“Reel! Pull! Reel! Pull!” my uncle shouted as my little hands barely managed to grip the fishing rod. The butt of the rod pressed up against my belly button as I arched backward, pulling the beast on the other end of the fishing line from out of the water.

Afraid to touch the creature, I dangled the bluegill at the edge of my rod. With my cousins cheering behind me, it was impossible to contain my excitement. I jumped up and down, shaking the dock. I had finally caught my first fish.

Every time I arrive at my cousins’ cabin, I’m reminded of this memory and countless others. For me, this place acts as a time capsule — a keepsake of my childhood.

Other Wisconsinites with second homes can relate to this rush of memories, and they tie many of their most memorable experiences to their vacation homes.

These experiences lie in a place where the trees stand taller, the highways funnel narrower, and the distance between cars grows wider. Along with the traffic of Milwaukee and Madison, the busy city stress is left in the rear-view mirror. “Up North” is a place filled with activities centered around relaxation and indulging in a slower pace of life. Although magical, the idea of purchasing a second home for temporary use seems quite lavish. Nonetheless, ownership of second homes in Wisconsin is widespread and continues to rise.

Cabin, cottage, lake house and vacation home are all terms used to describe second homes in Wisconsin. Regardless, the National Association of Home Builders defines a second home as a nonrental property that is not classified as a taxpayer’s principal residence.

Areas including northeastern and northwestern Wisconsin, especially counties bordering Lake Michigan, have a high volume of second homes. In fact, 15 percent of the counties in the U.S. with the most vacation homes are located in northern Wisconsin, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Further, the number of second homes is only increasing, and sales prices from 2013 to 2018 have seen a 36 percent price jump — 5 percent higher than the increase in regular housing prices. 

The high volume of second-home ownership in northern Wisconsin isn’t due to financial feasibility, however — Wisconsin is reported to have the fifth-highest property tax in the U.S.

There is something special about being Up North — must be something in the water. (Photo by Kia Pourmodheji)

According to records from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, the cost of a second home in Door County, Wisconsin is estimated at around $200,000, not including annual maintenance and other upkeep costs.

To put the cost of a second home into perspective, Kevin McKinley of the Eau Claire-based McKinley Money, who reported on behalf of Wisconsin Public Radio, broke down the cost of a $200,000 second home in northern Wisconsin. The total? A $40,000 down payment, a monthly mortgage of about $800 and $10,000 a year for other costs.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources highlights some of the other costs, including travel expenses, property taxes, maintenance and upkeep, lake dues, taxes required by local lake associations or districts, and installation or repair of erosion control measures. This expansive list doesn’t include the fixed costs that new second homeowners incur when remodeling. 

If Wisconsin second homes are not very affordable, why do they have such a strong presence?

One possible explanation is the prevalence of multigenerational homes that get passed along through generations, which takes away the financial burden of purchasing a second home. My uncle Mark Dawson, 53, and his wife and my aunt, Joan, 57, own such a cabin in Barron, Wisconsin, about an hour and a half northeast of downtown Minneapolis.

“The cabin has been in my family since the ’40s. My grandparents built it, and it got passed on to my dad. Then my dad passed it onto his four sons — my brothers and me,” Mark says. 

He notes that his family travels to their cabin at least once or twice a month between May and October. However, Joan had a more accurate estimate of how often they visit their cabin: “Not often enough!” she says.

One factor that motivates them to drive three and a half hours from Madison to Barron is the friendliness of the community that surrounds their cabin.

Describing neighbors and nearby friends, Mark says, “Everyone’s in the same position in life where we’re here to relax and enjoy life. It’s really a sense of almost a family community that we’re all kind of the same.” 

He says he often comes up to his cabin at the beginning of the season and the lawn is already mowed by a friendly neighbor. But this community aspect isn’t a one-way stream. Mark recalls a huge windstorm that struck Barron County, sending tree branches flying all over homeowners’ yards. 

“I picked up some of theirs, and that’s just kind of what you do for each other,” he says.

For the Dawsons, the friendliness of the community within Barron justifies the travel and maintenance costs associated with their cabin. However, a large portion of second homes in northern Wisconsin have been purchased rather than inherited from family members. 

Take 21-year-old Olivia Kowalkowski’s family, which purchased a cottage in Door County during the early 2000s.

Although Kowalkowski and her family have taken on both the cost of purchasing their cottage and the annual expenses, they too are drawn to the communal atmosphere in the area, which they say outweighs the financial risk associated with acquiring a second home.

A sense of community and togetherness is just part of what makes cabin culture so appealing. (Photo courtesy of Mark Dawson)

“You don’t have to tell someone you’re coming over. You kind of just show up on your jet ski and walk onto their dock,” she says. “When we go up on the weekends and we stop at Costco on the way up to get a bunch of food, [my mother] is always planning for, like, 10 more people than we have.” 

The Dawsons and Kowalkowskis agree that the primary reasons they travel to their vacation homes are the quality time they spend with their loved ones and the memories they create. With Door County being a popular tourist area, there are plenty of opportunities to craft family memories through local activities. Jen Rogers, public relations and communications manager for Door County Visitor Bureau, notes that they receive nearly 2 million tourists during the summer months. 

Yet, Kowalkowski and her family find that their most memorable moments are fostered in the comfort of their vacation home. She recalls the time that she and her sisters climbed on the roof of their cottage to stargaze.

“When we were little, we took one of the screens out of the windows [in the cupola on top of the cottage], and we crawled out onto the roof,” she says. “We laid all of these blankets down and looked at the stars from the roof. It was super fun.”

The Dawsons also have built countless memories at their cabin. One of their favorites is the time their daughter jumped off the dock before she knew how to swim.

“[It was] probably one of the first times that season, and she was so excited,” Mark says. “She got her swimsuit on and ran down to the dock without even thinking. She jumped off the dock. Although Joan was right behind her, it was hard to keep up with her. That’s a funny one.” 

The memories created at these second homes stretch back across a lifetime. While talking with the Dawsons and Kowalkowski about childhood memories at their second homes, I couldn’t help but connect their experiences to my own. As we shared our memories, it became apparent that these experiences revolve around a single location unique to each of us. 

Vacation homes have an ability to foster lifelong memories that make the financial investment worth every penny.

Joan points to a poem hanging above their cabin’s family room table, which reads in part, “So how do you know when you’ve arrived ‘Up North’? When you feel the cares of the world begin to slip away. When you begin to breathe a little easier because the air seems purer. When you notice that the sky is a little bluer and the pines are taller, and the people smile a lot more. It’s then that you know you’re ‘Up North.’”