Lake Geneva
To clarify for any Europeans who happen by: This is not Switzerland. This is Wisconsin, which is not as un-Switzerland as you can get in the United States, but it's close. Lake Geneva is a little resort community in semi-rural southern Wisconsin on the shore of Geneva Lake. Some of the early railroads from Chicago and Milwaukee ran past the lake around the turn of the 20th century, so the place became a weekend getaway for big city wealth. For a while, Chicago's elite referred to it as the "Newport of the West." The automobile eventually killed a lot of Lake Geneva's prestige by giving people the option of driving to farther, more untouched communities, but this is still a popular day trip destination.
The lake is about 7 miles of clear water gathered in a low point left over from glacier days. It began life as a kettle lake, where ice broken off from the glacier settled to form a depression. It's now big with weekend boaters, and in the winter it's covered with ice fisherman. Ice fishing is huge in Wisconsin, though I can't think of many less fun ways to spend a day.
Lake Geneva
To clarify for any Europeans who happen by: This is not Switzerland. This is Wisconsin, which is not as un-Switzerland as you can get in the United States, but it's close. Lake Geneva is a little resort community in semi-rural southern Wisconsin on the shore of Geneva Lake. Some of the early railroads from Chicago and Milwaukee ran past the lake around the turn of the 20th century, so the place became a weekend getaway for big city wealth. For a while, Chicago's elite referred to it as the "Newport of the West." The automobile eventually killed a lot of Lake Geneva's prestige by giving people the option of driving to farther, more untouched communities, but this is still a popular day trip destination.
The lake is about 7 miles of clear water gathered in a low point left over from glacier days. It began life as a kettle lake, where ice broken off from the glacier settled to form a depression. It's now big with weekend boaters, and in the winter it's covered with ice fisherman. Ice fishing is huge in Wisconsin, though I can't think of many less fun ways to spend a day.