History and Industry: Big Bull Falls to the Former Mall Site

The scale, companies, and output of Wausau-area granite quarrying and monument production could not be confirmed at any source fetched this session; the only granite reference found is the 1914 advertisers' list.

The founding year of Employers Mutual of Wausau could not be confirmed at a source fetched this session.

French explorers called the Wausau area "Big Bull Flats" or "Big Bull Falls" for the long rapids in the Wisconsin River.

The name Wausau is derived from the Ojibwe word "waasa", meaning "a faraway place".

George Stevens, namesake of Stevens Point, began harvesting pine for lumber in the area in 1840 and built a sawmill.

Walter McIndoe arrived by 1846 and took the lead in local business, helping to establish Marathon County in 1850.

Marathon County was created in 1850, with Wausau as county seat.

The Wausau settlement incorporated as a village by 1861.

Wausau incorporated as a city in 1872.

August Kickbusch was elected Wausau's first mayor in 1872; five years earlier he had returned to Germany and brought back 702 people who are believed to have settled in the Wausau area.

The railroad reached Wausau in 1874.

By 1906 the area's pine lumber was largely gone, and Wausau diversified away from sawmilling.

The Wausau Group, wealthy lumbermen led by Cyrus C. Yawkey, pooled their resources as logging declined and founded several businesses, utility companies, and the area's first paper mill, Wausau Paper Mills in Brokaw.

Cyrus Yawkey came to northern Wisconsin in 1889 to form the Yawkey and Lee Lumber Company, which founded the town of Hazelhurst, and moved to Wausau in 1899.

Sawmills built along the Wisconsin River in the mid to late 1800s gave way to paper mills that used scrap wood, and the paper industry built the communities of Schofield, Weston, and Rothschild on Wausau's southeast side.

"The Pinery," a 1979 sculpture of utility poles by Edward Schoenberger near the Stewart Avenue bridge, memorialized Wausau's lumbering pioneers and bore the names of 62 pioneering families; it was dedicated in September 1980 and later removed for road changes.

In September 2025 the Wausau Plan Commission approved a bronze "Log Driver" sculpture along the River Edge Trail near Barker-Stewart Island to commemorate Wausau's logging heritage, funded by the Walter Alexander and Judd S. Alexander foundations.

On June 9, 1914, more than 12,000 people gathered downtown for the unveiling of a 30-foot illuminated "WORK FOR WAUSAU" slogan sign atop City Hall; it was changed to "Welcome to Wausau" in 1931 and wrecked by a storm in 1934.

Advertisers using the "Work for Wausau" slogan in June 1914 included banks, lumber mills, insurance companies, canneries, furniture makers, and producers of granite monuments, flour, and cement sidewalks.

Portage County was created in 1836; its seat, Stevens Point, incorporated as a city in 1858.

Clark County was created in 1853; its seat, Neillsville, incorporated as a city in 1882.

Shawano County was created in 1853; its seat, Shawano, incorporated as a city in 1874.

Wood County was created in 1856; its seat, Wisconsin Rapids, incorporated as a city in 1869.

Lincoln County was created in 1874; its seat, Merrill, incorporated as a city in 1883.

Taylor County was created in 1875; its seat, Medford, incorporated as a city in 1889.

Langlade County was created in 1879; its seat, Antigo, incorporated as a city in 1885.

Wausau Paper Mills Company was incorporated in Wisconsin on June 1, 1899.

On December 17, 1997, Wausau Paper Mills completed a merger with Mosinee Paper Corporation and renamed itself Wausau-Mosinee Paper Corporation.

Wausau-Mosinee Paper had approximately 3,400 employees at eleven facilities in six states at the end of 1998.

Wausau Paper ceased papermaking at its Brokaw mill in February 2012, after signing a closure agreement with United Steelworkers Local 1381 on December 20, 2011.

On June 26, 2013, Wausau Paper sold its specialty paper business to Expera Specialty Solutions, a new company sponsored by KPS Capital Partners, for about $105 million in cash after settlement of transaction liabilities, costs, and taxes.

After the 2013 sale, Wausau Paper made only towel and tissue products, had about 870 employees at the end of 2014, and kept its headquarters in Mosinee.

SCA Tissue North America completed its acquisition of Wausau Paper Corp. on January 21, 2016, and the stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

The Mosinee paper mill was established in 1911 along the Wisconsin River, and Ahlstrom acquired it in 2018.

In February 2026 Ahlstrom announced it would permanently close the Mosinee pulp mill and idle two of the mill's four paper machines (M3 on June 30, M2 on September 30), affecting about 200 employees, while investing in machines M1 and M4.

Domtar employed about 400 workers at its Wausau-area mill when Paper Excellence agreed in May 2021 to acquire Domtar for about $2.8 billion.

The DNR describes Rib Mountain as a billion-year-old hill, one of the oldest geological formations on earth.

Jacob Kolter began quarrying quartzite on Rib Mountain's west side in 1893 for sandpaper, leading to the Wausau Sandpaper Company (1900) and the Wausau Quartz Company (1902), which merged in 1905 as Wausau Abrasives.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) acquired Wausau Abrasives in 1929.

3M closed the Rib Mountain quarry in the early 1980s and transferred the land to the Wisconsin DNR for the state park, where the former quarry is reached by trail.

John H. Koehler established the Wisconsin Ginseng Garden in 1901, the first of its kind in Marathon County, then founded the Wausau Ginseng Company in 1908 and the Badger Ginseng Gardens in 1910.

Koehler was a founding member of both the Wisconsin and American Ginseng Growers Associations, and in 1912 published the Ginseng and Goldenseal Growers' Handbook in English and German.

Koehler retired after the 1927 harvest; a 1930 Milwaukee Journal article called him the "ginseng king."

At their peak the Fromm Brothers had 100 acres of ginseng under cultivation at once, against 14 acres at Koehler's peak.

Four Fromm brothers began planting ginseng on the family farm in the Town of Hamburg in 1904 and by 1919 were the largest ginseng producer in the United States.

The Fromm Brothers Fur and Ginseng Farm in Hamburg was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 2013-11-06 (reference 96001581).

Wisconsin grows almost all U.S. ginseng, and Hsu's Ginseng Enterprises, north of Wausau, is one of the state's largest growers.

China placed a 117 percent tariff on U.S. ginseng in April 2025, then returned it to 32.5 percent during the 90-day pause agreed in May.

A 2022 announcement for the Wisconsin Ginseng Celebration described Wisconsin ginseng as a $40 million industry.

Visit Wausau held an inaugural Ginseng Celebration in September 2024 with workshops at Marathon Ginseng in Weston, events on the 400 Block, and farm tours.

Employers Mutual Liability Company of Wausau, later Wausau Insurance, was founded to provide workers' compensation insurance.

In 1937 Employers Mutual published A Guide Book in Safety Education by G. W. Bannerman, then principal of Wausau Senior High, to teach safety to schoolchildren.

In 1951 Employers' Mutual of Wausau published a 32-page football-watching booklet by Irwin Rickel that never mentions insurance.

Wausau's economy diversified in the early 20th century, led by Employers Insurance of Wausau, whose logo from 1954 showed the downtown Milwaukee Road depot against the skyline.

Liberty Mutual purchased Wausau Insurance Companies in 1999.

In March 2018 Liberty Mutual dropped a planned $50 million Wausau facility, tied to keeping 900 jobs in the city, and chose to extend and renovate its existing lease.

The Hardware Mutual Insurance Companies Building in Stevens Point was listed on the National Register on 1994-12-01 (reference 94001358).

Wausau formed a Historic Landmarks Commission in 1975, and a 1993 ordinance gave the renamed Historic Preservation Commission authority to review changes to landmarks and historic districts.

The Marathon County Historical Society was founded in 1952, and in 1954 Leigh Yawkey Woodson and her daughters donated the Cyrus C. and Alice Yawkey house to it as the society's home.

Wausau Center opened in 1983 as a 424,000-square-foot regional mall with anchors J.C. Penney, Sears, and Prange's (later Younkers).

Building Wausau Center began with the demolition of 67 downtown storefronts.

The mall's Tax Increment District No. 1 paid off the city's development loan in 2007 and was closed, but promised property tax relief never followed.

In the late 1990s Wausau demolished aging buildings on a central square to create the 400 Block, an open downtown festival space.

After owner CBL walked away, Wausau Center was sold at a sheriff's sale in July 2017 for $12.8 million to Rialto.

Wausau Opportunity Zone, Inc. bought the mall from Rialto Capital Management on February 4, 2020, funded by the Dwight and Linda Davis and Judd S. Alexander foundations in partnership with the city.

The last retail tenant at Wausau Center closed on April 5, 2021.

Demolition of the mall was set to begin in May 2021, starting at the former Sears building on Washington Street, after the City Council approved $4.7 million to help fund demolition and redevelopment.

The Foundry on 3rd, by T. Wall Enterprises on part of the former mall site, was estimated in May 2024 to cost about $45 million and to rely on roughly $10.8 million in taxpayer subsidies.

In September 2022 T. Wall Enterprises sought $10.8 million in taxpayer-backed incentives, principal and interest over about 21 years, for a proposed $48 million apartment and commercial building with 154 market-rate apartments on the former mall site.

A groundbreaking for the Riverlife residential and business development on the east bank of the Wisconsin River was scheduled for noon on Wednesday, October 4, 2017, at 1000 River Drive.

Wausau River District has been a designated Wisconsin Main Street program since 2002 and reports more than $150 million in new public and private downtown investment since joining.

WEDC recognized Wausau River District as a Gold Tier Main Street organization for fiscal 2026, one of 10 among 37 designated Wisconsin programs.

Wausau River District was designated a 2026 Accredited Main Street America program.

In October 2025 Wausau acquired the contaminated former MBX industrial site at 201 N. First Ave. on the west riverfront, with a $250,000 Judd S. Alexander Foundation contribution.

In March 2026 the Wausau City Council voted 6-3 for an incentive package, including an interest-free TIF loan of up to $750,000, to convert the largely vacant Waterside Place building into about 52 apartments.