Return to Wake Robin

One Cabin in the Heyday of Northwoods Resorts

Recommended to readers everywhere by Parade Magazine

For more information about “Return to Wake Robin,” visit the book’s webpage.

Hardcover: $22.95

Available at your local bookstore or buy now online here.

SUMMERS UP NORTH

The raucous family car rides, the call of the weekly square dance, the splash announcing a perfectly executed cannonball —all are familiar sounds during the summer at lake resorts and cabins. In “Return to Wake Robin: One Cabin in the Heyday of Northwoods Resorts,” Marnie O. Mamminga takes us to the cabin her grandparents built in 1929 on Big Spider Lake near Hayward, Wis.

Bookended by the close of the logging era and the 1970s shift to modern lake homes, condos and Jet Skis, the 1920s to 1960s period covered in these evocative essays represents the golden age of Northwoods camps and cabins — a time when retreats such as Wake Robin were the essence of simplicity. Along the way Mamminga preserves the spirit and cultural heritage of a vanishing era, conveying the heart of a place and the community that gathered there. By tracing the history of one resort and cabin, she recalls a time and experience that will resonate with anyone who spent their summers “Up North” — or wishes they had.

“With liberal doses of gratitude, humor, and charming period details, Mamminga, a contributor to Jack Canfield’s ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series, recounts her family’s more than 60-year history vacationing on Big Spider Lake in Wisconsin’s Northwoods region…. Wake Robin’s old-fashioned routines continue to bring joy to a fifth generation.” -“Publishers Weekly” Starred Review

“What wonderful memories from my almost forgotten youth this book stirred. Slamming screen doors at first light; sunrises that only God could orchestrate and people. Wonderful, outsized, loving, adventurous people fill ‘Return to Wake Robin.’” -Jim Peck, Host of Milwaukee Public Television’s “I Remember”

“All thanks to Marnie Mamminga for her splendid collection of recollections about the heyday of Northwoods resorts. She has caused a flood of memories of some of the best times of my life. In the 1940s and ’50s, for my family, Up North was a magical, almost mythical place where we spent three weeks every summer. We always stayed at Ross’ Teal Lake Lodge. The cabins and lodge were rustic and simple, perfect for Up North and so different from our home in Madison. Here the air seemed fresher and the sky seemed bluer.” -Howard Mead, former editor of “Wisconsin Trails” magazine

Marnie Mamminga signing books at her event at Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon, WI

About the Author

Marnie O. Mamminga has vacationed every summer on Big Spider Lake near Hayward, Wisconsin. Born and raised in the Chicago area, she attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where she earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in English. Over the years she raised three sons, taught junior high and high school English, and worked as a freelance writer and columnist. Her publishing credits include the “Chicago Tribune,” “Reader’s Digest,” the “Christian Science Monitor,” “Lake Superior Magazine,” and several “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for more than forty years and is so very grateful that her grandchildren love the Northwoods as much as she does.