Eagle River, Wisconsin: Pleasure Island (Gone)

1880s Western town had a saloon, train robberies, and shoot-outs, panning for gold, fairytale land, rides, goats, bear, deer, other animals on display. Pleasure Island was NOT near the river, as is listed in this description. It was on Pleasure Island Drive, behind the Eagle River Snowmobile Derby race track. The Eagle River schools are located on the site now. John Morley was a good man to work for. I also enjoyed working with Dave Koller, who built the shooting gallery and other electrical games and attractions. I played Sheriff Don (get out of town) Brown, as well as Roy Robber.

I spent every summer of my childhood up in Eagle River. My Dad also went up there when he was a kid. Pleasure Island and Aqualand were two attractions that my sister and I looked forward to every year. You entered at Fairytale Hill, with animals and nursery rhyme props, then you walked through a set of gates and you were in Cowboy Town. We experienced the shootout, the stagecoach ride, the train robbery, and the haunted house every year, and suffered no emotional damage. Let's not forget the Paul Bunyan breakfast in the Big Barn shops, and the lady that did the chalk portraits.

The entire experience of Pleasure Island will remain in our hearts forever. I wish it was still open so I could share these memories with my grandsons.

Thanks for the memories. The stage coach and its robbery. The haunted buildings. The gunfight. Thanks to the family that owned it and the employees. I am saddened that i will not be able to share it with my 4 kids. I will cherish my Pleasure Island coin.

I worked at Pleasure Island and Eagle Pass Park as a kid, first job away from home. I started in late spring early summer, fixing the RR tracks, getting the park ready to open, then mowing the grass, taking care of the grounds, and any other odd jobs that were needed. My older brothers worked there before, during, and after the year I worked there. They did the Roy Robber, and the Sheriff Brown bits. It was fun to work there, and fun to go even as a local. John (Pop) Morley was OK in my book.

I too visited in the early-mid '70s. I remember the stone domed structures and the shoe, the goat that walked across the rickety bridge, and of course the train "ride." I was soooo scared of that train. We had a cabin in Lake Tomahawk and went every summer. I've always wondered about what happened to it. What a great place growing up.

One poster wrote about the soda drinking bear. I don't remember that being there but there was one at Pecks Wildwood in Minocqa. I think it died of diabetes! The place is still open as a petting zoo -- went there about 8 years ago. There is still the bear and it still drinks "soda" but its a sugar free type I'm told is actually not bad for the bear.