Sputnikfest has been fortunate to have children’s illustrator Tina Kugler, a former Manitowoc native, share her considerable talents with us in the form of an annual Sputnikfest poster.  The 2102 edition, shown at right, will be available for purchase at this year's event.  Here is a link for a gallery where you can view the all the previous Sputnikfest posters, hosted at Tina’s own website.

The Sputnik image has been used to sell a wide variety of products from Wi-Fi to baby clothes.  The idea of a Sputnik Vodka (or “Wotka” as Pavel Checkov would say) just seems like a natural.  What could be more natural when combining cold war nostalgia, Russia, and Wisconsin – than a Vodka Flavored Beer!  Not sure where you can buy this stuff – but we really need to get them on board as a sponsor for Sputnikfest.  Hey out there – Vodka-Flavored-Beer-People – we need to talk!

“Don’t you just hate people who drop in unexpectedly?”  So went the text on the poster for the 1966 move “The Russians Are Coming.”  The Russians dropped in on Manitowoc unexpectedly on September 5, 1962.    

   About 4:30 AM Central Time on September 5, 1962 Sputnik IV broke up and plunged to earth over Wisconsin.  Law enforcement officers in Eagle River Wisconsin reported seeing “24 flaming pieces flash across the sky.”  A bus driver traveling between Escanaba and Green Bay saw the spectacle and recounts “As we watched, the lights began to spread out, one behind the other.  I continued to drive south until I was about a half mile from the intersection of highways 41 and 141.  The time was about 5:00 AM.  The lights became brighter and we counted 25 or 30 of them passing almost directly over the bus; they were traveling at a great rate of speed.  As the first one disappeared over the bus, I looked out the windshield, but could not see them.  I looked out the left side window and saw them in the direction of Manitowoc.”

   Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wisner of Kellnersville on their way to milk cows, saw objects in sky and heard five explosions.  The Reverend Vernon Anderson’s wife was awakened by the sound of an impact, but after going to the window and not seeing anything she went back to bed. 
   At 5:45 AM Manitowoc police officers Marvin Bauch and Ronald Rusbolt saw something laying in the road in front of the museum.   An hour later, at 6:45 AM they took another look, realized it was metal and decided to pick it up to get it out of the street.  Finding it too hot to handle, they pushed it to curb with their feet, assuming it was a piece of slag fallen off a truck from one of the local foundries.  At noon they heard news reports of the re-entry of the satellite and went back to recover the piece. It was brought to the police station, where a fire department Geiger counter was used to determine the item did not have a dangerous radioactive reading.  Government authorities were notified and police barricaded the area, awaiting arrival of officials from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington who took custody of the item.  The piece was flown to government labs at Los Alamos for testing, which confirmed it was part of Sputnik IV. 

   In the days following the event additional smaller pieces of debris were found in the area, including on the property of the nearby Lutheran Church, with several pieces recovered on the church annex roof. 

   These improbable events plunged Manitowoc into the Space Age and made international headlines.  It was voted The Top News Story of the year in Manitowoc for 1962.  The question as to just how to commemorate the event for posterity is something that has been struggled with for many years.  Immediately following the crash someone actually suggested changing the name of the city to Sputnik, Wisconsin.   One prescient alderman suggested observing September 5 each year as “Aero-Space Day” in Manitowoc.  Other Aldermen saw no reason to “pay tribute to a piece of aerial garbage made in Russia” or have anything to do with “anything communistic.” 

    We have to remember that these events took place during the height of the Cold War – the “Red Scare” was a very real thing to Americans in those days.  In fact, “Red Nightmare” – an anti-communist propaganda Armed Forces Information Film was shown on American television in 1962.  It is posted below, if you are interested - a little under a half-hour long and very "Twilight-Zone-esque." (Narrated by Jack Webb - of "Dragnet" fame - and watch for a brief appearance by Robert Conrad, who would later star in the popular sixties show "The Wild Wild West.")

    A brass ring was placed in the street in 1964 to mark the site of the impact and in 1987 a stone marker was placed in the curb between the sidewalk and the street.  See the brass ring and the stone marker up close – and be here and help us “pay tribute to a piece of aerial garbage made in Russia” – we promise it’s nothing "communistic."    See you on September 8! Planet Terry

The Schedule of Events for this year's Sputnikfest is now available!  The event kicks off at noon with non-stop wacky-tacky fun until midnight.  See the out-of-this-world line-up posted here - just one of which is the Cosmic Cake Contest, which allows Kitchen Cosmonauts to show off their confectionary creativity.  The 2011 top prize-winning cakes are shown here.  The cakes are judged at 1:00 - then put on display until 6:00 PM at which time they are auctioned off to the public!    

Near the bottom of the Schedule of events posted here, you will see a note about a shuttle running between Sputnikfest and Lobsterfest from 6:00 PM to Midnight.  The date chosen for Sputnikfest a few years back turned out to be the same day that the local Rotary Club has been doing their annual Lobsterfest fundraiser event.  The two events really haven't been in conflict with each other - many people do attend both functions and the "space shuttle" serves to facilitate that.

While the "Traditional Live Maine Lobster Dinner" is available by reservation only, "non-lobster" eating attendees can enjoy a hamburger or hot dog - and of course, a cold beverage.  If you are interested in combining a lobster dinner with your Sputnikfest pilgrimage, be aware that ticket sales for the lobster dinner end on September 3.  $40 gets you a whole live lobster - flown in fresh from Maine - with all the traditional trimmings. 

Just to prepare yourself for a combined Lobsterfest and Sputnikfest experience, you may consider watching the 1989 homage to 1950's B-movie sci-fi films: Lobster Man from Mars.  The plot of this decidedly campy outing, featuring Patrick McNee and Tony Curtis, is actually a swipe of the Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan classic "The Producers."  (and "The Producers" - incidentally - is on this year's roster for The Masquers!)

Posted here for your viewing "enjoyment" - the promotional trailer for "Lobster Man from Mars" -  

Manitowoc boasts the longest running community theater group in the State of Wisconsin – the Masquers.  The Masquers was founded in 1931 and has been showcasing great local talent in several productions per year since then.  The headquarters of the Masquers is referred to as “The Coach House” – for good reason.  Located right next door to the Rahr-West Art Museum, and only yards from “ground zero” for the impact site of the Sputnik fragment, the building once housed the horses and carriages for the mansion that is now the museum – back when it was a private residence.  Each year, the Masquers “re-enactment” of the Sputnik IV mission – short on historical accuracy but long on fun – is one of the highlights of Sputnikfest.  Rumor has it that the creative geniuses at Masquers are hard at work right now, rewriting parts of this perennial favorite to make it even more special for this year’s 50^th anniversary celebration.  Below is a link to a YouTube video of a previous year’s presentation, to give you an idea of what you might see at this year’s event.   Planet Terry

Just about 30 miles south of Manitowoc, the City of Sheboygan also has unique ties to the space age – one of which is an interesting bit of historical trivia and the other being a very modern-day tie-in. 

Lets back up a bit to World War II to frame the story.  The V-2 rocket, built as a weapon by the Germans in World War II, was the first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight - and was the grand-daddy of all modern rockets.  It was about 15 meters long, two meters in diameter and really scary for anyone living within its 200-mile range.  The V-2 traveled faster than sound, came down steeply, and hit its target without warning. 

By the spring of 1945 it was clear to Werner von Braun, one of the key scientists responsible for developing the V-2, that Germany was losing the war.  He made plans to surrender and take key members of his team, plans and equipment with him.  Given the devastation the V-2 had wrought on the Allied forces, and fearing the treatment he and his team might receive if they surrendered to the Russians or the French, he made up his mind to surrender only to American forces. 

On May 2, 1945 he sent his younger brother, Magnus von Braun out on a bicycle to find an American to surrender to.  Magnus approached a young Private named Fred Schneikert from Sheboygan, Wisconsin and told him that he represented Werner von Braun, inventor of the V-2 rocket – who was nearby and ready to surrender.  Private Schneikert did not believe Magnus and told him “I think you’re nuts” – but he did relay the message to his superiors, and sure enough, the surrender was arranged.  Private Schniekert was able to meet Werner von Braun after the surrender, and von Braun confided he was looking forward to continuing his rocket work in America.  Shniekert says “I told him I’d be back home before he ever saw America.  But I was wrong.”  Later in 1945, as part of a project code-named “Operation Paperclip”, Werner von Braun was among the German scientists who assisted America in developing its own rocket program. 

Today, Sheboygan is home of the only licensed spaceport in the Midwest – the Great Lakes Aerospace Science and Education Center (GLASEC).  What is a “spaceport”?  The website for GLASEC explains that a licensed spaceport is an area designated as having access to space.  Most of the United States is under restricted airspace – where flight is limited to 50,000 feet or less, for national security reasons.  The airspace over the Sheboygan Spaceport is “open” to space travel.  There are a few other licensed spaceports – in Florida, Texas, and California, for instance – but Sheboygan is the only one in the “interior” of the United States.  Planet Terry

You say potato – I say potahto …  So, what is the proper pronunciation for the word “Sputnik” anyway?  Purists will tell you it is to be pronounced “Spootnik” with the long “oo” sound like “boot.”  That is the way it is pronounced in Russia – and since it was their deal, we probably should follow their lead.  But most people I hear will say “Sputnik” with the short “ut” sound – like “mutt.”  Here is a web-page with audio clips of the word pronounced by three different people.  The voice from the Czech Republic actually pronounces the word “Spootneek.”  The 1957 “rockabilly” song Sputnik (Satellite Girl) by Jerry Engler went with “Spootnik” while the Equadors sang "Sputnik" with more Americanized pronunciation in their 1958 Sputnik Dance song.  Whichever way you say it - be there in Manitowoc on September 8 for the celebration!  Planet Terry

Sputnik IV is the one that has caused all the fuss – it went up over there, and come down upon us!*
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik IV on May 15, 1960, as a test of life support systems for future manned spaceflights.  The spaceship contained a functional cabin that could, supposedly, have contained a real life cosmonaut, but instead contained a “dummy.”  Just in case the ship was recovered by someone not familiar with the mission parameters, we are told the dummy had the word “Maket” (Russian for “dummy”) printed on a sign under its faceplate.  After four days in orbit, on May 19, the ship was supposed to maneuver into a lower orbit for an eventual controlled descent and recovery.  Something went wrong and the ship moved into a higher orbit instead and became, in a very real sense, “lost in space.” 
On Wednesday, September 5, 1962 members of the Milwaukee Moonwatch satellite tracking team saw a “bright reddish-orange star-like thing” cross the sky from the northwest to the southeast at 4:49 AM.  At about 5:30 AM two Manitowoc policemen on routine patrol saw “something” in the middle of the 600 block of 8^th Street.  Seeing that it was a hot chunk of metal embedded in the pavement, and assuming it to be a piece of scrap metal from a nearby foundry, they moved it to the curbside.  Later in the day they heard news accounts of the breakup of Sputnik IV and returned to collect the metal fragment, on the outside chance that it might be part of that satellite.  It was transferred to government authorities and analysis discovered a metric bolt thread not commonly in use in the U.S. at the time.  This circumstantial evidence was later bolstered by measurements of trace radioactive isotopes which proved the item had been in outer space. 
The Russian authorities initially denied the metal fragment had originated as part of their space program.  An attempt to return the object to the Soviet Ambassador on September 14, 1962 is recounted in the memoirs of U.S. Ambassador Francis Plimpton.  Ambassador Plimpton says his Soviet counterpart refused to accept the  Sputnik IV fragment when it was placed on a table in front of him, saying “I do not know to whom this piece of metal belongs …” and that “he looked at it as though it were a viper.”  A representative of the Soviet Union did take custody of the fragment on January 5, 1962, exactly four months after it landed in Manitowoc.  
This September’s Sputnikfest marks 50 years since Sputnik IV met its demise.  For most of that time, there has been only minimal acknowledgment of the event.  A brass ring was placed in the street at the impact site and a rather modest plaque was installed at the curbside where this artifact of the space race spent its first morning back on earth.  A cast replica of the satellite fragment has been on display at the Rahr-West Art Museum for many years. 
I remember seeing this when I was probably about 10 years old and being decidedly underwhelmed.  I expected to see a part of a “spaceship” – and though this metal fragment is that … I have to agree with the assessment of the two patrolmen who found it on that September 5 morning in 1962: it looks much more like a piece of foundry scrap than a satellite.  Looks can be deceiving.  This rather unattractive chunk of metal is a tangible link to mankind’s first tentative steps into the cosmos.  In reply to that Soviet Ambassador of so many years ago, I’d like to say “We do know to whom this piece of metal belongs.”  The piece of metal – and Sputnikfest – belongs to anyone with a love of history, a sense of adventure, and an appreciation for the way random events can impact our lives. 
With a whole big wide world where this thing could have crashed, and plenty of oceans where it could have splashed – what chance it would pick the Midwest to come down?  And not just the Midwest – it came down in our town!* 
Come celebrate the 50^th anniversary of this historic event with us on September 8, 2012.  Planet Terry
(note: the source material for much of the historical information in this post is a paper by Charles A. Lindquist titled "A Sputnik IV Saga.")

* Sputnik: the Manitowoc Connection 

Way back in the 50’s when things were just swell – way back before digital, cable, and cell
with seams on our nylons and fins on our cars - we dreamed of the future and looked to the stars.

Then – one day in October 1957 - The Russians! They beat us up into the heavens!  And then, just to add to our Cold War type fears, TIME named some Russian guy Man of the Year!

One rocket for Russia, one big leap for man, that fateful “Red Monday” the Space Age began.  Sputnik I was the first, a big shiny chrome ball – but it wasn’t the last – there were ten Sputniks in all.
Sputnik II carried Laika, a cosmonaut pup.  Unfortunately though she survived the ride up and became the first space traveler of the 20^th Century – Sputnik II and the doggy burned up on re-entry.
Sputnik III was cone-shaped with antennas and arms and an instrument payload (no critters were harmed).

Sputnik IV is the one that has caused all the fuss – ‘cause it went up over there and came down upon us!

It weighed five full tons – this big Russian tin can, - and instead of a dog, Sputnik IV held a man!  Well, not a real man in this Soviet rocket – the word “dummy” you see, spelled in Russian is “maket.”  It was a test run for a real live space man, would ride Sputnik next - (at least that was the plan).  As best-laid plans go (for both mice and for men) Sputnik IV had some problems and met a bad end.  Did the rocket misfire?  Was some part out of place?  Well, they had one more first – yes, the first “lost in space.”

For two years, thre months, and some twenty-odd days Sputnik IV stayed aloft – then came down in a blaze.  What goes up must come down, that’s a true now as then - the big problem  was no one knew where or when.  With a whole big wide world where this thing could have crashed and plenty of oceans where it could have splashed - what chance it would pick the Midwest to come down?  And not just the Midwest – it came down in our town!

While most of the Sputnik burned up from the heat, a twenty-pound chunk came down on 8^th Street and embedded itself in a three-inch-deep hole.  Later, found by police officers out on patrol – it was studied and photographed “the news of the day” – and though it’s been part of a Rahr-West display, Manitowoc’s ties to the early space age have been kind of forgotten – no longer “front page.”

It’s time that this oversight just has to end.  Sputnikfest!   It’s coming!  Tell all your friends!