By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Main Street reuses carvings to highlight trails
Carvings placed to better connect trail users to historic downtown
main street carvings
Two carvings have been placed at the Cheese Country Trailhead. Main Street Monroe received approval to position the carvings that have been donated back to Main Street along the trail to better connect people to downtown.

MONROE — After nine years’ worth of carvings for summer themes, Main Street Monroe had been looking for a way to repurpose carvings that had been donated back to Main Street. 

Tracy Hamilton, owner of Heartland Graphics and a Main Street volunteer who has been working on every summer theme since the first in 2011, is a frequent bicycle rider. In summer 2019 he made the suggestion to repurpose existing carvings along the trail to better connect people to downtown. The City of Monroe’s Park & Rec committee approved plans to let Main Street place carvings on the Cheese County Trail Parking Lot in August 2019. The Cheese Country Trail is used by ATVs, Bicycles, horses, snowmobiles and hikers. 

main street carvings 2
This carving is positioned alongside the Badger State Trail on property that belongs to Colony Brands, with its permission.

Additional carvings, from 2015’s “Asquarium,” were placed at the Bill Cowell Rest Area. Colony Brands allowed carvings to be placed on its property near the Badger State Trail, including one from 2017’s “Once Upon a Square” theme. Additional private property was made available from Mitek/MTX, Sweet Serendipity and JMB Insurance Group. Sweet Serendipity and JMB Insurance Group have carvings from 2018’s “Space” theme. All three businesses are located along the city approved ATV trail route. ATV parking is available downtown at Spring Square Parking.

“They’re all like a sort of time capsule. There’s a nostalgic aspect. They’ve brought a lot of joy to different people and they’re fun,” Jordan Nordby, Main Street Monroe executive director said. “They also represent a lot of hard work and creativity. We want to keep that alive as much as possible.” 

The sizes and shapes vary, but Nordby anticipates that the carvings will be hard to miss, and will help bring trail users downtown. All of the carvings have distinctive sayings on them like “Sea you downtown,” “From here to there, funny things are on the Square,” and “Caps (and more!) for sale downtown.” The sayings are based on each actual carving (character).