Advisory Park Board backs historic marker commemorating 1898 Oshkosh woodworker strike

The Oshkosh City Advisory Park Board on a 5-0 vote recommended the Common Council approve placement of a Wisconsin Historical Society historical marker commemorating the 1898 Oshkosh woodworker strike along the Boatworks Riverwalk.

Board members and speakers said the proposed bronze-style plaque, funded and prepared by the Wisconsin Labor History Society, would mark the role of local woodworkers in Oshkosh’s industrial history and sit near benches at the Boatworks Riverwalk where several former mill sites are visible.

Paulette Feld, who identified herself as the neighborhood association chair and a member of the strike’s 125th-anniversary planning committee, told the board the state marker would be funded by the Labor History Society and would require both State Historical Society approval of the text and Common Council approval of the site. Michelle Locken, a researcher and staff member with a local history organization, summarized the strike: “that was … a 16 week long strike in the summer of 1898 where about 75% of Oshkosh’s woodworkers went out on strike,” and noted Clarence Darrow later defended local labor leaders in court.

Parks staff recommended the Riverwalk bench cove near the Boatworks site because it is accessible, out of maintenance pathways and close to where many of the mills Locken named once operated. Staff and speakers said the Labor History Society would pay the production costs and that the State Historical Society has size and word‑count limits for markers.

Board discussion was brief. A motion to recommend the marker’s placement was made and seconded; a roll-call vote recorded the recommendation as 5-0 in favor. Staff said the recommendation will be forwarded to the Common Council with the board’s support.

The board did not take final action on the marker itself: the decision to approve text and site is pending State Historical Society review and final action by the Common Council.