Found: Up North Tourists Enjoy View

Found: Vacation Paradise, Solon Springs, Wisconsin.
 Photographed and distributed © Gallagher's Studio, Duluth, Minnesota.
Written on back in ballpoint:
"We are enjoying the lake where my folks live - swimming, water skiing and drinking coffee...Pastor Swanson."
Postmarked Solon Springs, July 5, 1962. Circa 1960s.

Found: Luther Park Bible Camp, Chetek, Wisconsin.
A warm day at Luther Park leads campers to the waterfront. What will it be?
Water skiing, pontoon or canoe ride or a refreshing swim?
What ever it is will be great fun as young Christians find adventure in Christ.
Published by G. R. Brown Co., Rt. 5, Eau Claire, WI 54701.
Made by Dexter Press, New York. Circa 1970s.

Found: Ashland, Wisconsin. 
Pulpwood is rafted across Lake Superior from points in Minnesota and Canada to Ashland,
where it is reshipped by rail to mills. In the foreground is a relic of the early logging days.
Logs were pulled out of the forest by this method. Tourists enjoy view of the harbor from Ashland Park. 
 © Photo and Pub. by Gallagher's Studio of Photography, 920 E. 1st Street, Duluth, Minn. Circa 1960s.

Water and trees surround most places in Wisconsin. These resources have become increasingly mediated in the 21st century meaning more development along shores, signage indicating dangers or attractions, and the ever present Lyme Disease (from deer ticks) in the northwoods and West Nile Virus (from mosquitoes) everywhere else. Postcards from the 1960s depict the pleasures of looking in an "Up North" seemingly free of bugs and hazards while mists of DDT linger (invisibly) in the air.

Found: Boating on The Fox River, Green Bay, WI

Found: Green Bay, Wisconsin Harbor. Boating on The Fox River. A popular recreation in downtown Green bay by Hank Lefebvre Photos, Green Bay, Wisconsin,  MCP Color Graphics, circa 1962

Pink skirted swim suits, pink beach balls, orange canvas life jackets and white pontoon boats...in downtown Green Bay across from the H.C. Prange Co. department store? Looks like a surreal montage today. We revisited the site only to find vague remnants of the peer.

Main Street Bridge view of The Fox River, November 16, 2012

Found: Greetings from Minocqua, Wisconsin

Found: "M-1-Min-Aqua Bats Water Ski Club by Antigo Card Service Curteich Color® Art-Creation Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. circa 1960

The Min-Aqua Bats still exist claiming to be one of the oldest amateur waterski show teams in the US having chartered in 1952, the same year Tommy Bartlett got his show rolling. The war was over and dare devil stunts were in the air in Wisconsin. Growing up in 1960s Wisconsin around abundant fresh water lakes and with Tommy Bartlett's Water  Ski & Jumping Boat Thrill Show going on in nearby Wisconsin Dells, water skiing seemed a cool teenaged thing to do in the summer. After decades of Thrill Show success he owned a chunk of Wisconsin Dells and would be spotted sorting around in a shiny red Porsche. We both remember our cousins water skiing on the lakes where they lived. It looked sufficiently dangerous to us to be pulled behind a motor boat going full-throttle. Our older cousins never offered to teach us and the stray tire inner tube along the shore seemed a saner option for kids in bright orange canvas life jackets.