Little Village of Summit Lake

By Russell Perry 

Summit Lake is noted for its sandy beaches, swimming, pan fish and northern pike.  I believe it is the highest lake in Wisconsin.  Also, there are trout streams, creeks with bullheads, deer and bear hunting, duck, geese and pheasant.  Summit Lake is known as a tourist town (with many log cottages).

Summit Lake was known for its logging industry, saw mills and small farmers.

Peter Rasmussen was one of the first people in Summit Lake.  He was a telegraph person – climbed poles and sent and received messages.  He also built several cottages on the lake. 

Summit Lake is in north central Wisconsin, in the township of Upham – the county of Langlade.

Northern Wisconsin had an abundance of lumber (pine, maple, birch, poplar, aspen, etc.).  Some big wood mills (example: Paine & Sawyer from Oshkosh) bought land in Northern Wisconsin.  Lumber camps were set up in an area.  They had an office, bunk houses to sleep, place to make food and eat, a barn with horses, storage buildings and repairs and make their own slides to move logs.  They worked and lived in the area until they ran out of good timber and then moved to another area.  The camps had numbers – camp 4, camp 7, etc.  Later saw mills were set up after logs were shipped on the Fox and Wolf Rivers (etc.) to Oshkosh, Green Bay and other cities.  The saw mills cut mostly lumber and railroad ties for the train tracks.  The saw mills also had offices, tool sheds, barns and horses and had streams for power.  Sawyer had the teeth on the saw sharpened every day.  Some saw mills had railroad tracks by the mill.  Other mills did not.  Summit Lake had three or four saw mills. 

Summit Lake later had a train depot.  Mail was delivered and sent.  They had a larger wagon to put boxes, suit cases, parts for farmers, etc.  Later trains were used for people for traveling.  They even had Pulman cars to sleep in.  People picked wild strawberries alongside of the tracks.  Inside the depot there were wood benches to sit in.  There was an agent who sold tickets and used the telegraph.  When kids heard the whistle of the train coming into town, they would run to the depot to see the train.  Many years later the depot was moved and it was made into a house.

The cemetery was built on a small hill that boarded the south east side of the lake.  People on the east part of the lake near the sandy beaches could see the grave stones.  Some grave stones were made to look like tree stumps.  The cemetery has an honor roll for local people that were in the military.  I noticed that two men from one of the World Wars and one from the Cuban crisis are not on the honor roll.

Men cut cakes of ice from the lake with longer saws.  Poles were used to move the ice cakes.  Ice was hauled to the ice house (2 stories high).  Ice was stacked and sawdust was packed all around the ice cakes so the ice would not melt.  People would chip and break up the ice and put it in the ice box (current day refrigerator) to keep meat and foods cool. 

In grocery stores, they had meat, cheese, milk, eggs, etc. in these ice boxes.  They had bins you would pull down with flour, potato, sugar, etc. and put them in bags.  They used heavy meat blocks to cut up meat using meat cleavers, saws, and knives.  Food products were on shelves.  You told the grocer what you wanted and they would get your items for you.  Many people did not have cash, but would bring eggs, vegetables, fruits for the grocer.  During the depression and the World Wars, the grocer would put your food and prices in a book.  When you had your pay day from work, the person or family would then pay their grocery bill.  When the economy got better, people would travel to Antigo for their groceries because food was less expensive in the big chain stores.

Most homes were made of logs.  The trees were cut down and sawed into the right length, an axe was used to shape the log and start building the house.  You needed help to build from family or neighbors.  The same for building a barn.  You used a block and tackle (rope and pulleys).  The farms had very little land (acres) at first.  They had to cut down trees to make room to build a house and clear land to plant crops, then remove all the stumps and pick and move rocks.  It took years and hard work to clear land.  At first farmers built near water.  They needed water to drink, cook, bathe and for the animals – besides washing clothes.  The farmer needed at least a team of horses and a cow to farm (some had chickens, pigs, sheep, turkeys, etc.).  They worked from daylight or earlier until dark.  They plowed with one blade held it into the ground and walked behind the horse.  When they made hay or harvested grain, they used a scythe to cut down the crops (mowing grass or grain by hand).  Hay was stacked up loosely.  Grain was stripped off and the stem was used for bedding for the animals.  Many years later farmers would pool their money together to buy machinery and each family got a turn to use the equipment.  With thrashing machines, each farmer would help each other.  All the wives and children would make a big meal.  The women had a stove with an oven, one side with wood or corn cobs to control the heat and on the other side a reservoir with water.  The stove had a rack on top of the stove, that they kept the warm bread.  After thrashing (it was very dirty work), the men would have some beer and some went into the lake to wash off.  Some men made their own beer and wine out of fruits and dandelions etc.  In later years farmers had used tractors.  Several different companies made tractors and farm equipment that modernized farming.  Milking was done by hand and put in metal milk cans.  The milk cans were put in a small area with cement sides filled with ice to keep the milk cool.  A milk truck would pick up the milk cans and take them to the factory.  The more milk butter fat – the more the farmer would get paid.

Everyone in town had their own garden to grow their vegetables.  Vegetables, fruits, some meats, etc. were canned in glass pint and quart jars and stored on shelves in the basement.  Winter time some put sand on the basement floor (they were dirt floors).  They put the carrots, potatoes in the sand to keep them fresher and crispy. 

Each house had a small opening in the basement to throw wood or coal to store for using the furnace to heat the home (also people had a wood stove on the main floor to help heat the house).  In the winter, you would grab your clothes when you got up in the morning – go next to the stove and dress up or stand on the furnace grid to warm up.  To take a bath a wash tub was placed on the furnace grid to keep the bath water warm.  With babies or small children, the kitchen sink was used for baths.  Houses were insulated with paper, dirt or sawdust.  Each person had a chicken coop for eggs and maybe raised a pig for their pork.  The family would butcher and clean the meat themselves.  Outside they also had clothes lines with poles, a cross board with hook – to dry clothes.  In the winter the clothes would freeze, you brought the clothes inside the house and put them on a clothes rack by the heat to dry.  Heavy irons were put on the stove to get warm and then you ironed the clothes.  To wash clothes, you had two tubs of water (one for washing and one for rinsing) and had a wringer to wring the clothes dry and then hung them on the clothes line.  Each day of the work week you would wash the floors (many had wood floors years ago), clean and polish silverware and furniture, wash clothes, etc.  You never changed what you did each day (rain or shine).

During the summer, the Indians would come from Shawnee County and play a baseball game in an open field in back of the grade school.  In the evening, the Indians would go to the Hi Point Inn (dance floor and tavern) and do different dances.  By this time, radios (generated by batteries which had to be replaced at times), and telephones (a box on the wall with a smaller crank and bells) were available.  They had party lines – several people had the same line.  Using the crank – one person’s ring would be 2 short and 1 long ring – another would have 3 long rings and another 1 long and 1 short ring, etc.  When people’s phones rang everyone on that telephone line could listen to the call.  Later telephones had a round dial with finger holes on the phone.  Each hole had letters or numbers.  You would put your finer in the right or proper hole turn the dial to the right and release the dial and it would ring the person you wanted to talk to.  Much later TV came.  You only had a Green Bay station.  At first, you only had test patterns on the TV – people would watch that pattern for an hour or two. 

Everybody had outdoor toilets made of wood inside there was a board with one big hole and one small hole to sit on.  You sat the toilet on top of a hole you dug out.  When the hole got ¼ to 1/3 full – you covered it up with dirt and dug another hole and sat the toilet over the new hole.    After WW II people were able to have inside toilets.  You put pipes under the house to a hole that you put a tank in.  Waste came from the house (kitchen sinks and bathrooms).  The pipes went farther out to a dry well (a large hole – water would seep into the ground). 

The women would crochet, knit, and sew (mostly in the winter).  They sewed by hand at first.  Later came the sewing machine.  They made shirts, dresses, blouses, and pants.  They would sew patches over holes in clothes.  They crocheted bedspreads, table cloths, dollies, etc.  Shirts and dresses were made into rugs and blankets with wool or cloth inside (had wool bars with holes on the outside of the blanket and sewed with yarn to hold the blanket together – different patterns and colors were used.

The main street in Summit Lake (south end old highway 45) had a garage.  Across the street from the garage was a hill for slides, toboggans and skis.  On the other end of the block, a small restaurant was built and two years later it was torn down.  The next block had a private garage for a car to be worked on and storage.  It burned to the ground.  Then there was an apple and cherry orchard.  That was removed.  (Hobo’s riding the trains would pick the fruit and get on the train).  After WW II a small motel was built.  Next door was a grocery store with living quarters on the back of the building.  Next door had a tavern and later built a restaurant on to the building.  They had a fire on the tavern side and then remodeled.  Our Forrest Ranger would bring his water truck to help put out house fires.  The next building was the Palace of Mirrors.  They had a tavern, rooms to rent up stairs and served meals after WW II.  The next block a house was built later.  Then there was a tavern.  The tavern was moved to what is the new highway 45.  Then they started serving meals.  Sidewalks were made from wood planks on Main Street.  Next was a repair garage.  It had burned down and was rebuilt.  Then there was a small cottage made into a post office (across the street from the train depot).  The last business was on the next block – a grocery store and a small feed store.  This business burned to the ground.  Later Summit Lake had a baseball diamond.  They played teams from all over the country.  The team did very well.  Next a man raised and sold Christmas trees and had a tree nursery with several acres.  Continuing going north on old Highway 45 a Ranger Station was on the west side of the road – farther north was the Hi Point Inn which had a bar and people played pool.  There was also a dance hall, restaurant, and a few rooms upstairs.  There were some small cabins in the back of the property.  They had several wild animals and cactus.  Next was a black smith shop and then a small saw mill.  Also next to the Christmas trees on new Highway 45 there was a small restaurant and across the highway was a laundry.  West of there was another black smith shop owned by two unmarried brothers.  Also, we had an electrician and a water drilling business.  There was another saw mill and log hauling south of the cemetery.  There were dumps in the village.

We had a grade school – first to fourth grade on one side and fifth through eighth grade on the other side.  Later the schools were consolidated and the seventh and eighth grades went to Elcho as did other local small towns.  We all went to high school in Elcho.  In grade school, we had swings, merry-go-rounds, slides, played marbles, climbed trees, etc.  We had an outdoor toilet for years.  There was a small pond in back of the school.  We stacked rocks in the water and put a plank (board) on top of the rocks and walked across it.  Once in a while the plank would move off the rocks and you would fall into the water – go home and change clothes.  The school had a water pump – you would pump the handle to get water.  People from two blocks away brought water pails and carried the water home.  They did not have wells and water in their homes.

Across Summit Lake (west side) there was a boys’ camp – mostly boys from DeKalb and northern Illinois.  They had swimming, canoeing, fishing, camping, studying birds and insects, tennis, softball, etc.  There was a little island with a log house nearby.  A bear was seen on the island at times.  Also, in the township of Upham, there was a 4-H camp at Lake Susan. West of the village was a Knights Templar.  There was shuffle board, tennis, golf, etc. for the people.

Kids had to make their own games, played cowboys, hide and seek.  They played captain midnight, a game with big or baby steps (if you got caught taking an extra step you had to start over).  We also made sling shots (cut a Y from a tree branch-a piece of rubber tied on both sides and a little patch of leather in the middle).  You put a stone in the leather, pulled back with the rubber, and released the stone and it would fly.  Most kids had kites to fly.  Halloween we would tip over outdoor toilets.  Winter we would ice skate, ski slide with sleds, attach a rope on the bumper of a car with skis and ski on roads.  We would go on a road with a hill (next to Palace of Mirrors) and run into a snow bank with our bikes.  An old man drank a lot at the Palace of Mirrors.  He would park his Model T so it would coast down the hill.  That was the way he started the Model T.  We would jack up the rear of the car and set a wooden beer case underneath.  He could not understand why his car did not move.  Kids also put together puzzles, played cards (rummy, hearts, go fish, war, etc.), and played board games like monopoly, Chinese checkers, dominos, parcheesi, etc.

During WW II we had what was called the war effort.  People brought war bonds to help pay for airplanes, ships, tanks, jeeps, artillery shells, etc.  Also pots, pans, bed springs, tin cans, etc. was saved.  People went to dumps and collected the same items to make military equipment.  Cigarette and gum wrappers were used and made into balls.  Each month each family was issued small red tokens and stamps to buy meat, sugar, gas, etc.  You were limited on how much you could buy each month.  When the United States first entered the war, the airplane guns did not work at time.  We had two men from our village who were in the Air Force out of England.  One sailor was on a ship hit by the Kamikaze Japanese Air Force.  He was very nervous.  It took years for him to recover.  One was a Japanese prisoner of war; one was in the battle of the Bulge.  Most guys volunteered and went into military service at the age of 17.  Days after the war ended – Ralph Bremer was walking in front of tanks to bring them back to base and was killed by a land mine.  We had an army unit with jeeps, trucks and tanks, which came down from Alaska – thru Highway 45 and thru Summit Lake.

When the men came back home after WWII they spent time in the bars, drinking, playing cards and talking to all of their brothers and friends.  Later many men worked on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.  At noon they ate at restaurants and some rented rooms.  Many played baseball for Summit Lake – some started farms and worked in the logging and saw mill industry.  Some moved away to start a different life. 

Two things I forgot to mention.  In the old taverns, they had spittoons (metal type bowl with a narrow neck on top).  The favorite tobacco was “standard” and “plow boy”.

There was an old lady that made soup out of fish heads and bones.  One man was known for making turtle soup.  They would share the soups with others.

People made their own cigarettes – had their paper put tobacco in the paper and rolled it up.  They wet the edge of the paper with their tongues and sealed it together.

South of Summit Lake (town of Upham) on old highway 45 there is the Bass Lake Golf course.  It has a club house – which has a bar, restaurant and a larger room.  They had weddings, anniversaries, business and other parties like reunions etc.  On the golf course there are little ponds.  Kids went into the ponds and retrieved golf balls and sold them to golfers for practice balls.

South of the golf course was a butcher shop.  They cut up and processed all meat from farm animals, deer and bear.  The public could come to their shop and buy meat.  They also made hamburgers and hot dogs sold to taverns, meats to restaurants and grocery stores and delivered to some businesses.  There was a dump in the back of the building with some meat scraps.  At dusk or early night, people would park their cars around one side of the dump, turn on their lights and watch the bears eat.  Also, deer hides were given back to the hunter if they wanted a jacket, coat, gloves, hats, purses, etc. made from the hides as well as hides from other animals.