Disappearing Cities: Looking Back on Ashland

ASHLAND - Every city throughout the Northland has its own unique story. Ashland is no exception."The history has been wonderful and it's something I can't get enough of," said life-long Ashland resident Kathy Culligan. Ed Monroe, Tory Stroshane, Jeff Cate, and Culligan all still live in Ashland and each of them continues to carry on their family names which started in the town more than 100 years ago."My grandfather was a doctor who worked with Dr. Dodd one of the earlier doctors here,” explained Stroshane. “Then my father was a doctor, and my brother was a doctor all in Ashland.""I still live in the home that my mother and father first purchased when they got married in 1939," laughed Culligan. In the late 1800's it was Ashland’s luscious forests and ore filled mines that attracted people from across the globe to come and make a living. "This community literally built 200 dwellings in one building season to accommodate that," said manager of the Ashland Historical Society, Jan Cameron. By 1880 the land along the Chequamegon Bay was well established and more than 20,000 people lived, worked, and played in Ashland."Things always change. Change is constant,” Cameron recognized. “It's inevitable and I think Ashland looking back now; it'll continue to do that." It was within a few years Ashland’s settlers quickly learned natural resources don't last forever. It only took 30 years for the once jam-packed forests to become clear cut."So they were cutting, cutting, cutting, it was come and get it,” Cameron explained. “You could just come there were no rules or regulations about replanting." Over the next 50 years area mills managed to survive, but by 1965 when the iconic ore dock shipped out its last load Ashland had lost more than half of its former population."They're convinced that the reason their children have left is jobs, I would bet that that's probably a good reason why," said Cameron. It was an especially difficult time for reputable companies like family owned Bretting Manufacturing."When my dad took the company over there were only 11 employees at that point," said president and CEO of Bretting Manufacturing, David Bretting. Since the company started in 1890 its livelihood depended on logging and mining. It’s taken 125 years and five generations to get Bretting Manufacturing where it is today. "We were aggressive, we build quality, we service equipment,” Bretting listed. “That's how we kind of took over the U.S. and the global side of the converting industry." As for the rest of Ashland’s businesses after the ore dock closed down a fairy-tale success story didn't happen."We've gone from strong manufacturing primarily manufacturing and processing to a more mixed and diverse economy," explained Ashland Mayor Deb Lewis. Currently the main employers in Ashland are the hospitals, colleges, and a mixture of small businesses with a few employees."We're not ignorant to the fact that we're not going to have a large industry here,” Culligan explained. “We have to focus towards tourism." For the people who've lived here, forever tourism is showing off what they get to see every day and it’s what has kept them here for all these years. "It's always been the Chequamegon Bay,” Cameron said. “It's always been Lake Superior.""That's what keeps me here is the lake,” echoed Mayor Lewis. “That's what makes us most unique." Mayor Lewis says its projects like Blue Wave on the Bay, the Superfund Clean-up site, and opening up the historic ore dock that fit into even bigger plans for the community capitalizing on the gem they already have."Ashland is moving forward. We really have a lot of good things happening here,” Lewis laughed. “So stay tuned."