The Transition from Logging Camp to ResortBy Paul Brenner

I have been asked to give this talk on how the early logging and tourist industries developed at the same time. I can think of no better area to talk about than Boulder Junction Township where I have lived the past 50 years. It is the headwaters of the Chippewa River system and had large stands of red and white pine. Where the soil was heavier, there were also good stands of hard woods. The township also has over 200 lake within ten miles of the town, and it is still one of the top fishing areas in Wisconsin.In 1911, Boulder Junction also became the headquarters of the Northern Highland State Forest, the first and largest state forest in Wisconsin.

There no doubt were a few fishermen and hunters that came to the area before 1880. However, neither the logging nor the tourist industry really got started before the Northwestern Railroad and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad got to the Woodruff and Minocqua areas in the late 1880s. It was then practical for the logging companies to haul their supplies into the area by wagon or sleigh to build the camps and logging dams that were needed. It was also possible for the tourists to start coming to the resorts and private estates that were being built in the area.

The first major logging companies in the area were the Mississippi River Logging Co., the Chippewa Lumber and Boom, the Dells Lumber Co. and Laird Norton. The "Manitowish" dam near the present town of Manitowish Waters was built in 1892. The "Boulder Lake" dam and the "Fishtrap Flowage" dam were probably built the same year, but I cannot find any official records for these two. For the next ten years, these companies and a few others logged mostly the pine roughly within five miles of the Manitowish River and its tributaries. These logs were being floated down the rivers, most likely all the way to the Eau Claire area.

In 1895, the Milwaukee Railroad extended its line from Minocqua northeast through Woodruff to Arbor Vitae, where there was a large sawmill, then through Sayner and on to Star Lake, where the Williams & Salsich sawmill was located. In 1903, it ran its line northwest through Cutler Junction to Boulder Junction. In 1905, it extended that line to Buswell where the Buswell Manufacturing Co. had a small sawmill on the southwest corner of Papoose Lake.

Also in 1905, the Yawkey Bissell Lumber Co. of Hazelhurst, with the cooperation of the Milwaukee Road, ran a line from Velasco Junction, which was just west of Arbor Vitae, north along the east shore of South Trout and North Trout Lakes, ending about one-half mile north of North Trout. In 1913, when most of the logging was done around Trout Lake, the Milwaukee Road bought that line from the Yawkey Bissell Lumber Co. and extended it north another one mile or so to Cutler Junction. After that, they had a much shorter route to Boulder Junction.

A number of stations were built on this line, including two stops on Trout Lake and one stop each in Boulder Junction, Oxley, Rice Creek, Big Lake and PapoosePage 33

Cutler Junction, about 1912. (author) Junction, ending at the mill in Buswell.

A forest fire in 1910 burned the Buswell mill and a few years later, the town was renamed Papoose.

Other logging companies in the area that either had their own connecting railroads or had contracts with the Milwaukee Road to haul their logs were Brooks and Ross, the Wright Lumber Co., C.A. Goodyear Lumber Co., A.H. Stang Lumber Co., and a few others. The last load of logs went through Boulder Junction in 1928,

Pacquettes Saloon and Hotel, Boulder Junction, about 1912. (author)Page 34

and the line was pulled out in 1931.

All these miles of tracks opened up a large area to the tourists. As early as 1888, John Manns started a small hotel in Minocqua. Within two years, thinking that the area was getting too crowded, he bought a mile of frontage on South Trout Lake. He built a resort called "The Manitowish," even having a post office there called "Reynolds" from 1891-1895. In 1915 or 1916, he sold the resort to Dan Cardinal, whose family runs it to this day.

Other early resorts in the Boulder Junction area were Abe LaFave's resort on an island in Island Lake - 1888; Coon's "Franklin Lodge" on South Trout Lake - 1892; Goff's resort on Big Crooked Lake - 1892; "Rocky Reef" resort on South Trout Lake - 1895; Oxley's "Camp McKinley" on Wolf Lake - 1898; Blaisdell's High Lake Resort - 1890s; and Rabbit's Foot Resort on Boulder Lake - 1903. All of these resorts were American Plan with some early rates listed at $1 per day.

By 1902, the Dells Lumber Co. was done logging in the Vilas County area and sold most of their land to the Home Investment Co. of Stevens Point. It went through a number of court cases and different owners but in 1907, the land - at least in the Boulder Junction area - was sold by the Blue Grass Land Co. to John Nichols and Ervin Frissell. Their main office was in the Minneapolis area. The Blue Grass Land Co. had built a hotel and office at Oxley two years earlier, a stop on the Milwaukee Road track about 22 miles west of Boulder Junction. They probably sold some land, but it was Nichols and Frissell from about 1910-1920 who

County Road, 1911. (Wisconsin DNR, author's collection)

talked most of the early Boulder Junction families into leaving Minneapolis and trying farming here. With the sandy soil and a very short growing season, they found out that they could not make a living at farming. Some gave up and left; others found work with the American Plan resorts and estates as service personnel or guides. Some worked in the logging industry until that ended about 1928, and others worked for the county or state governments.Page 35 Many of them also built up small housekeeping resorts, because it was at that time that the roads from Milwaukee and Chicago became good enough to make the trip up by automobile in one day There were probably about fifty of these small resorts in this area,

but almost all of them now have been subdivided, and year around homes have taken their place.

Oliver Goff and John Oxley built a small resort on the north shore of Big Crooked Lake between 1892-1898. In 1906, the land and buildings were sold to the A.B. Dick family Albert Dick was part of the Edison-Dick Mimeograph Co. of Chicago. He built the estate up to 1,500 acres by buying additional land from the Dells Lumber Co. He also built a large number of buildings, including a number of guest cottages, a large dining hall and a library. In 1925, the Dairymen's Country Club bought the 1,500 acres from him and has now built it up to over 6,000 acres. In addition to the spring-through-fall seasons, they now keep the club open for members for cross-country skiing and other winter recreation sports. Many local families have worked at both Dick's and Dairymen's over the years.Paul Ledusere was working for the Mississippi River Logging Co. In 1903, he acquired a homestead, probably with the help of that company on the south shore of Boulder Lake. After the company was done cutting the area, he built Rabbit's Foot resort on the land. In 1907, he sold half interest to Dennis Paquette and in 1911, he sold him the other half interest.

In 1919, Dennis Paquette sold the land and buildings to the Wisconsin YMCA. They now have two groups of boys and one group of girls going through the camp program each summer. They also have a winter program.

Most people do not realize how much the Wisconsin Conservation Department, now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has helped out with both the tourist and logging industries. In Boulder Junction Township, the State of Wisconsin bought the first 662 acres of land in 1907 for the start of the Northern

Wisconsin DNR headquarters at Trout Lake; built in 1911. (author)page 36

Highlands State Forest. By 1912, they had bought an additional 27,000 acres, most of it cut over land from various logging companies. By 1993, they owned 39,714 acres or 78.51% of the land area in the township. By 1996, the combined Northern Highland and American Legion State Forests consisted of 222,000-plus acres in Vilas, Oneida and Iron Counties.The headquarters for the forest for a long time was at Trout Lake. Starting in 1911, it set up a number of fire towers and ranger stations and built roads and phone lines to connect them with the main office. In the same year, they started the first state tree nursery, which stayed open until the mid-1950s. It raised

Wisconsin Conservation Department nursery at Trout Lake about 1916. (author)millions of trees to replant not only their own land, but also to sell to the public.It planted the first state pine plantation in 1911, using Norway and Ponderosa pine and Norway spruce bought from the University of Michigan. This plantation is at the present site of a state campground on North Trout Lake. The first trees raised at Trout Lake were planted at Star Lake in 1913. Later, two one-acre plots were set up under the supervision of forester Fred Wilson. Over the years, records have been kept tracking the diameter and height of each tree and the volume cut on the one plot, as well as what was happening on the uncut plot.

Trout Lake was also the site of the first forest fire patrol by air. Jack Vilas, of Chicago, in 1915 brought up his Curtis Hydro Aeroplane to Trout Lake by train. During that summer, he made a number of flights with personnel from the Trout Lake station. Mr. Vilas was also the first man to fly a plane across Lake Michigan.

Trout Lake was also the site of the first elk herd to be seen in Wisconsin since the last wild elk was shot years earlier. For many years, they were kept in a large fenced in area

east of Trout Lake and northwest of Allequash Lake. Sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, the fence was taken down. The elk herd roamed thepage 37

area until the mid-1950s, when the last of them was either shot or hit by a car.From 1913 on, there were many acres of pine planted each year on state land by state employees. Some of the plantations I helped plant in the late 1940s and early 1950s have already been thinned at least once. Planting continues to this day, but now it is contracted out to the lowest bidder.

When the CCC camp was built in the 1930s on the east shore of White Sand Lake, large tracts were planted each spring. The CCC camp was closed because of World War II. After the war, the property was used by the Region 7 Boy Scouts as a canoe base for about 25 years. Each year, hundreds of scouts camped in the area. The stumpage sold by the state from timber sales here averaged about $700,000 for each of the past five years.Possibly as early as 1911, the Wisconsin Conservation Department started to lease land on the forest. I do not know how many leases were in Boulder Junction township, but on Big Lake, alone, there were at least four. Two were private homes, the other two became housekeeping resorts.

Government Lot 1 S20-T42N-R7E, which is now the main business area in Boulder Junction, was leased to Dennis Paquette either in 1911 or 1912. By 1912, he had built the first building in town, a bar and hotel. It is still standing and is now called "George's." In the 1930s, the entire Government Lot 1 was traded to him for the NWNE S19-T42N-R7E, about ^U mile west of town on Highway K. It is the site of Boulder Junction's Cemetery of the Pines.

There surely were campers and fishermen staying on state land in the early years. With a large pool of labor available from the CCC camps in the 1930s, the beginnings of the present 18 major campgrounds on the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest were underway, and fees were beginning to be collected. In the early years, there were just wells, toilets and tables; but now, some of the campgrounds have more modern conveniences.

In 1947, I helped P. A. McDonald, one of the first state rangers, to locate and set up some of the 100+ canoe campsites on the forest. No fee is charged but camping is limited to one night at any one site. A few years later, I set up several wilderness campsites. These are similar to canoe sites but a permit has to be purchased ahead of time and camping for a longer period of time is permitted.

About the same time, a few group campsites were set up to accommodate larger groups that wanted to camp together. In 1996, the Department of Natural Resources said that there were approximately 228,430 camper days on the combined forests, which produced $572,000 of recreation revenue.

In addition to campgrounds, the state has developed nature, hiking, biking, cross-country ski and snowmobile trails. Most lakes on the combined forests where state land is available have boat landings. They also have developed nature programs for the tourists.Page 38

Found at http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/tp/id/33408/rv/compoundobject/cpd/33906