Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald staff
On Sunday, July 28, Fr. David Neuschwander offered a centennial celebration Mass at a little-known Catholic summer chapel in the Hayward area. Served primarily by visiting priests, Our Lady of the Lake Chapel in Victory Heights has a story of its own.
Two brothers, Fr. Peter Cichozki, a Franciscan, and Fr. Frank Cichozki, a diocesan priest and pastor in Chicago, began developing a “Catholic Summer Colony” in the 1920s under the supervision of the Catholic Colonization Society of the United States. With the increased prevalence of automobiles and the construction of roads, families began traveling farther distances for leisure. Duluth was “a mere 3.5 hours,” according to a history written about the chapel. Minneapolis and St. Paul were five hours away, but the drive from Chicago took 36 hours, “through a land of stumps and stones.”
The community was developed for prospective buyers with a clubhouse and several cabins. To provide a place of worship for summer colonists, the log chapel was built in 1924, using a unique quarter-log technique popular in the area.
The original tabernacle is still in use. Birch log frame benches were built and “a birch log altar railing completed the rustic interior.” In the 1940s they added electricity, and in the 1980s, lighting and fans.
Prison chaplain Fr. Berthold spearheaded an outdoor Stations of the Cross. Only partially complete, the stations remain in place on the property. Another notable priest connected to the community was “poet-priest” Fr. Francis Young. He had been commissioned by the president of the United States to write a prayer for the nation. “Singing Man Black Robe” was the name bestowed on him when he was made an honorary member of the Ojibwe tribe. Upon his death, the property was given to the Franciscans of the Sacred Heart Province.
It was designated as a place of respite for Franciscans and diocesan priests ministering in Chicago. Seminarians also visited the property for retreats and ongoing training. The chapel history recalls that “sounds of the Gregorian chant could be heard wafting through the forest in the early morning,” during the summer months.
In 1964, a priest of the La Crosse Diocese, Fr. Thomas Finucan, acquired property near the chapel with other family members. He served the summer community for years as an “unofficial pastor.” In the late 1970s, another La Crosse diocesan priest, Fr. Bill Jablonske, purchased an adjacent property called “La Hacienda.” Over the following two decades, changes within the Franciscan order had left the property in disuse. The province sold the properties and the chapel was entrusted to the summer congregation to continue.
In 2012, Fr. Jablonske gathered people from the summer congregation to discuss the future of the chapel, and volunteers have since run all aspects of its maintenance, administration and scheduling of services.
In 2022, after navigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chapel community met with Hayward Area Catholic Churches pastor Fr. David Neuschwander. Since then, Our Lady of the Lake Chapel has been considered a part of the clustered parishes with strong local support.
The chapel has embraced multiple generations of Catholics and welcomed visitors from around the world during the summer months when the Hayward area receives a great number of tourists.
“Victory Heights is a community,” the history states, “where so many of the residents help each week in season to prepare for liturgy, handle the financials, perform music, do property maintenance, flowers and most importantly, arranged for priests to celebrate the Eucharist.”
Necessary improvements have been made in the last 15 years, including a new audio system, outdoor benches as well some capital improvements to “enhance the chapel’s overall spiritual value, preserve its legacy and increase its useful life.” Most of the regular Mass monetary collections are donated to the St. Francis Solanus Mission at Reserve.
More than 160 people attended the centennial in the log church. Fellowship was enjoyed after the Mass. One of the fruits of the gathering was to discuss further how to increase the summer services offered by inviting other local and visiting priests.
Fr. David Neuschwander, middle, is pictured with Fr. John Schultz, left, and cluster deacon Brian McCaffrey after the centennial celebration at Our Lady of the Lake Chapel in the Victory Heights neighborhood in Stone Lake on Sunday, July 28. (Submitted photo)
