Camp Five Logging Museum - Laona, Wisconsin

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Experience The Life of a Turn of the Century Lumberjack. Spend a day learning the life of a lumberjack at the turn of the century. Travel was done by steam train and primitive tools were used to cut and harvest the wood, and transport it across the country. Here at the Camp Five Museum, your family will get to experience everything just as those lumberjacks did.

Camp Five began as a logging camp back in the late 1890s, and in 1914 began a farm that was used to raise the much-needed food of meat and produce. It was also used to draught horses for other logging camps. In 1969 Camp Five opened to the public, yet even today, it still operates as a functioning logging camp, thought to be the only one still in existence in Wisconsin.

During the first part of your journey back to the turn of the century, you can ride on a vintage steam train, just as the lumberjacks used to. At the Soo Line Depot in Laona, Wisconsin, after seeing the authentic railway depot items, such as telegraph key and railroad clock, you can board the steam train. It was bought in 1923 and nicknamed the “Rat River” for it’s use in the logging industry, and will take you to Camp Five to experience the life of the lumberjack.

After your steam train ride, you can browse through the Camp Five Logging Museum’s authentic artifacts, and see how the lumberjacks lived and practiced their trade around the turn of the century. You can also see all the different methods the loggers used to transport their freshly cut wood to its destination. And, or course, along with this, comes learning about the most important members of the logging camps, the cooks!

There are several small attractions within the the Camp Five Logging Museum. Farm animals are found in a petting zoo, with children able to pet and feed the animals. The Green Treasure Forest Tour takes visitors through the forest, showing trees that are indigenous to the area, such as Black Ash, Yellow Birch, and Sugar Maple. A thirty-minute tour is provided by pontoon boat across the Rat River that shows natural wildlife such as otters, eagles, blue herons, and deer.

Camp Five Logging Museum is located at 5480 Connor Farm Road in Laona, Wisconsin, and is open to the public from late June through late August. For admission that includes the steam train ride, and the Camp Five Museum, adults pay $17 and children 4 through 12 pay $6, which children under 4 being free, or families pay a flat rate of $48. Seniors receive $2 off the price of admission, and the families of active duty service members serving overseas are admitted free. Adult groups of 20 or more receive a reduced rate of $3 off the admission price, and groups of 20 or more children receive a discount of $1. For those wishing to take the Rat River Wildlife Tour across the Rat River, it is an additional $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for children.