History of the Anvil Lake Watershed

History of the Anvil Lake Watershed

A compilation of historical documents and personal recollections. A PDF version of the History of Anvil Lake is available at the bottom of the page.

A. Early Geologic History

The last retreating glacier that covered most of Wisconsin approximately twelve to fourteen thousand years ago gifted Anvil Lake and all of our northern lakes, to us. Ice sheets, thousands of feet thick, left enormous deposits of sand and gravel as they melted. Ahead of the glacial melt, huge blocks of ice broke off the retreating glacier and filled potholes that became our lake country. These ice blocks are the cause and reason for our shorelines irregular shape and the natural structure underwater we see on our locators.

B. Native Americans in the area

The truly ‘original’ Native Americans in Northern Wisconsin came to hunt as the retreating glaciers melted and moved north. This occurred about 12, 000 years ago. As the climate warmed some 4,000 years ago, new hunter/gathering types of peoples moved into the area. Archeologists refer to them as Northern Highlands or Middle Woodlands peoples. They lived in villages of perhaps a hundred or more persons, hunted, farmed for beans, root crops and corn and gathered the fruit of the land, moving north with the spring warmth and south with the coming winter storms. These Woodland prehistoric peoples may have given rise to the modern groups such as the Menominee, Potawatomi and Chippewa or Ojibwa.

C. Fur Traders

Jean Nicolet is the first known European to visit Wisconsin, arriving in 1634. His purpose in coming was to serve as a peacemaker between the powerful Winnebago tribe and the Ottawa. The French wanted peace to facilitate their fur trade. The Indians trapped and processed furs to trade them to the French who gave them trinkets, guns, shot, gunpowder, and whiskey in return. One such trading post was on the east shore of Catfish Lake in Vilas County. The French, using the area waterways, shipped the furs home to Europe on large canoes carrying as much as five thousand pounds each.

In the period before the Civil War, Englishman Dan Gagen set up a fur trading post at what is now Eagle Waters Resort on Eagle Lake, just west of Anvil Lake. The marshes and streams of what is now the Blackjack Springs Wilderness Area provided many fur-bearing animals for trapping and trading. Gagen became a good friend to many Indians of the area and was often called upon to settle disputes between Indians and other residents of the area.

Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society

D. Military Road

An Act of Congress on March 3, 1863 approved the construction of the Military Road from Fort Howard, which was Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Fort Wilkins at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan. The road was completed in 1872. Archeological evidence suggests that a Lake Superior trail was first used by Indians for thousands of years, then by cattle drivers and fur traders to supply the mines and settlements of northern Michigan. The Military Road was never used for the military purpose for which it was intended. The road entered the eastern end of Vilas County and passed the south end of Anvil Lake proceeding in a northerly direction to the east end of North Twin Lake and rounded the southwest shore of Lac Vieux Desert before going on into Michigan. As it neared Anvil Lake, the original roadbed came in close to the south shore and along what is now Chiclet Lane and through the Zaugg property. The property at that time was not filled in, so, in effect, the road came to within 100’ from the water.

E. Lumbering and Railroads

In the early 1900’s supplies were floated across the lake from the railroad at the north end to the Croatian settlement on the west shore. In 1918, Camp 14 was located in the area of N40 E11 northwest of Anvil Lake. There were two sawmills located on Anvil Lake: one was in the vicinity of what is now the Wm. Fetters and Robert and Shirley Egan and James and Gina Egan properties. The second sawmill was on what is now Carlson’s property on the north end of the lake. It has been reported that about 1917-1918, a sleigh with logs on it and the team of horses that pulled the sleigh went through the ice. The drivers were able to escape onto the ice. It was after that event that the train came into the area and took logs to Phelps. A spur of the C.M. Christiansen narrow gauge railroad was constructed and utilized from Phelps to Anvil Lake between 1928 and 1935. Prior to this time, Hackley, Phelps, Bonnell Company owned the railroad. It carried the hardwood lumber and timber waste to the sawmill and chemical (charcoal) plant at Phelps. Consequently, it formed a loop at the north end of Anvil Lake as a turnaround and went back on its own track. It came in between Moscherosch’s and Schaffer’s along the shore to Mueller’s within approximately 100’ of shoreline. In 1949 the railroad bed was visible, but the tracks had been removed. In 1933 a fire tower was Courtesy of USDA Forest Service constructed northwest of Anvil Lake just off of Forest Road 2178 and East Anvil Lake Road. It was manned until 1965 and dismantled in 1975. During the railroading years, a tender box was in the spring located between Mueller's and Carlson's (a tender box is a wooden box constructed in the spring bed to collect water for the railroad engine to make steam.) This box was still in place as of 1949, but has disintegrated and been removed.

F. First lake settlers

The first people who actually lived on the lake were about 15-20 lumbermen and their families. They lived in the vicinity of the sawmills on the southwest side of the lake.

When housing was developed around the lake, the most common type of toilet structure for waste management was an outhouse over a 7-foot deep hole. These would have been situated behind each house to be out of sight of the lake. The railroads and sawmill owners having removed the valuable forest, wanted to populate the northwoods for the purpose of keeping railroad passenger and freight traffic viable. For this reason, railroad companies hired Croation immigrant John Habrich to recruit his fellow Croatians to the area. It was his job to sell the cutover land. He advertised in US Croatian newspapers and people came to the area from many parts of the United States. They settled in the general Anvil Lake District. There were many homes and farms in the area of what is now Hwy 70 and 2178 (Military Rd.) Gordon Link reports that his Grandfather, Gordon Fee, told him that the entire eastern shore of Anvil Lake burned about 1919. The fire extended east from Anvil Lake. Gordon Fee built a summer home on the east shore in 1919. His descendents have used this during the summer months since that time. In 1919, there were approximately 11 households around Anvil Lake according to Gordon Link. In 1920, construction lumber was floated from the boat landing at the south end of Anvil Lake to the Otto Bellman property on the north end of the lake. This property burned in 1928.

G. Vacationing at Anvil Lake 1900 through 1950’s

Camp Glen Eden was established on the west shore in the 1930’s. A pontoon plane brought campers into the area. Electricity first came to Anvil Lake in 1947, but at that time it did not go around the entire lake. The eastern shore was the last area to get electricity in 1989. The first resorts were built at Anvil Lake in the late 1940’s. Smitty’s Resort, which was located on the east side of the lake, had modern cottages, that is, they had indoor plumbing. When Frank Schmitt purchased the property, there were no trees on the lake side. He leveled the land so cottages could be built. At that time East Anvil Lake Road was a narrow gravel road from highway 70. There was a telephone line laid across the lake bed from Camp Glen Eden to Smitty’s Resort in 1951. Mailboxes for permanent residences were located at the corner of Hwy 70 and Military Road. June Schmitt reports that she drove the resort jeep on the shore to the south bay boat landing in 1950’s to pick up mail. June Schmitt reports that the Vilas and Forest County Highway Department did extensive salting of Highway 70 in the 1950’s and for many years after. It is highly likely that this salting process worked its way into Anvil Lake from the many storm water drainage ditches that formed naturally and flowed into the lake. Algae growth was so thick on the lake in the late summers of the early Courtesy of USDA Forest Service 1950’s that Frank Schmitt cut paths out from the shore for the resort customers. There were large numbers of suckers in the lake. The Lake Association members cooperated in removal and disposal by burying them in Moscherosch’s farm field. This was located north of Anvil Lake. Paige’s Resort was located on the west side of the lake. Ulrich/Bauer Cottages were built on the east side of the lake. Fern Dell Resort was located on the north side of the lake. The present Anvil Lake Campground is the result of William Froelich selling the land to the government in 1936, in exchange for the government building a road around the entire lake. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built 18 campsites, the shelter and an outdoor theatre for camp programs. There were boats with motors on the lake at this time, but they were 3.5-5 hp. Emma Yadro reported swimming with friends in Anvil Lake in 1936. One of their major concerns was the presence of many bloodsuckers. In 1956 the water was clear enough to be able to see twenty feet down (Yadro).

H. Cottages, New Homes and Big Boats-1960’s-1970’s

This era saw the development of new cottages and homes. Most were built to the standard of the day for indoor plumbing, pounded wells, and septic systems. Karras’ Campground (Sandy Beach) was developed on the south shore of the lake in the 1960’s. Camp Glen Eden closed in 1963. As with resorts throughout northern Wisconsin, the owners of the resorts on Anvil Lake, began selling cottages, one by one, often to former guests. Many of these cottages were remodeled into year around homes at this time. The small boats with outboard motors of 3 or 5 horsepower, so common in the 50’s, were replaced with boats that pulled water skiers. Many of these had motors of 50 and 60 hp and larger, as the years progressed. Oil slicks on the water and inefficiently operating motors were the norm for this era. In 1978, with the help of former Wisconsin governor Gaylord Nelson, the Blackjack Springs area, west of Military Road and north of Hwy. 70, was designated a federally protected wilderness area, with a ban on all forms of mechanized travel and logging not permitted. In 1978, the US Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, published a study of Wisconsin Lake Levels, which included Anvil Lake. The study encompassed the period 1936 through 1974. Anvil Lake is reported to be a ground water flow through lake, with depth levels fluctuating most widely. In these lakes, water moves freely between the ground water table and the lake. The range of lake levels is great because there is no outlet to release the excess water. Anvil Lake was reported to have an annual range of fluctuation of one foot with a range of just over five feet during the 38-year survey period.

I. 1980 to the Present

In 1985, upon the purchase of 1959 E. Anvil Lake Road, the writer of this history stood on the ice at the very edge of the ice shove cutting brush on this property. Water levels and depths started going down in the next few years, to where almost everyone on Anvil Lake had to purchase additional dock sections or extend their current dock, to reach adequate depth for mooring boats.The late 1980’s and into the 90’s saw the advent of new jet propelled single person watercraft. Both owners and visitors either rented or purchased these loud, noisy, bottom plant sucking, exciting new water toys. It was not uncommon to see two or three buzzing the lake on any summer weekend.

Starting in the late 1980’s, we witnessed the development of the old Camp Glen Eden property into the new Zaugg’s Resort of large new cabins. The Eagle River Fire Department added a permanent under water and under the ice stand pipe, next to the federal boat landing as a source of water for fire fighting in the area. In the 1990’s, George and Millie Krzywkowski, the owners of Sandy Beach Campground, on the south end of south bay, gradually discontinued the business. The Anvil Lake Campground, with the assistance of the Forest Service and the Wisconsin Conservation Crew, revamped the campground, adding new pit toilets, black topped drives and camp sites. They also added a pier at the boat landing and resurfaced the parking area. In the 1990’s, in an effort to encourage pairs of loons to nest on Anvil Lake, a loon platform was placed in a sheltered cove in the north bay. This was successful in attracting several pairs of loons to nest and produce young.

Personal Interviews were conducted with the following individuals:

Gordon and Linda Link

Charles and Carol Gumn

Nick and Emma Yadro

June Schmitt

Elaine and Russ Schaffer

Phillip Christensen

Leo and Caroline Mueller

The authors of this history are indebted to everyone named above who took time to assist us and provide anecdotes for this history. We owe a debt of gratitude to the many lake homeowners of years ago who assisted with previous history reports of Anvil Lake. We recognize there are many more people on the lake with family ties that go back generations. We believe that their remembrance would concur with what we have written here. We saw this as an oral history with many different stories, all with common links.

Thomas and Maureen Donovan

October 10, 2003