An excerpt from the Major General's Private Journals

After the great Rose Lake Fire, The board of Directors of the Rose Lake Improvement Company, said  "Well, now what do we do?"
Fishington had no doubt in his mind." We shall rebuild"
I was aghast.

"Oh good Heavens, Fishington. That's all fine and dandy, but how do you propose to PAY for all of this?"  I was only slightly miffed, to say the least." I am currently on tour with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and certainly do not have time to oversee what would be a gargantuan undertaking." "And where, good sir, do you suppose we shall get the funds? The insurance payout, which by all means was substantial, in no shape or form is quite enough" "I may have deep pockets, but I certainly do not relish the thought of diminishing my current lifestyle over a bunch of amusements"
I always spoke my mind with Fishy, as we were special best friends. I was never one to sugar coat my thoughts ,anyway.
Well, Fishy belayed my concerns as only he could. "We shall get someone else to pay for it"

I immediately knew why I cared for this man so deeply, his quick wit and humor not withstanding, but his knowledge of my egocentricities never ceased to amaze me. Was I that transparent?  Ah, it seems only to him.
So with that we met with several investors and entrepreneurs to offer them space in the new park for amusements and dining options. Most were eager to accept as the Park had already established a very good reputation.

The Rose Lake Improvement Company took on the task of building the first large scale indoor venue on the hill above the hotel. Named the Bruin Auditorium after it's benefactress,  Happy Bruin. It would house the traveling shows popular at the time. The first extravaganza was the Buffalo Bills Wild West Show. I took it upon myself to contact Wild Bill himself, as he was an old friend and fan of my work.

I personally took on the task to build an outdoor theatrical venue, as the Old Rose Theater could not handle the massive crowds that came out to see out productions. Especially, if I was in residence. It really wasn't designed for the Operas in mind, but more of a concert and music venue setting under the stars. There I could perform uninhibited by a strict guideline and give my fans more of a variety of  my extensive work. I give you ,The Swan Pavilion.

I had also been needing accommodations in the Park for myself and Fishy, as travel to and fro from the Manse on Society Hill in Peepsburgh, proved sometimes to be lengthy and tiresome. Above the reception Gallery Of The Swan Pavilion, would become my pied-a`-terre.
It will be a nice respite from the daily grind of work and a place to entertain investors and honored guests. The showplace was featured in the Architectural Record that October, much to my pleasure.

The rumors have already started that it would be a lakeside den of iniquity or a place for hanky-panky of the unmentionable kind. These rumors are unfounded at best, brought on no doubt by jealous rivals in the fledgling amusement park industry.

The journal entry ended there, but picked up a mere week later with this snippet.

"Off gain to tour with D'Oyly Carte, this time in The Mikado. I will be repeating my role to much acclaim as Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner .

 A note for my cautious fans, I have never intentionally hurt any ensemble or Principal character while brandishing my snickersnee. Any injuries that may or may not have happened are merely conjecture."

Two months of mayhem

Well, dear readers, you may think, "what the heck has happened". In a nutshell, with the sudden but not unexpected, demise of Mabel, Mabel the trunks, boxes, cartons and rooms filled with Rose Lake Park history and memorabilia have remained untouched.

 "What horror", you say, yes indeed it is. Let me explain.

My name is Stanley Stephen Wolf  IV. I am the great grandson of the Major himself. "But how?" you exclaim. "Wasn't the Major a confirmed old bachelor and certainly not a family man in the grand scheme of things?" "Were there not rumors for years about his various dalliance's with questionable gentleman ?" "And certainly his long relationship with Professor Fishington merited some  scrutiny?" "How can you be his relative by blood?"

Yes ,Yes, Yes ,to all of this.

Let's go back to my great grandfathers well spent youth. Certainly to maintain  a career as one of the, if not THE  greatest Gilbert and Sullivan Pattermen in a long line of greats, was an accomplishment indeed. Along with that , designing with his partner Fishington and several other gentleman of dubious heritage and connections, Rose Lake Park. Fishy. as my grandfather affectionately called him, was the rock to my grandfathers zany schemes and outlandish plans. Often putting the brakes on plans for show extravaganzas to be performed in the park and starring himself.(I have in my possession a  rough draft of a show call "Mikado On Ice". Which involved an frozen artificial indoor lake, a snow making machine and a entire chorus ensemble of ice skating samurai)

BUT, I digress...

There was one woman in the Major's life that he was very fond of.

Her name was Alice Dixie. She was Josephine in a HMS Pinafore to his Sir Joseph Porter. A romance was cooked up by the producers to boost tickets sales. But, there was much more to the story. How do I know this? The Major's private journals. Much of which was used for his autobiography.

There was some judicious editing of course, to make the work suitable for the unenlightened masses. No mention is made in it's pages of a child. But there was, born out of wedlock and hidden way from society. A son, born to Alice Dixie. Stanley Stephen Wolf  II. My fraternal grandfather. That one night encounter produced an heir to the Wolf name and the Wolf fortune. Something my great grandfather never was privy too until much later in his life.

But dear readers, that is a story for another time. I have the only complete copy of his book, plus the journals ,of course. So next time, we'll backtrack to about 1910 after the great Rose Lake Fire and show you some of the amazing things the Major and Fishington were able to accomplish in a short 10 years.

Grand Re-Opening Flyer

War Documentary At The Auditorium

Leaping the Gap!

Bruin Auditorium Announced...

Tugging on the Ol' Nickelodeon...

A Nursery Rhyme for Little Edna By Big Mama...

The Death Of Edna Mae Senior - A Plancovania Historical Society Oral History Project by Mabel Mabel Knott

The Perils of Fishington

The President of the Rose Lake Improvement Company has a rather lengthy story, but here we'll present a shorter 'cold weather' version...

The (Incomplete) Story of Maj- Gen Stanley Fox

Actor, Philanthropist, Explorer, Botanist, Art Collector, Chairman of the Board of the Rose Lake Improvement Company, and Legend in His Own Mind Stanley Wolf published the first volume of his autobiography early in the last century.  Unfortunately the Plancovania Historical Society has only a damaged copy in it's archives, and since this volume is only currently available as part of a 23 volume set, they have elected to present this original, although incomplete, copy of Volume One...

The remaining 200+ pages of Volume One sadly were consumed by an infestation of Dung Beetles attracted to the book's contents. 

Further volumes are currently being employed in propping up shelves of actually important documents and await the Society's funding of cement block replacements so that the rest of the series can also be shared...

Stay tuned.

Rose Lake and it's citizens weren't always just on the front page of the paper.

And what's life without SPORTS?  Whether it's that sportsball you try to kick or the one you try to throw more than six feet, they all involve sweaty menfolk at some point...either before, during or after the game! 

Maj-Gen Stanley Wolf always took time to take a stroll through the locker rooms of his teams...and he didn't own nor coach any of them, but he was a avid fan of sportsballs of any type.  If there were balls involved Wolf would sure to be there...unless he was in the middle of a performance of course, the man DID have priorities you know! 

Prof. JP Marvel was often also seen in the locker rooms as he designed the teams headgear....although why that required measuring inseams was always a mystery... 

Ashes to ashes.

Strange that there were more pictures of the actual fire than of the aftermath, but we did find a couple.

Obviously the great fire of 1910 was not the end of the Rose Lake Park story, by far.  On one hand, how could the park still be standing today?   And on the other hand, why would I have wasted the last 5 months of my life documenting something that went up in smoke 110 years ago?  Remarkably, photos show that the park grew more between the years of 1910 and 1919 than in the two decades prior, combined.   While each of the founders have been demonstrated to have amassed significant wealth in their young careers, this particular article is noteworthy for possibly explaining such a quick recovery.

Looking back into our file on Bartholomew Tete de Taureau, none of this is surprising.  Although now we must wonder the degree to which co-founders Jason Fishington and Stanley Wolf were involved in the nefarious dealings of Taureau's seedy mafia undertakings.  Further, what else were these men willing to do to create their little lakeside empire as the years went on?   Were the other co-founders involved as well?  I mean, one of them even looks like a bear.

And certainly beloved Professor JP Marvel knew nothing of any of this, what between designing his hats, eating Edna Mae Jr's delicious pies, and "excercising" regularly in the cloak room of the Grand Cocotier, how could he have found the time?