Society News and Events

I hope you are enjoying these stories of Metonga as much as I enjoy writing them. I apologize for the brief break over the past two weeks, but somehow the Metonga stories ended up at the bottom of my to-do list. The good news is that the Metonga series was pushed to the bottom due to some other really important historical happenings in Forest County we’ve been working on! More about this soon – but until then, enjoy the photos below.

Our next stop in the “Lakeland Series” from March of 1887, is what the author of the newspaper column referred to as “Echo Bay”.

When I started this research project, I was bound and determined to find a map and/or another resources that positively identified the area known as Echo Bay.  Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find any other reference to “Echo Bay” in print.  However, based on the newspaper article in its entirety, the area known as Echo Bay has been identified as the area we now commonly call Glen Park.   

In fact, the area more than likely has been called Glen Park since shortly after this article was published in March of 1887.  Glen Park, on the North Shore of Lake Metonga, was purchased by one of Crandon’s earliest pioneers, Sam Shaw and eventually platted in the Register of Deeds office as the Glen Park addition.  

The history of Metonga and Samuel Shaw are intertwined so I feel its important to give you a brief description of what  some refer to as the “father of Crandon”.    Sam Shaw’s obituary, published on March 9, 1917, in the Forest Republican defined him as the “founder of our town” and states that “his faith in Forest county was unbounded and is justified by the gains he has made from his investment of early days”.  The Antigo newspaper took a more conservative approach and pointed to not only Samuel Shaw’s friends but also his enemies.  It’s important to point out that numerous Forest County debates, including the fate of our current courthouse and fairgrounds, are the direct result of Sam Shaw’s knowledge of property law.  

According to a April 1975, Forest Republican article Samuel Shaw’s first house in Crandon was a log building that stood on the same property on which his bigger house was built later.  It is possible that these cabins, which eventually became part of the Lake Metonga Camp, were Shaw’s original log cabins. 

Samuel Shaw’s Glen Park, a a total of 170 acres of land and his residence, was sold to Dr. and Mrs. C.O. Decker in 1910 for $22,400.  The Decker’s re-named the resort complex “Lake Metonga Camp” in 1922.

Dr. Decker passed away in 1934 and his obituary lists the Lake Metonga Camp as the largest resort in Forest county.  Mrs. Decker continued to operate the resort until 1941 when she sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Ludwig who operated it as the Lake Metonga Lodge.   

Lake Metonga Lodge changed hands again from the Ludwigs to a partnership that included Rosa Ammer (who later owned the Crandon Arcade), Archie Orlebeck and Tony Paris, and then finally to the Keeler’s when it become Keeler’s Resort in 1946.

Good morning folks. Sorry for the bit of delay this week. It’s been a bit busy here – I have been planning for additional History on Tap programs, planning for the Historical Society’s annual meeting and working on lesson plans for the upcoming Centennial Club. (Stay tuned on details for all of these!)

This week’s visit to Metonga begins at the North End of Metonga “where the banks are high, in most place being about 20 feet above the lake level”.

The Historical Society has quite a few photos of the North End of Lake Metonga in its collection.

The City Hall photo collection photo, pinpoints the location of the original homestead of C.T.H Riggs, one of Crandon’s earliest businessmen. A biographical sketch of C.T.H. is not necessary as his obituary, published on June 10, 1926 in the Forest Republican, paints a picture of a dedicated father, teacher and Crandon booster. A photograph of Mr. Riggs can be found in the City of Crandon first Council meeting. He is identified as the bearded gentleman sitting in the front row with his hand on the Mayor’s desk. It was Mr. Riggs’ daughter Melvina, a school teacher, who conducted the early Crandon history project mentioned in blog post #3. I believe descendents of C.T.H. Riggs still own the Lake Metonga property identified above.

One of the most interesting photos of the “North End” is a photo that includes the Crandon Hospital on the banks of Metonga. A close up photo of the Crandon Hospital can also be found in the Historical Society’s collection which includes 12-page promotional brochure.  The publication date of this brochure is unknown, however, many of its photos are also reproduced in the 1907 Forest Republican.

The location of the original Crandon Hospital building was recently brought to my attention by local resident Stacey Karcz. Last summer, prior to the digitization of the Forest Republican newspapers, Stacey brought me a copy of a 1907 newspaper article that was included in paperwork associated with her house on Lake Metonga. According to Stacy, the original Crandon Hospital building was moved across an icey Lake Metonga to the east shore a few years ago with her family still owning the residence. The article, not only has a great photo of the house, but also provides information about the illustrated book now in the Society’s possession.

Those of you that attended the Metonga Presentation at the Crandon Hotel, may remember that during the presentation I also showed a photo from the M.S. Barker collection that raised questions about the original location of the Crandon Hospital. The photo, labeled “M.S. Barker home”, seems to show the same building including the same flag pole, as the Crandon Hospital photos. Zooming in you can see the same latticework and the same front porch. Yet, we know from Metonga research that M.S. Barker’s home was on the West side of Lake Metonga. Or so we thought! It appears that M.S. Barker owned not only West shore property, but he also owned North end property. According to the June 14, 1907 Forest Republican, Drs. Murphy & McCarty rented the Miles Barker house and grounds on “Lake avenue near the Lake shore” for hospital purposes. Mystery solved! We also now know that the building known as the Crandon Hospital was not built for purposes of a hospital but originally as a residence and that it was built prior to 1907. Excellent information for the current owners of the property.

That’s all for this week. Next week’s tour will take us to Echo Bay on Lake Metonga which, according to research, is now most commonly known as Glen Park.

Hello again folks! I’m back with another installment of the blog series titled “Stories of Metonga”. I hope you are enjoying these mini-history lessons. I know I am. I’m also working to develop my Fall programming schedule for Extension which includes local history classes and family history classes. Stay tuned for more details!

The last Metonga blog post provided a glimpse of how our earliest pioneers made their way via the County Road to Crandon and Metonga. Today we’ll actually get a glimpse of both Metonga and Crandon Lake Avenue as our earliest settlers saw it.

If we continue on our path of following the March 1887 Forest Republican article, we are now on paragraph three which begins “an opening in the forest…”

Crandon’s earliest pioneers took great pride in photographing Lake Metonga from not only East Hill and from the roof of the Courthouse as the above pictures show, and they also took great pride in photographing Metonga from Lake Avenue. Early newspapers describe the work involved in clearing the forest from the courthouse square and the “lake road”. In November of 1886, the Forest Republican reported that “Lake Avenue is now open full width to Lake Metonga.  A great improvement”  Early photographers took advantage of this photo opportunity as the following photos show while standing on the roof of what is now the Subway building.

Next week we will continue our series focusing on the north end of Metonga where the “banks are high”. Enjoy the photos! [Extra credit points to the readers who find the dog sleeping on the sidewalk and the little boy taking a break]

Today we get our first glimpse of Metonga coming in from the “Railway station”, “on the county road”. If you recall from our history lesson, Forest County is less than two-years-old at the time of this article, so one does have to wonder what route the author is referring to. There are two possibilities: North Crandon Railway and/or the Pelican Railway.

As I began researching the early routes in Forest County, I discovered a map from the National Archives at Chicago that I obtained a few years back. The map is part of the National Archives Microfilm Publication M1126, Post Office Department Records of Site Locations, 1837-1950 (683 rolls) and details the location of the Crandon Post Office, a county highway, and the Saint Paul, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railroad station located in North Crandon.

The document provides a location for the Crandon Post Office in section 29 with the highway to the railroad station located along the section lines headed north, and turning east essentially where Hwy 32 runs North in Argonne today.

While the post office map does offer an explanation of a possible route to catch a glimpse of Lake Metonga, there is also another route that existed at the time of the article and that is the route from Pelican to Crandon via the Lake Shore railroad. This route can be seen on the 1888 Map of Forest County that currently hangs in the County Register of Deeds office.

Essentially the County Road in 1888 is Highway 55 out of Crandon. The split at Hwy B is visible on both maps with the original county road being further south than Hwy B.

According to the March 1887 newspaper article, a traveler taking the county road to the Northern Shore of Metonga would have ridden through a forest for several miles. “There is forest to the right of you, forest to left of you etc, not a forest of Poplar, or Jack Pine, or Spruce, or Tamarac with a road bed of corduroy but a forest of towering maple, splendid birch, elm and basswood.”

This route, along with the description of the forest, is detailed in a January 1912 article titled “A Glimpse of the Past” in the Wisconsin Presbyterian. The article, written by Rev. James S. Wilson, offers the reader a wonderful account of Rev. Wilson’s trip from Pelican to Crandon.

Rev. Wilson once again confirmed this route when he wrote a letter to Mrs. F.J. Davis in May of 1923. Mrs. Davis, a high school teacher at the time, was conducting a history lesson for Crandon High School students and had written to early pioneers of Crandon asking for their memories of early Crandon. These letters were transcribed by Historical Society members Winnie Krueger a few years ago.

Not only does this letter confirm the route from Pelican to Metonga, it also details the location of the little log school house on the banks of Metonga as “what is now Harry Keith’s lawn”. Today, we know Harry Keith’s lawn as “The Bungalow.”

And here is our first glimpse of Metonga! 

Next week we will move on in our story and learn about the opening of Lake Avenue south to Metonga,  Have a great week!

Forest County officers included E.O. Woodbury as Sheriff, Charles C. DeLong as County Clerk, Louis Motzfeldt as Treasurer, D. Babock as our District Attorney, J. Monaghan as Superintendent of Schools, H. Graeff as Register of Deeds, Clark Whitbeck as Clerk of Court, B.H. Darling as our County Judge, A. Vanzile as County Surveyor and A.J. Beudette as County Coroner.