MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Since 1968, Summerfest has showcased a diverse array of artists, and the lakefront area has a diverse history. Before becoming a music festival’s stomping grounds, the lakefront area hosted Milwaukee’s first airport, the site of an anti-aircraft missile and more, according to historian and award-winning writer John Gurda.  

At the start, the grounds weren’t very glorious.

“This was underwater 24/7, and it was not until the 1870s that the first landfill took place here, and this has had a variety of incarnations," said Gurda. "I was here for one of the very first Summerfests on the lakefront. Back then, there were portable stages, and it was kind of a mud pit."

The Summerfest grounds were initially a rail yard along the lakefront. That changed when the aviation era began in the 1920s. The area evolved into Milwaukee’s first airport, called Maitland Field after a Milwaukeean who had made the first transnational Pacific flight. The airport lasted from 1927 until after World War II.

In 1956, the area transformed again as a Nike anti-aircraft missile site, according to Gurda.

"The purpose was if there were Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole, they would find an intercept them,” said Gurda. “This was part of every Cub and Boy Scout and Girl Scout field trip in Milwaukee for years."

In 1968, community leaders united to help start Summerfest. The location on the lakefront became permanent in 1970.

"Sly and the Family Stone were the featured act, and Sly stayed backstage for about an hour,” said Gurda, remembering his experience. “People got mad. People got ugly. There were chairs being thrown, so I recall some of the early, rough days of Summerfest."

From those relatively humble beginnings, both Summerfest and Milwaukee have grown into global destinations over the past 50 years plus. For those who've never been here, Gurda advises not to miss it.

"I will come down here at least one day every run and have forever,” said Gurda. “Certainly early on, it was seeing the main stage acts ranging from Paul Simon to Crosby, Stills & Nash; this is no longer my demographic. I'm not a millennial,  but I still come down even though I'm passed 70 because if you can't find something here you like, you're being way too picky.”