MARINETTE – The Marinette Logging and Heritage Festival is bringing history to life, celebrating the region’s rich logging heritage through exciting exhibits, live demonstrations and family-friendly activities that honor the people and traditions that helped shape the community.
The festival draws from lumberjacks and lumbermen like Isaac “Ike” Stephenson — the namesake for Stephenson Island and Stephenson Public Library — who are commemorated at the Marinette County Historical Logging Museum, which stands where logs were once floated down the Menominee River.
Although the height of the logging industry faded in the late 1910s, organizations like the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show are coming to Marinette to bring a fun twist on this important era to the stage.
“The Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show has been performing for over 37 years domestically and internationally. We are very family-oriented and family-owned,” explained Myra LeCaptain.
The business — owned and operated by Wisconsin native Lee LeCaptain and Myra LeCaptain — has performed everywhere from county and state fairs to international and ESPN shows. These performances include axe throwing, log rolling, sawing, chopping, and crosscut sawing as well as “bad dad jokes and some history [on] logging.”
Myra LeCaptain spoke about the process to learn these skills, “They were collegiately trained and [trained] through our Lumberjack Program, as well as through so many tournaments that they attended and won.”
“All of this puts them at a professional level. This does not happen overnight. They work with us for a minimum of one year of training that helps move them into the professional level.”
Beyond the physical work, the team also works to share the importance of the logging industry before them.
“We take advantage of knowing the area that these events are held. There are so many locations throughout the U.S. that have a lot of logging history. We definitely look at the area prior to attending the event to see what logging history is around the locals,” she said.
These many different attributes come together to create a thrilling performance that the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show has toured around the world for over 30 years.
“We absolutely love to do what we do, and if we can make someone laugh, forget their problem(s) for just a moment, as well as make someone’s day… then we have done our job,” Myra LeCaptain said.
The Marinette Logging and Heritage Festival will host shows from the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show at noon, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 11.
In addition to the lumberjack shows, the festival kicks off on Friday, July 10, at Stephenson Island with a variety of local food trucks on site before Hotel California - The Original Eagles Tribute performs at 7 p.m.
Events continue on Saturday morning at the Welcome Center for the 4th Annual Loggers 5K Run/Walk, which will be immediately followed by a Kids Fun Run. That afternoon Stephenson Island will offer a large craft show with local food vendor offerings, a variety of activities for children, a BMX bike show, musical performances and a fireworks display.
Finally, car enthusiasts can check out an impressive vehicle display during the Sunday car show before attending the parade at noon.
Festival organizers and volunteers running this nonprofit event encourage all attendees to bring along their own lawn chairs to comfortably enjoy the weekend’s outdoor events and live shows. More details can be found on the city’s official festival webpage at www.marinette.wi.us/.
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