Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary
Sarona
The Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary sits on 600 acres about 75 miles north of Eau Claire and serves as a mosaic of Wisconsin’s natural habitats.
“Within a quarter-mile walk, you can be in old-grove forest, cutover forest; you can be at a lake, a bog, a marsh, a prairie,” said executive director Nikki Janisin.
The sanctuary exudes summer-camp charm. Most of the camp operates seasonally between May and October, but the camp will soon remodel, expand and winterize the sanctuary’s Program Learning Center Garage, which can seat 150 to 200 people. The plan is to have that venue climate-controlled and available for year-round use by May 2019, Janisin said.
By far, “people enjoy the Barn and Library the best,” she said. The Barn has a 100-person dining hall downstairs decorated with old camp signs on the walls, and sliding barn doors lead to outdoor areas that can be used as overflow for larger events. An upstairs loft can be used for meetings and events for about 100 people.
Despite its name, the Library is a stand-alone 100-person-capacity building shaded by trees on the edge of a forested area. Inside, guests will find hardwood floors, wood-beam ceilings and a fieldstone fireplace.
The Amphitheater, which opened in 2012, has a cedar-plank stage, and the camp used salvaged brick to build grassy, terraced seating for 100 people.
For team-building activities, groups use the low-ropes “cooperation course,” opt for a canoeing program or take a pontoon ride.
The camp’s 13 miles of trails are also perfect for group hikes and nature walks, especially walking to the bog on an elevated boardwalk.
“The cool part about it is, end of June, it will be purple and pink because of the orchids blooming, and in the fall, the tamaracks have turned from green to gold — it’s different every season,” Janisin said.
Homestead Meadows Farm
Greenville
Steve Nagy wanted to move his family to the country, where he could give his kids plenty of space to roam and room to grow, much like he had growing up in Hungary.
So, in 1970, he bought a farm at auction, despite being warned that although the land was good, the buildings were unsalvageable. Nagy spent the summer camping out at the property and working to repair and restore the buildings, including the farmhouse, the barn and the machine shed.
Today, nearly 50 years later, Nagy is still providing the same countryside experience and farmlike atmosphere, but to event attendees instead of his own family. Up to 50 guests can pile into wagons hitched up to one of several restored, bright-red Farmall tractors for a hayride tour of some of the farm’s 55 landscaped acres to see white cedar groves, ponds and wildflowers.
“It’s very much like a slightly rustic park setting,” he said.
The farm is in the township of Greenville, about 20 miles north of Oshkosh and 40 miles southwest of Green Bay.
The barn is the largest venue, and the 3,200-square-foot lower level has large windows that overlook the south lawns and ponds. The 2,500-square-foot upper level has a hardwood dance floor and 35-foot ceilings, and an antique glass wall separates a smaller 800-square-foot room that groups often use for food or bar service.
Groups often progress from one space to another in the barn, Nagy said, perhaps holding a meeting upstairs, having a meal downstairs and enjoying cocktails outside.
The renovated machine shed houses two separate spaces. The 800-square-foot rustic Pioneer Room features old plank and brick flooring, and the more refined 1,600-square-foot North Parlor works well for meetings. Each room connects to porches that flank the building, and an event tent can also be used on the east side of the shed.
