The papers are divided into three series: RESORT RECORDS, OTHER BUSINESS RECORDS, and COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES. The records document a small northern Wisconsin resort from its beginnings about 1898 through the 1940s. While the papers span the years from 1900 to 1983, the period best documented is 1913 to 1933. The Forest Home Resort records are most numerous among the business papers, although sufficient records of other types are present to suggest the Warners' various entrepreneurial and community activities. Nevertheless, the resort records are far from complete. There are no financial record books or income tax forms. (All records relating to food are also missing.) Because of the absence of basic financial documentation, it is difficult to interpret the significance of Herbert Warner's non-resort activities. Rather, the importance of the Warner collection is its detailed documentation of the variety of activities required to operate a small Wisconsin resort during the early years of the century.
The RESORT RECORDS are divided into five subseries: Business Records, General Correspondence, and Guest Records, plus Photographs and Home Movies. The Business Records relate to various aspects of the management of the operation of the resort including advertising and purchase of equipment, furnishings, and supplies as unusual as imported cigars. The correspondence related to advertising of the resort documents not only the type of clientele sought but the publications where advertising appears and the text of many ads. It also includes sample letterheads and two advertising brochures “Summer Outing” and “Warner's Forest Home Summer Resort.” The second title, which dates from the late 1920's, is the only document in the collection which suggests that the resort sought a restricted clientele. The most complete files within the business records are the banking correspondence and the employment applications. In the latter, prospective employees described their skills and desire for work, and in many cases Warner's response is noted. Within the legal and medical correspondence several items pertain to an interesting case concerning an injured employee. Although much of the correspondence is fragmentary and only concerned with details, it provides a representative view of the resort's operations over a period of two decades.
The General Correspondence primarily contains letters exchanged between the Warner family and various summer residents of Plum Lake. (In many cases the Warners had become acquainted with these people because they originally stayed at the resort before purchasing property in the area.) These letters are filled with requests for services such as clearing of flower beds, putting boats into the water, and putting up docks. Also included is a small amount of family correspondence and two folders containing wartime material. The most valuable portion of the collection is the Guest Records. Covering the period 1913-1933, these papers include a wide variety of letters: requests, billing adjustments, and reservations. These letters document the individuals who vacationed in northern Wisconsin during the early part of the twentieth century.
Also arranged here are photographs of the resort (and Warner's logging operation) and home movies. Many of the photographs are printed postcards; others are candid photographs of guests boating or displaying a prize catch. While many of the home movies are imprecisely identified, they generally document activities at the resort as well as fur trapping, the local fish hatchery, and family vacations. They date from the early 1930s through 1970. Many smaller films have been spliced together, not necessarily in any order. The films and original photographs are available in the Visual Materials Archive of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
The BUSINESS RECORDS include papers related to the Warners' varied, nonresort activities. Correspondence and other papers document Herbert's work as a surveyor, justice of the peace, and fur trapper. The records of the Lake and River Logging Company are particularly notable. These records document the acquisition of the abandoned logs from various logging companies and the operation of the mill. Photographs filed in the Resort Records series also contain documentation of Warner's logging activities. Correspondence relating to the Plum Lake Golf Club, which Warner was instrumental in establishing (along with Fred S. James), include information on financing, management and development of the grounds. Warner also designed, patented and arranged for the manufacture of an anchor, and some correspondence with various retailers and manufacturers of the new design is included.
About the Warners' COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES there is documentation about area roads, a new post office site, the creation of the Community Protestant Church, and the purchase of instruments and scores for the town band. The property tax correspondence concerns not only Warner's own taxes but the desire for reduced assessment of many summer residents.
