Taking a drive down Tree Farm Road in northern Oconto County is like going back in time.
Nestled in the woods and lakes of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest five miles northwest of Mountain is Camp Lake Resort, which Steve Larson’s family has owned and operated since his grandfather, Wilmot Swanson, purchased an abandoned logging camp and began building cottages near Camp Lake more than a century ago.
Today, Larson, his wife, Wendy, and their five children live at the resort, which includes six cottages.
Although it’s just down the road from heavily developed Maiden Lake, Camp Lake Resort is known as a place to relax and unwind in the quiet northwoods. That’s just fine with the Larsons.
Larson grew up at the resort, which now has 127 acres.
Swanson purchased the land that eventually became the resort in 1920. He purchased 93 acres of the former Camp 9 logging camp that included frontage on Camp, Middle, Little and Far lakes for $1,220.
The property included two buildings, the camp office and a bunk house. Swanson lived in the camp office while building the Green Cottage on a hill overlooking Camp Lake. The camp office eventually became the Blue Cottage, and the bunk house was converted into a barn.
Besides the Blue and Green cottages, the resort now also includes the Stone Cottage on Camp Lake; Rock Rest, a cottage on Maiden Lake; Pine Hideaway, an A-frame cottage on Middle Lake; and Pine Haven, a newer log-and-stone home available year-round.
Swanson’s final project at the resort is the Gingerbread House, which he completed in the mid-1950s. The building is made of stone and wood.
“Wilmot wanted to do something different,” Larson said. “He didn’t build conventional buildings, and you’ll see that in the cabins. Nothing is the same. You just don’t find anything like it, especially the stone cottages. He started working with stone, and I think he preferred it.”
Swanson died in December 1972, and his failing health kept him from completing another cottage he had planned to build just south of the Gingerbread House.
The Mountain, Lakewood and Townsend area eventually became a popular vacation destination and the region once had several resorts. Most of them aren’t in business anymore, but that isn’t the case with Camp Lake Resort.
The resort’s customers are looking for something different, according to Larson.
“They often say, ‘Don’t change anything, it’s a step back in time,’” he said. “They appreciate the simpler things, I guess. People like that there is still something like this around. A lot of places have been torn down and rebuilt with something modern.”
The cottages — especially the older buildings — require a lot of maintenance.
“My grandfather was good at design, but foundations, not as well,” Larson said. “They’re holding up. It’s a testament of time that they’re still here, so that means something.”
There was a time when it looked like the resort might not stay in the family.
“There was desperation on the part of Steve’s parents about 14 years ago to have Steve and me help them,” Wendy Larson said. “I met Steve online about 20 years ago, and I married into this. I was a bit terrified, but I grew to love it.”
Wendy Larson moved to the resort from the Chicago suburbs.
“I always loved ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ the 1800s,” she said. “This was sort of my chance to live my childhood dream of what the pioneer life was like. I just kind of embraced it all. I wouldn’t trade it.”
Eventually, the Larsons had five children – Charity (15), Ellie (14), Anders (12), Benjamin (9) and Issac (7) – and each of them help run the resort.
John and Esther Larson ran the resort while raising Steve and his siblings. Esther is Wilmot Swanson’s daughter.
“My mom is the real soul of it, but he had a full-time job and did this as well,” Steve Larson said.
“Esther had the gift of being extremely not embarrassed to ask any guest for help doing any hard work,” Wendy Larson said. “You didn’t argue with Esther, yet that was her way to keep her dad’s legacy alive. She worked as hard as she could, but she knew that it would be a constant life of pushing everybody to get things figured out. I was happy we could be here and take that on.”
Steve and Wendy Larson have run the resort for 14 years. Besides running the resort, Steve Larson also works full-time as a mail carrier for the Lakewood Post Office, a job he has held since January 2024.
About 75% of the resort’s clientele are repeat visitors, and most of them come from three hours away or less, Wendy Larson said.
“Some of the families have been up here for 70 years,” she said. “You’re with them as they’re dying of cancer, you’re with them as they welcome their new grandbabies.”
Wendy Larson promotes the resort through a website and Facebook page but said the best advertising is word of mouth.
“Our guests tell their friends,” she said. “We have a very strong returning guest base, and that’s wonderful, because I know they’re happy here and know what to expect. I don’t want to take it for granted, but we’ve had a nice, robust business for quite a while now.”
Wendy Larson takes care of the resort’s 175 reservations a year.
“I make sure their questions are answered,” she said. “I’ll mail out brochures and welcome packets and make sure the prices are fair and competitive.”
The plan is to keep the resort in the family, but whether any of the Larsons’ children eventually take the resort over remains to be seen.
“It’s too soon at this point,” Steve Larson said. “We don’t push them.”
