A Step Back in Time…

Once again I took over the wheel.  The sisters and Cousin Carla wanted to visit the cabin that the sister’s family used to spend summers at near Tomahawk Wisconsin.  It was a little attempt to glimpse the past…their childhood actually…

Our first stop along the way was at Holiday Acres, a family owned attraction based in Minocqua Wisconsin.  It was hard to even find a parking place!  Holiday Acres offers horseback riding, pony rides, miniature golf and go kart tracks…

Horses were the draw at Holiday Acres for the sisters.  Back in the day when they were just kids, they spent hours riding horses in fields and on trails near Tomahawk.  All 3 of them love horses.  Laurie even had her own horse when we first met… All of the ladies spent time talking to the horses as well as petting and scratching them.

Then there was this photo of a very happy Karole with one of Holiday Acres’ ponies…

Moving up the highway near Tomahawk Wisconsin, this is the barn at Pine Cone Ranch in Heafford Junction where the horses were kept that the girls rode during their family summer vacations.  The sisters were sad to see that it isn’t being used for horses any longer.  When they were staying in the cabin, Karole, Laurie and Bonnie used to walk to the barn every morning, grab 3 horses or ponies and take off for the day! Karole was 12, Laurie 5 and Bonnie 4 yrs old at that time. They were young when they first started coming to Pine Cone Ranch back in 1956. The world was definitely a different place back then! They returned every summer to Pine Cone Ranch, when sadly, the sister's father died from a massive heart attack on September 20th 1969. 

The Lamer family operated Pine Cone Ranch when the sister’s family was renting their cabin.  Mr. Lamer also raised mink.  His son Lon Lamer and his wife Sharon still run Pine Cone Ranch on Crystal Lake and they offer a number of cabins and boats for their guests.  You can check out Pine Cone Ranch Resort at http://www.pineconeranchresort.com/.

This is 'Limberlost', the cabin that the sisters remember so fondly.  It’s located on Deer Lake which is right next to Crystal Lake.  It doesn’t appear that it’s part of Pine Cone Ranch Resort at this point…but it still is being rented out.

Laurie, David II, Laurie’s mother and myself did spend a pleasant summer week her many years ago in 1981.  This is a new dock.  I do remember sitting on the old dock with the water level of the lake actually above it.  It looked like I was floating on water!  I was sitting on that dock when the propane stove in the cabin ignited after a gas build up.  There wasn’t any damage and no one was hurt but it did get our attention…

We also fed the chipmunks, did a bit of fishing and had a couple of nice fish fries thanks to Laurie’s mom cleaning and cooking the pan fish for us!

Here are Bonnie, Laurie, Karole and Carla standing by Limberlost.  I think that the family that was staying in the cabin when we visited were a little startled...but they said that it was alright to take a few photos. 

If you’d like to stay at Limberlost, the current summer rate is $200.00 per night.  Check it out at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4479531. 

Our next stop along memory lane was the town of Tomahawk.  The ladies wandered from shop to shop while I walked around taking pictures. 

Another small Wisconsin town with a ‘living’ movie theater!  The Tomahawk Cinema is a single screen theater that was named the Lyric Theater when it first opened in 1925.  When I researched it, I learned that back in 2015 it was in danger of ‘going dark’.  Thankfully, local fund raising efforts saved it and its still entertaining locals and tourists after 93 years!

To see what’s currently playing at the Tomahawk Cinema, just go to https://tomahawk-cinema.business.site/.

We love the fact that so many central Wisconsin towns are still alive and functioning.  Much credit goes to the resident’s entrepreneurial spirit plus the fact that with all of the lakes and rivers in the area, the tourist business continues to nourish the economy. 

We were in town on a Tuesday…and the local Farmer’s Market at Third Street and Wisconsin Avenue was up and running. (Tuesdays from 9AM to 1PM) This seasonal farmers market offers a selection of vegetables, fruits, plants, honey, maple syrup, flowers and bakery goods.

The town of Tomahawk has changed over the years but plenty of its old buildings remain in use.  Interestingly, no buildings or places in Tomahawk are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Research revealed that this building at 201 West Wisconsin Avenue became the new home of the Bank of Tomahawk back in 1904.  The original bank was established as a private institution in 1895.  It moved into this building when it was incorporated under Wisconsin’s banking laws.  It’s now the home of Kevin Urmann, the local State Farm Insurance Agent. 

This is a type of sporting facility that you rarely see in any downtown location.  The Strikers – Tomahawk Bowl is located at 309 West Wisconsin Avenue.  I’ll bet that this business does a box office business in the middle of Wisconsin’s long cold winters!

The Bradley Bank was first established as a ‘private bank’ when Tomahawk wasn’t much more than a clearing in the woods.  The original bank was a small wooden building nearby.  In 1923, Bradley Bank moved to this substantial building, which was completed the previous year.  This days, a branch of Huntington National Bank occupies this structure.

This poster in a store window in downtown Tomahawk is almost a thing of the past.  Circuses are rapidly disappearing from the American scene.  Like them or not, at one point the circus was a significant portion of the entertainment and social fabric of the country.

 

The Culpepper and Merriweather Great Combined Circus is not an old time operation per se… It started with the 3 founders and a very small show.  The 3 took turns announcing, performing and selling concessions.  Indeed, they relied on donations…a passing of the hat…at the end of each show.  Nobody thought that they’d succeed but the circus continued to grow.

The Culpepper and Merriweather Circus is currently based in Hugo Oklahoma.  That town is known as “Circus City, USA”.  This particular circus is the 20^th circus to call that town home…and 2 other circuses are also based there now.  For 32 weeks each year, the Culpepper and Merriweather circus provides 90 minute shows to over 200 towns in 17 different states.

As a side note, there are groups that are trying to shut down all circus operations on behalf of animal welfare.  Given the impact of social media, I doubt that they will survive much longer…

Don’t you think that the Chamber of Commerce Building and Visitor’s Center in the first photo above is a fitting structure for a town in the north woods that’s focused on tourists?  This building is only 32 years old…but it is in keeping with its predecessor!

The second log building…actually a large cabin…is the building that the Visitor’s Center used to be in.  Back in 1927, a couple of local resort owners built a similar cabin for the Tomahawk Civic and Commercial Club as an information and visitor’s center.  That organization later evolved into the Regional Area Chamber of Commerce.  The first cabin was destroyed in a big fire in 1929, but a replica was reconstructed that same year.  It served as the visitor center until it was replaced by that new log building in 1986.

The old cabin was moved to Washington Park and The Log Cabin Museum can be found at 18 East Washington Street.  Exhibits include farming, logging and the history of the area’s railroad.

Tomahawk’s early life was founded on the timber industry.  The railroad arrived and the logging/lumber businesses arrived at almost the same time after which there was rapid growth.  It was in September of 1887 when the tracks of the Wisconsin Valley Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad reached Tomahawk and in October the first train arrived.

I was unable to determine when the Tomahawk Railway Depot as shown above was built.  As per the information on DepotsMaps.com, it was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.  From what I can determine, the building was completely abandoned by 1980.  An on-line photo of the depot on DepotsMaps.com shows a photo of it…decrepit and sad looking.

Thanks to Tomahawk Stove Junction LLC, it’s been nicely restored and it’s now serving as that company’s offices and store.  The work was completed in 2006.  To learn more about this company selling pellet stoves and fireplaces, just go to http://www.pelletstovejunction.com/.

 Marinette, Tomahawk and Western Railway Company locomotive #19 was built in 1923 for the Charcoal Iron Company of America for use in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  This 2-6-0 type locomotive then served a Wisconsin lumber company from 1927 until 1947.  In turn that company sold it to the MT and W Railroad.  Ca. 1960, it was donated to the City of Tomahawk.

The Marinette, Tomahawk and Western Railroad never had more than 50 miles of track and by the 1930’s that number was down to 13 miles and locals nicknamed the railroad as the “Miserable, Tired and Weary”.  

In 2005, the railroad sold to Genesee and Wyoming and the renamed Tomahawk Railway now operates about 6 miles of track.  It provides daily service to a local pulpboard mill at Wisconsin Dam and the mill’s warehouse in Tomahawk.  About 8,000 carloads of various materials are then transshipped to Tomahawk Railroad’s connection with Canadian National’s operations at Tomahawk. 

That’s it for this edition of the blog.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave