Many years ago while riding in Northern WI we took a "wrong turn" & ended up @ Bent's Camp outside Lando. What a cool place on the water. Just don't make it down there much since we mostly ride the UP these days.
Pretty good ribs at that place and fairly priced.
Bent’s Camp was established in 1896 by Charles Bent, an avid outdoor enthusiast of sport fishing and hunting. He created the resort to preserve the Northwoods in all its glory for all to love and enjoy as much as he did. Since its establishment, it has been seen as a fantastic fishing attraction and still is today.
In 1906, the lodge restaurant was built for many different purposes but mainly to serve food to the fishing visitors who heard of the famous waters. In this era, the Bent family served fresh food, including vegetables they planted, grew, and harvested themselves from their handmade gardens. Today, Bent’s Camp holds itself to the highest standard when it comes to food, crafting delicious dishes in honor of the original Bent family’s lodge restaurant such as their handcrafted pizzas, sandwiches, and famous fish fry.
Two cabins, in particular, are rich in Bent’s Camp’s history called the Vair House and Caboose. The Vair House took its name from a woman named Mrs. Vair, who leased this cabin from Bent’s Camp through an American plan. An American plan allowed her to rent this cabin and eat all 3 hearty meals a day at Bent’s Camp. She had a lease with Roy Benedict, who owned Bent’s Camp at the time, for 50 years. As she got older, a man by the name of William McKinnon heard the lease was coming up and wanted to buy it out early and gain her property including the cabin. Bent’s Camp named the cabin Vair House in honor of her.
In the Vair House, there was no kitchen since it wasn’t necessary given the American plan, encouraging guests to eat at the restaurant. When William McKinnon purchased her lease in 1972, he had a kitchen built across the swamp named Caboose. He loved trains and stained the cabin red to mimic this love of his. In order to access the Caboose, he added a road through the swamp, calling it the causeway. Since then, Bent’s Camp has remodeled both cabins for guests to stay in and experience the original charm the resort holds.
The Cisco Chain of Lakes consists of 15 immaculate lakes. Dating back to before the 1800s, these lakes were not connected but that didn’t slow down the Chippewa tribes. They used to portage the Cisco Chain of Lakes by canoe! The tribes made this incredible journey to fish these prestigious lakes because they found it was a honey hole for fishing. As word traveled about this fishing hotspot, past president Eisenhower even visited on several occasions to fish all species the chain holds including walleye, northern pike, bass, panfish, and most famously, muskies.
Dick Rose, the founder of Discover Wisconsin and local guide in the Northwoods area, once guided Dr. William Pivar to the Michigan State record musky on the Chain in the 80s! This recorded class musky weighed in at 45 pounds on Thousand Island Lake on July 26, 1980.
The story goes that Pivar and local guide Dick Rose hadn’t caught anything the entire afternoon on the Cisco Chain and time was ticking. Pivar made a decision to switch to a lighter outfit without a leader attached. About 2 minutes later, throwing a Believer lure, Pivar hooked this record class musky. After a five-minute fight, he landed this trophy fish. Many say that the next Michigan state record fish will come out of these lakes.