[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 29, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S1932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PLUM LAKE, WISCONSIN

 Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, Senator Johnson and I congratulate 
the residents of the town of Plum Lake in Vilas County, WI, as they 
celebrate the 100th anniversary of their town's founding. Plum Lake 
comprises the communities of Sayner and Star Lake, both of which have 
long traditions as vacation destinations because of the friendly people 
and the magnificence of the lakes and forests, as well as the abundance 
of fish and game. Folks looking to escape the day to day grind can 
retire to this beautiful area year round to hunt, fish, water and snow 
ski, and hike along nature trails. Visitors are often surprised to 
discover that the town's slogan, ``Birthplace of the snowmobile,'' 
reflects its invention there by Carl Eliason in 1924.
  The town of Plum Lake was officially formed by an ordinance passed by 
the Vilas County Board on January 5, 1911. The ordinance went into 
effect April 1, 1911, creating the new town from territory detached 
from the town of Arbor Vitae. The first town meeting was held in Sayner 
on April 14, 1911.
  In the 19th century, Plum Lake was the center of a vibrant lumber 
industry, which eventually gave way to tourism. Two years before the 
founding of the town, in the summer of 1909, Herb Warner and others 
began construction on one of Wisconsin's oldest golf courses, the Plum 
Lake Golf Club, which opened in 1912. Plum Lake also boasts one of 
Wisconsin's oldest summer camps, Camp Highlands, which began when Harry 
O. Gilette, a University of Chicago Laboratory School headmaster, 
brought 10 boys to a remote point on Plum Lake for a summer in the 
wilderness in 1904.
  Today, Plum Lake maintains both its majestic views and its place as a 
prime vacation destination. We are very proud to represent this 
community and we congratulate the town of Plum Lake on this historic 
milestone. We join with all Wisconsinites in expressing our pride in 
the treasures of our State.

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