Embedded Files
Timeline
Timeline
Ray Meyer coached DePaul basketball from 1942 to 1984. He opened The Ray Meyer Basketball Camp in 1947, and it was open until 2001.
Purchase
Purchase
laser etched woodcut Tommy made in 2021 using Brian's logo, onto a slice of tree!
The property was purchased from the Ray Meyer estate in September 2007, approximately a year and a half after his death (which was March, 2006). He had 5 kids, and they could not seemingly agree what to do with it. They were considering developing it (condominiums), parceling it among themselves (although they didn't know best way), or trying to keep it in the family somehow. They had been trying to sell it for a year when we bought it. They were marketing it as development property. The house was not even mentioned in the listing, and they had just torn down the 6 or so cabins that were here.
The barn and other buildings remained though. We learned later that several neighbors were ecstatic that it was purchased and not developed as commercial property.
They were selling because there were 6 kids of Ray Meyer, and they were not in agreement on what to do with the property. They wanted to keep it, but they were not all of the same ability to keep and maintain it. When we offered on it, we did it on our own (no realtor). Their realtor marked it up and gave it back to us (also, making herself our realtor!). At first we were excited and thought they were countering our offer, but in fact she said "no I haven't even showed them yet". She just marked it up the way she thought the seller would want it. One of the things we did was said "leave everything" that she said "you can't do that". So... instead... we reverted all her changes, including putting back the "leave everything", and including making her NOT our realtor, and said give it to them (and we lowered the offer too!). They signed it with no counter offer. The eldest son said the only reason this got done was because we said "leave everything", and because we lowered it. They were all bickering over who got what between them, and he said that eliminated it as a topic of conversation and the bickering stopped. We did several improvement projects over the years.
A couple of visits around the time of purchase:
August 25, 2007 - Very 1st visit: Just before buying
September 30, 2007 - with Darren and Family: Very first visit right after we bought it.
Logo Brian designed in 2021
(with Max looking at viewer, Apollo in background, and Buster by front door).
Katie helped with some ideas and feedback.
Ray Meyer
Ray Meyer
Ray Meyer Death
Newspaper found at the camp upon purchase in 2007
Ray Meyer
The Ray Meyer Camp
The Ray Meyer Camp
From what was said around the closing, the property was owned by Ray Meyer since the 1940's, and was run as a basketball camp between 1947 and 2001, with the camp ceasing operations the summer of 2001. We noticed his own kids referred to him as "coach". There were over 10,000 people through the camp over the years, and many pro basketball players were there at one point or another.
There is much discussion of the camp on the Ray Meyer Basketball Camp Facebook page.
when the camp was in operation
Found on Facebook under Vintage Three Lakes page:
"Good fishing at Ray Meyer's Boys Camp. Two questions... 1. What the heck is that fish species? 2. What future basketball all-star was holding it? I once served at a funeral mass when I was a kid and Ray gave me a $5 tip for serving afterwards. Wishing now I'd have asked him to autograph it and kept it. #hindsight #BlueDemons #DePaul"
Found on Facebook under Vintage Three Lakes page:
"This may be the shot before he caught the fish"
house layout and property when house was "purchased" from Wausau Homes in 1975
sign found in the boathouse with the property
scoresheets used at the camp
Some old photo albums
(click them to open up the underlying album)
1950's
1960's
1980's
1990's
Interviews at the camp
1980 at the camp
late 1980's
1990's
camper's videos
late 1950's
late 1950's early 1960's
early 1960's
1993 site plan
(shows the old cabins and other structures no longer there... click the image to zoom)
Around the time of purchase
Around the time of purchase
The real estate listing
Old painting of the bay area
Old painting of the bay area
See the Antique Painting left with the cabin. Reasonably famous artist James Topping painted the painting on the wall currently in the master bedroom, apparently of the property. There is a note on the back, left by the Meyers, who stated that this painting was in the original cabin on this property when they bought it in the 1940's. The perspective appears to be of the bay (pointing from the current cabin to where the boathouse is(?)).
as it hung in our living room
Chapel In the Pines watercolor
Chapel In the Pines watercolor
This card was found in a book Katie found in the red shed in 2013, on the old Weiland
property (now our property... the sliver between us and the neighbors (Hervats) that encompasses most of the little
bay on the north shore near our house). It indicates it was "Chapel in the Pines", 1924.
front of card
back of card
Improvements
Improvements
Built over the winter of 2011, finished by spring 2012. It was built where there previously was a cabin. Once excavating, there were appliances, couches, etc. all buried on site. It all had to be removed. Yikes!
2012 Weiland property
2012 Weiland property
In 2008, 1 year after purchase, Brian reached out the neighbor (Christi Weiland) who owned 1.5 acres including a red shed. The story Brian was told from the Hervat's was: The Hervat's property used to be owned by Weiland's mother (or parents), and at some point, they sold it, but kept that sliver of land for Christi, who erected the red shed, had power brought to it, and planned to spend time there. Christi was sort of off the grid. Brian reached out by mail, and asked if she would sell. She politely said no. Brian followed up with "how about I appraise it at my expense" and share the result with her. She agreed. After Brian sent her the appraisals, she still said no.
the Hervat's said "once we bought the property from the mother, we saw Christi once... she had that shed built, and then we haven't seen her in 20 years".
In 2012, she Brian was called by the Hervat's who said "Christi is trying to get a hold of you about selling her property... we told her we wanted to buy it ourselves, but she insisted to sell it to you since you had already inquired. She lost your mailing address and number and so wanted to know how to reach you". So Brian called her, and she said "are you still wanting to buy that land". Brian said yes "for the higher of the offers I sent before, I will still honor that, even though it's probably worth less now". Done!
In that shed she had an electrical panel/service, a portable toilet, lots of books, sleep accommodations, etc. It looked like maybe she planned to stay there for lengths of time. But... all of it was 20 years old. Crazy!
Purchased in the middle of COVID lockdowns... Tom Haug's mother (the owner), was being moved to assisted living, and she wanted to sell it. So, the eldest brother John was selling it. We scooped it up, and let Tom still rent to live there for a year. They called it "Waldruhe" which translates from German to "forest rest" or "forest silence" or "forest peace". And we liked it, so left it. See the renovation.
Desired a heated barn. Old barn wasn't insulated, was developing leaks, and was filling up. Desired to store the big truck, and also have a flow-thru design so snowmobiling was easier to get in and out. See the construction album and the original conception.
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