Highlights Archives
"Are We There Yet?" Wisconsin Tourism
It's midsummer and thousands of us have hit the roads for a well-deserved vacation. Fleeing the hectic pace of daily life is a 150-year-old tradition in Wisconsin. Traveling for recreation became increasingly popular after the advent of railroads, and by the middle of the 19th century many enterprising Americans were ready to serve the needs of a new class called tourists. Wisconsin Dells was one of the first resort areas in Wisconsin to meet this demand, thanks largely to the efforts of Henry Hamilton Bennett. Until the 1860s and 1870s, when Bennett's photographs were published in national magazines, the lack of hotels, guides and other services prevented tourism from becoming a major industry in the Dells. Bennett's images quickly changed that, drawing large numbers of people from the industrial cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. In the late 19th century new hotels, parks and other attractions began appearing at a record pace, transforming Wisconsin Dells into the state's most popular vacation destination.
At the end of the century, Northern Wisconsin also began to attract tourists eager to reconnect with nature. Many believed that the problems associated with city life could be cured by immersing oneself in pristine landscapes. The Northwoods, as the area came to be known, was seen increasingly as one of the last vestiges of the vanishing frontier. In the early 20th century, as more and more Americans moved from farms to cities, they looked back nostalgically on frontier pastimes such as fishing and hunting, and the tourist industry in Wisconsin's Northwoods began to expand. The establishment of private hunting and fishing clubs like the Big Sand Lake Club were harbingers of the rapid growth of recreational tourism in the early 20th century.
Several early resorts have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These include the Seven Pines Lodge in Polk County, a significant example of early 20th-century rustic resort architecture, whose buildings have remained virtually untouched. The interior of its main lodge contains the original furnishings and wall decorations, as well as the same broad axes, hatchets and shaving knives that the builders used to construct the house at the turn of the century. Pictures of other early resorts can be seen at Wisconsin Historical Images.
By the 1920s automobiles and trunk highways made recreational driving popular. A 1922 census revealed that more than 3,000 automobiles had passed through Rhinelander from other regions. The Northwoods became the favored destination of harried city dwellers looking for peace and quiet. Those who were wealthy enough built luxurious summer homes such as Fort Eagle in Vilas County, another National Register property, which includes a main house, gazebo, wet boathouse, "honeymoon cottage," caretaker's cottage with attached greenhouse, six-car garage, and other buildings. It was the vacation home of Homer Galpin, head of the Republican party machine in Chicago, and his wife from 1916 to 1941. Others preferred the more rustic charm of campsites and parks such as the Franklin Lake Campground, developed as Depression-era work relief projects.
Other parts of the state endowed with natural beauty, such as the Apostle Islands and Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, Door County in the northeast, and Lake Geneva in the southeast also became vacation destinations for motoring tourists. Frances Hutchinson even wrote a book, Our Country Home: How We Transformed a Wisconsin Woodland, about her summer property in Lake Geneva.
Tourism continues to be a major industry, especially in Northern Wisconsin, where the local economy is heavily dependent on southerners who drive into the woods looking for rest, relaxation and that muskie that got away last year. Wisconsin Dells remains one of the top tourist destinations in the Midwest, drawing almost 3 million people in 2003. You'll find many more historic pictures, articles, advertising brochures and books about the history of tourism in Wisconsin, especially during the early automobile era, at Turning Points in Wisconsin History. Wisconsin's roadside history is celebrated at Wisconsin History Explorer, including the road networks, gas stations, motels and restaurants that served the northwoods vacationer.
:: Posted July 25, 2005
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