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For more than a hundred years, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, has

remained a unique and of-the-beaten-path enclave where

wealth and wanderlust go hand in hand

ndiscovered. It’s a upscale enclave ensures that the lean
word that crops up a times aren’t returning anytime soon
Newport misty cornfields and rolling hills of incentive groups looking for a unique
– a colorful history that makes it a
lot when discussing
magnet for weekenders and leisure
U Lake Geneva, a place
that seems to materialize out of the
travelers as well as meeting and
getaway destination.
southern Wisconsin like Brigadoon,
the Scottish village from the
Lake Geneva is commonly
eponymous Lerner & Lowe musical
referred to as the “Newport of the
that mysterious appears for only one
West” for its pristine natural beauty
day every hundred years.
and beautiful lakefront estates
For most people familiar with
the typical Midwestern landscape of
American residential architecture
– from Gothic Revival cottages
farms and fields as far as the eye can
see, the lakes that dot central and that offer an historical spectrum of
and large picturesque Queen Ann-
southern Wisconsin are hard to get style mansions to formal Colonial
of the in Ohio or Indiana or Iowa, the land Craftsman-style homes.
Revival-style houses and progressive
used to. Just when you think you’re
starts to drop away, rolling down to
It has long been a vacation
one of these beautiful glacial troughs
destination – especially for Chicagoans,
filled with crystal-clear, ice-cold water
West or so ago – 1831 to be exact – that were being rebuilt after the Great
who originally sought refuge in the
– a gorgeous geological anomaly.
area while their homes and businesses
In fact, it was only 180 years
Chicago Fire of 1871. A century ago,
railroad access from Chicago made
a party traveling with the Kinzie
family between their army post at
the area a popular summer retreat for
Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and Fort
the barons of wealth in lumber, cattle,
Winnebago (Portage City) came upon
oil, steel, cement, manufacturing and
this beautiful body of water. It wasn’t
durable goods (e.g., Morton Salt,
on the river and lake highways of
the earlier frontier period, and thus
mansions and large homes such as
lay undisturbed and uncharted until Wrigley Chewing Gum, etc.), with
Stone Manor, Ten Chimneys and Black
then – at least by white settlers. The Point built on the lake during the
Native Americans – who had lived heyday of the Roaring Twenties.
here for a thousand years in relative In the automobile era, Lake
obscurity – called it Kish-Way-Kee- Geneva’s fortunes at frst declined,
Tow, or “clear water,” which is as and it became a haven for Al Capone
true today as it was then. and other mobsters. In the 1960s,
A COLORFUL HISTORY Hugh Hefner built a Playboy Club in
Located approximately 10 miles Lake Geneva, and it became a major
north of the Illinois state line, Lake resort destination, hosing a parade of
Geneva is less than 90 minutes from famous entertainers and Hollywood
O’Hare Airport in Chicago and about celebrities. The club was closed in 1981
45 minutes from General Mitchell and converted into the Americana
Airport in Milwaukee. Despite its Resort, and later to the present Grand
proximity to these major metro Geneva Resort.
areas, Lake Geneva has been able GETTING UP CLOSE
to maintain its “undiscoveredness” Walking the perimeter of the Geneva
through periods of boom and bust – Lake Shore Path, which follows a
although today its status as a unique,
footpath originally used by the local
12 SHORT ESCAPES SHORT ESCAPES 13