For more than a century the clear waters of Gilmore Lake have drawn people to northwestern Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Yet how the lake got its name remains a mystery.

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Early Records

Records first mention Gilmore Lake in the late 1880s. At that time, it sat in the Town of Veazie, later in Spooner, and by 1893 in the newly organized Town of Minong. The name stuck, but its origin vanished into the forest.

 

For centuries before European-American settlement, the lakes and forests of this region were home to Native peoples, most notably the Ojibwe. They hunted, fished, trapped, gathered berries and wild rice, and harvested maple sugar throughout the area.

 

Railroad Expansion

European-American settlement accelerated in the late 1800s as logging opened the forests and railroads reached previously remote areas. Minong stood amid large stands of white pine, and logging became the region’s first major industry. Rivers initially carried the timber, followed by rough roads. Pioneers such as Robert B. McLean and Josiah Bond helped establish the community around 1880.

 

The town grew rapidly, bringing more workers, settlers and, eventually, vacationers. A sparsely settled logging frontier became a permanent community connected to distant markets.

 

A Summer Destination

As transportation improved, Gilmore Lake itself became a summer destination. Families from Wisconsin, Minnesota and even Chicago came for fishing and quiet recreation. Small resorts and rental cabins appeared, reaching their height from the 1940s through the 1960s. Best-remembered were Iverson’s Resort (seven cabins on a west-side sandy beach), Fred’s Pinecrest, Wildwood, Daniel’s, Wayne’s and Banker’s Gilmore Pines. Many families returned to the same cabin year after year, building friendships that lasted generations.

 

By the 1960s and 1970s, the resort era was fading. Better roads, rising prosperity and changing vacation habits allowed more people to buy their own places. Resort properties were divided or sold, and seasonal cottages became private homes, many later expanded into year-round residences.

 

Gilmore Lake Today

Although much has changed, the qualities that first attracted people to Gilmore Lake remain remarkably familiar: clear water, fishing, abundant wildlife and the experience of spending time on a relatively quiet Northwoods lake.

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Gilmore Lake’s story stretches from centuries of Native presence through the logging and railroad eras, early settlement and the summer-resort years. Old photographs, family stories, resort brochures, maps and past issues of the association newsletter Lake Soundings continue to fill in the picture—everything, it seems, except how the lake got its name.​​​​​

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