This Wisconsin city is anything but ordinary. Here's why. #gjwtravelercontest #fascinatingcity #wisconsin

What if I told you sightseers that there is a Wisconsin city so unique that it's anything but ordinary? There is. About 40 miles northwest of Green Bay, you'll find this extraordinary small city with history dating back to 1672. And we're heading there now. Hey sightseers, Sightseeing Sally here. I'm with... Meander and Marty. And today we're checking out Shawnell, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin city that's anything but ordinary. Let's go check this place out. Yay! A little bit off subject here is their first stop is McDonald's. Then we're gonna get Sally a job. Nah, just kidding. Actually, strangely enough, if you look at the McDonald's parking lot adjacent to this cemetery here, how old is this cemetery that right on the edge of the parking lot, they got these headstones. Strangely enough, if you look around in here, you can see stuff like this, which probably isn't all that visible. There's marks on the ground where it looks like there was headstones here. I don't know if it's visible in the camera. Got this tiny one here. And then they go back to 1893 when people were, at least that one I can tell was buried here. If I'm not mistaken, what Marty pointed out as a little headstone is actually considered a footstone, which that's the main headstone there. And then at the foot of the grave, they have these footstones. I don't know exactly why they did it that way, but you can see they're small like my foot. Look at it. And the individual's initials are in the footstone. I've never seen a cemetery before right next door to a McDonald's, which is why we included this as one of the things that makes Shawnell so unique. Since we are here at the Shawnell County Cemetery, I thought I would mention one other thing that makes Shawnell so unordinary when it comes to other towns or cities here in Wisconsin is that John Dillinger's girlfriend died here. And as of the information we have now, we don't know if she's even buried anywhere here. Her name was Mary Evelyn, or Billy as her friends called her, for Shett. And according to Wikipedia, she actually is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery, Wood Lawn Cemetery, next to her third husband, which coincidentally happens to be right across the street. Since we're so close, why don't we go over there next and check it out? You got Evelyn's headstone right here next to Arthur, which died at 100 years of age, 1890 to 1990. And strangely enough, next to Arthur's an identical stoner, really close to his is one saying mother. And with the last name Tick, I wonder if this wasn't his first wife, born in 1890 and died in 1945. I would say that probably was his first wife, because obviously it wasn't his mother born the same year. Wikipedia claims that Evelyn was actually married to John Dillinger for about a year before he died, so I don't know how accurate that claim is. Next up, another reason why Shawano is anything but ordinary, is that here you'll find one of the last places on earth that still makes Sun Drop Soda. Sun Drop Soda, you know that one that they say that's citrusy that has that coffee flavor to it? I don't know about the coffee flavor, but I certainly like it. Coffee flavored or not, I know one thing, it definitely has a capping kick. As you come inside, there's a museum here. There's a lot of cool old signs on the wall. We'll just touch on a few things here and show you. I mean, they're old signs, they're kind of, they're really neat. She looks exactly like your type, Marty. Crazy. I just love these old signs. This isn't a repo, this is an original repost or reproduction, and I love this sign. I'd love to have this hanging on my wall. Those are toilet flushes. You keep that up, I'm gonna have to go use that. What do you think of these Sun Drop girls, Marty? I like them, especially this one. Yeah, she seems like your type. Yeah, they're probably 40s, 50s. Oh, here's a cool old clock. Look at the size of this clock. Stand next to that there, Sally, both of them. Them are neat, I'd love to own them. Let's see what else they got going on here. Vanna White. How many people remember these? I remember these in my barber shop, where I used to get haircuts that you flip it open, put some money in it, and you slide your can across and then pull it out. But it was a can, not bottles. The rest of these are before my time. I've seen a few of these. I've actually owned one of these, a Coca-Cola one that used to use bottles, but you also could use cans in it. They also have a movie theater in here where you can learn all about the history of Sun Drop. Well, I better hurry up and catch up to Marty. There's a lot more to see here, and memories are being made. Oh, look at this really cool way that they painted these exit doors here. And look, you've got a Sun Drop guitar, a couple of other old signs. Oh, I love that neon. That's really cool. Oh, this one's even better. Sun Drop guitar neon sign. Oh, look, Mona Lisa even liked drinking Sun Drop. And here's the Fame Safe, a safe that has a secret recipe in it to this day, and they don't have the combination. Can you get it open, Sally? I think I might be able to. Just give me about a thousand hours to work on it. Now, if you got John Dillinger, he could crack that open in no time. Yeah, no kidding. Where's John Dillinger when you need him? More cool old big signs, the old bottle caps. Everybody remembers them. Coca-Cola was big on them. Oh, that's a nice big sign, too. I mean, these all look to be original. If they're not, I'll be surprised, because they're wore and beat, and must have took them years to find these and get them for this museum. In addition to being able to see all the neat old memorabilia here, you can, on the occasion that they're actually running the line, watch them make soda here. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like anything's happening today, but that's okay, because back here you can actually watch a video that they've made of the process. I just want to point out that Sun Drop isn't the only soda that they make here. You can see back there the different flavors that they make under the Twigs name. That's the name of the family, or part of the name of the family. It's owned by the Hartwig family, and so they've taken that and made their own soda line called Twigs. Oh, look at all the cases, different cases over the years. Twigs, Sun Drop, Dad's Root Beer. Wow. Well, Marty, do you think we sufficiently made memories here today? Maybe. Should we move on? Go. And now we're going to check out Main Street. You see they have the Daily Drip, where coffee will connect you to others, and then Marty's favorite, the Music Asylum, where they have new used records, CDs, and more. We're going to go on inside and check it out, see if there's any albums that Marty wants to add to his collection. While Marty's inside checking out the albums, I thought I'd pop over into the Daily Drip and get us a coffee. I went with the chocolate lavender latte. It is good. I really like the concept that they've got going on here. I didn't film inside because there was people and they were working, but they have a really nice large back room area where you can set up, you can work, you can connect with friends. They even do Bible studies in here on occasion. So it's just a really great place here in Shawano for people to come and hang out. And of course, like I said, the beverages are mmm. Well, why don't we find out if Marty has picked out any albums and continue on down Main Street here in Shawano. Well, Marty, what'd you get? A book. Looking for old albums. Yeah, I still listen to albums back in the day. We live in my youth. Yeah, it's a nice thing to do on a Saturday night or a Friday night when we're just hanging around, just the two of us, listen to music on the old record player. Well, now that we're done reminiscing about our youth, let's move on down Main Street and see what else we can find. We've got a really interesting old building here. Oh, I wonder what that was back in the day. Heck, I wonder what it is now. Oh, next door it looks like they've got some sort of branding place with graphics and things. Oh, and I'm guessing they also do very large items here, but they have a garage here. Oh yeah, dot-com garage makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? You know, down here is one of my favorite spots. They got pie. How many places can you go to and get a piece of pie? Not very many. Especially some of the best homemade pie around. Let's go check it out. Instead of the pie, we decided to go with the pumpkin cake. Marty, what do you think? It's good. I better hurry up, otherwise I can foresee myself not getting any of it. Well, I'd say that was an A-plus experience. Food was good. Service was excellent. Here at the Fireman Main restaurant. Well, as we go along, I have a couple of quick shoutouts I want to give. First one going out to Tic Tac Jack. He's one of the sightseeing sidekicks here on YouTube, and recently he tipped our trip jar again. So Jack, I want to say thank you. We really appreciate you helping us out get to these really awesome places. And then I also want to give a quick shoutout to August, who sent me a really cool t-shirt. You'll have to watch for that, or else I'll be wearing it in an upcoming video. A lot of historic buildings here on Main Street. A lot of neat venues inside them. Over here you can see they've got a place called Fully Stocked. It's a wine and liquor lounge, aka a bar. And then over here they have a quaint little shop called The Stock Market, where you'll find all kinds of different things like t-shirts, home decor items, coffee mugs, etc. There's also a barber shop here on Main called The Shawnell Barbers. Across the way they've got a women's clothing store known as Simply Sassy. And then next door to that is The Cobbler's Closet, a family shoe store. And then this building here, which now houses Dreyer Pharmacy, used to be home to Andrews and Klosterman dry goods and neighbor drug stores. Next door is what used to be the Holt Saloon. Apparently this building appears in many of the oldest known photographs of the downtown of Shawnell, which date from the aftermath of the 1890 fire, which destroyed many of the buildings on the west side of this block. Apparently it is one of only a few buildings to maintain its original appearance to this day in the Main Street District. Another unique boutique here on Main Street is The War Bonnet, where you can find all kinds of native gifts and collectibles inside. And for those of you who still enjoy playing the old arcade style games, you can find those next door in Mojo Electronics. We've got a couple consignment shops. One over there, one over there, all over the place here. You want to go inside? Let's go. This building here you can see dates back to 1917. Oh look, over here in Old Glory Candy you can get free fun samples. Might have to go in there later. I know Marty's going inside the consignment shop. Can't miss out on any good deals. Check out that dress. That's pretty fancy. And right up my alley. Looks like it might even fit. It's a size large. Might be a little too big. Price is right though. I guess if I'm gonna look for a new dress, I better look in my size. Small. Well, struck out there. Didn't find any deals that were worth me creaking open the old wallet for. Maybe if I had a little bit more time. But we're kind of on a time schedule here and Marty's already ready to go into the Three Little Birds consignment shop. Marty needs a nap. Are you in a food coma? Pumpkin cake coma. Well, let's go see what's in here. According to the sign out here, they are advertising furniture, home medic, clothes, handbags, jewelry, and I'm sure a whole lot more. By the way, there are no public restrooms in here. So you better make sure you go before you go here. I just scored the deal of the century in there, sightseers. Yeah, definitely worth a look if you like to buy your clothes secondhand. I thought I'd take a quick moment to show you a long view of Main Street where we just came. You see, it is a part of Highway 22. Down over there is the War Bonnet and then next door to that is that historic drugstore. And then over here is Three Little Birds where we just came out of. As you can imagine, there's a lot to see and do here in downtown Shawano down on the Main Street. We won't be able to get to everything today. As I said earlier, we are on a bit of a time schedule and as such, moving along. That's an old building. Upham and Russell Company, founded 1858. You look on that building over there, top there, they got the Mason insignia on there with the G. And here's something you don't see every day, film processing and camera accessories. When's the last time you've seen any place that actually processed film? And right next to Sally. This place I believe probably still does because when you look inside there's nothing but cameras and film processing equipment. Park here, they got a couple musical instruments. Oh yeah, that's a musical instrument there. Listen to that. Screeching away. Yeah, I recognize that tune. Let's try that one. Funky. In my defense, I never claimed to be a musician. While Marty might be laughing at my lack of musical ability, I just want to point out that this park is another unique feature of the city, making Shawano unlike anywhere else. In addition to the soda bottling, they got a brewery here. Stubborn Brothers. There's the old theater. Turned that into a bar or something now for the Stubborn Brothers Brewery. According to the sign that's on the building, after arriving from Rhinelander, Wisconsin in 1914, George and Anna Nagel bought this property from F.D. Naber and planned the Crescent Theater. And interestingly enough, the grand opening happened on March 1st, 1915. 57 years before. At the time it opened, it was considered state-of-the-art. And if you look up in the windows, you can see old stained glass that I believe dates back to its early days. A few more points of interest before we bid adieu to the city that's anything but ordinary. Over on the corner of Main and Green Bay Street, you'll find several metal sculptures paying tribute to Shawano's early history. This particular sculpture is paying tribute to the logging industry. We've got two lumberjacks sawing by hand through a log that's probably more than three feet in diameter, which wouldn't be stretching the truth about the timber that was here in the forest in the early days. And then over here, we have a fish of some sort. I'm assuming by the whiskers that it may either be a catfish or a sturgeon. Because if you didn't know, sturgeon also have like these little like feelers or whiskers if you want to call them hanging down. But I don't know for sure. I'm guessing. And then head across the street from where we were just at over there, you'll find this metal sculpture paying tribute to the farming, to the early days of farming here in Shawano County. If only we could tune out the sounds of the traffic, putting our camera angled just so it's as if we were standing on the prairie watching the farmer walking his cow across his field. Oh look at that sight, Sears. It's almost three o'clock and time for us to put a wrap on this video. I know we didn't get to show you everything that makes Shawano the city that's anything but ordinary. But we'll just have to save that for either a future visit or for you yourself, Sight Sears, to come out and explore the city, the Wisconsin city, that's anything but ordinary. Until next time, this is Sightseeing Sally and Meandering Marty.