William Cunningham Gray

William Gray was an avid proponent of the great Northwoods and was “Barnes’ first resorted and supporter.” He was formally educated in law, but his love was writing, and that is what he spent his life doing. Gray became editor of The Interior, a weekly Presbyterian paper, located in Chicago.

The year was 1886 when Gray set off on an adventure to explore the Northwoods area south of Iron River. Travelling the St. Croix Trail, he came upon a beautiful area with diverse forests and beautiful vegetation. This is where he fell in love with Island Lake Camp. William Gray, along with long time friend Nettie McCormick, who was recently widowed, decided to go into land ownership by purchasing almost three square miles of land surrounding Island Lake in 1887.

He spent summers at the lake and built his summer retreat which, ultimately, made him and Nellie McCormick the first employers of the Barnes area. The retreat had a lodge, a library, a kitchen, sleeping cabins, and a barn (located on the mainland). There were also boat houses, rowboats and docks, all of which were either constructed on site or hauled in from the Iron River depot.

For fifteen years during his visits to Island Lake Camp, the campfire was a prominent focus where many would tell stories of their adventures. Others would just come to listen. Gray continued with his writing and brought the Northwood’s character to his readers in a compilations of essays published in 1894 called Camp-fire Musings: Life and Good Times in the Woods. In 1902, many of his essays were published in a book titled Musings by Campfire and Wayside.