Hancock Lake was formed for the purpose of being a boomage lake in early 1900. The cutting of the big timber was in full swing and a lake was needed to store the logs.
A spur track was run in on the west shore. A log hoist run by Jim Williams loaded the logs from the lake onto rail cars headed for various mills in the area.
When Jim Williams saw the lake for the first time, there were logs from shore to shore. You could walk from one end to the other and not get wet.
Once the logging was complete, the lands around the lake were treeless and no longer a value to the timber companies. The properties began to sell, bringing a new era to the lake.
Circa 1918. Fishermen leaving Camp Marion
Circa 1918. View looking from the northwest shoreline of Hancock Lake at the big island. The little house in view is Camp Marion, a place owned by L. McCormick. This is the treeless view left by the cutting of the big timber.
Circa 1918. View of the north shore of Hancock Lake and a great boat.
Circa early 1900. Jim Williams running the log hoist on Hancock Lake.
The first Hancock Lake Dam was built in the early 1900s to help form a boomage lake. This was done to store the logs until they were put on rail cars and taken to the mills.
The dam went out in February of 1929. The lake drained down to just the creeks coming from Oneida Lake and Woodboro Springs.
At the time the dam went out, the Hancock Lake road went over the dam. Not only did the dam go out, the road was out as well. The old log dam was replaced with a cement structure, the same dam that is there today. There have been numerous repairs done to the dam and it is inspected routinely. In the 1960s the Hancock Lake road was moved off the dam to a location just south of the dam, where it is today and called Oneida Lake Rd.
Circa 1930s. Hancock Lake Resort was built by Dombrowski in the 1920s. Later sold to Robert and Bridget Zeromski in the 1960s.
Lake History As Told by Tom Grabow, Mary Beltz, Everett Williams and Joan Day Busche