'It's been pretty awful': The Northwoods hospitality industry is struggling with low-snow winter

At Clayton's 1881 Room restaurant in Three Lakes, owner Scott Wisner is crossing his fingers to get 100 customers through the door in any given week, about a third of what they get in a normal winter.

At Track Side rentals and service shop in Eagle River, workers are catching up on projects around the shop as not a single one of their 75 rentable snowmobiles have hit a trail this winter season.

Mercer's Great Northern Hotel's best weekend this season saw just 10 of its 80 rooms rented. Last winter all 80 rooms were rented every weekend from Christmas to the beginning of March.

"It's been pretty awful," said Eric Behnke, who owns the hotel. "It's not a fun time up here."

Northern Wisconsin's snowfall totals are down from 20 to 75 inches this winter, according to data from the National Weather Service. That means tourism for outdoor winter activities like snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing has been virtually nonexistent, decimating the local economies that depend on tourism.

"I've been coming up here since I was 3 weeks old. We spent summers and winters up here, so since the '70s on. I don't remember anything like this," Wisner said. "There isn't any money coming in. It's really hard for a lot of workers."

At Clayton 1881, sales were down 53% in January, which is already a slower month for the restaurant than the summer months.

"We make money for three or four months, then operate in the red for four months, and usually recoup when snowmobilers come up," Behnke said. "To go nine months in the red — I don't know if it's possible to survive that."

Behnke owns three restaurants and the Great Northern, all in Mercer. Sales at his hotel are down 80%, and his restaurants are down 50%.

At Pine Lake Lodge, also in Mercer, owners Doug Hastings and Katie Stager plan to use their personal savings to keep the place open.

"For us, we are looking to take some of our personal money to put into the business. I'm sure that most people will have to dig into savings. Hopefully that's not the case for everyone, but that's something that might need to happen," Stager said.

Tourism groups asking for help from the state

Tourism groups for northern counties have banded together and asked state government for assistance for businesses. The Let's Minocqua Visitors Bureau and Oneida Tourism Council led the charge, noting in a Jan. 29 press release that Northwoods counties had lost $6.5 million in revenue to date this winter and businesses were reporting 75% year-over-year losses.

"Iron County probably has got $30 million in tourism expenditures every year. I would estimate one-third comes in winter months. It’s a tough year. County-wide we're losing millions of dollars in tourism revenue this year," said Kelly Klein, the coordinator for the Iron County Development Zone. "Most are ma and pa shops, like lodging, restaurant, bar, service stations, rental business that rent out snowmobiles; they have seen a sharp drop in business.

"It's tough for those small businesses; they rely on that revenue stream, they don’t have a lot to bank on and it gets to be a tougher situation for them," he said.

Klein has been promoting Iron County's economy and tourism industry for 23 years. He said about 20 years ago the northern Wisconsin economy saw a similar situation and the state government helped out then.

"The state legislature at that time set up a fund where affected businesses could get a low-interest loan," he said. "I think it was somewhat helpful. What the state may or may not do, I'm not sure."

Businesses are on the fence about state assistance today.

"We chose to live here, and weather is always going to be a factor," said Kathy Lass, who owns the Wolf Pack Cafe in St. Germain. "I think people ought to be prepared."

She said government funding should be saved for bigger emergencies, like the current mudslides in southern California where many homes were damaged or destroyed.

"That money ought to be saved for those types of situations, where people are homeless," she said.

But she said she feels for newer businesses that aren't as established.

"The impact of no snow has been detrimental to the businesses, especially some of the business owners carrying mortgages," she said. "For me, I'm well established without a lot of debt, so I'm barely treading water."

She said her restaurant sales are down 50% to 75%. She is trying to come up with enough shifts for her six employees, so she doesn't lose them in winter. Even with the work, however, some are collecting unemployment benefits.

Others are saying help from the state government is necessary.

"Somebody from Madison has to do something, unless you want people to go on unemployment," said Chris Petreikis, co-owner of Track Side.

Petreikis said as snowmobiling has gotten more popular, businesses depend on the winter business more than they had in the past.

"We'll get through it. It will take a few years to recoup from it," Petreikis said. "I don’t want to use the word, but it feels like a variation of COVID with everything shutting down."

Snowmobiling has been popular up north for the last 50 years, and it has increased in popularity in the last few decades as efforts to create and maintain trails have increased.

Gov. Tony Evers and state lawmakers have not put forward any measures to subsidize the industry’s loss in revenue.

Businesses get creative to stay above water

Haley and Ben Blankenhagen own B&B Adventures in Mercer, which rents out snowmobiles. They're currently staying afloat thanks to Polaris, a snowmobiling manufacturing company, which is giving them a break on payments while there is no money coming in.

"If it weren’t for our partnership with Polaris, it'd be bad. That will keep us surviving, but all businesses in this area are going backwards," Haley Blankenhagen said.

The large snowmobile brand put a pause on the couple's payments for their Polaris fleet, but the Blankenhagens still had to lay off all three of their employees.

"It's just us," Haley Blankenhagen said. "It's back to the beginning."

They've been doing what they can to make some revenue, including towing 14 snowmobiles an hour-and-a-half away to upper Michigan where there was some snow.

Bars in Mercer are hosting an impromptu poker run this weekend, where patrons can travel from bar to bar and collect a playing card at each, with the hopes of getting the strongest poker hand at the end of the night.

"Hopefully that draws people," Iron County's Klein said. "It's encouraging to see them doing things on their own but working together to try to make a bigger effort."

Some bars are trying to create special events to encourage locals to come out.

The Pines Restaurant in Mercer had a schnitzel night. The community came out to support the restaurant even though owners Colin and Margie Ervin closed the inside portion of their restaurant to build up their beer garden for snowmobilers who never came.

"We're lucky that our locals have supported us through the year; that’s how we're staying afloat," Colin Ervin said.

As word of the dire situation up north has traveled south, restaurant owners have said that people are visiting to pump some money into the economy that is highly dependent on tourism.

Owners of the hospitality spots said you can still enjoy nature up north in the winter, and ice fishing is a possibility in some areas, but aside from that, they admitted, there is not much to do.

Still, they are hoping to see people who regularly make trips up north during this dire time.

"If you want your places to be open when you come back, you better find a weekend or two to come up here," Wisner said. "The people coming up right now know what's going on."

Are snowless winters the new norm?

This year's lack of snow was one of the worst in recent history, though there have been other bad seasons in the last 20 years.

Winters with low snow totals were recorded in the 2020 to 2021 season, 2011 to 2012, and 2004 to 2005, with snowfall totals of less than 50 inches those winters. This year, areas around northern Wisconsin have snowfall totals in the 20s and 30s so far.

"Just how below normal are we? Accumulated snowfall was anywhere from 20 inches below normal to more than 60 inches below normal snowfall," said Ketzel Levens, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, Minnesota, which monitors weather for Wisconsin's Lake Superior region and northernmost counties. "We have pretty nice observation records in Hurley. They have only seen 32 inches of snowfall this season. Normally, by today, they would have 107."

She said that it is due, in part, to an El Nino weather pattern, which is caused by above-average sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. There are also other atmospheric trends that are working with El Nino to bring warmer temperatures.

"They have really been enhancing each other so high pressure systems are bringing in warmer air," Levens said. "Underneath all this is climate change."

With the warm weather, she has seen multiple records for a high low temperature broken this winter, which makes it harder for marshes to freeze and causes snow to melt faster. That's made it impossible for any snowfall to stick enough for good snowmobiling conditions.

Precipitation levels have been normal, she said, but it is coming in the form of rain rather than snow.

For now, many businesses in Wisconsin's Northwoods have decided to move on from their hopes for snow. Iron County opened its ATV and UTV trails the first weekend of February.

"Rent UTVs, keep your cabin rentals, and do other activities in the Northwoods. You can still eat and drink, there's ice fishing and hiking, and that would be a way to support the Northwoods. It's so needed," said Haley Blankhagen from B&B Adventures. "And business owners — I don’t know. I'll pray for ya."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Northern Wisconsin bars, restaurants and hotels struggle without snow