Gasoline Alley and the Tomah Area Museum

What do the Tomah Area History Museum and the comic strip Gasoline Alley have in common?  Gasoline Alley was the nickname for Superior Avenue in Tomah, back in an age when automobiles were becoming popular and you could find a gas station on almost every corner … hence, Gasoline Alley.  After graduating from Tomah High School in 1901, Frank King moved to Chicago, where he began as a cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. In the corner of his cartoons, he would print “Gasoline Alley,” for his hometown of Tomah, Wisconsin. It became an active cartoon strip in 1918 and a year later was judged as the best cartoon strip of the year. In 1959, he personally was named the Cartoonist of the year. The strip is the longest-running current strip in the United States, and still appears in publications today. 

The strip features characters like “Skeezix,” who was left on the doorstep of Uncle Walt and Aunt Nina. The strip poked fun of situations in America, and often referred to local residents. It is said that people would buy the paper just to see if their names were in it. One story involved a German immigrant farmer, who chose not to support the war clothing drive. The solution was to close the stores in town whenever he visited. True or not, it poked fun at the situation. King passed away in 1969, but Gasoline Alley was picked up by other cartoonists.

The museum is located on the southwest corner of Mott Street and Superior Avenue. Upon entering the Tomah Area Museum, one is greeted by a 1915 popcorn wagon. The wagon was restored by Russ Kasten and can still be seen being operated by his daughter, Jenny, at Tomah special events. Jenny is easy to pinpoint because she dresses in the same polka-dot outfit that the clown on the popcorn wagon wears.  Inside the museum, local historian and museum volunteer, Carolyn Habelman, who gave me an in-depth tour of the museum, pointed out features that I might have missed. Carolyn graduated from Tomah High School in … well, you’ll have to ask her. The museum still has a lot of memorabilia with the old “Tomah Indians” designation and logos, including a wall sized sign of the Tomah High School song. There are yearbooks in the reference section of the museum for those wanting to locate old classmates or reminisce about their high school days. 

Tomah has roots in industry, railroads, logging and manufacturing; all of which are represented in the museum. Carolyn pointed out a simple feature in a photograph of the George Warren lumber mill from 1869. If you look closely, there are a series of barrels on the roof of the building. Always concerned with fire in the lumber mill, these water filled barrels were designed to douse a fire; a precursor of a modern day fire sprinkler system. At one time, Tomah had a 7-Up bottling plant. The seven had a dual feature in that the 7-Up bottles contained seven ounces, whereas most soda bottles contained six at the time. It was also named for the seven ingredients found within the cool beverage, to include lithium citrate, a cure for depression.

Information on the Tomah Indian School can also be found in the museum displays. The military section is quite extensive, spanning the decades between the Civil War and present day. Wisconsin supported the Civil War by sending several regiments to the fight. Cataloging those veterans was a 25-year effort by Wayne and Jeanne Kling, now found in a two inch thick book, available in the museum. If you have a Wisconsin Civil War relative in your past, this is the place to find out more about their service. 

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., except on holidays. It is certainly worth a visit for any historian, or someone with interest in local history. More information is available in their newsletter or website.