Across the Kewaunee River, a small thriving community once stood with an imposing flour and gristmill at its center, drawing customers from miles around and operating year round, often 24 hours a day. Grist, flour, and sawmills operated along the Kewaunee River from the mid-1800's until 1936, when the West Kewaunee Mill was dismantled. Mill owners such as Volk, Stransky, Breummer, and Seyk made Footbridge well known. Around the turn of the last century, the annual sucker run drew thousands of people as entire families converged on Footbridge from near and far. On the designated day, the mill dam was closed, trapping the suckers on their annual spring spawning run upstream. As the water receded, the riverbed became a sea of suckers, and people rushed into the river armed with spears, pitchforks, nets, or just their bare hands, tossing the fish to family members or friends on the riverbank who gathered them into burlap bags. Tons of suckers were loaded on wagons to be taken home and pickled or smoked, and Sucker Day was over for another year.