Bruno Vinette Stopping Place
Bruno Vinette Stopping Place: Bruno Vinette was born Oct. 7, 1836 in Ste-Martine, County Chateauguay, Québec, but migrated to Kankakee, Ill., in 1853 to live with his godfather. Meeting a man who had just returned from the pineries of the Chippewa Valley, he headed north in 1855 to seek his fortune.
After working on a Chippewa River keel-boat and as a stagecoach driver, he married and started a farm at Eagle Point which also served as stopping place for river-men and lumberjacks.
He preferred the forest to the fields, however, and during the second half of the 19th century spent most of his life operating logging camps from Chippewa Falls to Lake Superior for major lumber companies. Vinette was consequently a well-known figure in the north-woods until his death in Chippewa Falls in 1923.
The main portion of the 101 Tote Road crossed the Flambeau River at a fording place just west of the site of current Tee-A-Way Golf Course in the city of Ladysmith is where Bruno Vinette Stopping Place was located.
Bruno Vinette received a land grant from the U.S. Government, and decided to establish a hotel and stopping place southeast of the Tee-A-Way Golf Course.
This was one of the first buildings near what is today Ladysmith.
Bruno Vinette owned 400 acres on both sides of the Flambeau River. Ferry service was provided, and a bridge later spanned the Flambeau at the fords. In about 1910, this bridge was taken out by an ice jam.
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