About The Staff

My travels up north started as a youngster going to visit my sister Carol. She lived in Rhinelander just 25 miles from our mobile home in Woodruff. In those days, I can remember going up highway 45 and when we got closer to Rhinelander, we would see the trains running right next to the road. For some reason Pelican Lake was always a high point of the ride because it meant we were within a few miles of our destination.

Another of my sisters, Mary Jo settled in Houghton, MI., many trips up there to visit. You want to talk about up north, Houghton is way up north. It is at the top of Upper Michigan between Lake Michigan and Superior. Talk about lake effect snow. Mary Jo’s husband Jack took me out in the woods in July and showed me snow on the ground. Those trips to see her always took me through the northern part of Wisconsin.

My mother decided she wanted to have a place up north so she started looking in the early 60’s. She found a mobile home and some how talked my father into letting her buy it. This came just about the time I was heading into the navy. It became their retirement place away from home at 120 Webster Street in Beaver Dam.

Many fond memories of trips with JoAnn and I to the trailer for our two weeks vacation. Mom and Dad would go home and let us use the trailer for our vacation. Lisa would bring along a friend. This was usually Julie Keegstra or Debbie Smith. We always got money to go to the “Little Swiss Village” just outside of Hazelhurst. This featured waiters and waitresses in Swiss costume. It also had a chipmunk run just outside where you would be eating. Through the windows, you can see several chippies looking for peanuts in houses and even a ferries wheel. It has been a few years since we’ve gone there but it looks the same today as back then. Great place to take kids.

After my Dad died in 1973, my mother made her home in the trailer all summer long. We continued to come up to the trailer for many years. My mother’s health deteriorated and when she could no longer go up north, she had money set aside for the trailer to continue to be used by the family. Pictures of each family were the first thing you saw entering the trailer.

Ten years ago, JoAnn and I decided we wanted something bigger than the travel trailer and started looking for places closer to home. All of them seemed like I would be doing more maintenance than leisure especially mowing lawn. We finally decided we really liked the up north better and bought a mobile home in the same park the Helfert travel trailer was parked. A few years later we upgraded and bought the place next to ours and have been there ever since.

As a youngster, I started off doing just everything at the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen where my dad was editor. First as paperboy followed by ditching type in the composition room. I made pigs for the linotype and wrote stories when they would let me. I really liked taking pictures and spent most of my high school years as the staff photographer. I liked photography so much, I decided to go to Layton Art school to study it under Gerhart Backker. Vietnam was in my future after my two year degree was obtained. I decided on being a Navy photographer rather than get drafted into the Army. Lots of great photos in four years in the Navy and I came to work for the Fond du Lac reporter for a couple of years. My photography has stuck with me over the years. I really got back into it when my Mother passed away and left me some money. Just enough to buy a Yashica 35 mm camera that I have used for most of the photos in the gallery. A new digital camera has added another dimension to my photos. It also helps my webmaster, son in law John Vatne get the photos to the site a lot easier.

Both John and I will continue to bring you the best site we can deliver. I hope you will try some of the businesses I talk about and always tell them Helfert sent you to them. I hope all your journeys up north will be as pleasant as the ones we make, 210 miles to the best destination in the country.