August 28, 2013 at 4:44 p.m.
Rhinelander's potato roots go back more than 100 years
Rhinelander's potato roots go back more than 100 years
But anyone looking for a bit of a local history lesson in advance of Saturday's potato-themed day can still check out the educational display at ArtStart highlighting more than 100 years of potato growing and seed potato research in the Rhinelander area.
The exhibit runs through Friday and includes items donated by Sowinski Potato Farms, the University of Wisconsin Ag Research Station in the town of Stella and Oneida County UW-Extension. Some of the items on display were a part of the traveling Smithsonian exhibit "Key Ingredients" that came to Rhinelander in the winter of 2010.
Over the last century, the Rhinelander area has cemented itself as a key player in the potato industry. It was the potato that proved to be the most successful crop in the sandy soil and short growing season of the Northwoods when farming began on woodland acres that had been cleared by early loggers.
Rhinelander's role in the evolution of the potato chip
Wisconsin's first potato chip manufacturer, Red Dot, was the Midwest's leading snack foods manufacturer with more than $20 million in annual sales by the time it was purchased by Frito-Lay in 1961.
Red Dot's Rhinelander ties began about two decades earlier. The company acquired more than 4,000 acres of farm land in the area and began a research program in the late 1940s to develop its own potato varieties for making chips. The company also built a chip production plant on the shores of Boom Lake for receiving locally-grown potatoes. Even after Frito-Lay sold the operation, the facility continued as Rhinelander Foods under the guidance of local potato farmers Henry Sowinski and his son, Alvin, and businessman Irving Jackomino.
The plant is no longer in operation but Red Dot's Rhinelander research program continues today under Frito-Lay.
The Red Dot brand was eventually discontinued in the early 1970s after Frito-Lay sold it to a Little Rock, Ark. company. You can still find the Rhinelander brand of potato chips on grocery store shelves, though now the chips are produced at a facility in Waupaca.
A hub for potato research
The Rhinelander area was also the home of the Starks family which became known as one of the most successful potato growing operations in the country. Leonard Starks, known as "King Potato," purchased 10,000 acres of land from the Menasha Wooden Ware Company and a railway company in 1912 and built a potato warehouse in what is now the town of Stella. Starks' hope was that the Northwoods' virgin farming soil would provide for better productivity and fewer disease problems. By 1920 Starks' potato harvest was nearly 1 million bushels.
Starks died in 1927 and his daughter, Lelah, took on the family business. She greatly expanded the marketing of seed potatoes and became known as an expert in the area of potato variety and seed potato research. Lelah Starks worked closely with UW specialists and when she died in 1951, she gifted a portion of her corporation stock to the university.
Some of that stock was used to acquire the land where Rhinelander's UW Ag Research Station is currently located off of County Highway C on Camp Bryn Afon Road. It continues to be a key site for ongoing research about potato production. The research has resulted in a number of new and improved potato varieties, including the Snowden introduced in 1990. It is considered the ultimate chipping potato.
Kyle Rogers may be reached at [email protected].
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