Locksley Lodge01

Waupaca County Post

June 14, 1957

Liebson Home Was Once Locksley Lodge

The present house of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Liebson on the east side of Round Lake was once the old Locksley Lodge. Liebson bought the home in 192 and started remodeling it two years later. He completely removed one side of the lodge and remodeled the inside.

He did not make too many changes because of nostalgic reasons – his wife used to work at the lodge when it was thriving and many of the old timers still like to visit the grounds.

When the lodge was going full force, there were three large cottages on each side of the main lodge, but now they are owned by different families. The old walk that led from the top of the hill to the slowly sloping sandy beach still remains.

The lodge charged only $15 a week a person and that included room and board. There were always thick cream, bread, butter and honey on the table, according to Liebson.

A beautiful cloister of pine trees shades the cottage from any heavy winds but they still allow enough refreshing breezes to pass through.

However, when Alfred Smith owned the cottage several years ago, he thought there was not enough cool breeze hitting the cottage. There were too many pine trees for him.

One day when it was a little warm and hardly any breeze to suit him, he took an axe and began chopping down a few pines and made a clearing for himself, according to Liebson. You also have a better view of Round Lake.

Liebson retired from the restaurant business in Chicago in 1950 and has been living at the cottage all year since then. During the winter he treats his grandchildren to a one ring circus of performing squirrels. He has trained the squirrels around his lot to walk along a wire he has strung between two trees. At first, to entice the animals to walk the wire he would put a small group of peanuts in the middle of the wire. Then he would hang another wire with a peanut on the end of it from that one.

To keep the squirrels from feeding on the food he gives the birds, Liebson has devised a small container and placed it on top of a small tree. Then he greased the tree so they couldn’t climb it. Needless to say the squirrels were surprised when they slipped back down as they attempted to climb it.