[gentle acoustic guitar] - The Stone of Hope exhibit shed light on the forgotten history of the early Black residents of Appleton.

- Keith L. Brown (Mr.

I'M Possible): This is why we're here.

This is why we thrive.

Juneteenth 1865.

- And now, each year during the Juneteenth holiday, the city remembers and celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.

- Sabrina Robins: Juneteenth is about freedom, unity, and community.

There's still a lot of work to do.

People are paying attention to how Wisconsin is studying and communicating its history, and Appleton is one of the leading cities, and it's just absolutely outstanding that our hometown can be a beacon for others, as we continue to know more about our history.

[The Talbott Brothers play folk rock blues] - Another Appleton Festival celebrates the city's long-standing tradition as a center of music.

[Them Coulee Boys play banjo stomp] - ♪ My love, say it's okay ♪ - ♪ It's okay ♪ - Brian Perth: So, the Mile of Music Festival started in 2013, and the idea was is it would be a festival that celebrated handmade, handcrafted music.

[Birds of Chicago play world roots music] The Mile of Music brings in 90,000 to 100,000 people over 4 days.

[Kyle Megna & the Monsoons play blues folk rock] The Appleton community is flooded by music, and it's distributed all over town.

[Forté and the Pianissimos play ukulele] - Most of the Mile of Music runs along historic College Avenue, still the heart of the city and center for entertainment.

[marching band performs] And the community events... ...like the city's popular Christmas parade.

["Santa Clause Is Coming to Town"] Along the waterfront, a new restoration of the Fox River Locks now brings boaters back to a river that suffered from decades of pollution.

- Film Narrator: The river is the life's blood of the region's economy.

On no other river in America are the paper mills so densely concentrated.

And the Lower Fox is still one of the dirtiest rivers in North America.

- Jordan Salley: When the paper companies came, they did bring a big economic boom for this area, but they also released a lot of toxic chemicals in the water.

One of those is PCBs or polychloride biphenyls.

They don't break down in the environment, so they persist over time, and they also bioaccumulate up the food chain.

- A massive cleanup of the Fox began in 2004 to remove the PCBs from the bottom of the river.

- Jordan Salley: Had we not done this cleanup, the PCBs would still be persisting in the river and contaminating the fish, the birds, eventually us.

- In the 2000s, Wisconsin's paper industry faced a crisis.

Stiff competition from foreign mills and the growing use of computers reduced the demand for Wisconsin paper.

And so, over the years, many Wisconsin mills began to shut down, and so did the mills in Appleton.

- George Schroeder: While the industry is no longer making an impact, it has made an imprint here, and that's important.

[acoustic guitar] - The history of other in dustries that left an imprint lives on along the Fox River.

Visitors can explore the Hearthstone Historic House Museum, where hydroelectricity began.

Or at a reproduction of one of the city's early hydroelectric power stations.

[motor running] Another pioneer industry continues to operate on Appleton's Shore at the Courtney Woolen Mill, where raw wool is still spun on traditional machinery.

- Tom Courtney: Nothing much was changed inside of the mill itself.

The machines, they still work fine yet, so I'd like to keep them running just as grandfather, great- grandfather, dad, and myself.

- The decline of the paper mills and the cleanup of the river is now leading to a transformation of the riverside.

- George Schroeder: Most of the buildings still stand.

They're being used in new ways.

They're being restored and renovated, and they're now filled with lovely apartments and condos.

- Kelly Reyer: The City of Appleton has been one of our founding supporters of the annual Fox-Wolf Watershed cleanup event.

Today, we have over 1,600 volunteers throughout the basin, cleaning up garbage from the lakes and the rivers they cherish.

We are blessed with an abundance of water in our area.

So, it's up to us to help keep it clean.

- George Schroeder: There's been this metamorphosis and how we sort of view the river and how we can now reuse it and restore it and make it a part of our lives.

Now, we've got wildlife returning.

Before, the river was, well, embattled.

Now the river is embraced.

- Dustin Mack: That river is the reason why Appleton is where it is today.

It had a huge impact on its history, on its culture, on the people that came and settled here.

It's really the Fox River that gives shape to the community and to everything that surrounds it.

- Announcer: PBS Wisconsin gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the History Museum at the Castle and the following organizations: ♪ ♪ - To purchase a DVD of Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Appleton, call 1(800) 422-9707 or visit the PBS Wisconsin online store at the address on the screen.

- Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Appleton is provided by the Doug & Carla Salmon Foundation, Chuck and Barb Merry, the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Mary and Lowell Peterson, Community First Credit Union, Roger and Lynn Van Vreede, Dr. Henry Anderson, The Mielke Family Foundation, Oscar C. and Patricia H. Boldt, the Boldt Company, Robert C. Buchanan and Bonnie G. Buchanan, Peter and Connie Roop,