"Oh, wife, let us go now and let us not wait,

For I long to be in that wonderful state.

You'll be a fine lady and who knows, but I

May even be gov'nor some day'fore I die."

From Folk Songs out of Wisconsin

(Click on the sign above to read about the Hoodlum.)

It is very strange, and very melancholy,

that the paucity of human pleasures

should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

Samuel Johnson (1709–84), English author, lexicographer. Hester Piozzi, Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786; repr. in Johnsonian Miscellanies, vol. 1, ed. by George Birkbeck Hill, 1897).

Emil Severt, sportsman extraordinaire, sitting on the steps of his cabin on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage (see below) getting ready to go fishing.  In the second picture, on a hunting expedition in Montana,  Emil is seen kneeling amongst their trophies (the other person is unidentified).  Notice that there are also deer hanging on the side of the lodge.  The insert on the left is Emil decked out in his early fishing outfit, ridding pants and long boots and the insert on the right is Emil with his water spaniel named "Schnappsy".  The Schnappsy pictured is the first of two water spaniels that Emil owned.

The Turtle-Flambeau Flowage constructed in 1926 was formed in order to maintain a steady flow of water for the Flambeau Paper Mill in Park Falls and for power generation. The system has worked with few interruptions since its construction. Only in the extremely dry years of the early-1930s did water levels drop low enough to affect the powerplants in Park Falls.

The Turtle-Flambeau Dam created one of the largest impoundment's of water in northern Wisconsin and formed a lake where two streams once flowed. Resorts were soon built around the big lake and fisherman worked its waters for musky, northern and bass. Stumps let in the Flowage were an inconvenience for some boaters and many a fishing line has been lost to them, but they are excellent structures for fish and some of the largest musky and pike ever caught in Wisconsin have come out of the Turtle-Flambeau.

Your visit would not be complete without first reading about

the "Side Saddle Fishing Club".

(Click on the image above to visit.)

The hunt was at the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. After the hunting party returned to Arpin they all assembled for this photograph near the home of Frank Sommerfeldt, circa 1927. From left to right: Norman Severt, Emil Severt, Jake Kreig, Ernie Scott, Edgar Setzkorn, Frank Sommerfeldt, Fred Sommerfeldt, Otto Kurth, Otto Sommerfeldt, Bill Kurth, August Sommerfeldt, Emil Miller, Charley Setzkorn and Art Cumber (kneeling) and the child is Franklin Sommerfeldt.

YOUR HOST

(Remember, when you are mousing around and you see Doug, click on him and he will take you back to the Table of Contents.)