History Afield : Stories From the Golden Age of Wisconsin Sporting Life

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Fish Stories 2. Boats in the Backyard 3. The Mepps Story 4. Trouting on the Brule: An 1875 Fishing Expedition to Northern Wisconsin and Michigan 5. Lost Outboard Recovered after Seventy Years 6. Carl Marty's Northernaire: A Special Place in Time 7. Hazen's Long Lake Lodge 8. First Resorts: Teal Lake Lodge 9. Mel's Trading Post 10. Pastika's Sport Shop: Ninety Years of Muskies and Minnows 11. Duke's Outboards: A Northwoods Institution 12. The Rhinelander Boat Company 13. Waterfowl Hunting with Live Decoys. 14. Spring Duck Hunting in the 1800s15. An Old Dog for a New Century: The History of the American Water Spaniel 16. The Armistice Day Storm: The Winds of Hell 17. One Day in March 1933 18. Ike's First Vacation to the Wisconsin Northwoods 19. The Summer White House on the Brule 20. Murder at Pelican Lake 21. Trapping in the Blood: The Carl Schels Story 22. Remembering the State Fur Farm 23. "Le Portage" and the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway 24. Pioneer Bits and Pieces 25. Charles Comiskey and the Northwoods 26. The Wisconsin White Pine That Built a New York University Notes Index.

Stories of sportsmen past come to life in History Afield, an account of the many and varied sporting pursuits that are part of the Wisconsin tradition. Author and outdoorsman Robert Willging shares more than two dozen tales of Wisconsin sporting history, highlighting the hunt for waterfowl, upland birds, and deer; trout fishing in wild north Wisconsin rivers; and recreating at early Wisconsin lakeside resorts.

 

Anecdotes of fishing exploits on our plentiful waterways and presidential visits to northern Wisconsin reveal a unique slice of sporting culture, and chapters on live decoys and the American Water Spaniel demonstrate the human-animal bond that has played such a large part in that history. Tales of nature’s fury include a detailed account of the famous Armistice Day storm, as well as the dangers of ice fishing on Lake Superior. These historical musings and perspectives on sporting ethos provide a strong sense of the lifestyle that Willging has preserved for our new century.

 

Featuring first-hand interviews and a variety of historic photos depicting the Wisconsin sporting life, History Afield shows how the intimate relationship between humans and nature shaped this important part of the state’s heritage.

Stories of sportsmen past come to life in History Afield , an account of the many and varied sporting pursuits that are part of the Wisconsin tradition. Author and outdoorsman Robert Willging shares more than two dozen tales of Wisconsin sporting history, highlighting the hunt for waterfowl, upland birds, and deer; trout fishing in wild north Wisconsin rivers; and recreating at early Wisconsin lakeside resorts. Anecdotes of fishing exploits on our plentiful waterways and presidential visits to northern Wisconsin reveal a unique slice of sporting culture, and chapters on live decoys and the American Water Spaniel demonstrate the human-animal bond that has played such a large part in that history. Tales of nature's fury include a detailed account of the famous Armistice Day storm, as well as the dangers of ice fishing on Lake Superior. These historical musings and perspectives on sporting ethos provide a strong sense of the lifestyle that Willging has preserved for our new century. Featuring first-hand interviews and a variety of historic photos depicting the Wisconsin sporting life, History Afield shows how the intimate relationship between humans and nature shaped this important part of the state's heritage.