Menekaunee taverns

If you continue south on First Street from downtown Menominee, you'll cross the Menominee River and an island in it. You'll then be in Wisconsin. First Street becomes Ogden. On the south bank is the workers' neighborhood of Menekaunee (pronounced "MEN-uh-CAW-knee"), known for its neighborhood taverns.
Menekaunee, now part of Marinette, originated as a squatters' village. Millworkers, loggers, and fishermen built small houses on the shavings and sand that accumulated behind the breakwater built at the river's mouth by a lumber company. These squatters gained title to the land in a famous turn-of-the-century court case, in which the lumber company failed to reclaim its land.
Today enclosed fishing boats, working remnants of Marinette's once-large fleet, tie up at a river slip near here. (Mothballed trawlers are by the bridge approach on the Menominee side.)

Menekaunee's taverns, mostly on Hosmer Street, remain a draw for people who want authentic, unfussed-over local color. Young people home on vacation, for instance, are apt to join the foundry workers, commercial fishermen, retirees, and occasional salesmen and merchant sailors who gather at HELEN'S EDGEWATER INN at 16 Hosmer, east of Ogden (715-735-9481). It's within view of the water. Outsiders are welcome at this friendly bar, which serves only beverages, no food. It's the kind of place where customers give rides to Canadian sailors waiting while pig iron is being unloaded for the nearby Waupaca foundry. That way the sailors can get haircuts and buy sundries. The area's best fish fry, says one innkeeper, is at MARINE HOUSE TAVERN at 101 Water at First Street (715-732-2115). The pan-fried walleye is "to die for," she says.
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