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HERMANSVILLE
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
IXL Museum. One of the rare scenes that can take you back to 19th-century industrial life. The centerpiece is the wonderfully preserved office building for the company that pioneered tongue-and-groove hardwood flooring ...
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Region: Iron River, Iron Mountain & the Menominee Range
HERMANSVILLE
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 | | IXL workers lived in very small company houses. Most have been demolished; this one survives as a new part of the IXL Museum. | Picturesquely preserved like an insect in amber, this is the company town that introduced hardwood flooring to the world in the 1880s. Until then, floors in homes had used softer pine. Hardwoods like maple and oak were too difficult to work and tended to warp. C. J. L. Meyer developed a kiln-drying process for taking the right amount of moisture out of hardwood and developing machinery for making tongue-and-groove hardwood flooring strips. This process is still used today.
Hermansville is "one of the state's best examples of a wood products company town," writes Kathryn Eckert. She has canvassed the state in her work as state historic preservation officer and author of the monumental Buildings of Michigan.
The founder of the Wisconsin Land and Lumber Company established the town and mill here in 1878. Today, though Hermansville seems rather lifeless, the town is pretty much intact. The plain stores and public buildings from Hermansville's heyday, around 1910, are laid out in a row on First Street, along the north side of the Chicago & Northwestern tracks. They were built when IXL hardwood flooring was in great demand. Between First Street and U.S. 2 are the company-built houses and school.
The large mill yard is still partially used by Lees Brown Furniture, makers of upholstered furniture. It's tucked away southwest of the IXL office and the railroad junction. Other Hermansville-area industries are Brothers, welders of large storage tanks, and Wendricks Truss, manufacturers of roofing trusses. Rail lines through Hermansville are still in use. It's not hard to picture the town working full-tilt, especially if you can imagine the smell of sawdust and the high, piercing whine of circular saws and the screeches as they bite into wood.
Just five miles east of Hermansville is a 6-acre ginseng plantation. The home of Gatien's Herbs is half a mile north of Powers, just off U.S. 2 on River Road next to the cemetery. Robert Gatien grinds the legendary tonic to put into capsules, which he sells for $15 a bottle (100 capsules, each with 535 mg. of ginseng). You can buy a bottle locally at Perry's Marathon gas station where U.S. 2 & 41 converge. N16323 J5 River Road. 497-5541.
Back to Iron River, Iron Mountain & the Menominee Range
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HERMANSVILLE
RESTAURANTS,
LODGINGS
& CAMPGROUNDS
These are our choices, not ads.
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HERMANSVILLE
RESTAURANTS
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HERMANSVILLE
LODGINGS
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HERMANSVILLE
CAMPGROUNDS
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