and some big festivals comingup, including Maple Fallfest which is this
coming weekend September sixteenth and seventeenth.A lot of other great events as you
go towards fall and winter, includingtheir holiday light show, which is spectacular.
(01:07):
We'll talk about all of that withMatt McClain, the executive director of
Visit Marshfield. That's coming up next. Keep it here on the State Trunk
Tour podcast. And with me nowis Visit Marshfield's executive director, Matt McClain,
who's on top of everything in thehub city and some big events are
coming up. We'll talk about thatsome of the great attractions too, some
of which we discussed before and someof which we have not. Hello,
(01:30):
Matt, Hey, Eric, howyou doing doing great? And I looking
forward to coming up there sometime soonand seeing you again. It's always fun
to grab at Blue Heron and grabsome food and catch up and check out
what's going on in town. Boy. Marshfield's buzzing like never before, it
seems. Yeah. Man, Yeah, thanks for your visits and thanks for
having me on the call today.Yeah, we got a lot of good
things happening in the town. Boy. You're really doing so the events.
(01:53):
There's always a lot of popular events. You just had Central Wisconsin State Fair
not too long ago, and comingup as a major one called Maple all
Fest, and we'll get into thatshortly. But some of the other things
going on downtown, which continues togrow with a variety of shopping and some
restaurants. Wenzel Family Plaza has reallybeen It's on its second or third year
now, but it just keeps drawingpeople. Yeah, definitely. We had
(02:16):
music every Friday night through June andJuly. A lot of interesting different bands
and kin of yeah, it kindof got a good music scene going on
down there. There's a great alittle club called good Fellows that shameless self
promotion. My my band The HardshipBrewsters and round a tribute played there recently,
(02:38):
so so we And then we havea great little record shop I'm called
Good Day Sunshine our records, sogood good place to stop if you're a
music fan. And also Dave's Guitars, so we have a really legitimate,
great guitar shop in town that sellssome very nice guitars. So I drew
all over yeah, and there rightthere on Central. Yeah, I was
going to mention both of those,and yeah, I bought a couple of
(03:00):
records last time was a Good DaySunshine and have created a budget for some
more from a next visit there.Yeah, it gets stuff. Yeah,
and they're all all the music WenslowFamily, Plazo Days, guitar workers are
all within a block or two foreasy to grab a coffee at Uptown Coffee
and enjoy some shopping and even thatjurustic walk which we'll talk about in a
(03:21):
second. The cool thing I lovewith Marshfield's. First of all, it's
easy to get to it. Theycall it hub City originally because of the
railroads, but a lot of theroads lead there too. US ten Highways
thirteen, eighty ninety seven and tensnow a freeway from Stevens Point over to
Marshfield that cuts off a little bitof time, makes it as accessible as
ever, in fact more so.And then you know thirteen, you got
that through pass. You can buzzinto downtown pretty quick. But Central Avenue
(03:45):
once you get there to the heartof the city, it's a very cool
downtown because you got a nice wideboulevard, but it's very walkable and so
many of those things like you mentioned, you know, you can walk to
an enjoy can really make a dayor two of it. Yeah, yeah,
definitely. Yeah. Right on oursub Central Avenue, there's pretty much
everything. You're a lot of Wehave a few different hotels right there,
a lot of great restaurants, kindof our downtown core has a lot of
(04:10):
que shops. Yeah, it's definitely. We're very excited about it and adding
new stuff every day seems like it. And you know, just within a
block or two off, you've gotyou know, Wenzel Family Plaza, you've
got the Upper Mansion which is abeautiful old home you can tour, and
then you have the downtown Jurustic Trail. We've talked about Jurustic Park before.
I have an article on it onState Trump tour dot com with a lot
(04:31):
of gorgeous pictures. But there isa version of it in the downtown area
and you can walk to see awhole bunch of very interesting metal sculptures and
other really cool things. It's trulyone of a kind. Yeah, it's
it's a really quick and easy walk. It's i think a little less than
two miles and you can start atour offices, visit Marshfield with the chamber
and we have to leave the turtleas a think about a two ton turtle
(04:56):
that is kind of showcases our JurassicPark, a unique attraction just a couple
of miles out of town, andthen you can start your tour there,
walk through and visit some of thesegreat downtown shops and see some amazing artwork.
Yeah, it's really cool because it'sadded just to this vibe in Marshfield,
which has always been a community ofpeople who appreciate art. I mean,
you have a strong medical community therewith Marshfield clinic, but it seems
(05:19):
like it's just diversifying like never before. Yeah, for sure. Being a
smaller town, just less than twentythousand, Little Wisconsin, we definitely have
a pretty diverse, diverse population witha lot of different ethnicities and different different
folks around. So we kind ofhave an interesting mix for being fairly rural
(05:39):
in Wisconsin. Yeah, you reallydo. And so it's got a vibe
of a city larger than that.And the Blue Heron Brewpub that's a favorite
of ours. They have an eventthat's tying in with your Maple Fall Fest.
Why don't we get into the tothe event piece of it, because
that's coming up quickly this coming weekendwith September sixteenth, seventeenth. It's at
one of the highlights of fall andit's early on in the fall technically it's
(06:00):
still summer. Yeah, yeah,definitely. Yeah, we would be blessed
with good weather as we have thelast few years, but we do go
rain or shine, so don't leta little rain scare you away. Yeah.
Maple Fast is the sixteen seventeen,So our friends at the Blue Hair
and Brut Pub just down the roadfrom the park are going to do an
October Fust kind of showcase. Theirtheir bruised for the October and their event
(06:23):
is running from noon until ten pm. And have some live music modern throwback,
right, yes, modern throwback,thank you. Yeah, I get
some some good nineties nineties tunes anduh, you know with I think people
are our age love those nineties songsand actually all my kids and stuff doue
too. Yeah, I was gonnasay that crosses a lot of generations.
(06:44):
Eighties nineties just totally does it.And with Guardians of the Galaxy seventies music
too. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I love I love that that movie
in that soundtrack is is pretty awesome. And yeah, so so after you
you know, do some shopping.We're kind of an arts and crafts festival
at the Maple Fall Fust. Wehave beer at the show too at the
festival, but you can definitely headdown and kind of do the nightlife at
(07:04):
the Blue Hair and Great outdoor musictent. I'll have cornhole, yard games,
hammerschlagging. Have you ever done hammerslogging here? It's fun. I
love making sparks with the hammer onthose nails that go into the trees.
Yeah, definitely, it is funand you know after a beer or two
that that hammer it hit those nailscan be a little bit harder. But
(07:24):
just practice safety, be safe.Okay, you don't. We don't want
anybody you know, hammering themselves inthe leg. It is very fun to
watch hammerschlagging later in the evening.That's that's an excellent point. And what's
fall Fest though, I mean there'sthere's all those activities and that runs all
day too. Yeah. Yeah,we actually kick off visit Marshfield my office
(07:46):
here. A big strong team oftwo get to run this festival for about
ten thousand people. Oh my god, that's a lot of work. And
yeah, we will start setting upto Thursday before. But yeah, kicking
off Saturday morning, we have kindof our well known potato pancake breakfast.
Our partners at the local Catholic schoolclubs Catholic their athletic programs help volunteer and
(08:11):
make up some wonderful pancakes, potatopancakes. Account of specialty. We have
a special maple sausage that's only madeat this event from our friends at Hewett's
Meat and it's really good. Weat the end of the show up they
have some leftovers they'll sell it andI always get a bunch of people,
so I need to someone need tobuy something. Yeah. That that really
kicks off the event at seven andgoes till noon. And then our craft
(08:35):
enders making the best handmade arts andcrafts. We have vendors from all over
the state and really the Midwest comeinto the show and you can find a
lot of unique gifts and items,handmade arts and crafts, so some some
stuff you can't get anywhere else.Yeah, including some Amish specialties, over
one hundred and fifty of them.You have those maple syrup products. It's
Maple fall Fest, so of courseyou have to go with the I've got
(08:56):
to have a lot of maple.Maple we have. We debuted last year.
We kind of had a dessert challengebetween our vendors and if they make
a special dessert including maple, weget people to vote on it and you
can try all the different maples.We had, I think maple covered cream
puffs, we had some ice cream. We had a few different dessert bars,
(09:18):
a lot of a lot of goodstuff and always using local resource maple
nice. And then you got thatfood court in Beer Garden, so you
can you can enjoy a beer withsome of that maple exactly. Yeah,
definitely some of the you know,the best food vendors. We have a
great euro vendor that I seem toeat every day. And we have you
know, burgers, brats, corndogs, you know, all your favorite
(09:41):
festival foods. You know that youhad that you maybe got at the fair,
but you need another doosef Hey,you can always use more. And
the kids, there's plenty of stufffor them to do. There's a kids
on that runs from nine in themorning till four in the afternoon, so
that's available all day. Yep,yep. That is nine to four on
Saturday and then ten to four onSunday. So we got a worse The
Bounty Houses all the kids Love partnerswith Discovery Education Station and the Chestnut Center
(10:05):
for the Arts to local groups thatdo a lot of fun stuff for kids,
will have fun games. We havea pumpkin bowling We kind of debuted
it last year and this year Ithink we're gonna We had about the cheapest
maple syrup you could buy, that'slike fake maple syrup. We use them
for bowling pins. We did actuallyuse this pancake tent so you can throw
(10:26):
some pumpkins at some goards and getyour scores. So who's going to be
the Punkin Bowling champion this year?And then we're also going to have a
kind of a NERF style axe throwing, so uh, fun for all ages.
You don't you don't. We don'twant the five year old kids caring
real axes, so they can dothat. And then I think a new
(10:48):
thing this year. One of ourfriends said they think they're gonna bring some
baby goats. Oh, very cool. Goats are really wild because some of
them, their eye pupils are actuallylike long rectangles, they're not round.
Wow, it looks like they havea panorama view of everything. So yeah,
when you see the baby goats,check them out and look at their
pupils if you can't, especially ifthe pupils are smaller, they get more
(11:09):
rectangular shaped. It's kind of wild. I'll try to have a staring contest
with the baby coup there you go, just don't put heads. And there's
also speaking of art, Main StreetConservatory of Dance, the Jazz Dance Company
and the Ballet Company are going tobe doing performances too. Yeah. I
think they've been with us all ofmy years. This is my eleventh year,
(11:30):
and they do a great performance andthey will a lot of them dress
up maybe in like the Fall themesand you know, just something to be
outside and watch some you know kidsdo amazing performances well. And the other
side of that for outdoor fun,you got the grilling going on. Mad
Dog and Merril are going to bethere. Yeah, yeah, mad Dog
and Merril have been a staple atthe festival and they're going to be actually
on both days at eleven thirty andso they'll be doing their grilling, comedy
(11:54):
routines of course, using some maplesyrup and you know, teaching some people
from recipes and then having a lotof fun. Very cool and so Wildwood
Park which is a beautiful park.It's just off Central Avenue, a little
bit south of downtown, a littlebit north of Hotel Marshfield, which is
one of my favorite places to staywhen i'm there. They have a wonderful
zoo, which we'll also talk aboutin a moment, but in it's part
(12:16):
of Maple Fall Fest. You cando zoo tours each day, Yes,
yes, each day at two o'clockwe have zoo tours are a wonderful zookeeper
Sarah, and I think some ofher helpers will be showing folks around kind
of giving them, you know,a great tour of the zoo, highlighting
our Kodiak bears Munzimboda that are Ithink two of the largest bears you can
(12:37):
see, and we have a wonderfulexhibit that kind of would be a world
class I think some people said,oh, this could be at the Milwaukee
Zoo or the San Diego Zoo.It's about a forty thousand square feet of
natural area with a little pond thatthe bears like to swim in, and
then they can walk across this bridgeover top of everybody into kind of a
(12:58):
more traditional, I guess zooscape thatyou would see with a great viewing window.
And so it's definitely one of thetop things people I love to see.
You typically can't see these bears outsideof Kodiak Island in Alaska, so
we have two of the bears ofthe few in the lower forty eight.
Yeah, they are the crown jewelsof the zoo and just fascinating. You
do give them a lot of roomto roam and they seem like they're really
(13:18):
well taking care of him. I'veseen him flashing around in that pond on
a hot day. They're just lovingit. Yeah. Yeah, the zoo
keepers give them great toys. Ithink we're gonna give them our pumpkins after
we use them for decorating at theshow, to munch on. And yeah,
they still act kind of like alittle toddlers, you know, running
and wrestling, and yeah, definitelyput on a show. Some good video
(13:41):
opportunities right there too, to seethem from a fire doing that. I
suppose bears love maple, right,Oh yeah, yeah, I would say
we all and honey, I guessWhinnie the Pooh maple all those gooey,
sticky sugary things, right, Yeah. And the zoo really has a lot
of great animals on display, includingfor birds. And I guess there's a
(14:01):
butterfly release on the Sunday of MapleFall Fest on the seventeenth. Yeah,
it's a kind of wrap up someour entertainment. On Sunday afternoon two thirty,
we're gonna have the Marshfald Monarchs,a local group that raises butterflies,
and they've been with us a fewyears and have done this like just kind
of very picturesque release of a fewhundred butterflies typically and as yeah, it's
(14:24):
great, great video, a greatway to get a shout out. The
kids love it for sure. Soyeah, man, this coming weekend September
sixteenth and seventeenth, you've got atwo front Saturday with Maple fall Fest and
then the October Fest with Blue HandGroup up and Maple fall Fest continues into
Sunday. Might be able to geta hotel room. If not, you
got to go somewhere a little furtherout. But boy, that's going to
(14:46):
be a big draw in Marshfield forthe weekend. Yeah. The hotels typically
do sell out, so if youcan try to try to book early and
get in here. There's always seemsto be a lot of wedding groups that
like to enjoy the experience while they'rewhile they're doing the nuptials. So now
September is a very popular wedding month. Anyways. The weather is usually so
phenomenal all month. I mean,it's a great time to road trip and
(15:09):
when you visit Marshville, whether it'syou know, for the Maple Fall Fest
in October Fast or any of theother events going on, there's always those
cool things to check out. We'vetalked about Central Avenue and the shopping,
and we've talked a little bit aboutthe arts, but the Chestnuts Center is
another place that we can discuss.We haven't talked about that in our previous
conversations. Yeah, it's definitely agreat local community arts group. I think
(15:31):
I just saw they're going to dosome classes with the stained glass, so
you could learn how to make yourown stained glass. There's definitely always some
great painting classes. And then justperformances too. Have a great room that
it is a kind of repurposed historicchurch that has been changed a lot,
(15:54):
but the beautiful church room still hasamazing acoustics, so get some nice little
performances by piano. Sometimes there's stringquartets and so yeah, definitely a jewel
in our community that maybe not enoughpeople don't know about. Again, just
off Central Avenue kind of by theupper Mansion. And then if you want
to if you're bringing the kids totown, this discovery Education station, especially
(16:15):
if they like stem kind of stuff, it seems like it's really cool.
Yeah, definitely, I had myson there recently and they had some Chuck
Wallace. If you've ever seen aChuck Walla they're a pretty cool animal.
Pretty chuck wa Is that like aguy named Chuck and a Kuala bear mixed
or it's kind of like this littlelizardy thing. I don't know. If
there's this ad that keeps playing withthis Barbie girl. She walks out and
(16:38):
takes a picture and says, googlethis and it's oh, it's a Chuck
Wallace. Oh wow, Okay,Barbie is all the rage right now?
Right, So yeah, that's verycool. That's like a little mini almost
like a kids museum and itself justin town. Yep, yep, definitely,
And that's just right on the Cent'swhat I don't know too, kind
of right next to some of ourfavorite coffee jobs in the restaurants also have
(17:00):
the Heritage Museum, which isn't farfrom there. Everything's in pretty close proximity.
Yes, yes, definitely. Marshall'sa really easy town to get to
get around and you know not notwe don't have a lot of traffic.
We're blessed with that. You probablywill see a lot of trafic on Mabel
faulf this weekend, but it's prettyeasy to get around, quite a bit
of parking, so definitely, youdon't have to no pay parking. Yeah,
(17:22):
there's tends of food parking everywhere.That's a bigger draw than people realize.
I would agree. I think whenyou're on your vacation, you don't
want to be hunting for parking spotsand you know, paying an armor leg
to park somewhere. And then yeah, so it's it's a Marshall will be
an easy getaway. Yeah, ifyou if you want to check out this
Marshfield Heritage Museum. The lest weforget military exhibitions going on right now,
(17:45):
there's wartime exhibits as far back asCivil War, I guess, dioramas,
all that kind of stuff. That'sWednesday and Saturdays in the afternoon, if
you want to check that out.So yeah, just even on a walking
tour, you can. You canreally visit pretty much all the places we've
talked about. How about the LucilleTech Center for the Arts that's a little
further out, Yes, yeah,just at one of our neighboring communities,
(18:08):
Spencer, just about ten minutes fromMarshfield, hosts some very amazing you know,
traveling groups. They've had, Ithink some some great blues bands.
I think they've had like some ofthe really good tribute bands. You know,
I'm trying to think if they're theyhad like a Journey or some kind
of one of those great eighties bandsthere. And then they do have some
(18:30):
really like world class theater. Two. So some of those groups that will
go to the say bigger places likeAna Claire or a Wasaw Theater they'll play
and Spencer and kind of easier toget to for some of our folks around
here. And also great great wayto travel over here and see some world
class entertainment. Yeah, it reallyis. And if you're if you're road
tripping in and around Marshfield, especiallyif Marshfield is your hub for staying,
(18:52):
I mean it's it's pretty easy shotdown US ten over to Nielsville to check
out the high Ground, which isa beautiful veterans Memorial park, and there's
some great places along the way likethe Lynn Dairy and Nasonville if you want
to get stock up on cheese.I mean, you guys are kind of
you have easy access to a lotof really cool things just within maybe twenty
minutes. Yeah, we are thehub of it all. Yeah, you
(19:14):
really are. And by the way, as I know it's it's still technically
summer fall is coming. We've gotto enjoy fall in the fall colors.
But looking ahead to winter, andwhen people hear these things, they're not
always hearing it right when it getsreleased. I want to remind people about
winter Wenzel Family Plaza. You've gota rink that you do there now,
Yes, yes, there's a skatingrink kind of like a mini Rockefeller Center.
(19:36):
We'll have a big tree up inthere and then so that's definitely around
the holidays is great. And thenwe can't forget our rotary Winter Wonderland is
probably one of our biggest attractions duringthe winter. That runs the day after
Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, andyou can see over two million lights in
our Wildwood Zoo. Or we hostthe Maple Fall of Fus. Yeah.
We we have an article on Statetrun Tour that updates that every year for
(19:57):
all the holiday lights things you cansee around the state, and marsh Fields
is among the most spectacular. Andyou're part of the over one million lights
club, So that's that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, we're at two
million light club. How many you'rein the two million lakes? Oh you
know what, I haven't I justwant one million and up, but I'll
have to start filtering it even further. And for people who like tube being
(20:17):
and other winter sports. You know, every pitty thinks you know Wood County
and and uh you know Marathon County. Well I'm not marathon towards Walsau which
has Red Mountain, but around WoodCounty they always think it's kind of flat
and the territory is relatively a level. But you've got Powers Bluff, which
is a great winter recreation spot.Yeah, they've They've keep getting busier in
Mazerra every year with some great tubinghells and you can do some a little
(20:40):
bit of skiing, a little bitof snowboarding, but kind of focus on
the tubing and the cross country skiing. And so definitely a good way to
get out of the house, youknow, on one of those days when
you know it's like if it's Ithink, if it's above zero, you
should get outside and play five doingsome snowshoeing. I think we've we've got
to, you know, really embraceour winters here and not just sit in
front of the TV and watch Netflix. On that well, that's true.
(21:03):
It is good to get out someget out and get some fresh winter air.
Now we've got time till it getsthat cold. But we just want
to give you a nice preview becauseMarshfield is a great place to visit any
time of the year, but fallin particular is phenomenal because you get a
little bit of the best of both. How long are the wensl family plansa
Friday night concerts going on? Youknow, they wrapped up a little earlier
(21:25):
this year, so they're they're they'rethey're done for the season right now.
Okay, but it's still a goodgathering. I'm gonna make it a couple
of pop ups here or there,you know, okay. And you can
also check out things like the galleryGallery four fifty if you want to see
some great Wisconsin artists. There's aUW. Stevens Point kind of campus in
Marshfield where where that's available. Andthey got the Visual Arts Gallery that's good
(21:45):
year round. So and the shopping, I mean, obviously the shops.
It's not like a touristy town whereVenning shuts down in the winter. Those
great places we talked about, Dave'sGuitar Center, Good Day Sunshine Record Shop,
can eat at Nuts Deep and drinkup Blue Heron and have all this
great stuff. They're open year round. I mean Marshfields a year round city,
so it is true. And ifyou if you come through. One
(22:07):
of my favorite lunch spots is calledMojo's. They kind of do a cross
between Italian and Cajun food and that'sthe kind of a great mom and pop,
you know scene. And as oneof my favorite places to eat.
I'm getting hungry. I'm intrigued now. Yeah, we usually eat at Blue
Heron. Maybe we'll have to havea beer a Blue Heron feat there.
So I like that. And don'tforget if you if you love world's largest
(22:30):
things. The world's largest round baris in Marshfield. Round barn is in
Marshfield. See how I got offtrack? You get a round bar too?
We should get a bar too.Yeah, round bar, the world's
large round bar is inside the worldlarge round bar. No, not really,
but actually that's a great idea.You could do that maybe the next
Central Wisconsin State Fair. Yeah,did you see that we have the had
(22:51):
the world's longest meat stick? Yes, oh, I meant to bring that
up. Was was it went?Now? What was the company? Y?
Yeah? I had their seventy fifthanniversary party, had some great live
music and made the world's longest bestick. We had someone from the Guinness
Book World Records here to verify it, and it was a city block long.
(23:12):
I think it was three hundred andfourteen feet and maybe seven inches.
Yeah. I talked about that onmy radio show Freezer. Oh you have
a little piece of it, huh? I did, Yes, I scored
one well, and I'm built oneBay later, so I hope it preserves
well. For perspective, that's abouthalf as tall as the tallest building in
(23:33):
Milwaukee. Oh really, So yeah, we should see if we can wrap
the world's longest be stick around theworld's large round barn. I think it
might be close. If you coulddo wrap the world's largest beef stick around
the world's largest round barn with theworld's largest round bar inside, you'll make
worldwide news, I think. So. We might have to have like the
(23:55):
world's largest cheese curds too, thenor sometime. Dude, you think the
hotels are busy now, everybody's goingto come down for that. I'll work
on it all right. Cool,Well, there's plenty to see in the
meantime, And Matt, you andI might scheme together on some unique ideas
like that. I'm looking forward toit. What our brains can come up
with again US ten Highways thirteen eightyninety seven. Anytime you're on those roads,
(24:18):
you follow it the right way.You get to Marshfield and you can
see all these cool things. Buthighly highly suggested Maple fall Fest September sixteenth
and seventeenth coming up here and theoctoberfest for Blue here and why not do
two for one. You can alwayskeep up with what's going on with events
at visit Marshfield dot com. Theyhave everything laid out really nicely, shopping,
events, attractions, dining, allthe other activities and places to stay.
(24:41):
I mean, you really have anicely organized sight here, Matt.
Oh, thank you, and pleasedo follow us on Facebook. We have
almost twenty seven thousand followers, soI always like to tell people at seven
thousand more than people live here.So follows on Facebook and we keep that
pretty chuck full of fun stuff todo all right, plenty to do when
you've is at Marshfield. Matt,thanks so much for your time and looking
(25:02):
forward to Maple fall Fest. Yeah, thank you, Eric, thanks for
having us there. You go lotsgoing on in the big hub city.
US ten Highways thirteen, eighty,and ninety seven bring you there. You
gotta check it out, including JuristicPark. It's phenomenal and the walk they
did downtown is great. I lovewhat they're doing with that city. It's
a city of twenty thousand, butthere's resources there and activities there and fun
(25:22):
there for a city that's much larger. So check it out when you get
a chance. Northwest corner of WoodCounty, spilling over a little bit into
Marathon County. Our sister podcast,The Cabin, which is the official podcast
of Discover Wisconsin. We talk moreabout Wood County in an upcoming episode two,
so make sure you check that outas well. I'm Eric Holson.
I will catch you on the StateTrunk Tour podcast for episode thirty nine,
and don't forget to follow some roadson State Trunk Tour dot com. We'll
(25:45):
keep you up to date on what'sgoing on around Wisconsin.
And welcome to episode thirty eight ofthe State Trunk Tour. Here in twenty
twenty three, I'm Eric Paulson,had tour guide for your State Trunk Tour.
We follow Wisconsin highways end to end, note about everything along the way,
and sometimes check out what's going onin specific places. And today we're
going to take you to Hub Cityin central Wisconsin. We're talking about Marshfield.
Lots going on in that city.You know, they're anchored by Marshfield
(00:47):
Clinic. They have a beautiful downtownand a great area to shop and eat
and enjoy a lot of great stuff. A lot of new things going on
in Marshfield and some big festivals comingup, including Maple Fallfest which is this
coming weekend September sixteenth and seventeenth.A lot of other great events as you
go towards fall and winter, includingtheir holiday light show, which is spectacular.
(01:07):
We'll talk about all of that withMatt McClain, the executive director of
Visit Marshfield. That's coming up next. Keep it here on the State Trunk
Tour podcast. And with me nowis Visit Marshfield's executive director, Matt McClain,
who's on top of everything in thehub city and some big events are
coming up. We'll talk about thatsome of the great attractions too, some
of which we discussed before and someof which we have not. Hello,
(01:30):
Matt, Hey, Eric, howyou doing doing great? And I looking
forward to coming up there sometime soonand seeing you again. It's always fun
to grab at Blue Heron and grabsome food and catch up and check out
what's going on in town. Boy. Marshfield's buzzing like never before, it
seems. Yeah. Man, Yeah, thanks for your visits and thanks for
having me on the call today.Yeah, we got a lot of good
things happening in the town. Boy. You're really doing so the events.
(01:53):
There's always a lot of popular events. You just had Central Wisconsin State Fair
not too long ago, and comingup as a major one called Maple all
Fest, and we'll get into thatshortly. But some of the other things
going on downtown, which continues togrow with a variety of shopping and some
restaurants. Wenzel Family Plaza has reallybeen It's on its second or third year
now, but it just keeps drawingpeople. Yeah, definitely. We had
(02:16):
music every Friday night through June andJuly. A lot of interesting different bands
and kin of yeah, it kindof got a good music scene going on
down there. There's a great alittle club called good Fellows that shameless self
promotion. My my band The HardshipBrewsters and round a tribute played there recently,
(02:38):
so so we And then we havea great little record shop I'm called
Good Day Sunshine our records, sogood good place to stop if you're a
music fan. And also Dave's Guitars, so we have a really legitimate,
great guitar shop in town that sellssome very nice guitars. So I drew
all over yeah, and there rightthere on Central. Yeah, I was
going to mention both of those,and yeah, I bought a couple of
(03:00):
records last time was a Good DaySunshine and have created a budget for some
more from a next visit there.Yeah, it gets stuff. Yeah,
and they're all all the music WenslowFamily, Plazo Days, guitar workers are
all within a block or two foreasy to grab a coffee at Uptown Coffee
and enjoy some shopping and even thatjurustic walk which we'll talk about in a
(03:21):
second. The cool thing I lovewith Marshfield's. First of all, it's
easy to get to it. Theycall it hub City originally because of the
railroads, but a lot of theroads lead there too. US ten Highways
thirteen, eighty ninety seven and tensnow a freeway from Stevens Point over to
Marshfield that cuts off a little bitof time, makes it as accessible as
ever, in fact more so.And then you know thirteen, you got
that through pass. You can buzzinto downtown pretty quick. But Central Avenue
(03:45):
once you get there to the heartof the city, it's a very cool
downtown because you got a nice wideboulevard, but it's very walkable and so
many of those things like you mentioned, you know, you can walk to
an enjoy can really make a dayor two of it. Yeah, yeah,
definitely. Yeah. Right on oursub Central Avenue, there's pretty much
everything. You're a lot of Wehave a few different hotels right there,
a lot of great restaurants, kindof our downtown core has a lot of
(04:10):
que shops. Yeah, it's definitely. We're very excited about it and adding
new stuff every day seems like it. And you know, just within a
block or two off, you've gotyou know, Wenzel Family Plaza, you've
got the Upper Mansion which is abeautiful old home you can tour, and
then you have the downtown Jurustic Trail. We've talked about Jurustic Park before.
I have an article on it onState Trump tour dot com with a lot
(04:31):
of gorgeous pictures. But there isa version of it in the downtown area
and you can walk to see awhole bunch of very interesting metal sculptures and
other really cool things. It's trulyone of a kind. Yeah, it's
it's a really quick and easy walk. It's i think a little less than
two miles and you can start atour offices, visit Marshfield with the chamber
and we have to leave the turtleas a think about a two ton turtle
(04:56):
that is kind of showcases our JurassicPark, a unique attraction just a couple
of miles out of town, andthen you can start your tour there,
walk through and visit some of thesegreat downtown shops and see some amazing artwork.
Yeah, it's really cool because it'sadded just to this vibe in Marshfield,
which has always been a community ofpeople who appreciate art. I mean,
you have a strong medical community therewith Marshfield clinic, but it seems
(05:19):
like it's just diversifying like never before. Yeah, for sure. Being a
smaller town, just less than twentythousand, Little Wisconsin, we definitely have
a pretty diverse, diverse population witha lot of different ethnicities and different different
folks around. So we kind ofhave an interesting mix for being fairly rural
(05:39):
in Wisconsin. Yeah, you reallydo. And so it's got a vibe
of a city larger than that.And the Blue Heron Brewpub that's a favorite
of ours. They have an eventthat's tying in with your Maple Fall Fest.
Why don't we get into the tothe event piece of it, because
that's coming up quickly this coming weekendwith September sixteenth, seventeenth. It's at
one of the highlights of fall andit's early on in the fall technically it's
(06:00):
still summer. Yeah, yeah,definitely. Yeah, we would be blessed
with good weather as we have thelast few years, but we do go
rain or shine, so don't leta little rain scare you away. Yeah.
Maple Fast is the sixteen seventeen,So our friends at the Blue Hair
and Brut Pub just down the roadfrom the park are going to do an
October Fust kind of showcase. Theirtheir bruised for the October and their event
(06:23):
is running from noon until ten pm. And have some live music modern throwback,
right, yes, modern throwback,thank you. Yeah, I get
some some good nineties nineties tunes anduh, you know with I think people
are our age love those nineties songsand actually all my kids and stuff doue
too. Yeah, I was gonnasay that crosses a lot of generations.
(06:44):
Eighties nineties just totally does it.And with Guardians of the Galaxy seventies music
too. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I love I love that that movie
in that soundtrack is is pretty awesome. And yeah, so so after you
you know, do some shopping.We're kind of an arts and crafts festival
at the Maple Fall Fust. Wehave beer at the show too at the
festival, but you can definitely headdown and kind of do the nightlife at
(07:04):
the Blue Hair and Great outdoor musictent. I'll have cornhole, yard games,
hammerschlagging. Have you ever done hammerslogging here? It's fun. I
love making sparks with the hammer onthose nails that go into the trees.
Yeah, definitely, it is funand you know after a beer or two
that that hammer it hit those nailscan be a little bit harder. But
(07:24):
just practice safety, be safe.Okay, you don't. We don't want
anybody you know, hammering themselves inthe leg. It is very fun to
watch hammerschlagging later in the evening.That's that's an excellent point. And what's
fall Fest though, I mean there'sthere's all those activities and that runs all
day too. Yeah. Yeah,we actually kick off visit Marshfield my office
(07:46):
here. A big strong team oftwo get to run this festival for about
ten thousand people. Oh my god, that's a lot of work. And
yeah, we will start setting upto Thursday before. But yeah, kicking
off Saturday morning, we have kindof our well known potato pancake breakfast.
Our partners at the local Catholic schoolclubs Catholic their athletic programs help volunteer and
(08:11):
make up some wonderful pancakes, potatopancakes. Account of specialty. We have
a special maple sausage that's only madeat this event from our friends at Hewett's
Meat and it's really good. Weat the end of the show up they
have some leftovers they'll sell it andI always get a bunch of people,
so I need to someone need tobuy something. Yeah. That that really
kicks off the event at seven andgoes till noon. And then our craft
(08:35):
enders making the best handmade arts andcrafts. We have vendors from all over
the state and really the Midwest comeinto the show and you can find a
lot of unique gifts and items,handmade arts and crafts, so some some
stuff you can't get anywhere else.Yeah, including some Amish specialties, over
one hundred and fifty of them.You have those maple syrup products. It's
Maple fall Fest, so of courseyou have to go with the I've got
(08:56):
to have a lot of maple.Maple we have. We debuted last year.
We kind of had a dessert challengebetween our vendors and if they make
a special dessert including maple, weget people to vote on it and you
can try all the different maples.We had, I think maple covered cream
puffs, we had some ice cream. We had a few different dessert bars,
(09:18):
a lot of a lot of goodstuff and always using local resource maple
nice. And then you got thatfood court in Beer Garden, so you
can you can enjoy a beer withsome of that maple exactly. Yeah,
definitely some of the you know,the best food vendors. We have a
great euro vendor that I seem toeat every day. And we have you
know, burgers, brats, corndogs, you know, all your favorite
(09:41):
festival foods. You know that youhad that you maybe got at the fair,
but you need another doosef Hey,you can always use more. And
the kids, there's plenty of stufffor them to do. There's a kids
on that runs from nine in themorning till four in the afternoon, so
that's available all day. Yep,yep. That is nine to four on
Saturday and then ten to four onSunday. So we got a worse The
Bounty Houses all the kids Love partnerswith Discovery Education Station and the Chestnut Center
(10:05):
for the Arts to local groups thatdo a lot of fun stuff for kids,
will have fun games. We havea pumpkin bowling We kind of debuted
it last year and this year Ithink we're gonna We had about the cheapest
maple syrup you could buy, that'slike fake maple syrup. We use them
for bowling pins. We did actuallyuse this pancake tent so you can throw
(10:26):
some pumpkins at some goards and getyour scores. So who's going to be
the Punkin Bowling champion this year?And then we're also going to have a
kind of a NERF style axe throwing, so uh, fun for all ages.
You don't you don't. We don'twant the five year old kids caring
real axes, so they can dothat. And then I think a new
(10:48):
thing this year. One of ourfriends said they think they're gonna bring some
baby goats. Oh, very cool. Goats are really wild because some of
them, their eye pupils are actuallylike long rectangles, they're not round.
Wow, it looks like they havea panorama view of everything. So yeah,
when you see the baby goats,check them out and look at their
pupils if you can't, especially ifthe pupils are smaller, they get more
(11:09):
rectangular shaped. It's kind of wild. I'll try to have a staring contest
with the baby coup there you go, just don't put heads. And there's
also speaking of art, Main StreetConservatory of Dance, the Jazz Dance Company
and the Ballet Company are going tobe doing performances too. Yeah. I
think they've been with us all ofmy years. This is my eleventh year,
(11:30):
and they do a great performance andthey will a lot of them dress
up maybe in like the Fall themesand you know, just something to be
outside and watch some you know kidsdo amazing performances well. And the other
side of that for outdoor fun,you got the grilling going on. Mad
Dog and Merril are going to bethere. Yeah, yeah, mad Dog
and Merril have been a staple atthe festival and they're going to be actually
on both days at eleven thirty andso they'll be doing their grilling, comedy
(11:54):
routines of course, using some maplesyrup and you know, teaching some people
from recipes and then having a lotof fun. Very cool and so Wildwood
Park which is a beautiful park.It's just off Central Avenue, a little
bit south of downtown, a littlebit north of Hotel Marshfield, which is
one of my favorite places to staywhen i'm there. They have a wonderful
zoo, which we'll also talk aboutin a moment, but in it's part
(12:16):
of Maple Fall Fest. You cando zoo tours each day, Yes,
yes, each day at two o'clockwe have zoo tours are a wonderful zookeeper
Sarah, and I think some ofher helpers will be showing folks around kind
of giving them, you know,a great tour of the zoo, highlighting
our Kodiak bears Munzimboda that are Ithink two of the largest bears you can
(12:37):
see, and we have a wonderfulexhibit that kind of would be a world
class I think some people said,oh, this could be at the Milwaukee
Zoo or the San Diego Zoo.It's about a forty thousand square feet of
natural area with a little pond thatthe bears like to swim in, and
then they can walk across this bridgeover top of everybody into kind of a
(12:58):
more traditional, I guess zooscape thatyou would see with a great viewing window.
And so it's definitely one of thetop things people I love to see.
You typically can't see these bears outsideof Kodiak Island in Alaska, so
we have two of the bears ofthe few in the lower forty eight.
Yeah, they are the crown jewelsof the zoo and just fascinating. You
do give them a lot of roomto roam and they seem like they're really
(13:18):
well taking care of him. I'veseen him flashing around in that pond on
a hot day. They're just lovingit. Yeah. Yeah, the zoo
keepers give them great toys. Ithink we're gonna give them our pumpkins after
we use them for decorating at theshow, to munch on. And yeah,
they still act kind of like alittle toddlers, you know, running
and wrestling, and yeah, definitelyput on a show. Some good video
(13:41):
opportunities right there too, to seethem from a fire doing that. I
suppose bears love maple, right,Oh yeah, yeah, I would say
we all and honey, I guessWhinnie the Pooh maple all those gooey,
sticky sugary things, right, Yeah. And the zoo really has a lot
of great animals on display, includingfor birds. And I guess there's a
(14:01):
butterfly release on the Sunday of MapleFall Fest on the seventeenth. Yeah,
it's a kind of wrap up someour entertainment. On Sunday afternoon two thirty,
we're gonna have the Marshfald Monarchs,a local group that raises butterflies,
and they've been with us a fewyears and have done this like just kind
of very picturesque release of a fewhundred butterflies typically and as yeah, it's
(14:24):
great, great video, a greatway to get a shout out. The
kids love it for sure. Soyeah, man, this coming weekend September
sixteenth and seventeenth, you've got atwo front Saturday with Maple fall Fest and
then the October Fest with Blue HandGroup up and Maple fall Fest continues into
Sunday. Might be able to geta hotel room. If not, you
got to go somewhere a little furtherout. But boy, that's going to
(14:46):
be a big draw in Marshfield forthe weekend. Yeah. The hotels typically
do sell out, so if youcan try to try to book early and
get in here. There's always seemsto be a lot of wedding groups that
like to enjoy the experience while they'rewhile they're doing the nuptials. So now
September is a very popular wedding month. Anyways. The weather is usually so
phenomenal all month. I mean,it's a great time to road trip and
(15:09):
when you visit Marshville, whether it'syou know, for the Maple Fall Fest
in October Fast or any of theother events going on, there's always those
cool things to check out. We'vetalked about Central Avenue and the shopping,
and we've talked a little bit aboutthe arts, but the Chestnuts Center is
another place that we can discuss.We haven't talked about that in our previous
conversations. Yeah, it's definitely agreat local community arts group. I think
(15:31):
I just saw they're going to dosome classes with the stained glass, so
you could learn how to make yourown stained glass. There's definitely always some
great painting classes. And then justperformances too. Have a great room that
it is a kind of repurposed historicchurch that has been changed a lot,
(15:54):
but the beautiful church room still hasamazing acoustics, so get some nice little
performances by piano. Sometimes there's stringquartets and so yeah, definitely a jewel
in our community that maybe not enoughpeople don't know about. Again, just
off Central Avenue kind of by theupper Mansion. And then if you want
to if you're bringing the kids totown, this discovery Education station, especially
(16:15):
if they like stem kind of stuff, it seems like it's really cool.
Yeah, definitely, I had myson there recently and they had some Chuck
Wallace. If you've ever seen aChuck Walla they're a pretty cool animal.
Pretty chuck wa Is that like aguy named Chuck and a Kuala bear mixed
or it's kind of like this littlelizardy thing. I don't know. If
there's this ad that keeps playing withthis Barbie girl. She walks out and
(16:38):
takes a picture and says, googlethis and it's oh, it's a Chuck
Wallace. Oh wow, Okay,Barbie is all the rage right now?
Right, So yeah, that's verycool. That's like a little mini almost
like a kids museum and itself justin town. Yep, yep, definitely,
And that's just right on the Cent'swhat I don't know too, kind
of right next to some of ourfavorite coffee jobs in the restaurants also have
(17:00):
the Heritage Museum, which isn't farfrom there. Everything's in pretty close proximity.
Yes, yes, definitely. Marshall'sa really easy town to get to
get around and you know not notwe don't have a lot of traffic.
We're blessed with that. You probablywill see a lot of trafic on Mabel
faulf this weekend, but it's prettyeasy to get around, quite a bit
of parking, so definitely, youdon't have to no pay parking. Yeah,
(17:22):
there's tends of food parking everywhere.That's a bigger draw than people realize.
I would agree. I think whenyou're on your vacation, you don't
want to be hunting for parking spotsand you know, paying an armor leg
to park somewhere. And then yeah, so it's it's a Marshall will be
an easy getaway. Yeah, ifyou if you want to check out this
Marshfield Heritage Museum. The lest weforget military exhibitions going on right now,
(17:45):
there's wartime exhibits as far back asCivil War, I guess, dioramas,
all that kind of stuff. That'sWednesday and Saturdays in the afternoon, if
you want to check that out.So yeah, just even on a walking
tour, you can. You canreally visit pretty much all the places we've
talked about. How about the LucilleTech Center for the Arts that's a little
further out, Yes, yeah,just at one of our neighboring communities,
(18:08):
Spencer, just about ten minutes fromMarshfield, hosts some very amazing you know,
traveling groups. They've had, Ithink some some great blues bands.
I think they've had like some ofthe really good tribute bands. You know,
I'm trying to think if they're theyhad like a Journey or some kind
of one of those great eighties bandsthere. And then they do have some
(18:30):
really like world class theater. Two. So some of those groups that will
go to the say bigger places likeAna Claire or a Wasaw Theater they'll play
and Spencer and kind of easier toget to for some of our folks around
here. And also great great wayto travel over here and see some world
class entertainment. Yeah, it reallyis. And if you're if you're road
tripping in and around Marshfield, especiallyif Marshfield is your hub for staying,
(18:52):
I mean it's it's pretty easy shotdown US ten over to Nielsville to check
out the high Ground, which isa beautiful veterans Memorial park, and there's
some great places along the way likethe Lynn Dairy and Nasonville if you want
to get stock up on cheese.I mean, you guys are kind of
you have easy access to a lotof really cool things just within maybe twenty
minutes. Yeah, we are thehub of it all. Yeah, you
(19:14):
really are. And by the way, as I know it's it's still technically
summer fall is coming. We've gotto enjoy fall in the fall colors.
But looking ahead to winter, andwhen people hear these things, they're not
always hearing it right when it getsreleased. I want to remind people about
winter Wenzel Family Plaza. You've gota rink that you do there now,
Yes, yes, there's a skatingrink kind of like a mini Rockefeller Center.
(19:36):
We'll have a big tree up inthere and then so that's definitely around
the holidays is great. And thenwe can't forget our rotary Winter Wonderland is
probably one of our biggest attractions duringthe winter. That runs the day after
Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, andyou can see over two million lights in
our Wildwood Zoo. Or we hostthe Maple Fall of Fus. Yeah.
We we have an article on Statetrun Tour that updates that every year for
(19:57):
all the holiday lights things you cansee around the state, and marsh Fields
is among the most spectacular. Andyou're part of the over one million lights
club, So that's that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, we're at two
million light club. How many you'rein the two million lakes? Oh you
know what, I haven't I justwant one million and up, but I'll
have to start filtering it even further. And for people who like tube being
(20:17):
and other winter sports. You know, every pitty thinks you know Wood County
and and uh you know Marathon County. Well I'm not marathon towards Walsau which
has Red Mountain, but around WoodCounty they always think it's kind of flat
and the territory is relatively a level. But you've got Powers Bluff, which
is a great winter recreation spot.Yeah, they've They've keep getting busier in
Mazerra every year with some great tubinghells and you can do some a little
(20:40):
bit of skiing, a little bitof snowboarding, but kind of focus on
the tubing and the cross country skiing. And so definitely a good way to
get out of the house, youknow, on one of those days when
you know it's like if it's Ithink, if it's above zero, you
should get outside and play five doingsome snowshoeing. I think we've we've got
to, you know, really embraceour winters here and not just sit in
front of the TV and watch Netflix. On that well, that's true.
(21:03):
It is good to get out someget out and get some fresh winter air.
Now we've got time till it getsthat cold. But we just want
to give you a nice preview becauseMarshfield is a great place to visit any
time of the year, but fallin particular is phenomenal because you get a
little bit of the best of both. How long are the wensl family plansa
Friday night concerts going on? Youknow, they wrapped up a little earlier
(21:25):
this year, so they're they're they'rethey're done for the season right now.
Okay, but it's still a goodgathering. I'm gonna make it a couple
of pop ups here or there,you know, okay. And you can
also check out things like the galleryGallery four fifty if you want to see
some great Wisconsin artists. There's aUW. Stevens Point kind of campus in
Marshfield where where that's available. Andthey got the Visual Arts Gallery that's good
(21:45):
year round. So and the shopping, I mean, obviously the shops.
It's not like a touristy town whereVenning shuts down in the winter. Those
great places we talked about, Dave'sGuitar Center, Good Day Sunshine Record Shop,
can eat at Nuts Deep and drinkup Blue Heron and have all this
great stuff. They're open year round. I mean Marshfields a year round city,
so it is true. And ifyou if you come through. One
(22:07):
of my favorite lunch spots is calledMojo's. They kind of do a cross
between Italian and Cajun food and that'sthe kind of a great mom and pop,
you know scene. And as oneof my favorite places to eat.
I'm getting hungry. I'm intrigued now. Yeah, we usually eat at Blue
Heron. Maybe we'll have to havea beer a Blue Heron feat there.
So I like that. And don'tforget if you if you love world's largest
(22:30):
things. The world's largest round baris in Marshfield. Round barn is in
Marshfield. See how I got offtrack? You get a round bar too?
We should get a bar too.Yeah, round bar, the world's
large round bar is inside the worldlarge round bar. No, not really,
but actually that's a great idea.You could do that maybe the next
Central Wisconsin State Fair. Yeah,did you see that we have the had
(22:51):
the world's longest meat stick? Yes, oh, I meant to bring that
up. Was was it went?Now? What was the company? Y?
Yeah? I had their seventy fifthanniversary party, had some great live
music and made the world's longest bestick. We had someone from the Guinness
Book World Records here to verify it, and it was a city block long.
(23:12):
I think it was three hundred andfourteen feet and maybe seven inches.
Yeah. I talked about that onmy radio show Freezer. Oh you have
a little piece of it, huh? I did, Yes, I scored
one well, and I'm built oneBay later, so I hope it preserves
well. For perspective, that's abouthalf as tall as the tallest building in
(23:33):
Milwaukee. Oh really, So yeah, we should see if we can wrap
the world's longest be stick around theworld's large round barn. I think it
might be close. If you coulddo wrap the world's largest beef stick around
the world's largest round barn with theworld's largest round bar inside, you'll make
worldwide news, I think. So. We might have to have like the
(23:55):
world's largest cheese curds too, thenor sometime. Dude, you think the
hotels are busy now, everybody's goingto come down for that. I'll work
on it all right. Cool,Well, there's plenty to see in the
meantime, And Matt, you andI might scheme together on some unique ideas
like that. I'm looking forward toit. What our brains can come up
with again US ten Highways thirteen eightyninety seven. Anytime you're on those roads,
(24:18):
you follow it the right way.You get to Marshfield and you can
see all these cool things. Buthighly highly suggested Maple fall Fest September sixteenth
and seventeenth coming up here and theoctoberfest for Blue here and why not do
two for one. You can alwayskeep up with what's going on with events
at visit Marshfield dot com. Theyhave everything laid out really nicely, shopping,
events, attractions, dining, allthe other activities and places to stay.
(24:41):
I mean, you really have anicely organized sight here, Matt.
Oh, thank you, and pleasedo follow us on Facebook. We have
almost twenty seven thousand followers, soI always like to tell people at seven
thousand more than people live here.So follows on Facebook and we keep that
pretty chuck full of fun stuff todo all right, plenty to do when
you've is at Marshfield. Matt,thanks so much for your time and looking
(25:02):
forward to Maple fall Fest. Yeah, thank you, Eric, thanks for
having us there. You go lotsgoing on in the big hub city.
US ten Highways thirteen, eighty,and ninety seven bring you there. You
gotta check it out, including JuristicPark. It's phenomenal and the walk they
did downtown is great. I lovewhat they're doing with that city. It's
a city of twenty thousand, butthere's resources there and activities there and fun
(25:22):
there for a city that's much larger. So check it out when you get
a chance. Northwest corner of WoodCounty, spilling over a little bit into
Marathon County. Our sister podcast,The Cabin, which is the official podcast
of Discover Wisconsin. We talk moreabout Wood County in an upcoming episode two,
so make sure you check that outas well. I'm Eric Holson.
I will catch you on the StateTrunk Tour podcast for episode thirty nine,
and don't forget to follow some roadson State Trunk Tour dot com. We'll
(25:45):
keep you up to date on what'sgoing on around Wisconsin.
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