Of Peninsula State Park, 1930 a Legacy of Land and People
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~EITEIIIAE B.EAl>EB. A Collection ofHistories and Stories 100 Years of Memories ... · Only the Beginning · ~-- Peninsula State Park Centennial Reader Many individuals made the Centennial Reader possible. Their recollection of people and events has become a lasting gift for future generations, a written testimony. Stories within the Centennial Reader are joyful and poignant. funny and tragic. Cast by memory, all are all true - and reveal truths as well. It is our sincere hope that after reading these accounts, you will feel even more affection for Peninsula State Park. The Centennial Reader was fu nded in part through a generous gift from The Raibrook Foundation. Artist Dave Hackett created a rendering of Peninsula's centennial logo, pictured below. Naomi Bw-bacher and Betty Chomeau volunteered their time to proofread the text. We extend appreciation to all of these contributors. Please contact Peninsula State Park, PO Box 21 8, Fish Creek, WI 54212 to ask permission to reprint any portion of the Centennial Reader. We welcome your Peninsula stories as well. Thank you. Kathleen Harris Editor, Primary Researcher 2009 All rights reserved by Peninsula State Park. Map of Peninsula State Park, 1930 A Legacy of Land and People Niagara Es~arpment (formed 430 million years ago) Colonies of Dwarf Lake Iris (thriving on ancient shorelines) Nicolet Bay Archaeological Site (400 BC) Eagle Bluff Lighthouse (1868) Pioneer Cemetery {burial sites of Increase Claflin -and Asa Thorp) Girls Camp Meenahga (1914-1948) 18-hole Golf Course (established 1921) Site of Wisconsin's First State Game Farm (1928-1933) Memorial Pole Honoring Potawatomi Nation (1927) Burial Site of Potawatomi Chief Kahquados (1931) Civilian Conservation Corp Camp Peninsular (1935-1937) Heritage Ensemble (1970) and American Folklore Theatre (1990) Eight miles of Shoreline Two State Natural Areas 38-acre Horseshoe Island Migratory Bird Stopover ~O!fTE!fTS 1909 .................................................................... 1 100 Years of Camping ........................................ 2 7 at the Helm ...................................................... 7 Tale of the Lone Pine.......................................... 14 Forget,Me,N ot.......... ........................................... 16 Off to Camp ....................................................... 24 At Last ... It's Come! .......................................... 26 Art in the Park .................................................... 27 Kakannissiga ...................................................... .. 32 Quayintuck & Catonka ...................................... 33 A Swedish Bachelor Lets Us Pick Berries ......... 34 A Drivi11g Force ........................................ .......... 39 Ga1ne On! .......................................................... 43 W orking ~o)Men ............................................. 45 A Cure for Depression ...................................... .. 55 Sister Lighthouses ............................................... 59 We Caught Fish .................................................. 63 John Roha11 ........................................................ 66 100 Years of Memories ....................................... 69 Kodanko Farm Girl. .......................................... .. 84 Curtain Call ....................................................... 90 Peninsula State Park, PO Box 21 2, Fish Creek, Wl 542 12 www.peninsulafriends.com Peninsula State Park Centennial Reader I909 What was life like the year Peninsula became a park? Peninsula About 35 families lived in "the Park." Many spoke Norwegian. + The original forest had been cut-over. + Captain Duclon was keeper at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. + Dr. Hermann Welcker ran a resort in Fish Creek. + Door County fishermen sold salted herring, the fish in demand, for one to one-and-a-half cents a pound. + Miss Weborg taught at School House No. 3 on Shore Road. + Wo1kYou likely worked six ten-ham days and earned about $13 a week. + If you lived on a farm, yam chances of owning a car were about one in 34. If you lived in a city, your chances were closer to one in 200. Perhaps you owned the new Model-T. + If you were a teacher, you couldn't get married and keep yom job - unless you were a man. + If you had a clean shave, you passed an exam. + If you cleaned rooms, you might be caJled a sheet-slinger. + You might be the first in your family to spend a Lincoln penny, issued September 2, 1909. + Arts a11d E11tertai11111ent You read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. + You knew the words to ShiJJe on Harvest Moon. + You may have tried new foods like Kellogg's cornflakes, instant coffee, divinity fudge or shrimp cocktail. + Peanut butter was a delicacy served in fine city tea rooms. You probably never tasted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.+ Hea/tl1 You might get the flu in winter, but called it the grippe. + If you died, chances are your final illness was diagnosed as tuberculosis. + If you had breast cancer. the doctor might treat you with radium and milk. + A doctor might remove a tooth to prevent the onset of arthritis.+ You probably lived to age 47, but if you were not white, you died younger. + News and Politics William Howard Taft succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as President. + "Fighting Bob" La Follette was Wisconsin's U.S. Senator. +Peary and Henson reach the North Pole. + Thomas Edison had a new invention. the "talkie." + You probably hadn · t seen a flying machine, but read about it in your 1¢ newspaper. + The U.S. Navy constructed a new base at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Territory.+ -1- Peninsula State Park Centennial Reader IOO YEARS OF f!A~FIX& Norman R. Aulabaugh History can explain why particular places become famous for certain things. German immigrants brought sausage-making skills to Sheboygan, now famous for its bratwurst. Curly Lambeau bought equipment for his football team with a gift from his employer at a packing house ln Green Bay. Peninsula State Park became known as the Midwest's favorite camping destination. Was this an accident? Hardly! The answer lies in the park's history. The Legislature in Madison, Wisconsin, appointed a State Park Board in 1909 to make recommendations to establish a state park system. The author of the report, John Nolan, stated ~mpose of a (lark_~a.s.JQ "refresh and strengthen and renew tired people .. .'' A letter accompanying Nolan's report, submitted by Charles R. Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin, stated that Wisconsin formerly had large uninhabited tracts of land where people camped, seeking respite from cares. However, such places were rapidly becoming private land. Testimonials by Van Hise and Nolan, on behalf of the State Park Board. 'identified camping as a reason to establish a system of state parks. Peninsula State Park was indeed established, in part, to preserve for the public an area to camp, where people could "renew their spirits." This was and still is a major draw. On any summer evening, as many as 2,000 people camp in the park. My father renewed his spirit every night as he sat at his campfire and gazed out over Nicolet Bay. He often remarked, "I ain't mad at nobody! " Years later, I escaped from my pressure-cooker automotive manufactming manager's job by retreating to a campsite at Peninsula. I owe my sanity to these periods of respite. My father would ask me about my first day back on the job after camping at Peninsula. I said, "The first day back at work was a real killer." My father smiled. He knew this all too well. Great visionaries saw that land was set aside to become Peninsula State Park. Another visionary, Albert E. Doolittle, was hired as the first superintendent in 1913. One of his first tasks was establishing campgrounds. Stories about Doolittle delivering groceries to park -2- Peninsula State Park Centennial Reader campers indicate how serious he was about making sure they enjoyed their experience and returned. Helen Schreiber Allen, writing in Fish Creek Echoes, remembered that during the firsl few years there were no designated campgrounds. and camping was free. This didn 't last long. The 1921 park visitor's gu ide listed thirty-lwo "l ots ~ or campsites at Eagle Spring. later called Crystal Spdngs, near Ephraim. (Crystal Springs was closed to camping in 1950.) Marge Krubsack, who camped with her husband Ernie at Crystal Springs for many years, told me Crystal Springs campground was closed because people with nearby cottages didn 't want to look at all the tents! There were also twenty lots at Shanty Bay. now called Nicolet Bay. and eleven lots near the Fish Creek entrance at Weborg Point. Any of these lots could be leased for fifty cents a week or five dollars for the season. Before occupying a campsite, you had to make a five-dollar deposit, refunded only if you left the site in good order. An article in the December 27, 1935, Door County Advocate reporced that the Nicolet Bay Campground was to be rearranged to conform with the Miniche system used by the National Park Service in California. This system created a labyrinth of paths encircling natural tent sites, giving campers more room and privacy. Kenneth Greaves, a landscape architect assigned to Peninsu la's Civilian Conservation Corps. proposed the project. It would accommodate 250 tents and cover fifty acres. Al Doolittle had already been developing campgrounds at Peninsula for t\venty-two years and wasn't very interested in national park planners telling him whal to do. So much for the Miniche system! Until the late 1950s, when individual campsites were established