Welcome to “Discovering the Northwoods” from the Manitowish Water Historical Society. We will take you on a journey through our local history with the help of primary source documentation. To learn more about this rich history or about the historical society - check out our website at mwhistory.org for blog posts, show notes, our YouTube Channel, and a full transcription of this episode!
An Outing of Waukesha Men in the Wilds of Wisconsin
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.
5 Nov 2025
Woods and Water: Bob Becker's Adventures in the Northwoods
In this episode, I will cover five articles from Bob Becker's Woods and Water series that explore the Northwoods in the 1920s. Bob Becker was a very influential media figure during the rise of radio in the 1930s. He consistently gave high endorsements of the Northwoods on a national scale and showcased its beauty and wonders across the country through the media.
19 Aug 2025
By and Large
By and Large is a story of a canoe voyage aboard a “Belle Isle” Special – Described in a 1910 advertisement as “The Triumph of the canoe builder’s art. Swift, Safe, Strong, Durable. Easy to paddle, comfortable, graceful.” From photographing timber wolves to baking pickerel over open coals, dodging rocks in roaring rapids, and drifting silently past deer on moonlit waters, this story isn't just about travel — it’s about immersion. Into solitude. Into wildness. Into a different way of moving through the world, but all under the guise of an advertisement for an excellent canoe. This article was published in the Press of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1927, and the author is unknown.
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