Chapter 1: Fish Stories
1. “Some Fish Yarn: Three Lakes Has a New One—Can You Beat It?” The New North, October 3, 1912.
2. “Man Hooks Pike; Musky Leaps in Boat,” Rhinelander Daily News, August 28, 1965.
3. “Big Fish Swamps Boat: Two Fishermen Nearly Drown While Trying to Land Musky,” The New North, August 20, 1914.
4. “Nine Pound Trout Nearly Drowns Angler,” The Wisconsin Sportsman, June 1937.
5. “Fish Chases Anglers from Their Boat,” The Wisconsin Sportsman, June 1937.
6. “Fighting Wall Eye Chases Madison Woman from Lake,” The Wisconsin Sportsman, August 1937.
7. “Killed Big Musky with a Club: And the Slayer Was a Woman, Too, Doing It All Alone,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, August 17, 1908.
8. “Fisherwoman Lands Two Fish at a Time,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 6, 1940.
9. Ed Wodalski, “Ed's Northwoods Notebook: It Got Away,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 19, 1977.
10. Ed Wodalski, “Ed's Northwoods Notebook: Monster Muskie Resurfaces,” Rhinelander Daily News, August 2, 1977.
Chapter 2: Boats in the Backyard
1. Laurel Reed Edwards, written communication with the author, February 2010.
2. Commemorative Biographical Record of the West Shore of Green Bay, Wisconsin Including the Counties of Brown, Oconto, Marinette and Florence (Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1896), 712.
3. WDNR List of State Parks, www.dnr.state.wi.us/Org/land/parks/specific/findapark.html#copculture.
4. Claude Jean Allouez, Father Allouez's Journey into Wisconsin 1669–1670, American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society, Document No. AJ-048, 146.
5. “Oconto's Early History,” Oconto County Reporter, June 10, 1909.
6. Ibid.
7. “Oconto, Wisconsin,” newspaper article not dated, Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles.
8. Oconto County Wisconsin Genealogical Project, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wioconto/OCRPioneers2.htm.
9. Commemorative Biographical Record of the West Shore of Green Bay, Wisconsin, 712.
10. The Swampland Grant Act of 1850 was federal legislation that enabled several states, including Wisconsin, to select verified swamp or overflowed lands from the public domain and have these lands deeded to the state. The purpose of the act was to promote the conversion of swampland to arable agricultural lands. Proceeds from the sale of these lands to private individuals would help recover the costs incurred from drainage projects. However, some states granted the selected lands to railroads, and others used the proceeds to fund educational institutions.
11. Donald “Ducky” Reed, interview with the author, March 2009.
12. Laurel Reed Edwards, written communication with the author, February 2010.
Chapter 3: The Mepps Story
1. Mike Sheldon, interview with the author, September 2001. Unless otherwise noted, information for this chapter was derived from this interview.
Chapter 4: Trouting on the Brule: An 1875 Fishing Expedition to Northern Wisconsin and Michigan
1. John Lyle King, Trouting on the Brule River: Or Summer-Wayfaring in the Northern Wilderness (Chicago: Chicago Legal News Co., 1880).
Chapter 5: Lost Outboard Recovered after Seventy Years
1. Dorothy Uthe, interview with the author, October 2002.
2. Peter Hunn, The Old Outboard Book (Camden, ME: International Marine, 2002), 82.
3. Ibid., 83.
Chapter 6: Carl Marty's Northernaire: A Special Place in Time
1. August Derleth, Mr. Conservation: Carl Marty and His Forest Orphans (Park Falls, WI: MacGregor Litho, Inc., 1971), 1, 13.
2. Ibid., 18.
3. Ibid., 19.
4. Carl Marty Jr., “Northernaire: Built with a Guest's Viewpoint,” Resort Management (August 1947).
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Derleth, Mr. Conservation, 18.
9. Cappy Gagnon, “Cy Williams,” The Baseball Biography Project, http://bioproj.sabr.org.
10. “'46 Tourist Season Prospects Bright,” Rhinelander Daily News, March 21, 1946.
11. Ibid.
12. Marty, “Northernaire.”
13. “Gypsy Rose Lee, Speaks Briefly,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 11, 1947.
14. Edith Lassen Johnson, Mother Is a Saint Bernard (self published, 1970).
15. Derleth, Mr. Conservation, 22.
16. Carl Marty, Northernaire's Ginger and Her Woodland Orphans (self published, 1953), 12.
17. Derleth, Mr. Conservation, 3.
18. Doris Goldsworthy, interview with the author, August 2007.
19. Northernaire and Showboat News, no. 1.
20. Ibid.
21. “Town Prepares for Arrival of ‘King of Comedy' Bob Hope,” The Three Lakes News, August 10, 1983.
22. Tom Michele, “New Owners Plan Big Changes for Northernaire,” Rhinelander Daily News, March 10, 1996.
23. Ibid.
24. “Northernaire to Be Razed,” Rhinelander Daily News, May 1, 1996.
25. “Northernaire Is Reborn in Three Lakes,” Rhinelander Daily News, August 14, 2007.
26. “Northernaire Sold to Eau Claire Company,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 20, 2004.
27. “Northernaire Is Reborn in Three Lakes.”
Chapter 7: Hazen's Long Lake Lodge
1. Joel and Janet McClure, interview with the author, July 2003.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
Chapter 8: First Resorts: Teal Lake Lodge
1. Tim Ross, interview with the author, March 2003.
2. Ibid.
3. Teal Lake Lodge History, http://teallakelodge.com/ross'-teal-lake-history
4. Tim Ross, interview with the author, March 2003.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
Chapter 9: Mel's Trading Post
1. Mitch Mode, interview with the author, February 2006.
Chapter 10: Pastika's Sport Shop: Ninety Years of Muskies and Minnows
1. Leon Pastika, interview with the author, October 2006.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Al Rosenquist, interview with the author, October 2006.
Chapter 11: Duke's Outboards: A Northwoods Institution
1. Peter Hunn, The Old Outboard Book (Camden, ME: International Marine, 2002), 15.
2. Ibid., 16.
3. Duke and Dorothy Montgomery, interview with the author, July 2002.
4. Ibid.
5. Hunn, The Old Outboard Book, 16.
6. Kris Gilbertson, “Duke Has Kept Up to Date with Motors for the Past 60 Years,” Rhinelander Daily News, August 2, 1994.
7. Jim Montgomery, interview with the author, July 2002.
Chapter 12: The Rhinelander Boat Company
1. Joy Vancos, interview with the author, June 2002.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Boat Factory Starts: Will Be Busy Throughout the Coming Winter Season,” The New North, September 21, 1911.
Chapter 13: Waterfowl Hunting with Live Decoys
1. Outdoor Life, The Story of American Hunting and Firearms (New York, NY: Sunrise Books/E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1959), 131–132.
2. Ibid., 132.
3. Gordon MacQuarrie, “Minnie the Moocher,” in More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters (Minocqua, WI: Willow Creek Press, 1990), 35–43.
4. Outdoor Life, The Story of American Hunting and Firearms, 132.
5. Philip S. Habermann, Reminiscences, 1988, Wisconsin Historical Society Manuscripts Collection, WIHV89-A115.
Chapter 14: Spring Duck Hunting in the 1800s
1. Louis McLane Hobbins Papers, 1888–1941, Wisconsin Historical Society Manuscripts Collection, WIHV94-A2042.
Chapter 15: An Old Dog for a New Century: The History of the American Water Spaniel
1. David Duffey, “All American Water Spaniels,” Hunting Retriever (February/ March 1986): 6.
2. James B. Spencer, “The American Water Spaniel: Yankee Doodle Dandy,” Wildfowl Magazine (April/May, 1987): 48.
3. Steve Grooms, “An All-American Gun Dog: The American Water Spaniel,” Fins and Feathers (May 1975): 39.
4. Duffey, “The Neglected American,” 154.
5. Ibid., 152–154.
6. Ibid.
7. John and Mary Barth, interview with the author, January 2000.
8. Spencer, “The American Water Spaniel,” 48.
9. John and Mary Barth, interview.
Chapter 16: The Armistice Day Storm: The Winds of Hell
1. Mark Stell, “The Winds of Hell,” Minnesota Public Radio, November 10, 2000.
2. “Verage Receives Hunting Laws,” The New North, September 5, 1940.
3. “Ducks Delayed,” The New North, November 1940.
4. Stell, “The Winds of Hell.”
5. Harold Hettrick, “1940 Armistice Day Storm: Harold Hettrick's Story,” recorded as part of “Hunting Stories,” a narrative session held as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, July 2, 1998.
6. Stell, “The Winds of Hell.”
7. Ibid.
8. Gordon MacQuarrie, “Armistice Day Storm,” in MacQuarrie Miscellany (Wautoma, WI: Willow Creek Press, 1987), 151.
9. Ibid., 153.
10. Ibid., 151.
11. “Big Eau Pleine Reservoir Searched for Missing Man: Hamburg Farmer on Hunting Trip, Believed Drowned on Monday,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 13, 1940.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. “Body of Duck Hunter Found on Eau Pleine Island: Apparently Victim of Exposure; Coroner Conducts Investigation,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 14, 1940.
16. Associated Press, “Nine Are Dead, Many Missing as Storm Sweeps Wisconsin,” Rhinelander Daily News, November 12, 1940.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Lee Brunner, “Armistice Day 1940,” Wisconsin Sportsman (November/December 1974): 20.
21. Ibid.
22. Associated Press, “Searching Parties Hunt More Victims in State: Wisconsin Takes Stock of Losses in Death-Dealing Gale,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 13, 1940.
23. “At Least Nine Die in State; Several Missing,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 12, 1940.
24. Neal Lendved, written communication with the author, 2009.
25. Associated Press, “Searching Parties Hunt More Victims in State.”
26. “The Storm of November 11, 12 and 13,” The Lightship (newsletter of the Lake Huron Marine Lore Society) 12, no. 3 (November 1990).
27. “At Least 65 Seamen Feared Drowned in Worst Storm in History of Lake Michigan: Two Huge Freighters Believed to Have Sunk,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, November 13, 1940.
28. Michigan Shipwrecks Research Associates, www.michiganshipwrecks.org/davock.htm.
29. Ibid.
30. Associated Press, “Searching Parties Hunt More Victims in State.”
31. National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office: Armistice Day Storm, www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/events/armistice.php.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
Chapter 17: One Day in March 1933
1. Vern Frechette, interview with the author, February 2002.
2. Chick Sheridan, “Ice Rescue Still Subject of Conversation Today,” Ashland Daily Press, March 31, 1983.
3. “Thrilling Rescues of Men on the Ice: Others Still Sought,” Ashland Daily Press, March 9, 1933.
4. Ibid.
Chapter 18: Ike's First Vacation to the Wisconsin Northwoods
1. “Eisenhower in Minocqua Today: Chief of Army Arrives on Vacation Trip,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 15, 1946.
2. “Eisenhower Visit Chief Topic for Minocqua Area,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 16, 1946.
3. Ibid.
4. “Eisenhower in Minocqua Today.”
5. “Eisenhower Visit Chief Topic for Minocqua Area.”
6. “Eisenhower in Minocqua Today.”
7. “‘Ike’ Sets Pace for Brothers in Muskie Fishing,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 18, 1946.
8. Ibid.
9. Kris Gilbertson, “‘Ike’ Impressed by Cordiality of North: Enjoyed Vacation, He Says in Leaving Area Last Night,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 22, 1946.
10. Associated Press, “Letter Written to ‘Ike' in ‘45 Pays Off for Badger Girl,” Rhinelander Daily News, July 19, 1946.
11. Ibid.
12. Gilbertson, “'Ike' Impressed by Cordiality of North.”
13. Ibid.
14. Joyce Laabs, A Collection of Northwoods Nostalgia from the Pages of the “Lakeland Times” (Sun Prairie, WI: Royle Publishing Co., 1978), 141.
15. Ibid.
16. Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Howard Young Papers, www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/finding_aids/PDFs/Young_Howard_Papers.pdf.
Chapter 19: The Summer White House on the Brule
1. Ishbel Ross, Grace Coolidge and Her Era: The Story of a President's Wife (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1962), 223.
2. Albert M. Marshall, Brule Country (St. Paul, MN: The North Central Publishing Company, 1954), 174.
3. Ibid., 171–172.
4. Ibid., 172.
5. Ibid., 173.
6. Ibid., 175.
7. Ibid.
8. Associated Press, “Brule ‘Dressed Up' to Greet the Nation's Chief Executive,” June 15, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Associated Press, “Rents at Brule Advance Up to 700 Per Cent,” June 3, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
12. Marshall, Brule Country, 175.
13. A. B. Kapplin, “President Finds Estate Is Ideal Place to Retire,” Duluth Herald, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
14. Ibid.
15. Ross, Grace Coolidge and Her Era, 181.
16. Ibid., 230.
17. “Antoine ‘Packed' Mails Over Old 92-Mile Trail,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
18. A. I. Darymple, “Chance to Guide President Came Too Late for Old Antoine Dennis,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
19. Ibid.
20. Marshall, Brule Country, 178.
21. “Guide Injured, President Tries Trap Shooting,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
22. Reminiscences of Rebekah Knight Cochran, 1978, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
23. Ibid.
24. Marshall, Brule Country, 177.
25. Douglas R. Mackenzie, “Brule Claims Coolidges for the Summer,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
26. “Coolidge Devotes First Vacation Day to Fish and Nature,” June 16, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
27. Marshall, Brule Country, 177.
28. Kapplin, “President Finds Estate Is Ideal Place to Retire.”
29. “Says President Is Good Angler,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
30. A. B. Kapplin, “Canoe Thrills President; Not So Convention,” Duluth Herald, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
31. “President Is Spending Last Hours in North,” President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
32. President Coolidge's Farewell, September 10, 1928, President Coolidge Brule River scrapbook, Wisconsin Historical Society.
33. Reminiscences of Rebekah Knight Cochran.
Chapter 20: Murder at Pelican Lake
1. “Keeler Rites Will Be Held in Enterprise,” Rhinelander Daily News, December 8, 1931.
2. Ibid.
3. “Violator Killed Enterprise Man?: Farmer Slain; Rodd, Carlson Launch Probe,” Rhinelander Daily News, December 7, 1931.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. John Mistely, interview with the author, December 2000.
Chapter 21: Trapping in the Blood: The Carl Schels Story
1. Carl Schels, A Trapper's Legacy: The Tales of a Twentieth Century Trapper (Merillville, IN: ICS Books, Inc., 1984), 3.
2. Ibid., 5.
3. Ibid., 6.
4. Ibid., 8.
5. Ibid., 12.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., 14.
8. Ibid., 16.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 18.
11. Ibid., 34.
12. Ibid., 51.
13. Ibid., 85.
14. Ibid., 99.
Chapter 22: Remembering the State Fur Farm
1. Marv Kaukl, interview with the author, April 2000.
2. Ibid.
3. Biennial report of the State Conservation Commission of Wisconsin for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1931, and June 30, 1932. Madison: 1932, 89, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.RepConsCom34.
4. Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Fur Farming, http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp.
5. The Fox Tale and Silver Fox Retreat, http://foxtale.org/index.html.
6. “Business: Furs from Fromms,” Time (Monday, February 24, 1936), http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755887,00.html.
7. Biennial report of the State Conservation Commission of Wisconsin for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1933, and June 30, 1934. Madison: 1934, 60, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.RepConsCom34.
8. Wisconsin State Experimental Game and Fur Farm Guidebook, Wisconsin Conservation Department, 1935 (a hand-typed facsimile of guidebook text provided by Marv Kaukl).
9. Marv Kaukl, interview.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. John Newhouse, “And Feat Impresses Seasoned Animal Men at Game Farm,” Wisconsin State Journal, November 1954.
Chapter 23: “Le Portage” and the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway
1. Indian Agency House Website, www.agencyhouse.org/.
2. Nina Baym, “Juliette M. Kinzie's Wau-Bun: The ‘Early Day' in the North-West,” www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/emeritus/baym/essays/waubun.htm.
3. Margaret Beattie Bogue, “As She Knew Them, Juliette Kinzie and the Ho-Chunk, 1830–1833,” Wisconsin Magazine of History (Winter 2001–2002): 48.
4. Ibid., 47.
5. Baym, “Juliette M. Kinzie's Wau-Bun.”
6. Ina Curtis, Early Days at the Fox-Wisconsin Portage (self published, 1974), 28.
7. Baym, “Juliette M. Kinzie's Wau-Bun.”
8. Mrs. John H. Kinzie, Wau-Bun, The Early Day in the Northwest (Menasha, WI: George Banta Publishing Company, 1930), 25–26.
9. Curtis, Early Days at the Fox-Wisconsin Portage.
10. Kinzie, Wau-Bun, The Early Day in the Northwest, 264.
11. Baym, “Juliette M. Kinzie's Wau-Bun.”
12. Ibid.
13. Louise Phelps Kellogg, The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2007), 191–194.
14. Jacques Marquette, The Mississippi Voyage of Jolliet and Marquette, 1673, American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society, Document No. AJ-051, 235.
15. The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Fur Trade: Fur Trade in New France and Acadia,” www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0003112.
16. Ibid.
17. Historical Sketch of Avon, Ohio, to 1974 by Taylor J Smith, www.centuryinter.net/tjs11/hist/hto74.htm
18. Indian Country Wisconsin Project of the Milwaukee Public Museum, www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-21.html.
19. Louise Phelps Kellogg, “The Fox Indians During the French Regime,” Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Its 55th annual meeting held November 7, 1907 (Madison: 1908), 142–188, online facsimile at www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1609
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Indian Country Wisconsin Project of the Milwaukee Public Museum, www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-145.html.
24. Ibid.
25. W. A. Titus, “Historic Spots in Wisconsin,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History (September 1926): 57.
26. Ibid., 59.
27. Ibid., 59–60.
28. Ibid., 60.
Chapter 24: Pioneer Bits and Pieces
1. “Went Fishing with Jackson,” Appleton Crescent, December 1, 1906.
2. Ibid.
3. “Echoes of Old Madison,” Madison Capital Times, January 29, 1923.
4. “Oldest Hunter Killed First Deer on Hotel Superior Site,” Superior Telegram, November 13, 1914.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. “Deer in Piles Like Cordwood No Uncommon Sight in Early Days,” Superior Telegram, November 11, 1927.
8. Ibid.
9. “James D. Terry, Augusta, Comes to Bat with More Early Day Hunting Tales,” Eau Claire Telegram, March 12, 1927.
10. Ibid.
Chapter 25: Charles Comiskey and the Northwoods
1. “Baseball as America,” American Museum of Natural History, www.amnh.org/exhibitions/baseball/spirit/index.html.
2. G. W Axelson, “Commy”-. The Life Story of Charles A. Comiskey (Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1919), 268.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., 272.
5. “Comiskey at Mercer,” Rhinelander New North, November 3, 1910.
6. “White Sox Take Annual Outing,” Rhinelander Daily News, October 24, 1912.
7. Axelson, Commy, 272.
8. Ibid., 273.
9. Ibid.
10. “Comiskey Loses Another Moose,” Rhinelander New North, September 28, 1916.
11. Ibid.
12. “Comiskey Host at Mercer Camp,” Rhinelander New North, November 1, 1917.
13. Ibid.
14. “Improves Resort,” Rhinelander New North, September 23, 1920.
15. “Comiskey Gets Deer,” Rhinelander New North, December 2, 1920.
16. “Comiskey Dies at Dam Lake,” Rhinelander New North, October 29, 1931.
17. Ibid.
Chapter 26: The Wisconsin White Pine That Built a New York University
1. Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives, www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=33.
2. Ibid.
3. Cornell University 2001–2002 Financial Plan, http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000046.pdf.
4. Ibid.
5. Paul Wallace Gates, The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University, a Study in Land Policy and Absentee Ownership (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1943), 49.
6. Ibid., 90.
7. Ibid., 92.
8. Ibid., 102–103.
9. Ibid., 106.
10. Ibid., 208.
11. Ibid., 219.
12. Ibid., 225.
13. Ibid., 235.
14. Ibid., 232.
15. Ibid., 238.
16. Cornell University 2001–2002 Financial Plan.
17. Gates, The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University, 245.
18. Ibid., 250.