Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 37, number 1, autumn, 1953

              ESPESETH   :   EARLY   VI LAS   COUNTY
VILAS COUNTY
(Continued from page 34)
Sometime in the 1860's a young man named Leonard Thomas came to the Draper settle¬ ment. He had trudged hundreds of miles alone and on foot, headed westward, like so many other fearless men of his time. Welcomed by the Drapers, he remained to make his home with them, later marrying Mary Draper. He lived in Rockland, Michigan, for a time and then returned to Lac Vieux Desert to take over the trading post which had been built there some fifteen years before. He did some logging, guiding, and cruising and cleared several acres on which he did some farming. He also put up some buildings to supplement the old log building in which the family lived and in which he housed the trading post.
In the early eighties, the Thomas family be¬ gan to offer room and board to fishermen, beginning the first American Plan resort op¬ eration in this part of the Wisconsin north- woods. Their first guest was Harry Patterson who had come up the Menominee and Brule Rivers from Green Bay with a pay roll for his brother's iron mine at Iron River. Hear¬ ing of the excellent fishing on Lac Vieux Desert, he portaged the six-mile hitch from the Brule to Lac Vieux Desert, where he en¬ gaged room and board with the Thomas'. Louis Thomas, eldest of the Thomas children, took over the management of the resort when he was a young man in his twenties. The re¬ sort began operation as Camp Vudesare, but some years later the name was changed to Lake Vieux Desert Summer Resort. Through the years the lake has been a mecca for muskellunge fishermen. In the fall, the hunt¬ ing for ducks, partridge, and deer has brought thousands of sportsmen to the area. Mr. Thomas sold the resort many years ago, but he continues to spend the summers at his cottage near the site of the historic old place which has figured so prominently in the development of the recreational business throughout this part of Wisconsin.^
'The story of the Thomas family and their coura¬ geous beginnings here was told to me by Sylvester Caskey, lifelong neighbor of the Thomas' who has lived on Lac Vieux Desert for over sixty years. Mate¬ rial for the story has likewise been given me by Mrs. Hattie Alcott, Virginia, Minnesota, and Mrs. Katie Erickson, Duluth, Minnesota, sisters of Louis Thomas.
Fishermen who came north in the early pre- railroad days were more adventurers than sportsmen. Like the logging industry, the resort industry, too, would have to await the coming of the railroads for any noteworthy advancement. One other resort was opened shortly after the Thomas family started their operation at Lac Vieux Desert. This was Seth Conover's resort on North Twin Lake. The place changed hands a number of times in the early years, but in 1891 it was acquired by the Goodalls and named Lakota Resort.
Several of the resorts in operation today were founded during the period from 1885 to 1900. The early resorts were, almost with¬ out exception, "board and lodging" estab¬ lishments. In the years that followed, they generally were known as American Plan places, the weekly or daily rate covering both meals and lodging. Each had a main lodge in which was the lounge, office, dining room, and kitchen. In most of the pioneer places, the main lodge was also the owner's home— the first guests were, in fact, additions to the family circle. Decorating the wafls of the lounge and dining room were mounted fish, deer heads, and sometimes stuffed game birds. The furniture usually was homemade and rus¬ tic. Some main lodge buildings had guest rooms upstairs, but for the most part the sleeping rooms were located in smaller two or three room cottages distributed over the grounds. Afl had wood-burning heaters and some had fireplaces of brick or stone. An air of homey simplicity characterized these early places. The excellent fishing and hunting, the splendor of the forests, and the warm hospi¬ tality of those early hosts offset the lack of electric lights, modern plumbing, and other accouterments of the modern age.
Cool evenings usually called for a crackling fire in the lounge fireplace before which the guests gathered to tefl their fishing experiences or to retell the yarns of an earlier day which became bigger and better with the years. To add interest to the evening there was usually a case of beer or a small keg buried in the sawdust of the icehouse to which at least one excursion was made. Resort guests in those days stayed on the place. They came by buggy or wagon from the railroad station over a crooked, bumpy road, and were content to remain at the resort until they were ready to
51