The public is invited to free history tour via the Merrill-Go-Round; advance registration required
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
On Nov. 17, 2021, Merrill will celebrate 100 years of motorbus service in Merrill.
To celebrate, the City of Merrill is offering a Nickel Tour, via the Merrill-Go-Round, which will travel through Merrill along the path of the original Merrill trolley line and will extend a little bit into the Sixth Ward. The Nickel Tour will be held on Saturday, Nov. 6, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., beginning and ending at the Merrill Historical Society, 100 E. Third St. The Merrill Historical Society will be open for viewing before and after the bus tours.
Contrary to what you might think, the Nickel Tour won’t cost participants even a silver nickel to take the tour. The tour is free.
“It’s called the Nickel Tour because that’s what it used to cost to ride the bus back in 1921,” said Brad Brummond, Transit Administrator for the Merrill Transit System.
At this Nickel Tour, the Merrill Transit System will also be giving away some “wooden nickels,” featuring an image of a motor bus from back in 1921 on one side and an image of today’s 2021 Merrill-Go-Round motor buses on the reverse. The commemorative tokens, which were made by the Merrill High School FAB Lab, will be handed out during the tours as a souvenior piece.
The Nickel Tours will be narrated by actors from the Merrill Community Theater, dressed in time appropriate attire, and will include brief stops at historically significant locations along the route, Brummond said. The narrators will give a brief history of how the City of Merrill grew along the trolley line.
Tours are free, but advance registration is required. The City is planning to run two buses, with tours leaving every 30 minutes. Call the Merrill Transit System at 715.536.7112 to reserve your place on one of the Nickel Tours.
Masks will be required on the bus, per federal law currently in place by the Transit Security Administration.
Public transportation for Merrill began in 1890, and it started with the trolley, Brummond said. Merrill was the second city in Wisconsin to have public transportation and a trolley, he said, with Appleton being the first. That’s why it makes sense to follow the trolley line for the tours.
But this tour isn’t as much about trolleys as it is about motor buses, and the 100 years of motor bus service in Merrill.
“In Oct. of 1925, the trolley barn burned, and the trolleys were replaced with motor buses,” Brummond said. “The first day of service was November 17, 1921.” And now here we are, 100 years later, and public transportation is still going strong in Merrill.
Over the years, public transportation had its ups and downs in the city, from trolleys being destroyed in fires (1896), running off the Prairie River Bridge (1899), or service being disrupted due to flooding (1912). During trolley times and after trolleys and trackless trolleys were replaced with motor buses, various for-profit organizations ran the public transportation service within Merrill, until 1951 when the City of Merrill took over ownership and operation of the bus system. The City ran the bus service until 1971. From 1972 to 1973, bus service was discontinued, as Merrill/Park City Cab Co. stepped up to offer taxi service in the city instead. The experiment failed, and from 1973 to 1974, another experiment was launched: electric buses. That experiment also failed due to unreliable buses.
Beginning in 1975, the City of Merrill launched and operated the Merrill-Go-Round bus service. The City originally used a 30-minute deviated/check-point service, and that business model was used for more than 30 years.
Today the City of Merrill still operates the Merrill-Go-Round bus service, but they no longer utilize bus stops and check points. Rather, the bus service operates now on hour-service across town and it’s strictly demand and response, Brummond said. “You call, and we pick you up at your curb. No bus stops anymore.” There may still be a few signs around town that just haven’t been taken down yet, but the City doesn’t actually utilize bus stops any longer.
The are currently five buses in the Merrill-Go-Round fleet, Brummond said. All are new. “We have three 2020’s and two 2021’s,” he said. Three buses run all day, and they use a fourth as needed. One bus is a backup.
The Nickel Tours on Nov. 6 are a great opportunity to take a free ride on a modern Merrill-Go-Round bus with all the comforts they have to offer, while revisiting Merrill’s motorbus and transit history and learning a few things perhaps you didn’t know about the City of Merrill, all from a costumed narrator who will take you back in time, if only for a little while.