Betty Koller Remembers - early cranberry life

Manitowish Waters History

As recalled by Betty Koller

3-17-15

CRANBERRY MARSH

In 1945-46 five families came to Manitowish Waters to start cranberry marshes.  Vern Goldsworthy found the land suitable for cranberries – acid soil and alkaline water supplied from Little Trout Lake.    The five families were Howard & Mary Folsom, Herbert & Florence Indermuehl, Delbert & Myrtle Bartling, John & June McFarland and Frank & Betty Koller.  The town did not welcome us.  The land was in forestry, where no one could live year-round.

We had together changed the land into agriculture.  There was no telephone or electric.  To get our weather reports, Ehlerts Market would get them, and then we would get them there.  After a few years the growers hung wires for both utilities.  We had to get to the marsh from Powell Road as there was no way to cross the Rice or Trout Rivers.   There was a road we could park in, it had once been a camp.  First one in had to be last one out.  Everything had to be brought in by wheel barrow, stoneboats, or any other means that you could carry with.  Some years later, the growers had a culvert put in so we could get to the marsh down Hwy 51.

We had to get roads into each marsh.  The growers had very little equipment that they shared with each other.  We all dug the ditches into Trout Lake and individual marshes with a hired drag line by hand.

An Interview with John T. and Barbara McFarland - early cranberry life

                           John and Barbara McFarland Interview

                                         February 24, 2015

Filmed by Jim Robinson.

Recorded by Janelle Kohl.

  

Janelle:   Today is Tuesday, February 24, 2015.  Thank you John for allowing us to interview you for information on Manitowish Waters history of the cranberry business.

John- I will do my best to remember.   My family was one of the earliest families in the cranberry business in Manitowish Waters.

Janelle:  When and Where were you born?

John:   Madison, WI 1938 9-25.  I am 76.

We did not live there for long, my mom and dad lived there for a bit but I was only 2 1/2 when we moved and have no memory of living there.  In 1941 they moved to Minneapolis and my dad worked at Honeywell for the duration of the war.  In 1945 after the war my dad quit his job and helped my maternal step-grandfather, Guy Potter a cranberry grower from the Tomah area, who married my grandmother during the war, search for a suitable cranberry location in northern Wisconsin.  Guy got to know my parents and told them that when the war was ended he knew a group of people that wanted to join the cranberry business and he told my folks that if they were interested he would also help them get started in the cranberry business. So after the war ended my dad quit his job and my grandfather arranged for my dad to get some construction jobs down in the Tomah area in order to learn how to operate heavy equipment. 

Postcard Collection

 These are scans of postcards recently donated to the library by David Bohnett.  They depict many area resorts and businesses.  A few of the postcards at the end include scenes from locations in the surrounding area including Boulder Junction (Camp Manitowish YMCA), Minocuqua, Mercer and Manitowish (Circle Lily Lodge, Chuck's Tavern).
Other postcards depict (in no particular order): Koerner's Spider Lake Resort, Koerner's Coffee Shop and Oval Bar, Buck's Resort, Voss' Birchwood Lodge, Voss' Breezy Point, Little Bohemia, Rudy's Rest Haven, Ilg's Camp, Deer Park Lodge, Island Lake Log Cabins, Island Lake Resort, Northern Lights Resort, Warnier's, Red Feather Lodge, Twin Pines Resort, Meinel's, Williamson's Stone Lake Resort, Beaumont's Island Resort, Lange's Sylvan Lodge, Balaty's, Lakewood Lodge, Win-Mar, 30-30 Lodge, Rest Lake Dam and Fish Hatchery, Arial Views from the Tower, post office, Hanson's Hardware, LaPorte's, Harry's Supermarket, Theilacker's Ehlert's.
More information to come.

Alderwood Lodge

Please enjoy a photo collage from Alderwood Lodge. Floyd Christensen is pictured to the left and was the owner around 1948. The images of the lodge itself date from around 1940. The resort passed to the Bartling family in 1980.

Spring forward?

At the library, last Saturday

Although the last week has seen a good six inches of fresh snow in the Northwoods, today plants are edging their uncertain leaves above the ground. The forecast promises 70 degrees. After one of the coldest Aprils on record, everyone is ready!

I confess I appreciated winter's relentless grip. It reminds us that we are still at the mercy of "Mother Nature." It reminds us that, after the absurd warmth of last spring, climate change is wreaking havoc with our seasons and our world. It reminds us that there is something larger and more important than our immediate human pleasure.

Such weighty matters aside, spring is the time of year when we in the Northwoods dust off our shelves and put out our welcome mats! And that means it is blog season. Expect to hear more Northwoods history soon, and in the meanwhile, think if you have any stories to share!

Two weeks ago

Betzer's Cottage

Thank you to Kerri for sending us this photo, scanned from an old postcard, from Betzer's Resort:

Photos from Betzer's Resort (and Twin Pine)

"Cottage at Betzer's Alder Lake Resort"

"Nice Catch -- All Muskies"

"The Woodchuck"

"Mostly Walleyes"

"Twin Pine Resort"

Ringing in the season at the Festival of Trees

It was another great Festival of Trees this past December 1! With trees, wreaths and other goodies for raffle and silent auction, as well as lots of cookies and good company, we had a blast and helped the library doing it. The fundraiser garnered the library $2,729 -- and lots of happy patrons.

Check out some photos from the event below, or click over to our Facebook page to see the full album.

Celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day!

 Avast, me hearties! It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard!

Celebrating our volunteers

As we all know, it's the volunteers that help keep our library running, provide great customer service to our patrons, work hard -- and most important, make us smile!

Many volunteers also serve as members of the Friends of the Library

Many, many volunteers have crossed our threshold over the years. After the cut is a complete list of individuals who have volunteered their time and effort to the Koller Memorial Library, from 1987 to the present.

Library volunteers having fun at the cookie counter during the Festival of Trees

Bob Loveless: "thoroughly expert"

Robert F. Loveless, proprietor of Virgin Forest Park on the shores of Alder Lake in the western part of Vilas County, was born at Balsam Lake in Polk County, July 4, 1871. As a young man he took up fishing, hunting and trapping, in which pursuits he became thoroughly expert, and also in guide work.

In 1891 he came to what is now Vilas County, but which was then a part of Oneida, and took a homestead of 91 acres, being a part of the land surveyed by the government on Alder Lake. In this wild country he carried on his occupation of fishing, hunting and trapping, and in 1892 became guide in this region for the Southgate family of the Congress Hotel, Chicago, a position which he held for 30 years, or until the death of the head of the family in 1922. He was also guide for eight years for Marvin Hewett, Jr., vice president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway.

In the spring of 1923 Mr. Loveless built at his present location a magnificent Park Hall, perhaps the finest in northern Wisconsin, 116x52 feet in dimensions. It is paneled with spruce and birch, the doors being all birch, and the walls are ornamented with 30 deer heads and also a large American eagle shot by himself. The dance hall measures 40x80 feet. Mr. Loveless rents this building to parties for entertainments.

Owning three-quarters of a mile of lake frontage, he also rents sites to campers. He keeps boats for rent, handles cigars, tobacco, candies and ice cream, and his resort is lighted by electricity generated by his own electric light plant. The resort is on a chain of 15 lakes called the Manitowish Waters.

Mr. Loveless has a small portable sawmill with which he cut every piece of timber in his buildings, the latter including four cottages which he rents out. He also has a fine house in which he resides, and plans to build about 40 more cabins in the immediate future.

Mr. Loveless is a hardy, middle-aged man, but is the oldest and most experienced guide in this region, having followed the business, as well as hunting and fishing, for 32 summers and winters. Since coming to live here he has killed about 200 deer. He was married in August, 1903, to Hulda Swain, and he and his wife have been the parents of four children, three daughters and one son, namely, Leona, Ella, Dolly and Lloyd. The only son, Lloyd, died at the age of ten years.

Abe La Fave

Abraham La Fave, proprietor of Island Lake Resort and of Inland Resort, on Island Lake, Vilas County, was born in Canada in 1858, and there received his schooling, which was very limited, as he had to enter the ranks of industry at a very early age. As a small boy he went to work in the cotton mills of Massachusetts and continued in that line of employment until reaching the age of nineteen. He then went to Point Sable, Mich., where he found work in the neighboring woods as a logger and general employee in the lumber business, being thus engaged until 1888.

In that year he came to Vilas County, of most parts of which he soon acquired a sound geographical knowledge, and was employed as a guide on Trout Lake and the vicinity by John Mann. After spending a short time in Mr. Mann's employ, he went to work in the woods for the Chippewa Logging Co. at Grandfather's dam, and remained with them subsequently for four years. His next move was to Price County, where he spent three years in logging and driving, by the end of which time he had discovered an easier and pleasanter way of getting a living.

Buying a camping outfit he began work as a guide for fishing parties on the rivers and was thus occupied during the summers until 1897. He then started the Island Lake Resort, located on an island in Island Lake, of Manitowish Waters, Vilas County, which, with the assistance of his wife he has built up very successfully. In 1920 he established Inland Resort on the same lake and now conducts them both. The Inland Resort consists of 80 acres of land, a main lodge and four cottages, while the Island Resort, with a main lodge and five cottages, is also well developed. Mrs. La Fave does the cooking and looks after the welfare of everything on the inside, while Mr. La Fave attends to the outside work, and together they are doing a nice business.

Mr. La Fave was first married in the fall of 1898 to Mary Fernette, who died in 1900, leaving a son Thomas, who is now a resident of Minneapolis. Mr. La Fave later married Mrs. Sarah Noonan, of which union six children have been born, Frank, Wilbur, John, Marie, Charles and Olive. Mrs. La Fave has three children by her first marriage, Dora, Patrick and George Schroeder.

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Doriot's Deer Park Lodge: "the last word in summer resort hotels"

Charles H. Doriot, proprietor of Deer Park Lodge in Vilas County, was born at Kelly, Marathon County, Wis., July 3, 1885, son of Calvin H. and Effie (La Port) Doriot. The father, a native of Ohio, and the mother, born in Marathon County, Wis., were residents of the latter county after their marriage until 1892, when they removed to their present home in Iron County. Charles H. Doriot was educated in the schools of Langlade, Oneida and Iron counties, and his subsequent career has found him in many and varied capacities, including those of logging contractor, guide, sawmill operator, and, for six years, proprietor of a general store in Manitowish and postmaster of that village. In 1908 he established a resort on Stone Lake, known as Clear Lodge, and he operated this until 1917, when he sold it and took over his present resort, Deer Park Lodge.

Deer Park Lodge, which has been graphically called the Palace of the Northern Woods, lies on the eastern shore of Lake Manitowish, in the western part of Vila County, sometimes known as the Manitowish Lake Region. To the sportsman, tourist and summer camper who have visited this country the name calls up entrancing memories of forest, stream and lake with all their attendant joys of sport in every outdoor form or needed rest and recuperation from the strenuous battle of life in the busy marts of trade and commerce.

Such relief as a sojourn in these picturesque wilds brings to those who seek it is of the sort that both cheers the spirits and invigorates the body, adding years to life and sending the rest seeker back to the city or town with renewed vigor, hope and ambition. In truth, a few weeks in such a place is a good investment, adding largely to one's capital of energy and endurance without an abundant supply of which even business success -- the accumulation of dollars -- may be jeopardized.

a man of fine ability

Our next few posts will profile some of the individuals recorded in the Big Green Book, also known as History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties Wisconsin. First up, William O. Strandberg.

William O. Strandberg, well-known resident of Vilas County, was born in Sweden, Sept. 28, 1863, son of Eric G. and Anna (Olson) Strandberg. The parents were natives of Sweden, and the father was a captain in the Swedish Army for many years; they came to the United States in 1872 and settled in Putnam County, New York, remaining until 1886 and then going to Bessemer, Mich., and from there to Hurley, Wis. Later the family moved to Langlade County, where the father died. William O. Strandberg received his early education in the schools of Putnam County, New York, and subsequently attended Princeton University for a time. He then learned the trade of printer, which he followed in various cities in the East until 1901. In the latter year he came to Vilas County and purchased a small tract of land on Star Lake; here he built a home and cared for his aged mother until her death in 1911. He worked as a guide on the lakes and in the woods until 1922, becoming very widely known in this capacity and a prominent figure throughout this locality. He served as township assessor and as justice of the peace, and also as clerk of the school board in District No. 2 of the town of Flambeau. He is secretary of the Manitowish Waters Conservation Association at the present time, and during the World War he served on many different committees, giving himself whole-heartedly to his country's cause. Since 1922 he has followed carpenter work as an occupation. He is a man of fine ability, and stands very high in his community.

If you have further information on William Strandberg, or any of the other individuals we will profile, please don't hesitate to share it with us!

how wisconsin is very near china

On a recent foray through our shelves, Janelle handed me a massive green volume ("tome" seems an appropriate word). Called History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties: Wisconsin, it was compiled in 1924 by George O. Jones, Norman S. McVean and others, and published by H.C. Cooper, Jr. and Co. of Minneapolis, MN.

The volume writes up a history of Wisconsin (since European settlement), and more specifically, history on the three aforementioned counties. In a unique twist, the "prominent" folk who lived in these counties could pay to have their names and information entered into the volume. I will share some of these accounts in a later post -- a fascinating look at how people wanted themselves to be remembered.

I personally have always wondered why so many things up here, and generally in Wisconsin, are named Nicolet. There is the Nicolet National Forest and Nicolet Area Technical College. Nicolet High School. Nicolet Bank. One might deduce, in etiological fashion, that Nicolet must have been a Frenchman. But who was he?

Nicolet's arrival in Wisconsin: no wonder the natives wanted to throw things

The green book supplies our answer in Chapter 1: The Explorers.

The first white man to set foot on the soil of Wisconsin was Jean Nicolet, a young Frenchman of Norman birth* who had come to New France, or Canada, in 1618, when both Quebec and Montreal were infant settlements. He was then a very young man of an intrepid and adventurous spirit, and the Governor of New France, Samuel Champlain, saw in him the material for an able lieutenant in the work of advancing French interests in the New World. For that purpose Nicolet was sent to live among the Indians, to learn their language, manners, habits and customs, which he did very satisfactorily, residing among them for a number of years, during which time he suffered many hardships, especially from hunger. With such apprenticeship he was well fitted to become an explorer. About 1632 he returned to Quebec, where for two years he was employed as a clerk and interpreter.

Champlain was obsessed with the idea, prevalent at the time, of a short route westward to India and China, and being anxious to discover it, both for the honor and glory of France and his own advancement, sent Nicolet to prepare the way by making peace among the warring Indian tribes, and also instructed him to penetrate as far as possible westward in the hope of discovering the long sought route. Accordingly, in July 1634, furnished with a very imperfect map, Nicolet set out in a canoe from Montreal. He followed the Ottawa River westward, then up a branch of that river and by portage to Lake Nipissing, which he crossed and then went down the French River to Georgian Bay. After stopping there for a while with the Hurons, he proceeded westward along the coast of the bay until he reached the Sault Ste. Marie, the river or waterway connecting Lake Huron with Lake Superior. At the rapids he rested, then, without exploring Lake Superior, which was in part at least depicted on his map, he turned southward, passed through the straits of Mackinac and coasted the northern shore of Lake Michigan until he reached the mouth of the Menominee River, which empties into Green Bay. There from an [Algonquin] tribe he heard about certain "Men of the Sea," who were not far distant, and jumped to the conclusion that he had almost reached China. In order to properly impressed the luxurious Orientals whom he expected to meet, he arrayed himself in a gorgeous robe, with which he had come provided for the express purpose, and pushed his way forward to the head of the bay. He must have been greatly disappointed to meet there only a band of Winnebago [Ho-Chunk] Indians, whose language he could not speak or understand. Making the best of the occasion, however, through his Indian followers he urged them to be at peace with the Hurons and to bring their furs to Montreal to exchange them for the white man's commodities. The occasion was celebrated by a great feast, at which much wild game was consumed.

Nicolet then ascended the Fox River southward to Lake Winnebago and went beyond it to a village of the Mascoutin Indians [a tribe extinct now] which stood probably about where the city of Berlin, Green Lake County, does now. There he first heard of the Mississippi River, but not realizing the importance of the information, and having, besides, fulfilled the main purpose of his mission in making peace between the tribes, he went further southward, visited the Illinois, later returned to the Fox River and Green Bay, and thence to Montreal, which he reached in July 1635, his journey having taken about a year. The discovery of the Mississippi was thus left to others.

*Jean Nicolet de Belleborne was born in Cherbourg, Coutances, Normandie, France in 1598 -- according to Wikipedia. He would have been about 20 when he started his apprenticeship. Check out the Wikipedia page.

the resort era in full swing

Resort guests in the first few decades stayed longer than most guests today: from a month to a whole season, and there were more men, generally, than women. Cottage owners often came for the entire seasons, bringing along the season's supplies -- "Kerosene lamp chimneys by the hundred," recalls one lady. Or they ordered things like from mail order grocers like Pieper's, Steinmeyer's in Milwaukee, and other things from Sears.

Getting here, in those days, wasn't any too easy. North Western Railway Pullmans sped guests up from Indianapolis or Chicago or Milwaukee, but when they clambered down from the trains into the Manitowish dawn, it was a horse and buggy that awaited them, and a rough ride paralleling the river bank on the little lane to the dam site... the end of the road. Most resorts and some homeowners had big, gasoline-engined launches, and at the Rest Lake dam travelers and their baggage transferred to those for the last leg of the trip. (For travelers to Big Lake, two more transfers were ahead: an overland portage from Clear Lake to Big and then a boat trip on Big. Can you imagine moving up a piano in the face of such handicaps? One party did -- and it took days!)

A look back at resort era activities

The Teens or even 1909 brought three or four more resorts on the American plan format, and the Twenties added several others, but then the development trends turned toward furnished housekeeping cottages.

Most likely the first host to rent furnished cottages without pairing them with a dining lodge was Henry Voss around 1911. He supplied some of his guests' needs from his garden, chickens and cows -- and added American plan facilities around 1920. By 1930 there were half a dozen housekeeping cottage resorts, and the early 1930's witnessed the first clusters of complete little homes with city conveniences built for housekeeping rental.

the resort era begins

"Manitowish Waters Area History: A Look Back," continued...

The Chicago & North Western Railway main line may have been the key to the development of this area.

It was built north in 1888 and where the track crossed the Manitowish River, the settlement of Manitowish developed (even before Mercer did!). It was a cluster of general stores, liveries, hotels, post office and homes. Supplies for the dam building crews, lumber camps and residents now could be wagon-hauled easily from Manitowish, or poled or rowed up the river in the bateaux that the Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company favored. For decades afterwards the railroad remained a lifeline, bringing up settlers, vacationists and supplies. Passenger train service ended just after New Years's later.

From 1906 till World War I, travelers could ride a small connecting train directly to the waters of the Manitowish chain at a landing at Rice Creek Bridge. The train, which often handled freight and log cars ahead of his little coach, linked Buswell, Rice Creek, and Boulder Junction with teh main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway at Star Lake (near Sayner).

Logging, rafting and even river driving were still going on when the first adventurous vacationists began coming up to enjoy the Manitowish Waters, and the trend eventually spawned several forms of hospitality or enjoyment: resorts, camping, summer homes, even group camps.

Resorts, as a result, have been an important part of the Manitowish Waters scene for over ninety years [since the original writing does not have a date], and there have been resorts at over one hundred locations on the chain or nearby lakes during that time, divided between American plan resorts and housekeeping cottage resorts.

It was the American plan idea that the first area resorts adopted, usually in the form of a central lodge with dining room, lobby and perhaps a few sleeping rooms, along with a few separate sleeping cottages, and all with the trademark of the era: screened porches.

The early host chose picturesque settings for their resorts. Abe LaFave perched his hotel and cottages on a little island in Island Lake around 1895, making him the first resort operator on the chain. Within less than five years George Washington Buck had opened a lodge at the narrows between Spider and Manitowish Lakes (a resort better remembered as Koerner's), and J.A. LaMotte had chosen the eastern shore of Manitowish Lake, facing the sunset, to begin Deer Park Lodge. He blended ruggedness with gentility as he equipped it with a launch, fishing boats, a cow and a piano. Peter Vance ran a little "resort" about the same time, before burning out in 1903, but his was more a roadhouse or little inn with meals downstairs and a few sleeping rooms upstairs, on the shore of Rest Lake near the dam.

looking back at the logging years

Manitowish Waters Area History: A Look Back, continued.

Every few days a gate in the dam was opened and a large batch of logs was sluiced through, followed by a dose of water large enough to assure that the logs would float freely downstream but not enough to wash the logs ashore along the river's wandering course. The sluicing lasted only a few weeks, but took place every spring for ten to fifteen years.

As the logs moved downstream, log driving crews shepherded them to prevent jams and to get stray logs back into the flow. The most colorful fixture of the log drive was the wanigan that accompanied the drive. It was the kitchen boat that was built on the flat below the dam: A scow with a house on top to enclose the kitchen, supply space and sleeping quarters for the cook. Each evening the log drivers would gather at the wanigan for a hearty supper and maybe a little singing before they separated to sleep in little tents or just under the stars. All the dams below the Rest Lake Dam had gates big enough to allow it to be sluice through, guided by its big oars.

The logs were boomed and sorted and fed into the huge sawmills of the Chippewa Falls or Eau Claire area, or some of them were sent on toward the Mississippi mills, and the wanigan was abandoned or dismantled.

Back at the dam here, when each drive was over, two and a half billion gallons of water had been penned up and then released; the lakes were down to their original pre-1887 levels; and raw, ugly scarred new margin of erosion and stumps marred fifty some miles of the shoreline.

Penning the water for the next drive began the next fall or winter; but after the very last drive around 1904 or 1905 there was consistent policy about water levels, and that often infuriated local residents -- some wanted water high, some wanted it down, and one person even sabotaged the dam. At stake were fishing, esthetics, convenient access to the water.

Things were finally settled when a reservoir company bought the dam in 1912 and the state began prescribing water levels. The summer level is set at 8 1/2 feet above the original level, and the winter level is five feet. [unsure if this information is still current]

The reservoir company replaced the wooden dam with the present masonry dam in the mid-1920's.

Left behind by the white pine loggers were all the other species of trees, many of which were also valuable for lumber. So the white pine lumbermen sold their "cutover" lands for another round of harvesting by different loggers.

Again the lakes figured in the harvest.

Two logging railroad spurs were pushed to the shores of the chain on Rest and Little Star lakes. Norway pine and other logs were put into the lakes of the chain and rafted by gas or steam tugs as quickly as possible to these two railroad landings and hoisted onto flatcars. These other species do not float as well as the white pine, so there was always a sense of urgency in rafting them, and rafting sometimes went on day and night. There was also a side track at Rice Creek Bridge where a self-propelled log loading crane could come and load logs rafted from the lakes of the chain or floated down from above Big or Round Lakes.