Chippewa Flowage Resorts

Architecturally, the Hall-Raynor Stopping Place is a typical example of early residences common to the area. Built of hand-hewn squared timbers nocked-in at the corners and later receiving an outside covering of clapboard, it was tight from the weather and safe from severe deterioration. The foundation was originally mudsills or tamarack timbers laid on rocks. These were badly deteriorated and the whole building subsided, the floor joists resting upon the wet earth.

The building with its ell remains as it was originally erected . The older part is 20 by 34 feet and the ell is 20 by 20 feet. The upstairs is divided into four dormitory rooms off of a sleeping hall which was called the “ram pasture” in its heyday. The ground floor of the ell was used as a saloon and the attic probably was an overflow sleeping area. The old place is owned by Russel R. Falkenberg whose family uses it as a residence on weekends .

The Hall-Raynor Stopping Place was entered on the National Register of Historic Places on August 30 . 1979. This old landmark of the logging days was selected for the National Registry because it is the lone remnant of the many riverside hotels established specifically to accommodate loggers who used the rivers as highways for themselves, their supplies, and for their product: the timber they cut upstream and floated down to the mills . Later, when roads had been cut out and graded along the rivers, they were the overnighi stops for the team and driver of the lumbering tote wagon. When stage routes were established they became stations where the driver could pick up a fresh team and the passengers could refresh themselves at the bar or lunch table.

The main building was laid up with hand-hewn logs in the middle seventies . The annex of similar construction was probably added by the fall of 1882 – we know that because we peeled off newspapers that had been pasted on the inside of the logs which were dated from October, 1882 to March. 1883. A massive reconstruction program was completed in 1981 by owner Falkenberg.