Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin a Collective Memoir of Black Oak Lake
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WE CALL YOU OUR OWN… BLACK OAK LAKE LAND O' LAKES, WISCONSIN A COLLECTIVE MEMOIR OF BLACK OAK LAKE BY FRANK SURPLESS 2008 published by Grass Lake Images, Inc., Watersmeet, Michigan July, 2008 They met on a ski lift in Utah. While they were ascending the mountain she asked him where he was from. He replied that he lived in the area, but his real home was by a lake in northern Wisconsin, a home which had been owned by his family for almost one hundred years. His cabin on the lake was his true home. He spent his summers there, grew up there, and always looked forward to returning to a place 1400 miles away. He told her that when in the cabin, he felt the presence of those in his family who had gone before. Tricia married Mark Hoffman, and now they are home. WHAT'S IN HERE WELCOME TO BLACK OAK LAKE........................................................7 WHAT CAME BEFORE ........................................................................11 WHY BLACK OAK?..............................................................................19 LEFTOVERS........................................................................................31 INCONVENIENCES..............................................................................39 TOOT TOOT, BEEP BEEP ..................................................................47 LEAVE IT TO GEORGE........................................................................55 YORE LORE OF YORE ........................................................................63 THE TIDES AT BLACK OAK ...............................................................77 FLAILING, FLAILING OVER THE BOUNDING MAIN .........................81 LET’S GET TOGETHER.....................................................................101 TIME TO GO OUTSIDE .....................................................................113 ON THE TOWN..................................................................................135 WHO SPANKED J.R.? .......................................................................153 A GOOD NEIGHBOR… ....................................................................159 THE BLACK OAK AIR SHOW............................................................167 I CALL YOU MY OWN...B.O.L.R.O.A. ................................................175 WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US...AND BLACK OAK.............................195 WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT...OR, “HEAVEN HAS A DOCK” ..................203 IN APPRECIATION ...........................................................................209 A POSTSCRIPT .................................................................................214 WELCOME TO BLACK OAK LAKE avelle Aiken, Rt. 1 Box 1396, Lake “I helped lay the floor in (your) two back Burton, Clarksville, GA 30523, wrote a bedrooms — and painted the wood Vletter to Fred and Judy Madigan, dated boxes and ‘victrola’ — spent more time July 10, 1994: than I care to remember on the roof — and our ‘kids’ spent many many “Dear Madigans all — summers there, too. So the memories go “Welcome to your Black Oak home — a way back. home which has known more love and “We’re all scattered now — we’re in the laughter than any other I can think of! north Georgia mountains — three of our I’m Jim Bates’ ‘big sister,’ as I’m sure grown children live in the Atlanta area, you know — and my first trip to Black and our older daughter is in New Oak was in 1921 when I was ten days Hampshire. Our sister lives in Maine, old. Those first few years, we just visited her daughter is in Ohio, and her son is Grandma and Grandpa Bates — but the in Alaska. So I hope you can enjoy it far year our sister Aldrian was born, we all more often than we’ve been able to. had our own cottages — ’Gasoline Alley’ was for all the Bateses. There was one “Welcome to the lake — and many many drive, one pier, one boat slip, and one happy memories for you and your outhouse! And we loved every summer family. there. Fondly, “The mothers and all eleven (eventually) Vavelle Aiken" grandchildren were there from the day school was out until it was time to go What a welcome! Vavelle’s heartfelt letter to back to the city. Grandpa, his four sons, the Madigans served for them as a transition and one son-in-law (the dad of your from one family to another, but both neighbor — our cousin — Jeanne eventually united in a love for Black Oak. Sundberg) came up together on And how remarkable that her letter really weekends — either on the train — the did represent a connection from one of the ‘Fisherman’s Special’ ...or car pooling and driving up together. original, and prolific, lake settlers to a newcomer family who seamlessly became “Grandpa had built a long picnic table part of the larger whole of the lake between some pine trees near the lake community. The Madigans’ cabins and land and on the 4th of July, everyone on the lake came by car or row-boat, for a huge are not quite the “hallowed ground” of the covered dish supper followed by a Gettysburg Address, but for the families bon-fire on the shore, with everyone, involved they serve as steadfast symbols of a from the most dignified aunt to the permanence or lasting guidepost after which youngest child who could talk, put on a all families strive. Oh, and her letter? It’s show — skits, songs, poems, dances — mounted inside a stiff plastic frame for all to what ever. I guess there were sparklers see! and a few lady-finger firecrackers — but it was the Black Oak picnic and the Black Oak Lake is indeed unique. And this ‘show’ I remember best… account hopes to explain why. WELCOME TO BLACK OAK LAKE — 9 WHAT CAME BEFORE lack Oak Lake didn’t just “happen.” It Wisconsin, because most of the evidence of didn’t appear suddenly, kerplop, on the that stage is located here. It took place Bnorthern Wisconsin landscape. between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago. Millions, actually billions, of years in the making, the lake is the result of titanic In turn, the Wisconsin stage was divided forces shaping the planet. From mountain among five tongues or lobes of ice which ranges to inland seas and glaciation, the moved southwest in a parallel fashion. The geologic history of the Land O’Lakes region Land O’Lakes area resided within the is long and varied.** Chippewa Lobe. The glacier would pick up material in one area and drop it later in its OLD AGE… movement or melting. Much of the sand was transported from areas of the Upper Over three billion years ago, two huge land Peninsula and dropped here, because of the masses (or tectonic plates) collided, creating south-southwesterly movement of the lobe. towering mountain ranges in some parts of the upper Midwest. The Alps of Black Oak?! FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Not quite, because over the time that followed this mountain building event, How heavy were the glaciers? One square significant erosion was the dominant yard weighed 1250 tons, which helps to process, reducing the once-majestic explain the moving ice masses’ ability to mountain range to a low, level plain. gouge, flatten, heave and generally alter the terrain over which they moved. Over SURF’S UP! thousands of years, the grinding glaciers About 200 million years ago, in the Mesozoic era, a rise in global sea levels caused a major invasion of inland seas which deposited layers of sediment in those low-lying areas. The seas later retreated as global sea levels fell, allowing a renewed period of erosion. In more recent geologic time, glacial advances and retreats gave the north woods its distinctive terrain. In the Pleistocene, glaciers were born from huge accretions A photo of the 2.7 billion-year-old boulder situated in front of of unmelted snow the NorthernWaters Museum. The specimen was found south thickening into ice in of Land O’Lakes and moved to the museum as part of its first three centers in Canada. exhibit, which focused, among other things, on the early When these masses of ice geological history of the area. became thousands of feet shed trillions of gallons of water mixed with thick, they changed into a plastic mass that all sorts of detritus composed of sand, gravel, began to flow in all directions, especially rock, and huge boulders. An excellent southward, at a rate of anywhere from a few example of this is the 2.7 billion-year-old feet to a few hundred of feet a year. granite boulder residing close to the LOBES BESTRODE THE LAND entrance of the NorthernWaters Museum. There were four distinct stages of glacial Glaciers of such weight caused what is movement in the Pleistocene, the most termed isostatic adjustment, where, long recent of which has been named the after the glaciers have receded, the 12 — WHAT CAME BEFORE ground-down, compressed land underneath over the years, they became lakes. And so the glaciers begins to rebound toward the Black Oak came to be. elevation it once held. This is most prominent in the Hudson Bay region where The lake is currently sustained by a the glaciers grew to their thickest extent. combination of springs from an underground Black Oak residents don’t have to worry aquifer, snowmelt, rain, and some minor about extensive uplift happening here, drainage from Dollar Lake to the north. though. The following dialogue (one hopes) **Material on the pre-history of the area will never take place: taken from Easy Going, Wisconsin’s Gertrude: “Elmer, since we went to bed Northwoods, by Michael J. Dunn, III, last night, our shoreline has bounced up Tamarack Press, Madison, WI, 1978; pp. 9-11; two hundred feet!" additional depth and clarification Elmer: “Not to worry already. I’ll just contributed by Ben Surpless.