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Final Days of Fort Waupaca

Former amusement park to be developed

By James Card


This is a place where a long time ago kids could go on train rides, pet some goats and get robbed by pretend outlaws.

All that is left of this amusement park is an arched bridge, a one-room schoolhouse-like shack and a figure-eight track of weathered cement where children would putter in miniature cars.

It is now slated to be developed as an 11.82-acre lot for commercial and multi-family buildings. It will be subdivided into three parcels: two 2.25 acre lots for commercial purposes and 7.1 acres for multi-family dwellings.

According to public land records, the parcel is owned by the Eugene Jenson Family Trust.

It is located on County Trunk QQ. Noffke Lumber is next door and The Lakes community church is across the road. The front part of the lot is a grassy strip where visitors would park.

Concrete parking bumpers still remain among the weeds.

“I’ve watched those buildings get torn down and every time it’s a tug at my heart,” said Miriam Leean, a local chiropractor. She was around toddler and kindergarten age when her father Joseph Leean bought the place. She remembers him mixing concrete to make a moat when she was little. In the moat, kids piloted small motorized boats.

Wild West Waupaca

Originally called Ponderosa, Leean renamed it Fort Waupaca. There were gift shops, a chapel and an old-fashioned saloon where employees dressed up in outfits from the Old West. There was a petting zoo and train tracks meandered through the woods in back.

“The train would get robbed. We would have an employee – one of my cousins that worked for my dad – would jump down and rob the train like a Black Bart kind of thing,” said Leean.

A small wooden bridge that spans a gully still remains in the woods.

“There were a lot of good times back then,” recalled Mayor Brian Smith. “They used to have a goat that would walk across that bridge. And you paid to watch that goat walk back and forth across that bridge.”

Smith – who was a teenager when Fort Waupaca was in operation – remembers actors would stage a fake shoot-out as sheriffs and outlaws a couple times a day.

Leean’s legacy

Leean died this year on Groundhog Day at age 79. He was one of Waupaca’s most interesting residents.

Born in Iola, he went to Augustana College in Sioux Falls and met his future wife and they started a family. He taught math and physics at Waupaca High School and bought Ding’s Dock in 1973.

He renovated Chief Waupaca, the famous tour boat on the Chain O’ Lakes. He also founded the Shepherd of the Lakes Church (now just called The Lakes).

Besides Fort Waupaca and Ding’s Dock, he later ran a waterslide (where Strongwood Homes is now located), and opened Sparkling Springs, another petting zoo on Shadow Road.

Later, he entered politics and served as a state senator for 10 years. Then, Leean headed the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, then joined Secretary Tommy Thompson at the Department of Health and Social Services in Washington, DC..

Fort Waupaca eventually closed and the row of buildings became known as Primrose Lane. They were gift shops for a while. A florist from Manawa floral would set up a greenhouse in the spring to sell plants.

Meanwhile as those businesses closed down, the area changed. County Trunk QQ used to be old Highway 22. There is a slight curve in the road today but years ago it was much sharper. Leean remembers everyone called it Deadman’s Curve. She remembers vehicles crashing into the trees on the property of the Wenckus family.

“You used to be able to drive 55 miles-per-hour from Kwik Trip to King,” she said.

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