Memories of Deer Park Lodge with Rita Anderson

A short time ago, our head librarian, Janelle, conducted an interview with Rita Anderson about her time working at Deer Park Lodge as a teenager. We are pleased to share Rita's memories below.

Rita Anderson worked at Deer Park Lodge on Spider Lake as a summer employee from 1956-1960. At the time of her employment, Ben and Ruth Epstein were the owners.

Rita's very first job at Deer Park was cleaning cabins. She did that for two weeks before moving to a more enjoyable job as a lobby girl. Lobby girl duties included cleaning the lobby, bathrooms, bar room, and cocktail lounge.

Another job that Rita had was play school manager. Taking care of the kids was fun work. The children ate before the other guests so they had the dining room to themselves, giving the parents time to enjoy their lunches and dinners. After lunch, Rita had all afternoon off. At 5pm she returned to help the kids with dinner and stayed with them until 7pm.

In the evening, staff members had the option of babysitting if parents wanted to go out. The adults enjoyed going to a traveling orchestra. This orchestra visited one other resort, and a professional dancing couple gave dance lessons to the guests and put on an evening performance.

Rita also had a waitress job at Deer Park Lodge. Her wage was $60/month, plus room, board and tips. Waitresses would have the same families/tables to wait on each day for however long the family stayed. Each waitress had six tables and a bus boy was shared with another waitress. The kitchen staff had off every other Sunday afternoon.

Rita enjoyed working with the kitchen help. The main workers in the kitchen were the chef, first cook, fry cook and salad man. Rita remembers the salad man, John Now. He was very talented and would sculpt ice and food for the lodge's guests. But he was also sort of a mystery man - he never left the lodge.

Another worker Rita remembers as a mystery was the laundry man. Rumor had it that he had served time in Alcatraz, and he was a bit strange!

Rita really enjoyed the group she worked with, and many of them returned each summer. The kids could go to the rec hall for entertainment, and Mr. Epstein also gave them a lodge car o Sundays to go to church.

The girls/women lived in the upstairs of a large building on the property. It had one big room plus a separate bathroom with shower. The boys/men occupied the downstairs, where there were separate rooms.

Ben Epstein was a good boss. He was also very watchful of the lodge. At night he slept in a screened-in porch near the road so he could hear anyone coming or going. Before the lodge opened for the summer, Ben would open up for conventions, such as A.O. Smith and a doctors' group, to name two. Most of his guests were Jewish. Ben and Ruth Epstein had three children: two boys, Frank and Steve, and one girl, Marilyn. Rita, Frank and another friend, Susie, would go water skiing together on some afternoons. The five years at Deer Park Lodge were fun and memorable for Rita.

How Manitowish Waters Became a Four-Season Vacation Area

The following article, excerpted here, appeared in the Vilas County New Review Centennial Issue (2/19/86):

an old ad for Voss's Birchwood Lodge

At one time, it was the logging industry here that kept Manitowish Waters booming, but the big logging activity ceased between 1911 (when the last Yawkey-Bissell activity ceased; that firm's last local camp was near Mud [Fawn] Lake) and 1914 (when the last logs had been shipped from the hoist at Star Lake).

In 1919 the Milwaukee Road removed its track along the north side of the chain; the spur to the C&NW was quietly taken up around the same time.

The lone sawmills to operate after that era in the area were operated by Bob Loveless, who cut timber in the few pockets of Virgin Forest during the 1920s, and Marvin Loveless, who ran a small mill into the 1940s or 1950s.

The resort business developed alongside the homesteading that brought the early settlers to this area. First to offer hospitality to sportsmen and other visitors in a lodge was Abe LaFave. In 1892, George Buck settled some land at the narrows between Spider and Manitowish Lakes, probably by homesteading it. He too developed a resort business, which stayed in the Buck family until it was sold in 1916 to the Koerners, who began operations under their name the next year.

What is now Deer Park Lodge was begun in the 1890s by one J.A. La Motte of Wausau; its succeeding owners included Jay A. "Dad" Paine, Max Engemann and Charlie Doriot. After spending several summers camping here, Henry Voss built his first cottage in 1909, and opened an American Plan resort in 1911.

By 1927, area residents were chafing at what they felt was neglect by the town of Flambeau, to which the present day Manitowish Waters then belonged, and they succeeded in having the state legislature pass a bill creating the new town of Spider Lake. The new town built a town hall during the next biennium and a modern school soon after. That school was outgrown and was enlarged twice before it was replaced in 1971 by a new, complete plant on Highway K that is a consolidation of the grade schools for several North Lakeland communities.

The town board also authorized a community cemetery in 1935, and the first burials date from 1936.

Koerner's Spider Lake Resort

The Thirties brought the town new distinctions. One was the distinction of having its own fish hatchery, said to be the only municipal hatchery in the state.

It was also in the early 1930s, 1934 to be exact, that desperado John Dillinger brought the area instant notoriety. Detected hiding out at Little Bohemia, he fled lawmen in a shootout that cost two lives.

Manitowish Waters was a more appropriate name for the chain of lakes area, and in 1937 the name of the town was changed from Spider Lake to Manitowish Waters.

bathing beauties

"Koerner's Resort Recreation Hall, 1940"

Lest it be thought that life in 1940s Manitowish Waters was all work and no play (or all hardy people stomping about in plaid), take a gander at the bathing beauties at Koerner's Resort. The lady on the middle right was Miss Kenosha -- which if you didn't know is the fourth largest city in Wisconsin. Clearly Dillinger and friends were not the only ones who thought the Northwoods worthy of a visit! (Presumably we can be prouder of Miss Kenosha than of Dillinger, even if she has not been portrayed by Johnny Depp. ...odd as that might be.)

Koerner's, once on Spider Lake, no longer exists as a resort and few of the original buildings remain. As Bev Trapp kindly wrote up for us:

Koerner's Spider Lake Resort was probably first built, but run by Fayette Buck, about 1900 (1901-02).

Ted Koerner was an Alderman in Milwaukee and bought the resort about 1910 or a little later, as he died in the 1930's and his son Alvin Koerner more or less took over, as his mother was still alive and not driving. The old Highway 10 (51) that made a loop through the Koerner resort in the years may be her house is still there. Alvin Koerner's house is still standing and our telephone service was housed in the home with the old family lines, hand cranked phones. Pete Williamson was the phone company repair person. Pete and Charlie owned what is now Tellefson Resort on Stone Lake. Pete had about seven house-keeping rentals.

Alvin Koerner's Resort was an American Plan Resort ("Gentiles only"). They also had a couple of house-keeping cabins on Manitowish Lake and a long hall building and long dock extending onto Manitowish Lake. The beautiful sand beach exists today. The building served sandwiches such as ham and had a small fountain serving ice cream. In about 1949/50 he added the oval bar to the Soda Fountain Restaurant, with his liquor license. Fire destroyed that building and the property was purchased and made into a boys camp. Later it was purchased by relatives and subdivided. The Blue Bayou Inn and the first building to the West are the only buildings remaining on the south side of the highway.