50 years of changing landscape
By James Card
Bob Steidl is a walking, talking historian of what has come and gone and come back again in Waupaca.
This week at age 76, he celebrates 50 years of working as an area real estate agent and it all started at summer camp.
In 1956, he was in the Neenah-Menasha Boy’s Brigade and he visited Camp Onaway on the Chain O’ Lakes each year for seven years as a kid.
During his last summer there he said to himself: “Someday I’m going to live on the Chain.”
War came. Some of his friends went to Vietnam. He served in the Army Reserve as a drill sergeant while also working toward a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
He moved to Waupaca in 1972 after his military service.
Steidl had previously purchased the Indian Crossing Motel and Bait Shop located across from the Indian Crossing Casino (a small park now exists in the same spot). He saw the Everly Brothers and Rickie Nelson perform at the Casino.
He lived in a 400 square-foot unit on the end and his office was in the living room and he lived in the kitchen and bedroom. He rented out the middle two units by the week and put a sign on the roof: Chain Realty.
His friend, Jim Karisny, just returned from Vietnam and lived in a unit out back and ran the bait shop. He was concerned for his friend.
“Jim, what are you going to do?” Steidl asked.
“I don’t know,” Karisny said.
“Here, read this.” Steidl handed him a real estate manual. Karisny spent the next 40 years in real estate. He later died from the effects of Agent Orange exposure.
In 1973 Steidl purchased the original A&W Root Beer stand and ran it until 1980. Community First Credit Union now occupies this site.
He then bought the Phillips 66 gas station, remodeled it and occupied one office. He leased another office to an up-and-coming accountant named Gary Janssen and leased other office space to the Waupaca Area Chamber of Commerce.
Lake life realized
His boyhood dream came true in 1980 when he purchased a home on Round Lake and lived there for 30 years.
One of the more interesting demographic shifts he’s seen is on the Chain O’ Lakes.
“It was actually busier because there were more young people that could afford it then and they all had kids and they skied from morning ‘til night. Now it’s more people like me that poke around on our pontoon boats. The biggest change is all the new bigger houses and more and more are year-round. Back in the day there were more summer cottages and a lot more weekly rentals,” he said.
Steidl remembers that in 1980 there was nothing between the Waupaca Mobil Auto and Truck Center and Hardees. The area where Sterling Water Culligan is located used to be a white-fenced horse farm.
He converted a house next to Hardees into an office and later sold his realty company to NAI Pfefferle from Appleton.
They changed the named to Waupaca Realty and move the business to the strip center near the Waupaca Expo Center. After ten years, they closed the office and Steidl joined up with Udoni & Salan Realty Group-United Country as a broker associate.
Steidl has sold all types of property: commercial, homes, waterfront and land. He handled real estate transactions that gave a home to Pick & Save, Hardees, Taco Bell, Best Western, Aldi and St. Mary Magdalene church.
He’s sold over 200 properties on the Chain O’ Lakes, some of them twice. And that is not counting other waterfront properties on other local lakes.
“I’ve been with United Country for four years and have no intention of retiring anytime soon” said Steidl.
