Moody’s Camp Lodge is an excellent example of Rustic Style Architecture. During the 1920s many rustic log lodges were being built in Northern Wisconsin. Self taught builders utilized native materials, timeworn techniques and simple tools to fashion sturdy straightforward buildings. The Rustic Style combined relatively inexpensive indigenous material, with the characteristic composition of the American pioneer cabin and the Adirondack summer homes of New York, creating a nostalgic building that complimented the surrounding natural environment.

Northern Wisconsin log lodges and cabins are examples of how local materials (pine, tamarack, cedar logs) were utilized as an inexpensive building material to launch a new and enduring era in Northern Wisconsin. The charm and ambiance of the north woods enhanced the Rustic Style architecture. It was a complete departure from the Victorian, Classical Revival, and Arts and Crafts style architecture found in their home cities at the time. The outside logs presented a strong visual presence, where the inside utilized smaller native materials such as smaller logs, bark and twigs to create bars, built in cupboards, walls and stairways which were more whimsical in nature. The log style cabins and lodges captivated the romanticism of the American expansion and made a vacation or fishing trip feel like an excursion into uncharted territory.

The Rustic Style of architecture found in Moody’s Camp Lodge is strongly evocative of its natural surroundings. The Resort Era, which gave birth to lodges such as Moody’s Camp Lodge, came about at a time when urban Americans romanticized about participating in nature and these Rustic Style retreats became popular vacation destinations.

Moody’s Camp Lodge is a private home and is not open to the public.