COVID-19 Silences Greenfield Man's Fourth Of July Cannons

GREENFIELD, WI — Frank Markel, the man who has fired his cannons every year on the Fourth of July in Greenfield says he's not able to do it this year, after the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin put a temporary halt on Independence Day proceedings this year.

Frank Markel lives at the end of Shady Lane Court in Greenfield — a one-block-long cul-de-sac in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Each Fourth of July for the last four decades, Markel would begin the day with a canon salute using Civil War-era cannons stationed in front yard.

“I’m not going to get a hundred people over to my home,” Markel said in a JSOnline report. “It’s not fair to my wife and myself and the people, and it is what it is. I guess the pandemic is running the show.”

Neighbors said the cannon fire upset area residents, including small children. Court records showed that a complaint was filed against Markel in 2019, and he was fined $3,000 for shooting off his cannons. The $3,000 fine was later reduced to $1,000 by a Wauwatosa municipal judge, before the case was ultimately dismissed in circuit court. No fine was ever levied against Markel.