Bill is the proprietor of Cable Nature Lodge and the Rookery Pub, a distinctive guest lodge and restaurant located 7 miles east of Cable on County Hwy M near Lake Namakagon.

The Rookery offers some of the most flavorful and creative cuisine in the Wisconsin Northwoods and is the #1 Rated Area Restaurant by TripAdvisor.com. The ever-changing menu features weekly fresh fish specials, beef and bison steak, handmade pasta, specialty salads, vegetarian and vegan entrees, and other creative dishes incorporating fresh seasonal ingredients from local producers. In addition to great food and fine spirits the Rookery also is the exclusive northern Wisconsin gallery for noted nature and wildlife photographer Kristen Westlake. The Rookery is open for dinner year-round and for lunch on summer weekends.

Bill has deep roots in the Cable area dating back to his great, great, great grandparents who settled in Cable in the 1880s. He spent many childhood summers visiting his grandparents, teachers near Chicago during the school year, who summered on Lake Namakagon where his grandfather was a renowned fishing guide. Later Bill's parents purchased a cabin in the area and during his high school and college years he worked four summers as the marina boy at a Lake Namakagon resort. Bill also worked as a bartender in the building he now owns shortly after it first opened as a Polish restaurant in 1978. It was during this same period that Bill initially earned his real estate license.

After returning to finish college at UW-Madison Bill lived away from the Cable area for more than 25 years. His subsequent career included stints as a Wisconsin legislative aide, founding director of the Wisconsin Conservation Corps, project manager with the Trust for Public Land in Seattle, operations manager for a Montana guest ranch, and community liaison with the Northwest Area Foundation based in Saint Paul.

In 2000 Bill opened an historic bed and breakfast inn with his former wife in Duluth. Following their separation Bill was visiting Cable one weekend while contemplating his next move and noticed the building where he had once worked so many years earlier was listed for sale by King Realty. Recalling his fondness for the quality and design of the building Bill asked to see it, mostly on a nostalgic whim, but soon found himself to be its new owner.

Bill opened Cable Nature Lodge with four initial guest rooms in 2005 and added three more a year later, all the while simultaneously operating the Duluth inn. Upon finally selling that business he set about remodeling the lower level of the Cable property which had remained mostly unfinished for 30 years. The Rookery Pub opened for business on May 22, 2008.

With his longtime personal interest and experience in purchasing and developing properties it was natural for Bill, more than 30 years after initially obtaining his real estate license, to formally reactivate it in early 2010. He also holds a Masters degree in Commercial Recreation and Tourism Management from the University of Oregon and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

You can e-mail Bill Brakken at bill@cablenaturelodge.com