WilloWood Inn: A special place in the Baraboo range
Located just a short meandering drive on the southern outskirts of Baraboo Wisconsin, is a tourist mecca of food, spirits, the renowned Devil’s Lake State Park, and a quaint motel called the WilloWood Inn.
Sometimes described as a multi-generational lodging choice, WilloWood has an interesting history. Originally named the Dream Lodge Motel and built in 1955 by the Charles and Jeanne Marking family, the inn started with nine single queen units, and what is now room number one served as the original lobby. Today the establishment has 16 rooms and a newer lobby.
The property has since changed ownership a couple of times and was most recently purchased by Angie Lowe and her husband Aaron in February of 2019.
Angie, a Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) tribal member, has a special connection to the area, as her ancestors had villages in the Baraboo range and across Wisconsin. “I mean it's just awe inspiring; our people (the Hoocąk) could have walked this path. I think Kristin WhiteEagle (Board Supervisor of District 13 in Sauk County and District 2 Hoocąk Legislator) has really been instrumental in bringing the Ho-Chunk people to the forefront here (Sauk County) and doing some great things for the indigenous people. I think it brought about more of an awareness for me,” Lowe said.
Recently, Lowe toured the Sauk County Historical Society and found a picture of the Inn in the 50’s. “It was so crazy because there are no trees around back then. Right now, it's completely wooded around here, but it was just like wide open. So, my understanding was that room number one was the original lobby. Jeanne had small children and she worked out of that lobby. And then they built the cottage on. I don't know if it was necessarily the Marking family that built on the cottage, but the cottage was built as a living quarter. Later, they built three or four separate cabins here in the 70’s and then there was this unit, the building that we're in right now, the lobby, which is actually the newest part built in 2012.”
Lowe noted there used to be a swimming pool in the center of the parking lot. The owners were going to make some repairs on the pool and upgrades. When they went to apply for the construction permit, it was determined there would need to be a shower house by the pool. The expense was going to be too much to and decided to build a new lobby instead. The pool was eventually taken out and the area became a sitting and gathering area that guests seemed to enjoy.
“The owners that I bought it from, Linda Johnson and Steve Kearns did many upgrades. When they purchased it, the rooms were just all generic like you would find down at the Best Western where everything is the same. With the help of an artistic friend, she and Steve renovated all the rooms and created different themes for every single room. When I looked at the website when I first saw that it was for sale, I looked at the website and I was like okay; I can see this. The pictures don't do it justice though, so when you go in the rooms you really see what it's all about. It's surprising, Linda and Steve put a lot of work into it.”
When asked why Lowe decided to go into the lodging business, she had this to say, “Part of it was wanting to work for myself. I was at a point in my life where I just wanted to be my own boss. I knew what I wanted to do. I had worked in the hospitality industry in in various positions from finance and accounting, to director of hospitality at the Ho-chunk hotel. I just knew that's what I wanted to do because I like to entertain and help people create memories. It's hard though to find that balance because I really wanted to enjoy the day when we had the Baraboo artisans here. But it's hard to do because you have to coordinate everything, so you're not really the one enjoying it, you're just trying to create an event for everybody else to enjoy and that's what we do here. We try to provide an environment that is inviting so people are happy and creating memories.”
Lowe also shared she got to a point in her life where she questioned what her legacy would be, what has she accomplished? “I look around me at some of the people that I know and I'm just in awe of their accomplishments. It was really just something in my heart when I saw that for sale sign I was like, ‘you know what, that's it that's what I want to do’. When we drove by here and I saw that sign, ‘vintage motel for sale’. I told my husband to turn around. I said, ‘I want to go back and see this’, and when we pulled in, I just had this feeling in my heart that this is what I wanted to do. We made the decision to buy this place, we did it as a family. It's a family run operation. My kids were in and my husband we're all on board.” Lowe’s Eldest son Joshua Brown and his girlfriend Erin Boland live on site and manage while Lowe is away. Her middle son Austin Azevedo takes care of maintenance and grounds keeping, while her youngest son Adrian Lowe is more hands off and husband Aaron manages the IT infrastructure.
Lowe added, she feels like hospitality is part of her Hoocąk culture, acknowledging what seems to be a negative history about who the Hoocąk are as a people. Lowe was raised with the practice that if you have visitors you should always invite them in, feed them, take care of them, and always provide a place for them to stay. Growing up, she shared her family always had extended relatives living in their household, or vice versa. “There was always kind of this communal living. I think that's kind of where it comes in where you just want to take care of people. I feel like I inherited that from my family, just kind of is in my nature to make people feel comfortable and be hospitable,” she said with a smile.
Learning very quickly that running an inn was challenging, Lowe said, “It's not easy. It requires a lot of work for all of us on a regular basis. As excited as we were about taking this on together as a family, we also learned that this is a lot more work than we thought it was going to be to keep it going. But who would keep it going if something happened to me, you know, so I was a little bit nervous about that. So, that's kind of my legacy, that my kids will take it over someday.”
Lowe is grateful for the help her nieces contribute towards the business, and sees their help as an opportunity of empowerment for them. “As well as other family members that come in and help, my nieces come here and help. They see what I'm doing. I hope that other young native girls see what I'm doing and think, ‘you know what, hey, that's something that I could do’. When I was growing up, I never thought about what opportunities were out there for me. I always just thought, well I finished high school and at the time didn't explore the idea of going to college, really, because I hadn't thought about it. I didn't know what was available or what am I good at.”
WillowWood is seeing its third generation of guests visiting, and Lowe stressed that 75% to 80% of her bookings are repeat customers. The inn has many guests that shared they remembered staying with their parents and now continue a tradition bringing their children and grandchildren.
The Covid-19 pandemic has without a doubt impacted business. Lowe said they have seen a loss of about $20,000 in bookings since March of this year. “Right now, people are really disappointed that Covid has shut the lobby down. We just thought it was the safest practice for people. I had it open early on in the season, and encouraged people to wear masks. I didn’t want to tell everybody ‘you have to wear your mask’ and it was just easier to close it because there were too many people coming in without their masks on. It's a difficult thing to do for me. For businesses downtown I can't imagine having to turn a guest away because they won't wear a mask. I wouldn't want to have to do that. So, we try to be careful here. And I think that's partly why we're fairly busy, because each of the rooms have a separate entrance and they know what our safety protocols are. Our lobby is closed to protect people, so people feel safe. Even though they're disappointed that they can't come in here and have their breakfast and their coffee, they feel safe and they feel comfortable staying with us.”
When the pandemic first began, Lowe was nervous. Then the cancellations started coming in. For a small business like this, that is a big loss. But thankfully, a lot of those cancellations eventually were filled. “It's still not where we were last year or where I projected us to be this year,” she offered in a solemn voice.
Lowe shared her gratitude running a business in Baraboo saying, “It's good to be in this community where the people are supportive. Not all communities are like that. Baraboo really opened up. In general, the business owners have been very helpful to me. Everybody's been super supportive of each other during this time because when Covid came, we didn't know what to expect, but everybody pulled together here in this town. All the business owners were supportive of each other and anytime there was anything that could help another business owner, they were there to support and keep people informed of opportunities and the grants that were available. I wouldn't have known about any of the business grants that you could get from the state if it weren't for the other business owners who just kind of took us into the fold.”
As for the future Lowe said, “First and foremost is maintaining the property the way that it is.” She added there are plans for additional rooms as they are normally very busy in the summertime and there's just not enough space for people. Lowe is also interested in building camp sites and an additional cabin is being looked into.
“I'd like to have a permanent pavilion structure so that guests can have weddings, family reunions, picnics, and stuff. There are so many different ways this property can be used. We have four acres here and probably most of the action happens on two of it. We've got lots of space out back. I went for a walk in the woods yesterday and was thinking there's so much that we could do out here with the campsites. I thought about glamping. There are just so many ideas, but sometimes you get caught up in the daily grind.”
“I'm hopeful for the future,” she said. “Hopefully next year we can start climbing back up, building our revenue stream and that cabin will come to fruition. There are so many calls for our other cabin all year long. But, with older structures like this, it's just like a constant battle to keep things functioning. It's a labor of love and I enjoy it. My kids are just kind of along for the ride. I'm sure there are times when they're just like, 'Oh, I'm so done with this', but I think for the most part, we've all enjoyed the ride so far. I know the previous owner, had it for like 13 years. At the time she sold it she was doing this pretty much by herself with the help of an older couple that work for us, which I inherited,” she said with a smile.
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