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WELCOME!!
Please feel free to contact us with your comments or any suggestions you may have. Because we are so busy with the new Web Site and current projects, its very difficult to answer questions at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding. e-mail to.....windavmu@cheqnet.net or write to..... A.I.W.&A.M Box 101 La Pointe WI 54850 . We are very honored to be Madeline Island's first Web Site devoted to the preservation of Windsled and Aviation history. Below you will find our objectives, that with your help, we know we can accomplish. If you enjoy the site, please tell a friend or e-mail us and let us know. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you and we hope you enjoy the site. Collect Apostle Islands Windsled and Aviation History. Our first objective in preserving history is to collect it. All of the photographs, old Windsleds and most importantly the memories. Market the History The second step is to not only market the history but first and foremost a history that is accurate and has not been exaggerated to inflate its marketing value. We believe that the reputation of recording accurate and detailed history, will over time give our museum a reputation far beyond any monetary value. To Grow Presently we are not even a "we", we are more of an "I". I am a resident Islander with a dream of preserving what I feel is the most fascinating and by far the most unique history Northern Wisconsin has to offer. As you drive across our Country you will find each community, whether a large city or small village, constructing museums or publishing books to preserve who they are, where they came from or what they as a society have contributed. I believe that Madeline Island's largest contribution was the development of the Windsled. Their ability to find the answers to their transportation needs within the community and over the course of 60 years take the first fragile sled to the height we enjoy today, a powerful all-terrain windsled. Today, that same talent exists within their son's and daughter's and what better tribute then to use that same creativity to preserve their legacy. My father designed and built Madeline Island's first Boat-hull Windsled, should I construct the replica with volunteers and grants from the State, or a son using only the knowledge his father passed on to him. I would agree that the Museum may grow at a faster rate if it was "nonprofit" and was accepting donations but would it mean as much? Constructing a museum is history, and one day the next generation will look back and admire the museum for what it really stands for, it is as much a vision for our future as the past generations quest for a safer windsled, it had been conceived by the same creativity and imagination as our winter transportation of the past. To say that what we are building is just a Museum is an understatement, to us it will be much more. Presently the Museum is a small office in my garage, a 24'x34' work shop where I am constructing a windsled replica (Museum project) and this Web Site. To some it might not look like much but in April the Museum will celebrate the release of its first book, "On Thin Ice" and the 50th anniversary of Madeline Island's first and second boat-hull windsled's. After that I suspect it will grow very fast. Create Jobs One of our objectives is to create jobs on Madeline Island. This is one reason we will be forming a for-profit corporation and also why we have chosen to market the history in the fashion that we have. We will not be placing our book in every book store and you won't see our T-shirts and hats in all of the local gift shops. The most profitable portion of merchandise sales is the retail market so if we are to raise the funds needed to construct the Museum we will have to secure the larger portion of the retail market for ourselves. Our goal is to create a mail order business by reaching people through the Internet and by displaying our Windsleds at Air shows, Museums and similar events. We will have no volunteers and will not be looking for donations. We feel that by accepting this type of help our income would come from funds normally offered to Churches, Memorial Parks and other organizations that are dependent on donations as their only source of income. Construct a Museum on Madeline Island Our goal is to not only preserve what we feel is the most fasinating form of winter transportation created by man but we would like to display it in a way that you will be able to feel the history unfolding before you. We want you to start with the sound of a powerful radial echoing through the Museum theater, all of the sights and sounds of the first boat-hull windsled busting through the ice as it is replayed by our replica 50 years later. We want you too feel like you were on the La Pointe dock the day a great barrier was broken, the birth of the Madeline Island boat-hulled windsled. During my research for the book "On Thin Ice", I interviewed a pilot from Ashland WI. that had flown supplies to the Island logging camps. Ashland resident Gordon Shefchik was one of those pilots and by the time the interview was over I was convinced that Gordon and his fellow pilot's deserved a museum just as the windsled operators had. What better then to combine the Windsled and Aviation history into one large building. Display full scale Windsleds and Aircraft All of the Windsled displays will be fully operational sleds. So much more can be learned from a full-scale replica if we can run it out onto the ice and evaluate it. How fast could it go? With two passengers? Four passengers? How sharp could it turn? We need to know what can only be learned from a fully operational Windsled. Our goal is to display 13 Windsleds and 4 Aircraft. Assist the Media There has been the need for a person or organization that could assist all forms of the Media with their reporting of the Windsled. One contact could give them accurate information and photos from a large database and also assist them in scheduling interviews with selected Island residents. To honor our past generation As a community, we have just taken the first steps in preserving our unique Windsled & Aviation history, but until the day we construct a Museum honoring the people who had made the history, our actions will have fallen short. Along with a great number of friends, we will soon be able to give you the history of the Madeline Island Windsled through our book "On Thin Ice", and through this book, and your help, we will give them our thanks and the recognition they all deserve. Founder and President 
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