Things to Do in Gillett: Rafting, Tractor Pulls and a Museum

Gillett is a city of about 1,300 people in southern Oconto County, and plenty of its visitors arrive towing something. Trucks with ATV trailers fill the lot at the edge of downtown on summer weekends, river tubes come out on hot afternoons, and in August the whole town turns toward the county fair. The things to do in Gillett sit close together: a trailhead, a fairground, a museum and a Main Street diner are all within a few blocks, and the Oconto River runs a few miles southwest of town. This is the town as a visitor actually uses it, with the practical details that save you a wasted trip.

Getting to Gillett and finding your way around

Gillett sits on WI-22 where it meets WI-32, about 18 miles northeast of Shawano. Zippel Park lies just east of WI-22 and south of WI-32, so whichever highway you arrive on, you are a couple of turns from the trailhead. Downtown is a few blocks of Main Street and McKenzie Avenue, small enough to cover on foot once you have parked.

There is no public transport worth planning around, so you need your own vehicle to get here and to reach the river or the roadhouses outside town. Green Bay's Austin Straubel airport is the closest commercial airport, about 29 miles south-southeast in a straight line. Download the county trail map before you ride, since the woods north of town are a long way from anywhere.

Ride the trails from Zippel Park

Gillett has billed itself as the ATV Capital of the World for more than a decade, and the local club, Gillett Sno & ATV Riders, keeps up more than 15 miles of trail in and around the city. City streets are open to ATVs and UTVs, so riders roll from the park to lunch and the gas station without loading back up. From the park, the Nicolet State Trail heads north for more than 89 miles to the Michigan line, through Suring, Mountain, Lakewood and Townsend.

Season matters: in Oconto County, ATVs are allowed on the state trail from roughly the start of May to the end of October, as posted by the county, and the same corridor becomes a snowmobile route once the snow sets in. Parking, rules, rentals and the stops riders actually use are all laid out in Gillett’s ATV routes and the Nicolet State Trail, which is worth reading before you unload.

If you did not bring a machine, Gillett UTV Rentals on W Park St opened in 2022 renting side-by-sides, with helmets required and a minimum renter age of 25. It works mostly through its Facebook page, so confirm it is renting before you count on a machine.

Locals call the old rail bed “the grade,” and once you are a few miles north of Suring it runs alongside WI-32 into the Nicolet National Forest. No state trail pass is needed to ride it, but your machine has to be registered with the Wisconsin DNR. A run up to Suring and back makes an easy opening ride. Pack lunch or plan a stop, because the stretches between towns are wooded and quiet.

Raft or tube the Oconto River

The river here is the easygoing kind. It runs through farmland and woods, mostly shallow and clear, with enough current to carry you without any paddling effort. Paddlers who bring their own boats often use the stretch from Pulcifer down to the County BB boat landing, about 3.8 miles. Bring a dry bag for keys and phones, water shoes rather than flip-flops, and sunscreen, because there is very little shade on a tube.

The pub side of the business leans into the summer crowd, with live music and ice cream on the menu alongside cold drinks. Check river levels before you go after heavy rain. The outfitter posts conditions and opening days on its own pages, and that is the source to trust over any guide.

Fair week and the town's summer calendar

Zippel Park is also the Oconto County fairgrounds, and every August the Oconto County Fair fills it with 4-H barns, animal shows and grandstand pulls. The grandstand is where the noise comes from: 4x4 truck pulls, farm tractor pulls and a draft horse pull. If you can come just once a year, come for fair week.

The barns are the heart of it: UW-Madison Extension runs the 4-H swine, beef and goat shows on the fairgrounds, along with a combined day for dogs, cats, horses and small animals. The fair also crowns a Fairest of the Fair each year, and the exhibition area stays open every day with vendors and displays. It is a working county fair rather than a carnival, and that is a big part of its appeal.

The same park hosts the town's 4th of July celebration, the Gillett Area Firefighters' annual corn roast and Christmas in the Park, so a summer weekend visit can easily land on something. Apart from the Fourth itself, dates move from year to year, so check the city calendar before you plan around one.

The Gillett Area Historical Museum

The museum covers a town named for Rodney Stephen Gillett, a pioneer settler, with a post office that has operated under the Gillett name since 1871. It is small, and an hour is plenty. Go on a weekend afternoon or you will find the door locked.

Parks beyond Zippel

The city maintains about ten parks for a town of its size, and most are neighborhood spaces rather than destinations. Oconto Riverside Park and Finnigan Lake both have play equipment and picnic tables, and Honey Park adds a covered area and restrooms. Zippel is the one with everything: a playground, horseshoe pits, a bandshell, a ball diamond and four picnic shelters, the largest of which the city rents out through City Hall.

The city lists an all-inclusive playground and walking trails at Zippel alongside the restrooms, which makes it the one park in town that works for almost any group. If you are traveling with kids and a cooler, Zippel is the easy answer. The playground sits close to the parking, and the restrooms are right there.

Where to eat between stops

Main Street covers breakfast, lunch and dinner within a single block: OJ's Midtown, the diner that has fed the town since 1977, does breakfast, lunch and its cream pies Monday through Saturday.

Two Mexican kitchens sit a few doors apart: Taco Fiesta for birria and tortas, and El Borracho for big plates and margaritas, open every day.

The pie case at OJ's runs to cream pies in banana, coconut, peanut butter, sour cream raisin and chocolate, and pie is what the diner has been known for since it opened.

Spirits of Gillett sits across McKenzie Ave from Zippel Park, so it is the default stop for riders, with pizza, game-day TVs and breakfast on weekend mornings. For picnic supplies, the deli and bakery at Pat's Market on N McKenzie Ave will do, though the deli closes at 6 on weekdays.

Out of town, the supper club and the Friday fish fries sit about 3 miles out on WI-32, and the barbecue stop on County VV is about 8 miles west. Between them, the rest of Gillett's restaurants and supper clubs are worth knowing before you pick a Friday night.

Where to stay in Gillett

Nicolet Trail Campground on E Washington St is the other option, a 20-site campground by the trail start with water and electric hookups, showers and room for trucks and trailers. Beyond those two, the choice is a rental house in the area or a hotel in Shawano or Green Bay. On fair week and busy riding weekends, book the motel early. It is small.

When to come to Gillett

Summer is the main season. June through September brings the river, the trails and the fair, with warm days and the occasional thunderstorm. Fall riding runs until the county closes ATV access at the end of October, and the color in the woods north of town is a good reason to pick October over July. Winter belongs to snowmobiles. Spring is the quiet stretch, when thaw closes trails and the river runs high.

Month-by-month temperatures, snowfall and what each season means for riding are in Gillett's weather through the year.

Gillett in winter

Once the snow is down, the Nicolet State Trail becomes a snowmobile corridor, and Oconto County as a whole has more than 400 miles of sled trail. ATVs come off the Oconto County trails for the winter, and the county does not reopen them to ATVs until spring. That means the trailhead lot at Zippel Park fills with sleds instead of side-by-sides from December onward, conditions permitting.

Spirits of Gillett and the bar at Sleepy Hollow both advertise direct trail access, which is exactly what you want when it is ten degrees out. Check the county trail report before you drive up. A thin or warm winter can keep the sled trails closed for weeks, and nobody in town can change that.

Nearby towns worth the drive

Oconto Falls is about 8 miles east, with a free snow tubing hill in winter and the river running through town. Suring sits about 8 miles north-northwest and is the next trail town up the Nicolet State Trail, with trail parking next to its Village Hall. Shawano, about 17 miles west-southwest, has Shawano Lake, and Green Bay is about 30 miles south-southeast in a straight line.

Gillett will not fill a week on its own, and it does not pretend to. Come for a weekend on the trail or the river, eat a slice of pie, and you will have seen the town the way the people who live here see it.