12/28/2025
Long before it became The Griffin Inn, life at the old Ellison Bay Lodge moved at a different rhythm.
Lumbermen came in from the surrounding forests to find a hot meal and a place to rest. Summer guests lined up for hearty, three-meal-a-day cooking from Olga Wickman, who baked every pie, cake, and loaf of bread by hand. Sunday chicken dinners cost $1.50, rooms rented for $2 a week, and laundry dried on the line in the sun.
Evenings meant gathering by the stone fireplace for cards and conversation. Friendships formed here lasted for decades. Winters brought their own rituals—blocks of ice cut from Ellison Bay and packed under sawdust to last through summer. The original iceboxes still sit on the back porch today.
These small details are the rhythms that shaped this place, and still do today. An experience guided by history and hospitality, and shaped by community.
📸: Liberty Grove Historical Society
