Crandon Area Chamber-Commerce

Description

Crandon was the dream of Samuel Shaw, an entrepreneur and capitalist who acquired property here in the 1880's. His vision was a city built between the two hills and around the four lakes that are within or touching the city limits. The area was then part of Oconto County, and Shaw, with help from Major Frank P. Crandon, the tax commissioner of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, successfully lobbied the legislature for the creation of the a new county. Forest County was created in 1887, and Crandon was named the county seat. Crandon did not expand as fast as other communities in Forest County because they lacked rail service. Freight and passengers got to Crandon by riding the train to either Pelican Lake or Argonne (North Crandon back then), and then walking or riding the stage to town. In 1891, the Page and Landeck Lumber Company bought a huge tract of hardwood timberlands near Crandon, but they were unable to utilize the resource until the C & NW Railroad built a spur line from Pelican Lake. By 1902, a huge sawmill owned by Page and Landeck (the name was later changed to the Keith & Hiles Lumber Company, and that is how many people refer to the early mill) was sawing lumber on Clear Lake on Crandon's north side. Logging camps were built, a company train hauled logs to the mill, the C & NW hauled lumber to market, and a host of other industries that utilized hardwood lumber grew in Crandon. At one time, wooden fruit boxes were built here, wagon hubs, broom handles,...

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