Camping

1912 · ref. 58322 — Squirrel Lake Oneida County WI: Hanson’s Squirrel Lake Resort D.E. Kennedy photographer 1912. Oblong folio. 15 x 8 in. 86 pp unpaginated. on thick gray paper stock. With 102 tipped-in silver gelatin photogaphs sized from 4.2 x 6.25 in. up to 6.5 x 8 in. 1 hand-coloured most sized approx. 4 x 6 in. couple pages show residue from previously removed or moved images. Contemporary flexible black cloth gray paper endpapers minor wear rubbing some fraying to spine minor wear & slight bumping to corners front inner hinge & title w/ minor tear repairs edgewear small tear at lower gutter margin still a VG exemplar with manuscript presentation inscription & title from artist to Henry Hanson dated July & Sept. 1912. This exceptional photo album documents the camping boating fishing & hunting activities of visitors to Henry Hanson’s Squirrel Lake Resort in the early 1900’s after the opening of the Wisconsin Northwoods to tourists. The “Good Roads” movement and encouragement of improved highways and railroad expansion opened the area featuring fabulous fishing beautiful forests mild summer weather and stunning fall colours drawing in Presidents movie stars gangsters and families to Squirrel Lake resorts with resorts such as Hanson’s offering cabins for rent by the week hot meal dining boat rentals dock usage and hunting & fishing guides. This album opens with images of the resort including one handcoloured featuring waving stars & stripes flag boat sheds and canoes pulled up on the beach. Many of the images feature iconic Progressive Era views of families setting on the rustic cabin porches standing beside camp tents and rowing on the lake. Also featured are views of rowers seated in boats proud women & men holding their large Pike Bass & Muscallonge fish caught women & men hunters with shotguns picnic scenes and the bucolic backdrop of the resort. A series of photos reveal the transport of the Squirrel Lake Resort visitors from train station in horse-drawn covered wagon and automobile with one image showing three generations seated on their luggage at the depot. The names of the rustic cottages included “Skin Walk Cottage” and “Ma-Ow-Is” while the erected tents provided extra space. Hanson 1858-1951 moved to Minocqua WI in 1893 where he drove a livery team and by 1912 had established his resort on 37 acres on the shores of Squirrel Lake featuring a main lodge and adding cabins and other buildings from time to time set amidst a rustic setting of Pine Hemlock and Birch Trees on the East Shore of the Lake able to house up to 35 guests. His cabins were lighted by electricity supplied with running water shower baths and the excellent cuisine was furnished by the onsite orchards gardens and Jersey dairy cattle with large poultry supply as well. Initially named “Forest Home” by 1912 it had become Squirrel Lake Resort and he would continue operating it until 1936 when he sold the resort to Ed Perreault. Although we were unable to find a reference to the photographer D.E. Kennedy in local Minocqua WI directories or Wisconsin & Illinois photography references a few of the photos in this album are similar to a couple of the contemporary unsigned real photo postcard images in institutional and private holdings. See: Jones McVean et al History of Lincoln Oneida and Vilas Counties Wisconsin 1924 pp. 257-258; Early Squirrel Lake Resorts 1907-1970 Squirrel Lake Memories 2021; C.B. Stewart Squirrel Lake Storage Reservoirs and Their Relation to Stream Flow Preliminary Report on Storage Reservoirs at the Headwaters of the Wisconsin River 1911 pp. 20-21. Hanson’s Squirrel Lake Resort, D.E. Kennedy photographer, hardcover