Show notes
Today’s episode takes us all the way back to 1900, when a group of seven friends from Waukesha decided they needed a break from everyday life and headed north. They weren’t going to a resort, or a guided tour, or anything remotely convenient. They were determined to find lakes so remote they basically didn’t have names yet. Think: no roads, barely a trail, everything hauled in by canoe or on foot.It sounded great… until the luggage went missing, the blankets turned out to be wildly insufficient, and a two-week wilderness escape slowly turned into a comedy of weather, logging camps, and detours. Along the way they met lumber crews, Ojibwe families harvesting wild rice, and colorful Northwoods characters—including a guy named Buck, who may or may not have been pranking city tourists for sport.Their adventure was recorded in the Waukesha Freeman in September of 1900, and today we’re telling that story—complete with long portages, unexpected snow, great fishing, and a campsite called Windy Point that lived up to its name a little too well.


