When
Fredrick Weyerhauser moved his family to the shores of Lake Nebagamon in the
1890s, money grew on trees. More precisely, for the Lumber Baron, trees meant
money and there were plenty of them in Northern Wisconsin then. Weyerhauser’s
empire was already well established. Even so, he apparently felt that this
area, with its abundant pines and the nine-hundred and fifty acre lake nestled
in the hills near the southern coast of Superior, was an opportunity that was
simply too good to pass over.
Pictures from the period tell the tale of a land desecrated by the “take-no-prisoners” logging approach that was employed by lumber companies back then. But they don’t tell the whole story. Weyerhauser also built the village of Lake Nebagamon in between Superior and Hayward, a town that still thrives today with more than a thousand residents. And though back then it was uncommon to replant logged land, trees do grow back, and after a hundred years or so, they have. Even as Weyerhauser found a century ago, today the Lake Nebagamon area holds opportunities – and some may be simply too good to pass up.
Perhaps the most unique of Lake Nebagmon’s present-day possibilities, is centered on a piece of property that has been in use for a hundred years itself – the YMCA camp, on the south-eastern shore of the south-eastern arm of the lake.
After the land was logged, the locals used to have Sunday school picnics on the YMCA property, which at the time was known as Scully’s Logging camp. In 1915, the Superior, Wisconsin YMCA began to use it, though it was still owned by Weyerhauser’s Nebagamon Lumber Company. Another lumber concern purchased the property in 1917, but one of the new owners, Kristian Skaug, promised to deed the land to the YMCA if they could construct a building on it by 1919. They did so, and continued to add buildings and utilize it for camping programs, though the deed was not formally transferred until 1940. Elea Skaug, the wife of Kristian, gave an additional adjoining parcel of land to the YMCA in her will, which was enacted in 1946.
The entire property today is roughly fifty-eight acres, mostly forested with both pine and deciduous trees, along with thirteen hundred feet of shoreline, much of it level sand. It sits mainly in the triangle between county-road S and South Lake Boulevard in Douglas County, just a few miles south (across the lake) from the village of Lake Nebagamon. And for the first time in a hundred years, this historic property: the shorefront, the land, and its eleven buildings – is for sale by listing brokers Brenda Uotinen and Erik Olson of Coldwell Banker Bachand Realty. This may be one of the greatest opportunities here since Fredrick Weyerhauser saw the green in the trees.
The YMCA camp is not just a beautiful piece of property – it is also situated in the middle of classic, north-woods country. Lake Nebagamon is in Douglas County Wisconsin, which borders Lake Superior to the north and Minnesota on the west. The focal point of much of the county’s tourism, is, naturally, lake Superior and the city of Superior. It doesn’t hurt that there are miles and miles of Lake Superior shoreline, some of it boasting the finest sand beaches on the great Lake for hundreds of miles to the north or east. The harbor at Superior-Duluth is also a sight that deserves all the attention it gets. But for all the rightful focus on the world’s largest freshwater lake, it might get lost, that the inland parts of Douglas county – including areas like Lake Nebagamon – can stand tall and proud next to the better known tourist areas to the south and east, like Hayward and Spooner and Park Falls. In fact, in many ways the attention on Superior has allowed the rest of the county to remain more quiet and pristine, keeping that nostalgic northern lakes charm.
The county
itself owns 269,000 acres of forestland. When you add the Brule River State
forest and two state parks (Pattison, and Amnicon Falls) there are more than
321,000 acres of public land for hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, ATVing, fishing,
camping and just generally admiring. There are, in fact, eighty two miles of
interconnected ATV trails within the county, eighty six kilometers of groomed
ski trails, and more than three hundred miles of groomed, interconnected
snowmobile routes. John Dinkel, a longtime resident of Lake Nebagamon, says, “right
out my driveway I could take an ATV or snowmobile all the way to Michigan.” He
also notes that people have come to Lake Nebagamon – off-road – from as far
south as River Falls, Wisconsin.
With all of the forest, hunting is naturally a favorite recreation. There are plenty of places to camp and hike also. Douglas County holds four hundred and thirty one lakes, not counting Superior, and every one of those offers opportunities for fishing, water skiing, kayaking, canoeing, sailing and swimming.
One of the most pedigreed rivers in upper Midwest is the Bois Brule, which flows by, only three miles from the lake Nebagamon YMCA camp, while curving around the hills at that point. Forty-four miles long, the stream has been visited by former presidents Grant, Hoover, Coolidge, Cleveland and Eisenhower, giving it the nickname “River of Presidents.” It is a beautiful and exciting river for canoe or kayak enthusiasts. Brown trout can be found there, though not without some effort. It is also possible to find great lakes salmon in the lower reaches of the river at certain times of year.
The village of Lake Nebagamon is a small, quiet community – the kind of place that might be a bit like Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith show. “We are a small, family oriented community,” says Dinkel, who has been in Lake Nebagamon for eighteen years. “It’s very parent oriented. Everyone watches out for each other’s kids. Parents communicate.”
The conveniences of a larger town are only as far away as Superior (about a forty-minute drive on quiet country roads), but everything needed on a day-to-day basis can be found in the village. “We have a bank and ATM now,” notes Swan Dawson, longtime resident and village clerk. “A few years back, you’d have to go six miles to get an ATM, but now it’s all here.”
The village offers groceries, gas and even a few restaurants. In fact, Lake Nebagamon is home of Wisconsin’s oldest Dairy Queen. There is a well used and popular public beach right downtown, along with the public boat launch and village campground nearby. They have their biggest town festival over the fourth of July, but another popular community celebration is the car show in August.
One of the focal points for the community is the village Hall. “They have something there every Wednesday night,” says John Dinkel. “A concert, or some sort of show.” Dawson also notes that the besides holding the village offices, the village hall is used for weddings and gatherings of all kinds.
Dinkel, who lives right on the lake across from the village, says that the small-community atmosphere continues on the water. “There’s not a lot of boat traffic here. But when there are a lot of boats, there is great harmony between the folks who want to water ski and jet ski, and those who want to fish quietly. It’s a self-discipline thing. Everyone just takes it upon themselves to respect each other.”
The lake is also unique because of its shape. From the air, it looks a bit like an X, with a curved tail hanging below the right crosspiece. The significance of this, according to John Dinkel, is that even on a blustery day, you can almost always find a quiet stretch of water that is not affected by the wind.
According to local sources, a lot of the property on Lake Nebagamon has been passed down from generation to generation within families since the time of Fredrick Weyerhauser. The lake remains a quiet, “old north” location in part, because the same families are there today that were there two generations ago. Many of the lakeshore properties are summer cabins, and year-round dwellings are still outnumbered by those seasonal buildings. Even so, there are a few properties for sale right now, in addition to the YMCA camp.
The devastation of Weyerhauser’s logging operation a century ago is long gone, and hopefully lessons have been learned from that. At the same time, maybe we can also learn from Weyerhauser that Lake Nebagamon could be offering an opportunity that is simply too good to ignore.
