Fond du Lac still lucky 20 years after ‘Miracle Mile’ lottery streak
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- A stretch of South Main Street in Fond du Lac was nicknamed “Miracle Mile” due to several multi-million dollar lottery wins in the 1990s.
- In 2025, Wisconsin Lottery “Big Winners” from Fond du Lac took home a total of $1,186,200.
- As of mid-2026, lottery winners in the city have already won a combined total of over $1 million.
- The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot have grown significantly steeper over the years, from 1 in about 55 million in 1993 to 1 in over 292 million today.
FOND DU LAC – Fond du Lac’s “Miracle Mile” streak may have ended 20 years ago, but the city is far from unlucky now.
A small stretch of South Main Street earned the nickname “Miracle Mile” for a pattern of multi-million dollar lottery wins in the 1990s from tickets purchased at local gas stations and grocery stores.
These included a $19.6 million ticket from Farrell’s Red Owl Country Store in 1990, a $21 million ticket from Bill’s Self Serv in 1990, a $111 million ticket from Sentry South in 1993, and a $6.5 million Ma & Pa’s Grocery Express in 1994, according to The Reporter archives. Several years after the streak seemed to end, Ma & Pa’s also sold a winning $208.6 million ticket in 2006.
All of the lucky retailers on the Miracle Mile closed over the years, but Fond du Lac could still have another big win on the horizon.
Here’s how the city’s luck has fared recently.
Moderate wins added up for Fond du Lac in 2025
In 2025, the Wisconsin Lottery’s “Big Winners” — with prizes of at least $600 — took home a total of $1,186,200.
Many of the prizes were $1,000 to $2,000, but the biggest winners included a $50,000 Powerball win in January, a $97,000 Badger 5 win in May, a $125,000 Badger 5 win in September, a $350,000 Supercash! win in September, and a $65,000 Badger 5 win in November, as well as a few scratch-off ticket wins ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
2026 wins have already totaled over $1 million
This year is only halfway over, but the total prizes from the “Big Winners” list has already reached $1,067,100, as of June 29.
Among these are a $500,000 scratch-off win in January, a $128,000 Badger 5 win in February, and a $350,000 Supercash! win June 3.
So far, Hansen’s BP at 414 W. Johnson St. sold the highest number of $1,000 or $2,000 winning tickets this year at six. According to archives, the gas station earned notoriety for selling winning tickets outside of the Miracle Mile since 2005, including tickets for three out of the five biggest wins in 2025, as well as a $1 million Powerball in 2020.
In terms of the highest money-value wins so far in 2026, the top slot goes to Walmart, 377 N. Rolling Meadows Drive, which sold the $500,000 scratch-off ticket and another $5,000 scratch-off ticket.
Why hasn’t there been a big win lately?
Fond du Lac still gets an occasional $1 million win among the notable prizes, but nothing near the $208.6 million from 20 years ago.
According to Wisconsin Lottery, its first game, Megabucks Lotto America, was introduced in 1989. So when Bill Gerrits won $19.6 million in 1990, and John and Valerie Charneski won $21 million just a few months later, the game was still very new. The odds of winning were 1 in 12,913,583, according to The Reporter archives.
Similarly, Les Robins and Colleen DeVries won $111 million with a Powerball ticket in 1993, just one year after the game came to Wisconsin. Back then, the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 54,979,155, according to archives.
The Powerball matrix changed several times over the years, including in 2005, when the matrix changed to five numbers out of a pool of 55, though the Powerball number stayed at its previous pool of 42. So, when a group of Sargento employees won the $208.6 million jackpot in 2006, the odds were 1 in 146,107,962, according to archives.
In 2026, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338, according to Wisconsin Lottery.
Another game in the Miracle Mile fame was Wisconsin Megabucks, which debuted in 1992. John Staninecz Jr. won $6.5 million from a ticket in 1994, and the odds are the same as they were back then: 1 in 6,991,908.
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@usatodayco.com.
This content is sourced from www.fdlreporter.com and is shared for informational purposes only.
