New mural by the Yonder team will bring a largely forgotten chapter of Oshkosh's lumber history back to the neighborhood where it happened
OSHKOSH, Wis. — Discover Oshkosh has announced the second mural in its 2026 Riverwalk public art series. Mill Madonnas, a new work by the team at Yonder will be installed on the back of Greene’s Pour House at the Granary. The mural will celebrate the women of Oshkosh’s lumber era, particularly the working-class and immigrant women whose stories have largely disappeared from the city’s telling of its industrial past.
“Oshkosh told its own story in the language of the men who owned the mills: Paine, Sawyer, Buckstaff, McMillen. Forty-seven sawmills by 1874. A river so full of white pine you couldn't row a boat through it,” writes artist LaBonte, in her statement about the project. “But the city that burned five times and rebuilt itself every time was held together by the people that story leaves out, the women of the Sixth Ward and Polonia.”
The central figure in Mill Madonnas will be a monumental woman surrounded by imagery drawn from Oshkosh’s lumber and working-class history. A crown of branching pine references the forests that fueled the city’s growth. A child rests against her, a raven keeps watch nearby, and mills stretch across the landscape behind her.
The work is particularly inspired by the women of the 1898 Oshkosh Woodworkers’ Strike, one of the most dramatic episodes in the city’s labor history.
Historian Virginia Glenn Crane documented how immigrant working-class women became organizers, demonstrators and political actors during the strike, challenging both mill owners and the expectations placed on women at the end of the 19th century. Women from Oshkosh’s Sixth Ward were among those who organized demonstrations at mills throughout the city, with figures including Lizzie Hando, Caroline Pomerening and Emma Kunzendorff emerging as leaders.
The strike ultimately failed to produce the changes workers sought. Seventeen-year-old Jimmie Morris was killed during the unrest, and Crane later wrote that Hando and the other women who led the movement “gained nothing from their moment of heroic struggle, and all died in obscurity.”
More than a century later, Mill Madonnas will give that history a highly visible marker in the neighborhood where much of it unfolded.
“We see these placemaking projects as an accessible way for residents and visitors to engage with Oshkosh’s story,” said Amy Albright, director of Discover Oshkosh. “We hope, in stumbling across these beautiful murals, we will spike people’s curiosity and invite them to learn more about our city and its history.”
The mural’s location is also intentional. The Riverwalk temporarily pulls away from the Fox River near the Granary, moving through the built environment of the Sawdust District before returning to the waterfront. Discover Oshkosh hopes the new installation will create a destination along that stretch while connecting the trail more directly to the history that is defining this growing neighborhood.
Mill Madonnas follows the recently announced mural at Fox Valley Technical College’s Riverside Campus by Tacoma artist Nick Goettling. Both are part of Discover Oshkosh’s broader effort to add new art, storytelling and destinations along the Oshkosh Riverwalk in 2026. Additional installations will be announced in the coming months.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Albright
amy@discoveroshkosh.com
920-303-9200
