During trips around the country, we find it interesting to talk with other travelers about places they have visited and especially enjoyed. 

One location mentioned by several individuals was Elkhart Lake, a Wisconsin community we recently had an opportunity to visit. We can report the town lived up to the favorable reviews. 

Elkhart Lake is a small town – a village, really – with fewer than 1,000 residents. It sits beside a scenic lake on the eastern side of the state, about an hour north of Milwaukee and 15 miles west of Lake Michigan. 

Its citizens cheer for the nearby Green Bay Packers, enjoy good food, and live a laid-back way of life. 

The Area’s Interesting History

The first noted residents of the area were Native Americans of the Potawatomi tribe who believed the water of Elkhart Lake possessed healing powers. 

The lake’s remote location later served as a beacon to late 19th century city dwellers who desired an escape from summer heat and dust. Visitors initially traveled here by horseback, horse and buggy, or stagecoach. Visitation experienced a major increase following the 1872 completion of an extension of the Milwaukee and Northern Railroad to Elkhart Lake. 

The community was incorporated as a village in 1894, and by 1900, a half-dozen resorts around the lake accommodated more than 2,000 visitors a week. Many families stayed for a month or more, with wives and children remaining in Elkhart Lake while husbands commuted from work on weekends. 

The resorts offered dining rooms, dance halls, a few had theaters, and even an opera house. The 1920s ushered in an era of gambling, a widely accepted illegal activity that resulted in Elkhart Lake becoming a mecca for gamblers who favored the village’s slot machines, roulette, and poker. 

This all came tumbling down in 1945 when the Wisconsin legislature passed an anti-gambling bill, forcing local police to acknowledge and close the casinos. The result was a dramatic drop in the area’s tourist trade.

An Economy Revived

Help arrived in the form of Wisconsin millionaire Jim Kimberly (of Kimberly-Clark heritage) who decided to fly around Wisconsin in search of a location suitable for automobile racing. 

Kimberly and three friends, including members of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America, took a liking to the hilly and winding roads around Elkhart Lake. Most members of the community favored Kimberly’s project, believing it would attract business. 

The initial racing event, held in 1950, was a one-day affair with approximately 5,000 spectators. By the third year, top drivers from around the world participated in two days of racing. A crowd of 100,000 watched as cars raced on roads around and through the town. 

Minimal fencing and hay bales serving as barricades beside roads on the racing circuit produced substantial risk for observers resulting in a state ban the use of public roads for automobile racing. 

The economic boost from racing resulted in a group of area citizens deciding to construct a racetrack that would not be subject to the legislative ban. Land was acquired and the road course constructed with proceeds from a public sale of stock. 

The Road America complex now encompasses 640 grassy acres filled with hills and trees. Today, the complex sponsors nearly 500 events and annually attracts 800,000 racing fans. 

The Community Today

The community’s center of activity during summer months is its namesake lake. 

Approximately four miles in circumference, the water remains crystal clear. Fishing, ski, and pontoon boats are available for rent, along with kayaks, canoes,hydro-bikes, and paddle boats. 

Visitors interested in learning about the area’s history can enjoy a pontoon boat ride on Captain Tom’s Elkhart Queen that operates Memorial Day through Labor Day. 

Golf is a popular activity for many of Elkhart Lake’s summer visitors. The Quit Qui Oc Golf Club offers 27 holes of golf including an original 18 holes designed in the late 1920s by Tom Bendelow, a renowned course architect.

Although passenger trains no longer visit Elkhart Lake, the old depot has been converted into a shop selling furnishings and memorabilia from that bygone era. A variety of other small shops offer gifts, souvenirs, apparel, jewelry, and home accessories. 

One unusual establishment with Scandinavian items, appropriately named Nordic Accents, is owned and operated by Pirkko Jarvensivu. Two Fish Gallery offers an extensive selection of pottery made by the owner, Pat Robinson. 

The town boasts a number of exceptional restaurants, several of which we visited. One unusual meal at Lola’s on the Lake started with Lake Confit Candy Striped Beet Salad that included mixed greens, roasted fennel, orange, LaClare Farms Chevre, vanilla scented pistachio, topped with orange blossom honey vinaigrette. This was followed with Cedar-Wrapped Norweigian Salmon and topped off with its signature dessert: Chocolate Hazelnut Croquentine. 

Back Porch Bistro serves a varied menu from ribeye, scallops, and Wiener schnitzel to a brat pizza. When is the last time you enjoyed a brat pizza?

Lake Street Café offers a casual section, serving wood-fired pizzas plus many other dishes, and a more formal area where we enjoyed roasted Brussel sprouts and tenderloin Shiraz. 

The Resorts of Elkhart Lake

The village that once served as home to six resorts, now has three, but each is quite impressive and perfectly suited for visitors looking for a relaxing vacation with easily accessible recreational activities.

Osthoff Resort: The current resort was constructed in three stages between 1995 and 2005 on the site of the original Osthoff Resort that opened in 1886. The AAA-Four Diamond facility has 245 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums. It includes a fitness center, game room, an indoor and an outdoor pool, saunas and whirlpools, a tennis court, 38,000 square feet of meeting space and a private sand beach. The 22,000 square-foot Aspira Spa with 22 treatment rooms specializes in a holistic, organic approach. A cooking school offers three- to four-hour workshops and one- and two-day courses. We can confirm that Chef Scott Baker, who trained at The Culinary Institute of America, is an excellent teacher with endless patience. 

Siebkens Resort: Built in 1883 as the three-story Belleview House, the facility boasted its own opera house, greenhouse, and boathouse. The property was noted for offering motion pictures three nights a week and remembered by locals for German singers who would arrive by train each weekend to provide entertainment for locals and resort guests. The German singers entertained at Siebkens for more than 70 years. Today, the resort is operated by the fourth generation of the Siebkens family who acquired the hotel in 1916. Siebkens Resort offers 30 standard guest rooms, many decorated with antiques, in two original buildings. A newer building, completed in 2008, houses deluxe hotel rooms plus one-, two-, and three-bedroom condominiums. The resort includes an outdoor pool, a whirlpool, and a private sand beach. The property has a coffee/ice cream shop (seasonal), two restaurants, and a main dining room. 

Victorian Village Resort: The original resort on this property opened in 1872 and was lost to fire in 1890. It was rebuilt in 1891, and through the years, has changed owners and names on a number of occasions. The current owners acquired the property in 1999 when they renamed it Victorian Village and undertook a major restoration on each of the buildings. Three buildings house guest accommodations: the Victorian Inn has 49 standard hotel rooms, each with a deck or a balcony; Lakeside Suites and Grand Victorian Lady each have one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums with a deck or balcony facing the lake. The resort also offers an indoor and an outdoor pool, hot tub, and private sand beach; the Back Porch Bistro (a speakeasy during Prohibition) serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, while a bar offers a casual menu, ice cream, and cocktails (open seasonally). Victorian Village claims the lone remaining theater in which musicals, plays, and other performances are presented during summer. 

Not Just a

Summer Destination 

Elkhart Lake doesn’t shut down once September arrives. Actually, fall is an excellent time to visit with cooler temperatures and colorful hardwood trees. 

The Osthoff Resort offers several special events during the fall and winter months including an “Old World Christmas Market” during the first part of December. This includes holiday workshops, carriage rides, hayrides, and brunch with St. Nicholas and his reindeer.    

 

David and Kay Scott have written books on travel and have appeared on national television shows to discuss travel. They live in Valdosta.