100 + Years on the Three Lakes Wisconsin Chain of Lakes

This is story of life on the Three Lakes Wisconsin Chain of Lakes for over 140 years and eight generations. The first homesteaders and loggers arrived in Northern Wisconsin about the same time in 1880. Three Lakes formally became a town in 1881. The homesteaders cleared their 40 acres the land and started to farm. The loggers arrived in Wisconsin towards the end of an era that proceeded to cut down nearly every old growth Eastern White Pine from the East Coast to the beginning of the...
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This is story of life on the Three Lakes Wisconsin Chain of Lakes for over 140 years and eight generations. The first homesteaders and loggers arrived in Northern Wisconsin about the same time in 1880. Three Lakes formally became a town in 1881. The homesteaders cleared their 40 acres the land and started to farm. The loggers arrived in Wisconsin towards the end of an era that proceeded to cut down nearly every old growth Eastern White Pine from the East Coast to the beginning of the Great Planes.Photographs of the early loggers and some of those rare trees that remain are shown in the book. Following the loggers were the small resorts that sprung up on many places along the chain in the 1930s. Resort patrons arrived on the trains that rode on the tracks build by the loggers. The biggest resort the Northernaire, the Waldorf of the Wilderness, opened in 1948 and went bankrupt in 1990. Gradually individuals bought up lakefront on the chain and built their cabins and dream homes. It was part of the "Up North" movement where families from Chicago, southern Wisconsin and all over the country came to live on the chain on the weekends or when possible for the whole summer. Most of the small resorts were broken up during this period and the cabins sold to individuals or they were torn down to build bigger homes. The few resorts that remain are booked up for the foreseeable future. Naturalist and author Sam Campbell, the Philosopher of the Forest was a big player during the early part of this era. The famous professional baseball player Cy Williams who came to Three Lakes, farmed and logged during the off seasons of his professional career and plied his craft as an architect designing the Northernaire, the Three Lakes Theater, the Black Forest Restaurant and many homes in the area after he retired from baseball. Musician Skip Wagner was famous for playing duets on two trumpets simultaneously was a leading entertainer that I heard perform numerous times in the 2000s.Edwin and Laura Huebner bought a cabin on Preachers Point between Little Fork and Big Fork Lakes in the fall of 1950. This is where my wife Mary Huebner began spending time on the Chain with her family in 1951. They bought a house on Medicine Lake and moved there in 1959. Unfortunately, Ed sold the cabin in about 1970 before his son Fred (Mary's father) could make and offer so Fred built a house on the property next door in when he retired in 1981. Fred spent the summers there from his retirement to his death in 1992. Alice spent her summers there every year until just before her death in 2013. I started with prolific digital photography in 1997 so my most complete record covers the period from 1997 to the present.The last part of the book shows the activities of Fritz and Mary and their family over the last 20 + years. Activities begin with waterskiing, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, etc. in front of the house with warmups afterwards in the hot tub. There has to be at least one trip under the culvert to Spirit Lake, a trip to Burnt Rollways dam for each group every year as well as boat rides in the Ski Nautique whenever. Breakfast by boat at the Sunset Grill on Big Stone Lake or hamburgers at Pine Isle on Medicine Lake by boat are also required activities.