After posting a few weeks ago with a photo of my dad and his two older siblings at Dairymen's Country Club in Wisconsin, I decided to learn a little more about this place that has such good memories for my dad.I found a book via WorldCat called The Story of Our Club: An Interpretive History of Dairymen's Country Club, Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, by Felix B. Streyckmans, published in Evanston, Illinois (my birthplace) by Schori Press in 1968. I requested it through interlibrary loan and the 79-page book arrived a couple weeks ago.
Dairymen's Country Club was established in 1925 near Boulder Junction in Vilas County in north-central Wisconsin, by a small group of Midwestern dairymen, primarily from Chicago and Milwaukee, with the purchase of the 1500-acre A. B. Dick estate on what was then known as Big Clear Crooked Lake (now known as Home Lake). The estate had nice woods with virgin timber, the big lake (with a beautiful white sandy beach and stocked with muskies and walleyes), cabins, a dining hall, boat house, barns, and other improvements, along with equipment such as farm implements, an automobile, boats and canoes, firefighting apparatus, and road machinery. The estate had originally been the Oliver Goff public resort that had opened in 1895, with the oldest cabin dating to 1892. Fifty members were able to use the facilities as they were in the summer of 1926.
A golf course was built in 1930. Additional major land purchases in 1937 and 1945 as well as some smaller purchases (in 1952 and 1963) brought the size of the club up to around 6000 acres in 1968. These acquisitions included complete control of six additional lakes and access to four others, as well as other resorts. Camp McKinley on the southern shore of Wolf Lake, just to the north (established in 1901 by the Oxley family), which at that time could accommodate 35 guests, was acquired in 1937, and the Mel Majors resort, also on Wolf Lake at Piney Point, was acquired in 1963.
Besides its lakes, fishing, and forests, Dairymen's is also known for Patsy, the pet deer (c. 1931-November 14, 1949), the longest-lived deer on record (in 1968), and the trio of rare albino deer that lived on the grounds in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Camp McKinley and its facilities eventually became known as Wolf Lake Lodge, while the original facilities were called Home Lake Lodge. In 1968, there were accommodations to lodge 100 people at Home Lake in 28 cabins and a dining hall that would seat that many, as well as a clubhouse, shuffle board, tennis courts, swimming beach, diving area, and boat landing. Wolf Lake had 12 cabins and a chalet that could accommodate 40, with a dining hall/clubhouse that could hold 50, while Piney Point had five housekeeping cabins. Besides typical summer activities, Dairymen's is used in the winter for cross-country skiing, ice fishing, snowmobiling, and snow shoeing.
On July 10, 2005, fire destroyed the Wolf Lake Lodge. A new 11,450 square-foot lodge was finished in June 2007. It's topped with a muskie weather vane pictured above (photo taken by
Despite the name, Dairymen's has long included members beyond the dairy industry. According to my Aunt Beete, my grandfather Paul Robert Pape (1896-1970) was the insurance representative for a Chicagoland dairy company and that's how he got to become a member. (Thanks cousin John for this information!)
© Amanda Pape - 2010
Amanda, I love your blog on the family. I remember going to Dairyman's with mom and dad when we were kids!!! Thanks for writing this and keeping it up!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is the bases of the current "Wolf Creek Lodge" resorts nationwide? I know they supposedly started in WI!
ReplyDeleteTracy, thanks for the comment - the Dairymen's lodge is Wolf Lake, not Wolf Creek - I had it as the latter in one sentence in the post above which I have now corrected. Terrie, you are so lucky you got to go there! I would love to go some time. Talked to Dad some last night and I'll do another post later with some of his memories, but he did say your dad took over the membership after Grandpa Pape.
ReplyDeleteAmanda - I stumbled across your blog while searching for Daiymen's info. I am currently a member of Dairymen's and my grandfather was President of the Club when the book was written. I have been visiting Dairymen's since the early 1960's. The Club is still doing well and is a wonderful place to visit. I have some "DCC" pictures at Google's Picasa if you are interested. The address is: http://picasaweb.google.com/eoschas
ReplyDeleteCharlie
Charlie - thank you for commenting! I will share this information with my soon-to-be-82-year-old dad, and the link to your pictures. He is making contact with an old friend who may still be a member, in hopes of arranging a visit to Dairymen's sometime next year.
ReplyDeleteHello Charlie
DeleteMy grandma Mimi (Wentla Leino) worked as a cook there in later 50s and 60s. She lived in Ironwood MI but also live there while she worked . I have a picture somewhere with her holding a large fish on a platter. Her name tag said Cookie!
I do remember feeding the deer out of our hands
I am 61 and my parents have died long ago. I do remember my dad LeRoy Leino taking us up there.
Would love to see your pictures.
danagriss@yahoo.com or find me on Facebook: Donna Leino Grissom
Thank you
Excitingly Waiting
Donna Leino Grissom
Dear Donna Grissom, I remember your Grandma. I thought her name was Cookie! I would see her in the kitchen, at the stove. She was amazing. It was in the 50's or earlier. Dairymen's was such a wonderful dreamy place, & your Grandmother was part of what made it wonderful for me. So happy to connect with " the old days " I will be 76 in February 2020
DeleteFlorence Hanson
i remember cookie sweet lady always baked me a cake for my bday!
DeleteSpent a few summers up there from Madison w/my family in the mid 60's. We always got a cabin by Wolf Lake Lodge, and dined there. Bummer it burned down. Caught and released my first muskie there. Scared the living bejeesus out of me: it was bigger than I was at the time. Water skied on Big Crooked Lake. There was horseback riding back then also. All good memories, and I still have pics!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment, Phil! My dad (now 82) would love to go back for a visit. If you have your photos posted somewhere, I'd love a link!
ReplyDeleteMy family spent a week at Wolf lake each summer from late 50's through 1968, our last visit there. I was enraptured with the pristine beauty and serenity. Loved it and looked forward to our annual trip each August. James Powelson 7/9/2012
ReplyDeleteJames, thank you for commenting! You are so lucky you got to go there. Some day I want to go up and see it for myself - and take Dad along too!
ReplyDeleteMy Mom and Dad honeymooned at Dairymens in 1948. My Grandparents on both sides were involved starting the club in the late 20's. Spent many a summer in the 50's and 60's feeding the deer and had many treasure hunts and snipe hunts. My wife and I honeymooned there in mid 70's. Muskey fished many years with her every September. Joe Stalosky was fishing guide to our family for over 50 years I think and included 5 generations. My wife passed away 3 years ago and one of our last discussions was about "The Club". Many life memories were had, shared and remembered here.
ReplyDeleteYou are so lucky you got to go there! Perhaps your grandparents knew my grandparents - maybe your parents knew my dad! I will have to ask him about Joe Stalosky. I'm glad my post brought back some good memories for you.
DeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteI will also add we have films my Grandpa took of Patsey at Homelake. She would always come in to the dinning hall and bum a smoke from whoever was around and always preferred Chesterfields. Is true and she was a pack a day eater for years for anyone that was there at the time knew.
Best Regards
My dad told me about Patsy eating cigarettes! Maybe they are good for deer since she lived so long. Thank you for commenting!
DeleteAmanda - Thank you for the blog and for all of the comments. My mom went to DCC as a child and brought all of us as kids twice a year since the sixties. We would go one week in summer and another week over winter break. My dad loved fishing and taught us all how to fish. The bear dump was the best! Back in the day, you would bring whatever garbage you had at the cabin and throw it into the dump (it was a huge drive around circle so cars could toss garbarge) then the bears would come out to eat their dinner and they would climb onto the cars. It was awesome. Still go there but no more bears. Liz
ReplyDeleteLiz, thank you for sharing another great story about DCC!
DeleteJoe Stalosky was also our family's guide and took my father and his family on extended canoe trips where they paddled all day while trolling a seductive bait like a River Runt or a Jointed Pikey Minnow. They would make camp in unimproved campsites that had never been used before and then spend time on favorite lakes fishing. On one famous expedition my Grandmother had a 7 pound Northern Pike on her Pfluger reel equipped Shakespeare rod and Joe wisely and strenuously advised her in the most ardent and echoing voice, "DON'T HORSE IT!" She landed the fish and they ate it. And, it was good, having been cooked over a raised log cabin styled crossed logs campfire (the campfire raised up on dirt infill surrounded by logs to table height). My Grand mother finally gave up smoking and all the bad things that came with it but she too fondly remembered giving Patsy her share of chew. All the best to you. JAM Winegar 1944
ReplyDeleteThank you, JAM, for commenting and sharing your memories!
DeleteMy family spent our Summers there. It was great, and we always lookedforward to seeing the same friends we met when we first started going there. All good memories through the forties. From Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThank you, From Chicago, for commenting. If you were there in the 40s, you probably ran across my dad and his siblings and parents!
DeleteMy best childhood memories are of the place! Does anyone remember Betsy the deer? Maybe a relative of Patsy? And the memories of the bear dump are still vivid to me today! And how about my very first kiss at about 13 or so? My parents were members and it was with the son of my Dad's vice pres..... Ahhh the memories! It was great running across this web page. Stephanie Reavley Walz
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Stephanie!
DeleteI remember Betsy!!! She had a blue ribbon around her neck too
DeleteLots of fond memories from the 60's as a child.
I'd love to go back and stay there again
Thanks for your comment, Alison! Glad this post is bringing back so many good memories for so many people.
DeleteI recall Patsy that ate cigarettes, the Polar Bear that Orville Aussie (?) smuggled through Canada customs, my Dad flying a Queen Air so low over Home Lake Lodge that people were diving off the dock. Joe Stiloskey who was in the original 'OFF' insect spray commercial (he was also fishing guide to 5 generations of my family) Spent the 50's and 60's there, reminiscing about the Muskey my Mom (Joan Christians) caught the summer of 1969, It's still placed in the Home Lake Lodge, 55" 33lbs, don't think another that lasrge has been caught since then? Largest muskey ever caught by a Lady on those chain of Lakes.
ReplyDeleteHC Christians, my great grandfather was one of the founders in the 20's
All fond memories.
Dan Christians (4th of 5 generations)
Thanks, Dan, for commenting and sharing your memories!
DeleteI was there '69 thru '71. Other albino deer included Popcorn and Snowball. also had a "cinnamon" bear (white, but brown eyes). Mayo's & Marquardts were managers then. I met the girl I married there. I spent the best years of my life there. in '71 there was the groundbreaking for the new Home Lake dining room. the old log dining room would be torn down. - Dave
DeleteThanks, Dave, for the additional information and for commenting!
DeleteTo all that come here...What memories we have! After spending the 50's and 60's here growing up I remember the pride of going into the phone booth to call work for messages! oh lol what a right of passage that was. To be so important to step into the phone booth at home lake lodge to make a call to work.Great people, great times and I so miss having the Raven on the 17th hole stealing my golfball. My wife won by a stroke
ReplyDeleteI became a man that day. What a wonderful place and time that was. It
Anonymous, thank you for commenting!
DeleteI thought you might be interested that I am the great grandson of A. B. Dick and through a friend from Minnesota was given access to the club a few years before it burned down - so very sad. I am fortunate that my grandfather was an avid photographer and has black and white movies of my father and his sister, as well as some of the rest of the family when they were at the camp for a summer.
ReplyDeleteI was very happy to see that many of the old buildings that I had seen in my grandfather's photographs were still standing at the time I was visiting. I am glad that the property is continuing to be enjoyed and has deep roots in its membership over the years.
Thank you for commenting! I'm still hoping to visit one day!
DeleteMy family (Belden) spent every summer in Boulder Junction, where we have a property with 2 cabins on Boulder Lake. Now, I suspect I am a bit younger than some of you, but my grandfather Bob Belden was a lifelong member of Dairymen's and my grandmother Georgeann Belden maintained the membership until just a few years ago (she's still alive and kicking, for the record!). Sadly, us grandkids just don't get up there like we used to, so grandma reluctantly gave up the membership as she doesn't really get up there like she used to either.
ReplyDeleteWe had such great memories of going to Big Crooked (my grandfather would call it "Clear" Crooked for obvious reasons) and roaming about the woods of Dairymen's. Our mother (Camille Belden) would haul us kids up there by the carload and we'd run wild along the shores of home lake, or get a ride out to the cub pub (this was the '80s and I'm sure they don't have that anymore). I remember the road into Dairymen's from the highway used to have this massive dip in it and we'd chant "Hit the bump! Hit the bump!" to talk grandpa into flooring it for a quick second to get a little roller coaster ride out of the trip. I did a lot of fishing with my grandfather on the outlying lakes. Flora was particularly great for kids to fish because you could drop a worm on a hook off the dock and catch a bluegill instantly! Later, I'd go on perch trips in the "deep grass" in Big Crooked lake.
I remember being a kid in Home Lodge doing arts and crafts with the other kids from the nearby cabins, giving our parents and grandparents a little break to enjoy some sun and outdoors (or in my grandparents' case, a chance to get some laundry done and trash hauled).
I don't know how cabin rentals work there now, and though we have a cabin just a couple miles away, I'd love to spend a week on Home Lake with my wife and kids. I'd just be thrilled to hang on to a little piece of that magical place and share it with my family.
Thank you, Mr. Belden, for sharing your memories!
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dairymans club originally set up by the original 5 Dairymen from the Chicago area to be enjoyed by their decendents who would qualify for membership down the ages? I'm unable to find confirmation of this but have spent some time there with the grand-daughter of Mr. Christiansen who was one of the original 5 Dairymen from Chicago who set up this club. Anyone have any thoughts or know where I can find more info? Thanks much!
ReplyDeleteMy source was "The Story of Our Club: An Interpretive History of Dairymen's Country Club, Boulder Junction, Wisconsin", by Felix B. Streyckmans, which I borrowed through interlibrary loan. I'll have to check my file as I believe I copied some pages from it, but in my post above, I note from the book that it was established by a small group of Midwestern dairymen, primarily from Chicago and Milwaukee. I'll let you know if I have any further information.
DeleteThank you Amanda! The reason I ask is that my dearest girlfriend is a decendent of one of the Chicago Dairymen who, I believe, established this club. For Christmas I was able to locate an old milk bottle from her grandfathers dairy and wanted to add a story of her history to it. Her father has passed away and her husband, mother and brother died tragically leaving her with just memories of Dairymens. I do remember spending a week there many years ago with she and her mother after her husbands death and felt it was time to rekindle her fond childhood memories as time has now allowed for such reflection. Thank you so very much for your help.
DeletePhyllis, I just checked my files, and unfortunately I did not make copies of pages from the book that said anything about the founders. You can probably borrow the book too via an interlibrary loan request at your local library.
DeleteAmanda, my mom said that her dad (our grandpa) was the insurance rep for a Chicagoland Dairy company and that's how he got to become a member.
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much, dear cousin John, for letting me know that! I'm so glad Aunt Beete remembers this! I think I will edit the original post to reflect this information. Love you!
DeleteI spent the 70s and 80s at wolf and home lakes (Cabin 4 the best!) fishing for 8 hrs a day. My dad had been going up since early 50's - not close to being a dairymen so have no idea how he ended up a member. Joe Stilosky was our guide, one of the best...still have my 48in muskie up on my wall. Awesome dinners at home lake lodge after a day of fishing, some good ice cream, juke box, maybe some candy from the front desk, finish the night up with a movie upstairs with my friend the polar bear. No TV, no AC, but nothing better than sitting on the screened in porch of your cabin at the end of the night and watch a thunderstorm roll in. Great times at a great place
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Anonymous! My grandfather was the insurance representative for a Chicagoland dairy company and that's how he got to become a member. Joe sounds familiar - I'll have to look at my Dad's notes and see if he mentioned him. I have some photos of my dad there in 1951, but that may have been his last time.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather ( A. H. Thompson ) was a member and our membership passed with my grandmother. I want to say he helped acquire some land for the club and we had life membership. He had a niche on the containers transporting Dairy long distance so was good friends with many of the Dairymen. Our family hails from Chicago and evanston. I have the book in my hand " The Story of Our Club" . My father told me stories about Patsy the deer. I visited with my family about 16 years ago. Love the nostalgia.
Thanks for commenting, Mich! I'm going to have to make sure to get up there the next time I am in the Chicago area.
DeleteHi Amanda...I believe that my great-grandfather Conrad Carlsen of the Carlsen Dairy in Chicago may have been one of the founding members that have been spoken of... The Trostrud family (my grandfather Earl Sr. and now my uncle Earl Jr.) have been members since then. Good memories of trips up there- I was one of 10 grandchildren, and when we were "old enough" we'd get to go up for a week. One year it was at Home Lake, the second time it was at a Housekeeping cabin. What good times!
ReplyDeleteEric Lorenz
Thanks for commenting, Eric, and providing this information!
DeleteI spent my summers 71-79 there typically 2 weeks muskie fishing with my father, we were guests of the Pattons and Driscoll who were members, the Mar quarts were at home lake,, later Paula and Joe, as a young male i came of age spending my summers there also spent the winter of 78 myself living there and went to Manitowish waters middle school that yr and graduated 8th grade there pretty heady stuff for a kid from NYC..that winter was one of the coldest ever! and i would feed at least 45 deer every morning before that bus would pick me up at the top of the hill..The albinos were there,3 in total and i had heard stories of a "honey bear"that i believe was killed by poachers sadly at some point in the 70s,im very saddened to hear the old lodge burned down as there were amazing totems carved structures at that dining hall,,to this day i still have dreams of my summers spent there and musky bakes, those outer lakes too were fun to fish as a change of pace Sanford, flora, and which for its size was quite deep and we caught rainbows jigging to my best recollection, thanks for posting this blog glad i found it and could share some of my memories!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, bmrbskts, for sharing those memories!
DeleteJust came across this blog while searching for the history of the name Minocqua. I had my first visit to Dairymen's in 1947, when I was 10 years old. My father was in the dairy industry and was an early member. My memories are of the early log cabins and "The Casino", now long gone, where I met old Sidney Wanzer on the front porch, (the guy who brought our milk in the morning). And I also met Mel Major the great fishing guide, who taught me how to fish and with whom I fished for many years after. I have now been coming to Dairymen's for 72 years, along with my children and grandchildren. There are so many memories I could write a book of growing up summers there in the 50's. Amazing place!!!
ReplyDeleteMack, thank you so much for commenting! You might have crossed paths at Dairymen's with my dad, Fred Pape, who was 18 in 1947. I have photos of him there with his parents and siblings in 1951. Someday I will make it up there!
DeleteIn 1947 I was 10 and was mainly interested in playing with the other 10 year olds, swimming and taking trail rides on the Dairymen's horses up on the hill. And fishing, in a boat or off the dock. Someone as old as 18 was way beyond my knowledge back then.
DeleteI figured that, Mack, but it was worth it to me to ask. He had siblings a couple years younger, but they were girls so even less likely for a ten-year-old to know! I'd ask my dad if he remembered a family with a Mack, but sadly he passed away in November 2017. His memory was amazing and he might have known of you even if you didn't know of him. Thanks again.
DeleteHey, Amanda - When I was 10 at the Dairymen's in 1947 I actually got my first crush on a girl staying there. We met on a horseback ride amd I thought she was cute. Saw hwer later and we all played cards. Followed her future
Deleteyear stays there but we never me up again..