Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers premieres July 6

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers, a new history documentary airing at 8:00 p.m.Monday, July 6 on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), tells the story of two Wisconsin cities tied together by a Great Lake. Like each of the towns profiled in the Wisconsin Hometown Stories series, the Manitowoc-Two Rivers program offers an integral piece in connecting Wisconsin's past to its present.

The program follows the evolution of two cities whose culture, commerce and recreation have been shaped by neighboring Lake Michigan. Film, archival images and interviews with historians and local citizens highlight Manitowoc and Two Rivers' native settlements, constantly evolving industries and lasting customs of resiliency and innovation.

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers traces the cities' development from native people and European settlers to early fishing and timber trades to the emergence and growth of a shipbuilding industry that continues to define the region. The program includes tales of shipwrecks and life-saving operations, the development and proliferation of wooden type and aluminum manufacturing, the region's participation in the World War II home front effort and the emergence and growth of new businesses in recent decades. Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers was produced by WPT Producer David Hestad.

Viewers can find a comprehensive online resource, including streaming video of the entire program, at the Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers Web site. A teacher resource guide, developed by a team of educators and curriculum specialists to meet the needs of Wisconsin teachers, is available at the Web site of the Educational Communications Board. It includes additional video and downloadable resource packets created for elementary, middle and high school students.  The DVD for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc will be available from WPT when the program premieres July 6. Check the WPT Web site for details.

Through a partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, WPT is producing the Wisconsin Hometown Stories series with continued plans to profile other state cities. Each program is a celebration of the evolution of a town, its residents and their stories. The series carries on WPT's tradition of producing outstanding Wisconsin history programs such as Wisconsin Stories and Wisconsin World War II Stories.

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Manitowoc-Two Rivers is made possible, in part, by a principal gift from the Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation Inc., and major gifts from the Francis A. and Georgia F. Ariens Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Burger Boat Company, The Manitowoc Co., Orion Energy Systems, with additional funding provided by The Jane and Arthur Stangel Fund Inc., Steve and Erick Kahlenberg, Bill and Nan Webster, Amy T. Brady, Terry and Jo Growcock, Marjorie Burger Gunnell, Robert and Grace Peppard, Florence Spindler, Walt Vogl, Friends of Wisconsin Public Television, and The Wisconsin History Fund -- supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

WPT celebrates and connects the people of Wisconsin through programming like Wisconsin Hometown Stories on WHA-DT, Madison; WPNE-DT, Green Bay; WHRM-DT, Wausau; WLEF-DT, Park Falls; WHLA-DT, La Crosse; and WHWC-DT, Menomonie-Eau Claire.