WHO: Joe Turner, 25 (aka “JoeT”)
WHAT: Advanced operator, Bush Brothers & Co.; prolific Web commenter
LIVES: North Side Hill, Eau Claire
IN THE CITY FOR: Lifelong resident

If you ever peruse the highly active “You Know You’re From Eau Claire When …” Facebook group or the comments at VolumeOne.org – and really, why aren’t you doing that? – you’ve undoubtedly read posts by an Eau Claire native named Joe Turner, aka JoeT. Joe comments almost daily on all manner of local happenings, from the contemporary to the historical, with a level of interest and insight that might be surprising given his relative youth. “My late grandmother knew a lot about Eau Claire, so we’d talk about it and I eventually got hooked,” says Turner, a 2006 North High grad and devoted Packer fan who lists cruising in his Mustang as a favorite hobby. Check out what JoeT’s got to say about the city festival we’re still missing, which side of town is best, and who Eau Claire’s greatest tree-chopping hero really is.

What is your favorite local festival? It’s not so much a festival, but for the past three years I’ve done the Our City Spring Cleanup. Feels great working with hundreds of other volunteers cleaning and keeping downtown beautiful.

What place in town considers you a “regular”?  Galloway Grille, Café Tempo, Lazy Monk Taproom. It’s a long list!

What is your favorite piece of local trivia? That Hank Aaron got his major league career started here, and other greats including Joe Torre and Bob Uecker also played here.

How did you become a prolific Web commenter? I enjoy starting conversations about local issues, talking about local ideas, and just conversing with others from Eau Claire.

How did you get so interested in local history? History has always been an interest of mine, so naturally I wanted to learn about the place I call home. My late grandmother knew a lot about Eau Claire, so we’d talk about it and I eventually got hooked. Eau Claire is a very interesting place.

What’s the best part of living in the Chippewa Valley? You can be in a rural setting, and then be in an urban city environment within minutes, without even knowing one or the other is near.

What frustrates you most about the Chippewa Valley? People sometimes are left uninformed. I feel many newsworthy occurrences happen, yet hear nothing about them. Cover-ups?

What is one of the best cultural experiences you’ve ever had in the Chippewa Valley? I really enjoy the Farmer’s Market. It seems to draw anyone and everyone to downtown for one purpose. I like being able to “pick and choose” and look at multiple items before I buy.

Death bed, one meal from a local restaurant, what would it be? The Mouse Special pizza from Sammy’s Pizza. Sammy’s has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember.

Describe your last encounter with the police department. Pretty boring. My headlight burned out.

Water Street or Downtown? Downtown. Larger and more to do, and that’s where all the action is! History in the making.

What book, TV show, or movie would you recommend to the members of the City Council? Sawdust City and The Rivers Flow On by Lois Barland.  Excellent early Eau Claire history!

If you could bring back one thing from Eau Claire’s past to the present day, what would it be? Sawdust City Days. Older generations said it was a great time and party.

What sort of economic development would you like to see in our area? Some sort of large blue-collar industry/manufacturing. Uniroyal was a large part of Eau Claire’s history, and the city would benefit having those thousands of jobs return.

Greatest lumber legend: Paul Bunyan or John Menard? The Eau Claire lumber barons of the late 1800s trump them both. They formed Eau Claire and were responsible for much of the sawed timber in the upper Midwest at the time.