St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-05-31
LOVELY CHETEK.
The Most Thriving Village
and the Most Beautiful
Lake in North
Wisconsin.
On the Chippewa Falls and North
ern Division Of the st. Paul
& Omaha Railroad.
Large and Fast Growing Business,
with Lumber Production a
Leading Interest.
A Place Where Summer Tourists and Sports
men Can Have Comfort with
pfaaS,rra
A Place Where Summer Tourists and Sports
men Can Have Comfort with
Pleasure.
The Lake Already Attracting Summer
Residents from the Neighboring Cities,
But There's Room for More.

But There's Room for More
at is the most picturesque and lovely vii
lage l ever saw, and at the same time it
POSSESSES attributes which will make it a
place of Importance and note some day,
What did You say was the name of the place?
Chetek. They call it Lovely Chetek," and
when YOU come to see it you will say that for
certainty there is an eternal fitness in
things and that this title is one of them.
Why man! 1t is simply incompatible
and when you get there you will regret that
your stay must be numbered by days instead
of 10y weeks"
was reclining upon the soft edge of a
scat arm determined to sleep in spite of the
joltiug of the train, the squalling of Iusty
babe at the other end of the car, the ami
mated discussion of the two political
champions three seats ahead, or
the solicitations of the peanut fend
that infeSts all well regulated
passenger trains, when the foregoing colo
guy broke through the crust and reused me
10 the exercise Of that feminine characteristic
supposed to be entirely curiosity.
HOW ltE are We from Glere now .''
''Two stations more,'' remarked the 70
mantle traveller, as he went into the smoking
car to try and make himself believe that the
stuffed cabbage leaf cigar he had just bought
was 4 real Havana filed
''What's the matter with my dropping off a
train to take look at lovely Chetek,' - said 1
to myself as ratified along and Tilden had
been elected president over Blaine and the
exhausted infant had ceased its wailing for
new worlds to conquer. To think was to
act, and when the fierce looking brakeman
with the big yellow moustache yelled out
'C-H-E-T-E-K - at the door, with coat and
grips dropped off the car platform.
Into the arms of a benevolent looking old
gentleman 1 dropped, who said ''Rickerd
house, y and to him l surrendered nv traps
If he had said, 'your pocket book that
would have gone, too, with the same feeling
Of safety.
Locoy C'etesi The moment my eye swept
the horizon was victim, too The mild
form OF insanity which I had observed in the
passenger who was entertaining his friend
with so glowing description of the scene
that ! now beheld, was nothing to that which
while riding to my hotel, but simply leaned
back in the carriage and toot 1t IN. a clean,
new, neat, tidy village, of some 700 people,
with wide, fine streets, located upon a level
plain, overlooking one Of the most bewitch-
ingly lovely lakes l ever saw, only
gives the outlines of the landscape
When [ came down from the contemplation
Of the asthetc to the real nature of my sur
roundings and began to apply the reportori-
al pump in the usual fashion, 1 learned first
Of It's
LOCATION.
Chetell is located upon a lake, which has for
its outlet a river, and is within township of
Barron county, Wisconsin, all of the same
name. It is station upon the Eau Claire
and Superior division of the Chicago, St.
Paul, Minneapolis S Omaha road and is
forty-two miles from Eau Claire and thirty
nine from Spooner, (the junction of this,
with the North Wisconsin DIVISION which
latter place is ninety-nine miles from St.
Paul.
Barron county is boomer just thirty miles
square, and was first invaded by the lumber
men in 1857, who established logging
camp at Chetek. The county has
to-day 14,OO0 people, has two
lines of railway crossing it
and third one building. Its assessed valua-
ton the year 1888 was 81, ,635, 1S5, and it con-
tains a large number of improved farms.
The major part of the settlement has been
done within the past thirteen years; the fine
tracts of hardwood country which constitute
SO large n portion of its area hay
ing been gladly seized upon by the farm
ers, the splendid home demand which the
adjacent pineries afforded furnishing them
an unrivalled market.
RAILROAD FACILITIES.
Sept. 1st, 1882, the first passenger train
entered Chetck. Its location at the outlet of
Lake Chetell, where water power of eleven
feet head was easily obtainable, in the center
of magnificent farming country, with a
water surface of twenty square miles fed by
springs and creeks, and bordered with splen-
did pine to furnish an unlimited reservoir
and ineXhaustible supply of logs, and with
beauty of scenery unrivalIed anywhere,
Chetek sprang into life at once.
LUNIBERING CENTER.
1t had long been point or base of opera
tions OF the large numbering firm of Knapp,
Stout " Company, who erected both saw
mill and Touring mill here and who oper-
ate number of farms adjacent.
From here to the Chippewa twenty miles
distant, supplies are drawn for the numbering
camps upon that stream, while for long dis
tance up and down the Menominee, two
miles from here, and of which the Chetek
river is 4 branch, the lumbermen also receive
their supplies.
AGRICULTURAL SURROUNDINGS
About two hundred and fifty square miles
are directly tributary to Chetek, and while o
large part of it is pine or heavy
hard wood timber as yet uncleared,
good percentage of it has
been subjected and is now a fine agricultu-
raj district, producing splendid crops. and in
which the people are becoming rich and
prosperous. Within the area mentioned are
four Touring mills. In 1892 there was but
the one at Chetek, and that one ground for
the farmers, aside from its merchant work.
Is, 700 bushels of wheat. In 1888 with all
four mills running, the Chetek mill ground
for the farmers Is, 900 bushels, and the COM
ing year bids fair to excel this quantity. In
1888 IL, 900 bushels of wheat were shipped
from Chetek, while the amount ground for
the use of Knapp, Stout Go Co. and that for
the farmers, swells the wheat receipts of the
place to full 40, 600 bushels.
SOIL.
The soil in this section is a sandy loan,