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| 2/13/2004 | Email this article • Print this article | The Woodzickas and the Sunflower Resort
Joyce Laabs
This picture of Fabian and Belle appeared on the front cover of the Family Section of the Milwaukee Journal in 1957. They are riding in a 1907 Buick Roadster.
Editor's Note: The following, written in 1979, appeared in Vol. II of Northwoods Nostalgia. We thought our readers might enjoy this interview.
It was the opening of the summer season in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in the year 1910.
Among those arriving on one of the first trains was a 16-year-old girl from North Port, Wis. It had been a difficult decision to leave her home and friends behind to journey north that summer, but it was a necessity, for young Belle Pettit needed to earn enough money to continue her education at New London Normal School, where she was studying to become a teacher. There weren't any jobs, other than baby-sitting, to be found in North Port for a girl her age. Besides, she needed to earn more money than baby-sitting would provide. So, when she heard of the job at the Sunflower Resort on Lake Tomahawk, she applied, and when she was hired she was thrilled.
The resort was owned and operated by Roman Woodzicka and his wife, Ella, and their children, Fabian and Frances.
Roman Woodzicka was born in Royalton, Wis., in 1863 and had come to Oneida County in 1884. He worked in Rhinelander for six years before traveling farther north, and in 1890 he homesteaded 95 acres on Tomahawk Lake.
The land was covered with virgin pine which he logged off during the next few years, and then developed a fine farm. In 1895 he began taking in summer boarders, and this led to the development of the Sunflower Cottage Resort - so named because of the profusion of sunflowers in Ella Woodzicka's garden.
He built the main lodge of the resort in 1905. It was a two-story building about 24 by 100 feet, and then added cottages until he had 10. Then he added a fleet of 15 rowboats and six launches.
In a book published in 1924, this was said about the resort: "A place for a more delightful and refreshing outing than Sunflower Cottage Resort could not be chosen."
The reason the resort had such an outstanding fleet of boats was because of Fabian Woodzicka. He built his first boat at the age of 14 on the veranda of his parents' home, and they had to remove a section of the porch before it could be moved and launched. His love of boat building would continue throughout his life.
We are getting a little ahead of our story.
As Belle stepped off the train, she was met by a handsome young man who took her over to the resort in his launch. It was Fabian. Belle was ready to begin her duties. Room and board was furnished and she made $3 a week in salary.
"I was soon promoted to the dining room," Belle said, "and we made wonderful tips. I can even remember receiving some $10 tips. I lived very frugally during that summer, saving every penny so I could return to school"
As for the young man, Fabian, Belle gave him wide berth, for the first thing she heard from the other girls working at the resort was to "have nothing to do with Fabian Woodzicka." They told her: "He keeps company with the girls from the city all summer and then keeps company with the local girls in the winter - so he's fickle.
This warning remained in the back of Belle's mind for several years, for she continued to work at the resort every summer for the next six years, even after completing her education and receiving her first teaching job in Murdo, S.D.
Eventually, Belle and Fabian discovered each other. She finally decided he was no longer fickle, and the courtship began. She was able to secure a teaching job in Lake Tomahawk and then one in St. Germain, and the courtship now continued year-round. They finally married in June of 1917.
By this time, in addition to his boat livery business, Fabian had established a boat factory in 1914. He gradually expanded his boat building business until, in 1924, he had a large factory which was equipped to manufacture all varieties of watercraft. He named it the Sunflower Boat Works.
They built the boat frames of clear, white oak. He planed the hull with clear cypress and used clear red oak for all the finishing. He then painted the hulls with four coats of marine paint; filled, stained and treated the decks and interior with three coats of varnish. The deck fittings and rudder struts were of bronze, and all the fastenings were of brass and copper.
A year after Fabian and Belle were married, Fabian left to fight in World War I. Then, in February of 1919, his father died suddenly. Fabian returned home, and he and Belle, along with his sister, Frances, helped his mother run the resort. Fabian continued building custom boats during the winters and did a great deal of boat repair in the summer. The resort was a family resort, and many of their guests would stay for the entire summer.
Fabian and Belle began to build their own home on the resort property, but it would be seven years before it was completed, as his mother kept insisting they stay with her. However, when their twins, Betty and Bill, were born, they finally moved into their own home. Fabian's mother not only gave them the property for their home, but for their boat factory and boat storage.
Fabian's mother died in 1934 and his sister, Frances, ran the resort until 1936. At that time, Fabian and Belle bought the resort and ran it for the next 20 years. It was really Belle who ran the resort, for Fabian was really into the boat building business. They eventually leased the resort for a number of years, and in 1972 it was sold - except for one cottage which Belle still has today.
"Fabian loved motors," Belle said. "Why, people from all over the area would bring their boats to him to be repaired - and he could do it. It was work he understood and loved."
The love of motors eventually led Fabian to his second love, and hobby, antique cars. His first car was a 1908 Brush Runabout with a wooden axle, which he bought second hand in Royalton. He used it for many years and kept it in perfect running condition. Then instead of selling it, he stored it in an old shed on the property. In 1917, he bought a Ford Touring car which he used instead of the launch to greet the guests arriving by train.
Through the years he was able to acquire other cars; a 1905 one-cylinder Cadillac that was owned by Eugene Shepard of Rhinelander, the creator of the Hodag; a 1934 Huppmobile driven by Charles Bresett of Rhinelander, a 1924 Cadillac Phaeton which had been owned by Wheeler Sammons of Minocqua; and a 1907 International Auto Buggy owned by Louis Stumper of Rhinelander.
By 1940 he had six antique cars in the shed that he couldn't bring himself to sell. He didn't know why he was saving them, but knew he had to. He took the antique auto collectors magazine and one day noticed an ad announcing the opening of an antique auto museum in Albert Lee, Minn.
He and Belle made a trip to the Black Hills that summer and on the way back stopped to visit the museum. As they continued on home after the visit, he said to Belle: "I am going to see just how many cars I can find in Oneida County and start my own museum."
According to Belle, he advertised in all the Oneida County newspapers and located quite a few cars that way. "My favorite was a little 1907 Buick runabout. It was the cutest little Buick you ever saw."
In 1960 they opened their museum. There were 22 cars and an 1885 Manchester horse-drawn fire wagon with a steam pumper and a 1915 Seagrave fire truck which was once owned by Lake Tomahawk.
It soon became Belle's job to take care of the museum. "Fabian just hated standing around and I enjoyed meeting all of the people and showing them the cars."
Their car collection kept growing and when Fabian died in 1970 there were 62 cars, all road ready, in their museum. Belle sold the cars after his death.
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I just dreaded selling them, for we had so much fun with them."
So another of Woodzicka's attractions in the Northwoods passed on, as everything must.
We asked Belle, now age 86, what she remembered most fondly of her life in the Northwoods.
"I loved the resort, of course, said Belle. "We had wonderful times there. I never had time to fish, but I loved to play shuffleboard - and we played lots of cards. After Fabian and I were married we did all of our entertaining in the lobby of the lodge. We would have wonderful dancing parties. People never had much time to dance in the summer, but we did a lot of it in the winter.
"I think I miss the boats most of all. I always had a boat; for there was always one on hand that hadn't been sold. Then, Fabian would always let me demonstrate the boats for prospective customers. I loved that. When he did make a sale, he would always say to me, "MaMa, I think it was you that sold that boat.
"I loved the cars too. As I said, I enjoyed showing the visitors around the museum, but the real fun was taking our cars to many of the antique car shows. I had a wardrobe of old-fashioned dresses and big hats, and I would get all dressed up. Then Fabian and I would ride in the parades and participate in the different auto shows. It was such fun.
"We had a wonderful life. Fabian was so talented and he really understood and loved motors. He was happiest when he was building his boats and repairing the motors. His first launch always remained his pride and joy. He named that boat after his sister, Frances."
Today, Belle spends six months of the year in her comfortable home in Lake Tomahawk, and gets out to her cottage occasionally. The other six months she spends in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as she says: "with the other old ladies." Her eyesight is failing and Belle can no longer read, but this past winter she learned to macrame and enjoys making plant hangers.
She has known most of the history of Lake Tomahawk; has always been active in the Lake Tomahawk Woman's Club; and also served as President of the Oneida County Federation of Women's Clubs. She is past president of the Minocqua Chapter of 271 of the Order of Eastern Star and is still active as a past matron.
She has kept wonderful scrapbooks of these activities, but said: "You know I worry about what happens to these scrapbooks after I'm gone. I would like to see them preserved."
Preserved they will be, I'm sure - as will the memories of the Sunflower Resort and the Sunflower Boat Works and the Antique Car Museum.
More important, the courage, life and works of the Woodzicka family will be preserved in the memories of all whose lives they touched; along with the other pioneers of the Northwoods.
Editor's Note: Belle died on Nov. 14, 1990. The Woodzicka land was divided, but eventually Wausau Homes purchased both parcels.
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