About Pine Beach
Located on the beautiful West shore, Pine Beach is one of the oldest, continuous running resorts on Lake Noquebay. It’s tradition is rooted in providing a quaint family oriented and friendly place to stay and enjoy everything beautiful Lake Noquebay, Crivitz and the surrounding areas have to offer. Where people come as guests and leave as friends. Many of the current Pine Beach guest have been coming to Pine Beach their entire lives. It is not uncommon to talk to a guest that has been staying in the same cottage, the same week, every year, for the last 40 years.
1929 - The Beginning
Pine Beach Resort was first established by Frank and Minnie Ulander with the very first cottage (Still Cottage #1) built in 1929. Over the next few years they built 6 cottages. The cottages were simple 1 or 2 room cottages with no indoor plumbing. A community bath house was eventually built that used to stand between what are currently cottages 2 & 3. All the guests at the resort would walk from their cottage to utilize the bath house to go to the bathroom or get water for bathing and cooking. Cottages did not have electricity or other amenities. Eventually, the cottages had ice boxes inside them and guests would get blocks of ice to put in their ice box to keep their perishable foods cold. This ice was cut out of lake Noquebay during the winter when the lake was frozen and stored under a pile of sawdust and would stay frozen throughout the summer.
Cottage 1 circa 1935-1945
Cottages 2 & 3 with cottage 4 in the background circa late 1930’s early 1940’s
1955 - The Pichas
In 1955 George and Lilly Picha took over the resort from the Ulander’s. They took what was started and continuously improved upon it. Over the next 30 years they added extra rooms, plumbing, electricity, bathrooms and kitchens in the individual cottages. They also built 2 more cottages with the most recent one being built in 1975, which is currently Cottage #7. This cottage was originally built as their home and office that they would sell supplies and refreshments from.
1984 - Picha Jr.
In 1984 George Picha Jr and his wife Shirly took over Pine Beach after George retired from serving 25 years in the Air Force. George and Shirly continued the tradition of improving what the Ulander’s and his parents built by providing a family friendly resort on lake Noquebay. Spending most of his life at Pine Beach with his parents, George was very familiar and comfortable with taking over the reigns from his parents. George and Shirly continuously maintained and improved every cottage throughout their time and are still maintaining a cottage of their own right next to the resort. They remodeled every cottage during their ownership with modern windows, doors, appliances and fixtures. Make sure you say “Hi” to George and Shirly if you see them around. However, they are probably out fishing now but 70 years of resort stories are incredible.
2022 - The Mannings
In 2022, keeping with tradition, Rob and Farron Manning have taken over Pine Beach after Rob retired from serving 26 years in the Army. We strive to maintain the great traditions that have been part of Pine Beach for the last 87 years. We endeavor to provide our guests the experience of a traditional family resort here on Lake Noquebay. We will continue to update and maintain these cottages that are nearly 100 years old in the hopes the family traditions can live on for many more generations for both new and old guests and everyone can continue to enjoy this pristine, and arguably most beautiful West shores of Lake Noquebay for the next 30 years and beyond.
We invite you to join us!