Kaukauna, Wisconsin, was the birthplace of the Stormy Kromer Cap. In 1903, George "Stormy" Kromer, an engineer on steam locomotive lines across the frozen prairies, kept losing his baseball caps when he stuck his head out the window to see where he was steering. He asked his wife, Ida, to sew flaps onto his last cap, the one he had worn through several successful seasons in the minor leagues, and after a few attempts she created the original "Blizzard" cap. Its six woolen panels, low-angled brim, and slide-down flaps helped keep it in place and keep the wearer's ears warm, and fellow engineers soon wanted their own. After ordering and selling 1,200 caps from a factory in Milwaukee, the Kromers opened their own shop in Kaukauna in a run-down brick building staffed by three women, with a few more added when orders increased in the fall. By 1918, demand had outgrown that operation, and Stormy Kromer Mercantile moved back to Milwaukee. George Kromer ran the business until the 1960s, expanding it several times before passing it to the next generation as his health declined. Around 2001, when production of the cap was set to cease, Bob Jacquart, alerted by Mark Fitting, arranged for Stormy Kromer to become part of Jacquart Fabric Products, and Ironwood became the cap's new home. Today, residents of the Gogebic-Iron Range sew Stormy Kromer Caps in Ironwood.