Goodman

Goodman was a company town founded in 1908 by the Goodman Lumber Company, which owned 100,000 acres of woods surrounding the village. In a region where many lumber company communities disappeared, Goodman continued to flourish. Many wood and brick buildings were erected, beginning with a hotel in 1908 and a large steam-driven sawmill completed in 1909. In later years the company added a department store, office, clubhouse with bowling alley and movie theater, bank, high school, grade school, and more than 100 homes. Unlike some former sawmill towns that became ghost towns, Goodman survived by adapting to change as selective cutting replaced clear cutting. The company sawmill still exists, and a veneer plant was built in later years. Though the original stand of trees and the people who cut them are gone, the town, mill, and surrounding woods remain.

Goodman, Wisconsin · United States