Private First Class Thomas F. Philipsky 1938 Horicon High School Graduate Private First Class Thomas F. Philipsky of Horicon, Wisconsin, is honored as the city’s first World War II casualty—a devoted son, athlete, and serviceman whose life story remains an inspiration to his community. Early Life: “Tommy” Thomas F. Philipsky was born on December 19, …
A History of Tourism at Horicon and Horicon Marsh Long before Horicon was a city — before the dam, the ducks, the duck hunters, the drainage ditches, and the hard-won restoration — this corner of Dodge County was shaped by forces far older than any of us. What we now know as Horicon Marsh began …
What happens when the U.S. Navy, Cold War paranoia, and a quiet patch of northern Wisconsin collide? You get one of the weirdest stories in American history. WTF: The Wisconsin Test Facility They Hoped You’d Never Find Forget everything you think you know about secret government projects. Area 51 had its remote Nevada desert. The …
Sometimes the archive surprises you. A digitized film reel surfaces online. A few minutes of footage that should have been lost turns out not to be. Or better yet — you’re digging through a collection and there it is. An old 8mm or 16mm film, still in its canister, label faded, sitting in the dark …
It’s July 1914 in Horicon, Wisconsin. A Croatian laborer named Joseph Dejanovich wakes up in the middle of the night to the blow of an axe — and somehow survives. His wife, nineteen-year-old Barbara, is arrested and charged with attempted murder. The evidence seems damning: a sharpened axe, a fired revolver, a bloodstained nightgown. But …
On a bitter November day in 1914, the C.F. Curtis, the Selden E. Marvin, and the Annie M. Peterson headed out onto Lake Superior carrying lumber, freight, and a crew of working people bound for another routine run — and vanished into one of the lake’s worst storms. More than a century later, the wrecks …
OLD COLD CASE Horicon City Marshal William Gibson — Civil War veteran, father of four, a man his community trusted with their safety — was shot once, point-blank, on the steps of his own jailhouse, in front of his ten-year-old son. The killer vanished into the dark Wisconsin night. Suspects were arrested across the state. …
Forget everything you think you know about spies. James Bond had an Aston Martin and the full backing of British intelligence. Jason Bourne had black-ops conditioning and a talent for parkour. The American Founders had a printing press, some tobacco to barter with, and a desperate shortage of gunpowder. They still pulled it off. When …
This week on One Shot at History, we’re trading Wisconsin weather for Arkansas weirdness — and there is a lot of it. We start in Little Rock in 1920, where two police officers on a routine patrol stumble into a ditch, see lights floating into the treetops, and nearly get shot by three women who …
Where Water Shapes Memory: Horicon’s Boathouses through Time. The history of boathouses in Horicon, Wisconsin, is deeply intertwined with the evolution of Horicon Marsh. When European settlers arrived in the vast wetland once known as the “Great Marsh of the Winnebago,” they built some of the earliest structures along the banks of the Rock River. …