Community group acquires pieces of Gays Mills history

On March 29, the signs came down.

On Main Street in Gays Mills — part of the “old downtown” — a small group from Connect Communities Gays Mills, a volunteer restoration and economic development organization administered by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, obtained the signs for the Red Apple Inn and the Kickapoo Locker Service from the shuttered building that once housed the businesses.

The Crawford County Delinquent Tax Committee approved the organization’s request to acquire the signage at their March 27 meeting.

“We thought, it’s just a shame that something like [those signs] might end up in the trash, or something like that,” said Martha Querin-Schultz, co-director of Connect Communities Gays Mills. The signs would not be resold, according to correspondence between Querin-Schultz and Crawford County.

Both businesses are part of Gays Mills’ history; however, the county foreclosed on the property, according to Deanne Lutz, Crawford County’s treasurer, and the businesses have been defunct for some time.

“It’s just a shell of a building, plus some signs out front,” said Querin-Schultz.

Connect Communities Gays Mills plans to display the signs in the community at a later date, possibly in the incubator shop located in the Mercantile Center in Gays Mills.

“It’s a piece of history, and a lot of people are nostalgic, and we thought, maybe, we could save that sign and put it up on display somewhere,” said Querin-Schultz. “We’d like to save a little piece of the old downtown because it’s disappearing.”