St. Francis Solanus Indian Mission has an historical background. It is one of the earliest Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian Settlements in Wisconsin. A French-Canadian fur trader, John Baptiste Corbine, in 1796, settled in the Stone Lake region and started a trading post. He is the one…Read More

St. Francis Solanus Indian Mission has an historical background. It is one of the earliest Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian Settlements in Wisconsin. A French-Canadian fur trader, John Baptiste Corbine, in 1796, settled in the Stone Lake region and started a trading post. He is the one that introduced Catholicism to the Lac Courte Orielles. Consequently, Catholicism grew, and because of that, there was a need for a local church. As a result of this, the United States government gave Lac Courte Oreilles a 10-acre tract to build a church and school. It was first a small log church and school, which was named for Franciscan missionary St. Francis Solanus. But, in 1921, lightening struck and it was rebuilt with pipestone from a local quarry.

My parents always took us to this parish/school. They went because they purchased the homemade breads the nuns made and the proceeds went for a good cause - school/parish. Even though I am not a Catholic, I later as an adult went there for Mass. It is one of the prettiest parishes I have ever seen. Its outside exterior is build from pipestone. And the inside of it has decorative items in it. For instance, there is one stained-glass window that has a Native-American mother and daughter in it. And when I was there last, there was an original Native-American tee-pee that was used as the altar. Along with this, the children made Native American souvenirs to sell to the public. I purchased several homemade drums. The children used coffee cans, rubber, and string and Native-American decorations to make these. These items were gorgeous.

Besides the school and the parish being there, there is a cemetery, too. But some of the people buried had lived sad lives and died prematurely. According to the nuns, many of the young Indian girls buried there had died in childbirth. These girls were like 12 and 14 years of age.

St. Francis Solanus Parish is located at 13891 W. Mission Rd., Stone Lake, Wisconsin 54876. Its phone number is 715/865-3669. Gregory Hopefl conducts the Mass held on Saturday at 4:30pm and Sunday at 10am.

Most of us have this image of Al Capone as being a notorious mobster. And this is true, but many people in the Couderay, Wisconsin, region think he was a nice man. In fact, my father met a man who had built a fireplace for…Read More

Most of us have this image of Al Capone as being a notorious mobster. And this is true, but many people in the Couderay, Wisconsin, region think he was a nice man. In fact, my father met a man who had built a fireplace for him at his northern retreat, the Hideout. He told my Dad (when we vacationed as a family in the ‘70s) that Capone was a personable man that gave monies away to some poor people and Indian children. The man claimed that Capone was known to give coins to Indian children (I think $0.50 pieces). Anyway, he had a different reputation amongst some of the people that lived in the Couderay region.

Al Capone, in the 1920s, built his northern retreat. The cost at that time to build it was $250,000. This lakefront retreat has 1,100-foot frontage on Chippewa Flowage. The 90-acre lake was supposedly used by airplanes to smuggle in liquor during Prohibition. Then the Capone gang rolled barrels of booze into trucks.

In 1959, Capone’s northern retreat was turned into a restaurant and museum by a man named E.N. Houston. After owning it for over 40 years, it was sold and continues to be a restaurant and museum. Here, you can take a guided tour through Capone’s living quarters of the main lodge and around the ground’s nine additional buildings. Once you get in the living quarters, you will see that parts of it have ordinary features, such as an enormous fireplace, custom-carved spiral staircases, and deer-antler fixtures, but it still has a mobster’s touch: the house has bulletproof walls (18-inch-thick fieldstone), a secret bunkhouse for the gang, a blockhouse with a jail cell, an exercise yard, and a guard tower where guards with machine guns were on the lookout. In addition, there is a switch that Al Capone had in his bedroom that allowed him to turn on all the lights in the house. You also tour the Roaring ‘20s museum and view the recreation of the St. Valentine’s Massacre display.

The garage that was built to house Capone’s eight black limos was refurbished to a restaurant. Here you can have fine dining meals and cocktails. In addition, this place has a snack bar and a gift shop. Although we didn’t eat fine dining here, we did have an ice-cream specialty that was fabulous at the ice-cream parlor. And I did purchase a T-shirt with a character image of Al Capone with a machine gun, with words above it saying Al Capone’s Hideout Couderay, WI.

The Al Capone Hideout tour is offered from May to Labor Day on the hour from 11am to 6pm and Labor Day through October from 11am to 5pm. Concerning the restaurant and cocktails, reservations are appreciated, and it serves Tuesday through Saturday 4pm to 9pm and Sunday 12 to 7pm. It serves burgers, sandwiches, steaks, prime rib, and seafood. The snack bar is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day from 11am to 5pm daily. It serves red-hot Chicago hotdogs, pizza slices, ice-cream treats, etc. And the gift shop is open 11am to 7pm. It sells a variety of gifts, souvenirs, and antiques.

The address to the Hideout is 12101 W. County Rd., Couderay, WI 54828, and the phone number is 715/945-2746. The Hideout is located north of Highway 27-70 at Couderay, Wisconsin. Take that onto Highway CC North, 6 miles to the entrance or only 17 miles southeast of Hayward, then take Highway 8 east to Highway NN, head south on NN to Highway N, go east on N 2 blocks to Highway CC, then go east on Highway CC, where you are half a mile to the entrance.

Home of the world’s record musky, which was caught by Louie Spray in 1940s (it weighed 69 pounds and 11 ounces), and dubbed as a "Musky Factory" (because of the amount of good-sized muskies being caught here) by the 1993 Muskie Magazine (which is the…Read More

Home of the world’s record musky, which was caught by Louie Spray in 1940s (it weighed 69 pounds and 11 ounces), and dubbed as a "Musky Factory" (because of the amount of good-sized muskies being caught here) by the 1993 Muskie Magazine (which is the official publication of Muskies, Inc.), the Big Chip caters to everyone: anglers, canoeists, campers, and natural enthusiasts. Concerning me, I have rented a cabin here at Clements’ resort (when it was in business) and I have fished here. The scenery is gorgeous.

Lake Chippewa Flowage is Wisconsin’s third largest lake. It was created 75 years ago, when the gates of the Winter Dam were closed. It is fed by the waters of nine natural rivers and has 11 natural lakes. The flowage possesses 15,000 acres of water, 140 islands, and over 200 miles of undeveloped shoreline. There is a wide diversity of animals and fish that are present here. If you take a boat ride, you will be witness to loons, herons, bald eagles, deer, and bears, and there are also muskies, walleyes, cappies, large-mouth and small-mouth bass, jumbo perch, and panfish in these waters.

And people who are winter enthusiasts can take joyrides along the 500 miles of groomed snowmobile trails that crisscross the Chippewa Flowage.

It is the Big Chip’s scenery, undeveloped wild character, serene atmosphere, and great fishing that tourists like about this region. I, myself, have my favorite resorts located here. One was Clements, but it is no longer in business due to it being sold and torn down (and supposedly a new one will take its place). However, another favorite resort of mine, in which I dined at several times in the past, is called Herman’s Landing. You pay a little more for a cabin rental (for four people in the cottage, it is $570 weekly in the summer) here, but you have a lot of amenities, which includes the restaurant. I remember that I would leave my resort to come here for breakfast. I would order the ham, egg, and hash brown platter, and it was the best home-cooked meal I had ever eaten besides my mom’s. The ham they gave you back then was a huge, a thick slice that could easily feed two people. Besides having a great restaurant, this resort is stunning.

For you campers, camping on the Big Chip is allowed at no charge on a first-come, first-served basis at 16 island sites accessible by water only. You can only camp at existing campsites, which are designated on a map (probably get through the DNR there). Thus, you can’t make your own campsites. You have your choice of having a rustic campsite to full hook-up facilities that are available at private facilities on the flowage. However, if you utilize the state sites, you have to follow various rules, such as limiting your camping to 10 days on the flowage, being considerate of other campers by keeping noise to a minimum and leaving the campsite clean.

For you boaters, you need to exercise a lot of caution when operating your boat in the Big Chip. This is due to the fact that it has stumps, logs, floating bogs, and rock bars. In addition, you must operate your boat to Wisconsin’s boating regulations, which includes operating the boat at a "speed that is no greater than reasonable or prudent." The four DNR-administered boat landings have boarding docks to ease access for everyone, which includes people with disabilities.

If you are interested in making reservations at Herman’s Landing, the address is 8255 N. County Rd., Hayward, Wisconsin, 54843-7690, and the phone number is 715/462-3626. And, if you are coming from the north, I have the following directions: Take State Road 53 South to Highway 63 North and follow it to Hayward. Turn south on Highway 27 in Hayward. Take Highway B East for 15 minutes to Highway CC, then follow CC South for 5 miles to Herman’s Landing.

Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays. I think it remains one of the more pure, least commercialized holidays. There is nothing as real as a family of multiple generations gathering around a table and enjoying favorite foods and company together. Uncle Rick and…Read More

Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays. I think it remains one of the more pure, least commercialized holidays. There is nothing as real as a family of multiple generations gathering around a table and enjoying favorite foods and company together.

Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary Lee have raved about Spider Lake Lodge all year. It's the kind of place that they sneak off to any chance they get. So when Rick came up with the idea to book the entire seven-room lodge for our family, it sounded like a plan.

On Thanksgiving, we awoke in this peaceful and scenic setting. Our tradition is to take a morning walk. It was actually warm—well, warm by "November in Wisconsin" standards, at about 43 degrees. So we bundled up and marched down the road.

The woods were quiet and peaceful. Most of the cabin owners in this area and shut up their cabins and were spending their holiday elsewhere. All the leaves had fallen off the trees, and there was a bare feeling to the woods. We spotted two young does running in front of us. It was hunting season here, and deer somehow know during this time of year to flee from people and leave quickly. The lake just had a thin coat of ice over it and was beautiful. The ice was too thick to boat on, but too thin to walk on. The boys quickly discovered, however, that when you threw a piece of ice over the flat surface of the lake, it would make an echo, and the reverberating sound could be heard across the lake. We enjoyed our walk; the air was fresh and clean and the woods so quiet. We were caught off-guard when we encountered another family coming down the road taking their Thanksgiving walk.

The only thing more communal than sharing a meal with friends and family is making a meal with friends and family. We were thrilled that Jim and Craig (our lodge hosts) allowed us full use of the marvelous lodge kitchen. Normally, the kitchen is off-limits to guests, but as we had the whole lodge, rules were dropped. It was the type of kitchen a cook dreams about. It was huge, with a big industrial stove, lots of counter space, and a big sink.

We all pitched in and had the luxury of all being in the kitchen at once. Everyone was chopping, slicing, stirring, and mixing. We all laughed, told stories, and helped the youngest generation learn the secrets of old family recipes. It was a moment I will never forget. I loved the fact that we could all help and there was room for everyone. Whether it was peeling a potato or mixing the pumpkin pie, everyone had a job, and everyone pitched in.

The table was set—Jim and Craig had lined up the breakfast tables to one long table along the back window of one of the great rooms. We had a wonderful view of Spider Lake, which seemed so still, calm, and peaceful. We served our meal buffet-style from the kitchen counter. There was plenty of food for everyone. Everyone had brought up one favorite recipe to make, and this year, we had the biggest turkey I could remember. We laughed, told stories, and everyone told what they were most thankful for in the world. Then, of course, everyone went back for seconds. The meal lasted almost two hours and seemed like a lot less. We were all full, happy, and thankful.

While the rest of us let our food settle, the boys wanted to play a round of football in the front. They moved outside, and Jim started a fire in the fireplace. Suddenly, Patrick came rushing in with the news of the day: "It's snowing!" Sure enough, right on cue, the first snowfall of the season was starting. We all came to the door and watched big, thick flakes fall from the heavens. We teased Jim and Craig that everything was so perfect, but arranging a Thanksgiving night snowfall was just over the top.

We came back in and ate our pies around the fire. It wasn't long before a game of Texas Hold ‘Em got started, and everyone joined in. Yes, Thanksgiving Wisconsin-style was perfect.

I am a former student of Saint Francis and had some of my best years here. I moved away years ago but still can picture the school and church and the Sisters. I think this place is a hidden historical spot that should be recognized…Read More

I am a former student of Saint Francis and had some of my best years here. I moved away years ago but still can picture the school and church and the Sisters. I think this place is a hidden historical spot that should be recognized . Close