Downtown Neenah Sunset Over the Fox River — May 2022
Downtown Neenah does not always get credit for its scenery, but on the evening of May 8th, 2022 the Fox River put on a good one. I was out for a walk and stopped on the Commercial Street bridge, and the whole sky over the river had gone orange and blue, with the still water reflecting all of it.
The river runs right through the middle of downtown. From the bridge you are looking straight down the channel as the sun drops, with the color doubled in the water. Off to the left is the Kimberly-Clark mill, and over on the right is the Neenah-Menasha YMCA.
Directly behind me, just out of the frame, sits the hospital that most people here still call Theda Clark. It opened in 1909, built in memory of Theda Clark Peters by her brother after she died young, and it has cared for this community for well over a hundred years. The official name is ThedaCare Regional Medical Center now, but the old name is the one that has stuck around here, and you can understand why.
Nights like this are an easy reminder that you do not have to go far for a good view. Sometimes it is right downtown, off the side of a bridge you have crossed a hundred times.
