A Forgotten Town in Northeastern Wisconsin

discovering a forgotten town is like finding a dollar bill in your pocket even though it may not be much it's still worth something to someone this is all that's left of seifert's true value farm and hardware hey sightseers sightseeing sally here i'm out driving around back roads of wisconsin and stumbled across this small community known as krakow wisconsin and if i'm not mistaken krakow is named after a city in southern poland leading me to believe that the majority of people that originally settled here were from poland so of course being that i'm part polish i thought why not stop here and check it out [Music] now while you'll notice that does say angelica on that this area here used to make up the downtown of krakow at one time this tiny town was a bit of a boom town with so many businesses and not enough people to fill jobs workers had to be imported from outside the area now the businesses are long gone and the people who live here travel outside the community to work [Music] walking the main street of krakow you can see that some of the buildings still have what i call old world charm looking at this early building of krakow you can see the european influence on its design now it's my understanding from googling the little bit of history i could find on krakow is that there used to stand an old feed mill here unfortunately though that's been since torn down as has a lot of changes occurred here back in the early 1900s four men known as the brzezinski brothers came to krakow and opened up a cheese factory and general store soon they bought the feed mill rescuing it from bankruptcy added a lumber mill and started their own pickle and oil companies despite this economic development krakow like so many midwestern towns wasn't able to sustain its progress later generations of the brzezinski's eventually gave up the businesses started by the original four brothers [Music] one of the old houses on main street in krakow it's been so long since anybody lived on this end of the block that the sidewalk is overgrown with blackberry and raspberry bush vines despite some of the empty homes and businesses here in krakow there's still plenty of life to be lived in this quiet part of wisconsin you could be the new owner of sweet mama's bar and grill the old grade school in krakow wisconsin like a lot of old grade schools here in the midwest this one appears to be converted into somebody's personal residence and across the street from the old grade school is saint kasmir catholic church still in operation you can attend mass on wednesday mornings at 7 30 saturday nights at seven or sundays at nine confessions of course are by appointment only you can see the grounds are kept up really nice and i suspect this building over here is the rectory up there in the brick is a cross [Music] and another cross over there and then up above is this if i'm not mistaken it's a statue of jesus holding a child however having not grown up catholic i can't be sure if you know leave it in the comments section below as i mentioned previously i suspect this area was largely settled by people from poland and given that this church is named after saint casimir a prince of the kingdom of poland in the grand duchy of lithuania there's no doubt the early settlers were polish and i know one way to confirm that by checking out the cemetery just what i thought not even 20 feet into the cemetery and already were into the skis here's another grave with a telltale polish name the c-z-y-k gives it away it's very likely there was an o-w-s-k-i that was dropped upon entry into the country while it's often believed that immigration officials at ellis island shorten names of polish immigrants that is a myth in reality many of the name changes were forced upon the immigrants by employers and teachers to make their surnames more americanized and easier to pronounce unfortunately now highway 32 bypasses the town of krakow making it unlikely that you'll ever set foot in this town unless you take a little side trip like i did today what's left of krakow wisconsin even though the businesses that once put krakow on the map are long gone one thing hasn't changed and that's the indomitable spirit of the people who settled here it's this spirit that kept poland their original home country on the map it's the same spirit that keeps krakow from completely disappearing today [Music] if you enjoyed the vid make sure you give it a big old thumbs up they are free if you haven't subscribed already what are you waiting for hit that subscribe button ring that little bell notification so you don't miss out on any future adventures as always i love to hear from you leave a comment in the comment section below until next time this is sightseeing sally special thanks goes out to all our fellow sightseers here on patreon and paypal without you these videos wouldn't be possible [Music]

Channel: SightseeingSally

Views: 22,266

Keywords: forgotten town in northeastern wisconsin, forgotten town in wisconsin, forgotten towns in america, forgotten town, our forgotten towns, exploring forgotten towns in northeastern wisconsin, exploring forgotten towns in wisconsin, forgotten places, forgotten places in america, abandoned towns in wisconsin, abandoned places in northeastern wisconsin, small towns in america, small town tour, Adam the woo, sightseeingsally, backroads of wisconsin, backroads of america, Wisconsin town

Id: g-HCj1d5OSk

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021