Brief History of Lake of the Dells

Some twenty to thirty thousand years ago, Glacier Lake Wisconsin covered this spot, and much of what we know today as central Wisconsin, with water many scores of feet deep.

As it ran off to the south, to what became the Mississippi, the rock formations known now as the Dells, literally millions of years in the making, became visible.

There may have been ancient aboriginal peoples here. But we know that Native Americans lived here. They stayed on the river bank and used it for water, food and transportation. The game of the forests added to their food supply.

Europeans arrived at the end of the 17^th century. French explorers paddled down the river from the north. The first formations on the eastern bank of the river that they saw make up what we now call The Bluff.

In 1763, French fur traders built a house on the property. Until the latter nineteenth century, rivers were the highways of the continent. Then, roads built to enable commerce would make the property an important transportation link as the area's oldest dwelling served as a stagecoach stop, boarding house and restaurant.

In the twentieth century, the Kriegl family operated a small dairy farm on the property. For the last twenty years of the twentieth century the property was used as a campground.

In 2004, Lake of the Dells became the Dells' only gated condominium community, with a specific plan to maintain some 170 of its 190 acres as open space.

Timeline:

• 2003
  • Our first 4-unit was built. Three of the four units sold in 2004.
  • One unit was used for on-site management, it has since sold to a full-time resident.
  • Two of the three units have resold with an admirable profit. 
• 2004
  • We built our second 4-unit.
  • All units sold the same year.
  • One unit has resold with an excellent profit.
• 2005
  • We built our third 4-unit building. All units sold within a year.
  • We built two waterfront duplexes. All units sold within a year.
  • All eight waterfront building sites sold and four homes were built and are currently occupied.
• Grand Pines Circle
  • A 16-site single family neighborhood that has eight homes built and six sites available.
• 2007: The Bluff and The Preserve are soon to be available.
  • Six architect-designed Cliffside attached homes built and available.