The Seven Pines Lodge encompasses 66 acres and includes a main lodge, caretaker's house, gatehouse, stream house, water tower, and pool, most built from white pine logs harvested at the site. Surrounded by towering pine trees, the lodge reflects a rustic lifestyle that came into vogue for wealthy Americans in the early 1900s. With encouragement from outdoorsman President Theodore Roosevelt, American interest in conservation and wilderness preservation blossomed at the beginning of the twentieth century, leading many to escape the cities to reinvigorate themselves among beautiful natural settings. Charles E. Lewis, a Minnesota wheat broker, was one of the wealthy who adopted this pastime. In 1900, he bought a tract of land in rural Clam Falls, Wisconsin (later Lewis) that he hoped to utilize as a conservation project, investment, and personal estate. Soon after, he hired a builder to construct the main lodge and, later (around 1910), the additional buildings. Lewis established a fish hatchery and farm at the estate and, in 1910, he founded the village of Lewis. Prominent visitors, including Calvin Coolidge, visited the Seven Pines Lodge to enjoy superb fishing and hospitality. In the 1920s, Lewis tried to sell the estate to the state in order to turn it into a park so that it would be preserved after his death. Even though Lewis's repeated attempts to turn Seven Pines Lodge into a park failed, the complex has been maintained as a private resort complex.
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