The Man Behind the Picture

Although his image has been seen by nearly every serious musky fisherman throughout the musky range since this photo was first snapped 58 years ago, the real identity of this unassuming outdoorsman has remained rather vague to most. But, because he happens to be the only known person ever to be photographed holding Louis Spray's first world record musky (a 59 1/2 #er from Grindstone Lake in 1939), Van Camp's likeness will undoubtedly remain forever etched in musky angling history books and, from time to time, he may even continue to be mistaken for old Louie himself.

Having similar backrounds and a passionate zest for the outdoors, the two north woodsmen -- were in may ways -- "cut from the same tree." Both born in 1900 and spending their youths in Park Falls, Wisconsin, it was only a matter of time before their lives would intersect and, from that day on, the two would remain lifelong friends. So let's meet Alton Van Camp and get to know…the man behind the picture.

Born on June 7th in Loyal, Wisconsin, Alton grew up in Park Falls and attended Washington School. His father, Jim, was a fishing guide even before the turn of the century. Known to be an expert boatsman, Jim poled river boats on the Flambeau River to many a fish's lair. In later years, Jim -- by then, a seasoned musky man -- also served as a frequent fishing companion and early mentor of Spray's.

Around 1912, Alton and his family moved to Draper, Wisconsin, where his father had a blacksmith shop. After graduating from Draper's high school, Alton enlisted in the National Guard, attaining the rank of stable sergeant. That was back when the military still had a cavalry. By the early 1920's, Alton was trapping and acting as a fishing and hunting guide -- a vocation which was to remain a substantial part of his livelihood for many years. Starting out guiding at Boyd's Mason Lake Resort on Long Lake, Alton also did some guiding out of Ross' Teal Lake Lodge on Teal Lake.

Through to the late 1920's, Alton was a fur trapper and hunted timber wolves for the bounty to supplement his income. Timber wolves were considered bounty animals by the state and were said to have fetched as much as $30 a piece. On November 24, 1928, it was reported that Alton trapped a 91-pound timber wolf.

Although Van Camp also guided hunters to whitetail deer and grouse, he was best known as a fishing guide. Adept at various types of fishing, Alton was proficient enough with a fly rod to be able to pull some dandy catches of trout out of the streams with which he was acquainted. But it was undoubtedly musky fishing which developed into Alton's primary angling passion.

Sometime during the early 1920's, Alton was guiding a man who had a nice musky on, played him expertly, and brought the fish aground for Alton to shoot (which was the duty of the guide in those days). Van Camp, known to be an expert pistol shot, plugged the fish just right with his trusty .22 pistol. The musky stiffened out for a few seconds and then took off slowly, so the guest snubbed the line gently and the line slipped out of the musky's mouth as though there had never been a hook in the fish. A real heart breaker.

What happened? They caught the fish on a single hook sucker rig which had a long cable leader attached to it. Now what are the odds of a 1/4-inch diameter bullet going through the fish and hitting the less than 1/64-inch diameter leader, dead center, and severing it? Well, that's what happened. I guess Alton was just too good a shot!

With Mason and Long Lakes being located right in his own backyard, near his Draper home, Alton grew to be as well acquainted with these waters as any man could be. He also spent many an hour fishing the North Fork of the Flambeau River and liked fishing both the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and, of course, the famed Chippewa Flowage. Always having a soft spot in his heart for the sprawling Chippewa Flowage, Alton knew these waters well and fished Pete's Bar when it was still a "forest"!

During his years in the north woods, Alton had built friendships with many -- one of the most enduring of which was with Louie Spray. Best of friends, the duo had many good times during their outdoor adventures. While it's possible they may have known each other as young boys while they were both still living in Park Falls, it's likely the two first met during the early 1920's after Spray had moved to Draper and begun buying furs from the trappers in the area -- of whom Van Camp was one.

Due to adverse trapping seasons, the trappers sometimes didn't hue to the precise line of the trapping season and it is reasonable to assume that the "boys" had questionable fur on their hands at times. One over-zealous warden, known s "Happy" Hougen, a former trapper himself, who was well aware of this fact of life, always suspected -- but could never prove -- that Louie and Alton may have possessed "illegal" furs from time to time.

This galled Hougen to no end, so much so that he would even resort to "dirty pool" in retaliation some years later.

Meanwhile, Van Camp and Spray's friendship had grown and they became frequent buddies. In fact, Alton was with Louie on a northern pike fishing trip in Minnesota, in 1924, when Spray first met his second wife, Mable. Getting their fill of northern pike, the two men decided to set up camp near Leech Lake to try for muskies. While stopping for gas at a filling station along the way, Louie instantly fell for the your brunette who happened to be working there.

The boys had set up their camp nearby and often had nightly music sessions around the campfire following the day's fishing. Both Alton and Louie were musical; Alton played both the violin and saxophone and Louie played the banjo. These sessions must have struck a sensitive chord in Louie because he couldn't get Mable out of his mind. Whether they needed supplies or not, Louie made many trips back to that store to visit with Mable. They got to know each other and were married by year's end.

And it was during the spring of 1930 when the boy's old nemesis, "Happy" Hougen, finally struck. After witnessing two unknown men dynamiting a beaver house near Ojibwa, Hougen saw this as his big chance to pin something on Louie and Alton -- so he had them served with arrest warrants. But, upon rooting out the truth during the course of the court case, Hougen's case fell apart and it was proven that Spray and Van Camp were nowhere near the vicinity where the incident had occurred. At the very least, it was proven to have been a case of mistaken identity on Hougen's part; but it was likely to have been a blatant frame-up by a vengeful warden who had crossed the line of fair play.

Alton and Louie had a pretty goo and respectful relationship with most wardens in their area, but they had little respect for Hougen's gung-ho actions. In fact, Hougen who was eventually fired as a warden, was looked at with contempt by many of the area natives who, at times reveled in outwitting him. There is a comical story of how Alton, his good friend Dick McClaine (owner of Dick's Place, a tavern located in Loretta during the 1930's), and Tony Forrest put one over on Hougen . Supposedly, they put a mounted deer head into the trunk of their car, drove to within earshot of where they knew Hougen was, fired off a couple shots into the air, and then drove right by Hougen -- with the head of the trophy buck strategically hanging out of the trunk in plain view.

The boys pulled over by the corner near Dick's Place and waited…and, sure enough, here comes "Happy" Hougen speeding in to make his "big arrest". Upon telling the boys he caught them red-handed and popping open their trunk to finnd merely a mounted deer head, everyone had a good laugh and Hougen went away empty handed. Such is life in a small, depression era, northern Wisconsin town.

From the late 1920's through about 1945, Alton was a full-time guide for Fred and Pearl Scheer at Boulder Lodge on Ghost Lake, located about 20 miles east of Hayward. And it was there that he met a young waitress and kitchen helper named Eva. The meeting proved to be fateful for the two, for around 1930 they were married. Around 1936, the Van Camps moved to Loretta, where Alton had his home for the rest of his life. After the mid 1930's, Alton and Eva also worked at "Al's Place" -- a resort on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage which had been built by Alton's sister Charlotte and her husband, Al Koschak. Alton guided their guests and Eva worked primarily in the kitchen.

On one fishing trip that Alton and Louie Spray took to the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage in 1931, they were joined by a young attorney from Hayward named Stanley (Stutz) Davies. The trio fished hard with no results until finally -- out of the blue -- their peaceful rhythm of casting was interrupted by Stutz springing to his feet and shouting, "I got him!" With that, Alton just gave Louie a look as if to say, "Just what kind of musky fisherman are we tangled up with?" Back then, when you were fishing out of nothing more than "glorified canoes", standing up in the boat was an unpardonable sin -- especially when fighting a fish. The boat could have easily been upset.

Never having fished with Stutz before and figuring he could use some advice on how to land this fish, both Alton and Louie excitedly began to bark instructions at Stutz, who later exclaimed he had never in his lifetime received so many conflicting commands and instructions, as to what and how to handle the critter, in such a short period of time from anyone, on any subject, on any previous occasion.

The boys were pleasantly surprised when Stutz was able to keep the upper hand during the wild fight. Every time the fish would run and break water, Stutz would holler, "Your honor, that's irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial!" and Alton would just give Louie a puzzled look. After Alton shot the fish and it was boated, he couldn't help but as Stutz about what all his hollering was about each time the fish broke water. Stutz said that's how he replied in court whenever the opposition gets him riled. Alton quickly retorted, "What's that got to do with fighting a fish?" And Stutz said, "Well, he was getting in some pretty good licks, so I simply objected."

With that Alton asked Louie, "Did you bring a little of that 'squin essence of squaw juice?'" (his name for drinking liquor) and with that, Louie produced a vial from his tackle box and the two old friends say this as an occasion to have a minor celebration. Stutz chose not to imbibe.

Alton and Eva had two boys -- Ron, in 1939, and Alvin in 1944. Ron served in the U. S. Air Force for 20 years, attaining the rank of major and serving as a navigator with the 89th Military Airlife Wing. The 89th operated a special fleet of aircraft -- including Air Force One -- which transported high ranking U. S. and foreign officials. Alvin was a deputy sheriff for Sawyer County for 24 years and is now retired. Both men have inherited their father's and grandfather's love of the outdoors.

During the years that he was guiding full time for Scheers, Alton Van Camp worked during the off season as a scaler, scaling logs for the E. Hines Lumber Company, sometimes being sent up to Bergland, Michigan, to work. After 1945, he guided mostly just on weekends and took a steady job with the Consolidated Paper Co. in Loretta, driving cats to make logging roads, plowing out the logging roads during the winter, serving as a diesel mechanic, and being on of the first to operate a de-barker, a huge machine in which up to a dozen or more logs at once could be loaded into a large cylinder and rolled and de-barked.

During the 1940's, Alton Van Camp was the town constable for the Town of Draper and was also the town's assessor for many years. Securing a long time position as a Supervisor for the Sawyer County board in the mid 1950's, alton served as a member of the county's highway committee.

He may have had less opportunity to fish during those years, but Alton's love of the outdoors never faded and he continued to guide as much as time would allow. For about ten years beginning around 1956, Alton was back guiding pretty regularly at Boyd's Mason Lake Resort. After that he was back at Ross' Teal Lake Lodge, guiding part time till about 1975, by which time he finally retired from guiding. Up in years and lacking in vim and vigor of his younger days, a little walleye fishing on Clam Lake with his son Alvin was about all he was up for.

There is no way of knowing exactly how many muskies Alton pulled in during his lifetime of chasing them, but there's no doubt he produced some real dandies! Some 1920's to 1930's era photos, which Eva has at home, show a young Alton holding up two different muskies which had to be crowding the 40-pound mark. He always told his sons that his largest musky catch was around 45 pounds.

Although he wasn't able to see his friend Louie Spray as much after he moved to Rice Lake after 1946, Alton kept in touch with him when he could and corresponded with him after Louie moved out to Arizona in 1971. In 1979, Spray published his autobiography, My Musky Days, and chronicled numerous outdoor experiences that he had had with his friend Alton. Shortly after the book had been released, Alton Van Camp passed away on Christmas eve at the age of 79. His wife, Eva, still resides at the same house they bought in Loretta in 1935…and turned 88 this past march.

Reprinted with permission of John Detloff. Originally published in the Trailblazer Magazine, April 28, 1997.

John Dettloff
Sawyer County and Lake Chippewa Flowage Historian