Camp Wandawega

During Prohibition, Camp Wandawega started as a hush-hush speakeasy and brothel beside a small lake in Southeast Wisconsin. Its history is populated both by ne’er-do-wells and do-gooders who frequented the site before it evolved into the idyllic, quirky resort it is today.

Five years into the nationwide ban on alcohol, a group of Chicago bigwigs created a space where they could make their own rules. The Wandawega Hotel was built as a center for illicit recreation: liquor, prostitution, and gambling. Trapdoors, multiple points of egress, and hidden hatches served as security, and the whole operation proved successful until a federal raid led to a padlock on its doors.

After Prohibition ended, the desire for clandestine debauchery continued. The hotel was converted into a tavern nicknamed Orphan Annie’s, after the infamous madam Anna Beckford Peck. The tavern served as a getaway for all types of clientele, from crooked cops to criminals on the run, who would pass through for bootleg booze or a visit with Annie’s ladies. That era ended abruptly when Peck was sent to prison.

Nearly a decade later, the Andrzejewski family bought the property and recast its reputation as a modest family vacation spot, changing the name to Wandawega Lake Resort. Catholic Latvians also used it as a summer retreat, where those who couldn’t return to the USSR established a community for their families and children.

One of those children, David Hernandez, purchased the camp in 2003. He and his wife, Tereasa Surratt, have been restoring Wandawega while running it for the past fifteen years. Together they’ve devoted themselves to diving down the rabbit holes and opening all the hidden hatches on a mission to uncover the various secret stashes of Camp Wandawega’s history.

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