farmer, "defender of Cameron Dam," b. Winneconne. Deitz owned a family farm 10 miles outside Rice Lake, abutting the Cameron Dam on the Thornapple River. When he moved there in 1904, Deitz was already disputing with the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co., a subsidiary of the Weyerhauser syndicate: he claimed they owed him back wages and they claimed he had been paid in full. The Cameron Dam was used by the company to raise upriver water levels prior to floating logs downstream; when it was opened each spring and the logs came through, Deitz's land and crops were flooded. Deitz erected a "No Trespassing" sign in 1904 and refused to let the company send logs downriver using his dam. Whenever company officers or the local sheriff appeared, Deitz and his sons drove them off at gunpoint. He was involved in several minor shootouts during attempts to serve injunctions on him; sometimes he was defending his property, but other times he was plainly the aggressor. For years, no deputy was brave enough to serve a warrant on him.

Deitz claimed that he owned the dam and could dictate how it was used, including how much he should be compensated. The company claimed that he did not have that right because the person from whom he haad bought the property did not herself possess legal title to the dam. He claimed that he was being persecuted for having exposed collusion between the company and county government. Local authorities claimed they were just trying to enforce the law.

As the stalemate continued from 1904 to 1910, the Deitz case made national news. The liberal press cast him as a common man defending his home against corporate greed, like David facing Goliath. Conservative critics called him a vigilante anarchist who thumbed his nose at the rule of law. Neighbors wondered if he was a principled hero or just a trigger-happy lunatic. Articles, books, and even one film were made about "The Defender of Cameron Dam" in order to raise funds to support the family.

In 1910 Sawyer Co. officials, embarrassed at their repeated failures to arrest Deitz, deputized mercenaries (including men with ties to the lumber company) to bring him in. On Oct. 1, 1910, three of them ambushed his children in the woods, shooting his daughter through the abdomen. A week later, 30 men riddled the Deitz home with bullets. The shootout ended with one deputy dead and the bleeding family in handcuffs. Deitz was convicted of murder and jailed in 1911; he was pardoned in 1921. .

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the John F. Deitz Papers for details.

View a related article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

View related documents at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.

View pictures related to the Deitz case at Wisconsin Historical Images.

Note: Although John F. Deitz spelled his name "ei," the media and some of his descendants spelled it "ie". At wisconsinhistory.org, we have usually retained the original spelling; when searching for information sources elsewhere, try both spellings to be sure to find everything.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography; New York Times, Oct. 16, 1910; "John Deitz of Sawyer County," Sawyer Co. WebGen CC at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wisawyer/deitz/deitz1.htm]