.
Walt
Boettcher feeding pet deer
Gert
Boettcher feeding pet deer
.
Before Disney, Six
Flags or
water parks, families traveled to entertainment attractions with a
milieu
of relaxing venues. The Hayward area offered one such venue.
Walter and Gert
Boettcher owned
a deer farm tourist attraction at Hayward, Wisconsin in the 1940s and
1950s.
The farm was located five miles northwest from Hayward off highway 77.
A sign along 77 at the cross roads where the former Blakey / Pfister
home
was located, pointed south directing visitors to drive another mile
along
the Deer Farm Road to the popular tourist stop.
Walter A. and
Gertrude Boettcher
had moved to Hayward from Richfield at Washington County, Wisconsin.
Walt
had been a Plummer before moving to Hayward. The Boettcher did have
three
children : Ruth H., Dolores E., and son, Earl. Walt Boettcher was in
his
early 40s when he came to Hayward.
The Hayward Deer
Farm complex
was made up of a few small buildings set in a clearing with forests all
around. A small visitor’s center constructed of log served as a
greeting
place for tourists. Walt or Gert were always there to greet visitors.
The
center was a long narrow room or so it appeared, paneled in real knotty
pine with a ceiling of natural log trusses. The room had a twofold
function.
At one end of the room, counters were covered with an assortment of
north
woods / Hayward area souvenirs. This area also displayed historical
pieces
of the north woods logging industry. There were cant hooks, and various
saws and axes propped on shelves or hung on the walls. Several stuffed
animals were on display. A stuffed baby deer was the most fascinating.
And a small display of a rail road line could also be seen.
At the other end
of the room
were shelves of cigars, cigarettes, and candy across what seemed like a
long bar but actually only seated about six people. On warm summer days
there lingered the smell of stale beer and the ash smell of a wood
stove.The
walls here displayed several sets of deer antlers (racks). On the wall
partition separating the bar area from the little museum / souvenir
shop
area hung a shoulder mount jack-o-lope. Walt took great pride at
teasing
a child who gazed upon the jack-o-lope for the first time, that yes, it
was real and this is how you hunt them. Such a story!
Across the other
side of the
bar one would find Walt Boettcher in conversation with whomever was
there.
He was a talker with a quiet mannerism. The bar area always seemed warm
and inviting but dimly lit. A child could get a soda for a nickel
or 10 cents. One thing which can only be described as amazing about
Walt
is that he did allow his pet deer to walk in the back door of the bar.
His ‘pets’ would go right up to him expecting some treat.
It did not matter
if the room was filled with people. Walt truly enjoyed when children
were
around to see this. Walt always seemed old to children, but actually he
was young by today’s measure.
On a wall near
the side door
which was the entrance out into the deer farm grounds, a deer feed
dispenser
was located. Ten cents would fill a person’s hand with little
pellets of
deer feed. The side door near the bar area always seemed to hold some
magical
power waiting to be released as the visitor walked through it. This was
especially true for children. The inner emotion would build before
going
through the door and this may have been no more than the excitement of
knowing you were about to be up close with one of nature’s
beauties, a
deer. The deer farm’s magical world never disappointed. After
walking through
the door into the sunshine, it took a moment for one’s eyes to
adjust to
the sunshine. The visitor was almost always greeted by several deer who
were looking for treats.
The first
building to be seen
was the Boettcher home. That two story natural log structure looked
like
it came out of a story book about Germany’s Black Forest or so it
seemed.
In reality, there was nothing usual about the Boettcher home other than
it was constructed of logs. Yet, that building mystified many a young
mind.
Often Mrs. Boettcher would walk a short piece from the Boettcher home
to
greet visitors, always with a smile. Both of the elderly Boettchers
were
short, plump in stature, always friendly and reverend as the
neighborhood
grandparents. Mrs. Boettcher loved to spend time sharing her knowledge
of her pets with visitors.
A short walk away
stood a small
building with a fence around it. Here on display were kept a doe with
her
fawn. One of Mrs. Boettcher’s favorite pets was used for this.
And the
visitor needed to visit early enough in the season, because Gert would
release the deer into the woods at some point in the season. The entire
farm was encircled by a six or an eight-foot fence around it.
Out the back door
and behind
the bar area, stood a rustic log building used by the family as a
garage
and work area. The general public was not allowed into this area and
the
only fascinating attraction of this building was the area above the
garage
doors which were decorated with two dozen or so sets of deer antlers of
various sizes. Always the question, “Did grandpa Boettcher kill
his deer?”
The visitor could
walk a path
to a small, blue, clear lake in the woods not far from the Boettcher
home.
Sunlight would beam through the trees as one walked along. The rays
from
the sun flickering across the path made the walking experience seem
mystical.
There were no formal trails, just the recognizable foot paths made by
the
deer who too walked to the lake for a drink. Mrs. Boettcher sometimes
would
join the visitor for the walk. And true to the Boettcher magical world,
the fish in the lake knew when Mrs. Boettcher was there. They would
swim
up waiting for her to talk to them or feed them. The lake area proved
to
be a wonderful area to talk to Mr. Echo. Mrs. Boettcher encouraged
children
to listen for the repeating sound and often a game was made of just how
many echo repeats could be heard.
The final stop in
the magical
Boettcher world of the deer farm was at another pet area. Walt
had
built together two cages about eight feet high, constructed of logs and
iron bars. These held live displays. One year small bear cubs could be
found in the cages. The next year the cages might hold raccoons,
skunks or porcupine. Year after year, it was always a surprise to find
out what the cages held. Those cages were the closest to a zoo many
local
children had experienced. Although many of the area children lived on
farms,
and seeing a caged animal was no big thing, viewing the critters of the
forest up close provided each with a special magical experience.
NOTE: After the
Boettcher sold
out in the late 1950s to a Mr. Mitchell, they divided their time
between
Idaho where a daughter lived and Wisconsin where Earl maintained a
home.
Mitchell ran the deer farm for many more years before he closed it.
FURTHER INFORMATION by Debra Witt LaVelle
My
late husband and I were the final owners of the Deer Farm
home.
Prior owners, Mr & Mrs Maurice “Mitch”
Mitchell,
lived just down Deer Farm Rd from us in a ranch home they built
after
they sold the Deer Farm. They relayed many fond memories of their
years
running the Deer Farm. They passed away a few years ago.
But
the Mitchells did not close
the Deer Farm. It was still an
operating business when they retired and sold it to Jack & Rita
Geiger (who I think came up from Chicago area to
purchase the Deer
Farm - I believe that was around 1975)
The
Geiger’s were not successful with the Deer Farm business and it
was Mr. Geiger
who closed the Deer Farm.
The
Geiger’s sold most of the land, including the section with the
lovely 5-acre lake,
to a physician who resided in St Paul – he and his wife used the
Hayward
property as a retreat and to this day are cherished friends. He
is the
person who forwarded to me your web page today.
The
Geigers sold the house and just under 2 acres to us in 1980 –
that section
included the old bear cages and outbuildings as well as the original
Deer Farm
house.
The
Geiger’s daughter Kelly and her husband turned the old gift
shop/restaurant/bar
building into a house and they resided there for awhile before the
Geigers sold
that structure and land to Greg & Jill Peterson.
Our
wonderful Deer Farm home burned in 1985 while we were visiting
relatives in
Minnesota. In 1994, the Peterson’s purchased from us the
land that the
Deer Farm house had been on.
One
correction re: the house: neither the Deer Farm house nor
the Gift
Shop/Restaurant were log structures. The Deer Farm house
was a
2-story frame structure with split log siding on the first story,
and the
interior walls and ceilings were finished in tongue & groove knotty
pine.
In each of the four bedrooms upstairs, the beds were “built
in” and
constructed of pine with drawers built into the frames. It was an
extremely well-built structure, but definitely not a log structure.
When
we purchased it from the Geiger’s, moss was growing from the
shake roof and the
front door had been chewed off by a dog! We spent 5 years
restoring and
renovating that home and raising our small children in Sawyer County
--
our hearts were broken when the home burned. We felt as though we
had
failed to properly care for a Sawyer County legacy.
