The stands of Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin, are filled with spectators waiting in anticipation of an explosive pitch.
A musk melon is thrown when players — and fans — are least expecting it.
Crack.
The batter hits the melon and chunks go flying everywhere. The crowd bursts out laughing and the game of snowshoe baseball goes on.
The game is played by teams wearing snowshoes, but no gloves, and a 16-inch softball. The annual tradition — held every Monday from the third week of June to the first week of August — began in 1961. Then-Town Chairman Ray Sloan adapted the traditional winter sport to increase summer tourism in the area.
2025’s league featured the Snowhawks, the town’s primary team, along with squads composed of people from various local businesses and organizations. The annual Fourth of July fixture pits the league’s best against the Chicago All-Stars, who come up north for the game, and closes with a fireworks show.
Lifelong Lake Tomahawk resident Shondi Kuckkahn’s earliest memories are of watching her dad play snowshoe baseball and attending the potlucks the teams held afterward.
Since then, her family’s footprint on the game has expanded, too: her brother and cousin play for the town’s team, the Snowhawks. Her eldest son also used to play.
“I love continuing on the tradition of it, and because we have such deep roots here, we have a lot of family here, it’s a place and an opportunity for us to all gather and be part of something in lots of different ways,” Kuckkahn said.
And her family isn’t the only one. She said this year’s umpire is the third generation in his family to be part of the game.
For head coach and manager Jeff Smith, however, snowshoe baseball entered his life with a bit of a shock.
When he moved to Lake Tomahawk in 2001, the sport was “the most crazy thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
But, as an avid baseball and softball player, joining the Snowhawks was an easy decision.
“Everybody who plays snowshoe loves softball in a way, and so the uniqueness of running on snowshoes on a Monday night in front of tourists was kind of fun,” he said.
Learning how to run in snowshoes took some adjusting, though. He said his trick is to pull his toes up on the shoes and shuffle his feet fast.
“If you just forget for one time to lift those toes up, the front of that snowshoe digs in, and down you go. It happens so fast, it’s actually a surprise,” Smith said.
He took on the role of head coach in 2014, when the previous coach, Don Hilgendorf, moved away. Smith’s game days now consist of getting both teams’ rosters and, occasionally, mixing the teams up. The games aren’t always meant to be competitive, but end up being as such, he said.
Then, he makes sure there are copies of the final rosters in the press box and helps set up the field. Before the bases are set up, the sawdust field is dragged over and raked.
At 61 years old, Smith knows his days as a player are numbered. However, he will always be involved with the game — a promise he made to his predecessor, he said.
“Before I knew any of these people — most of the players that I’m playing with now — their dads or grandpas played, and I don’t want to be the one to end it,” Smith said. “I’m just respecting the players before me that carved this out, and I’m going to continue their legacy.”
He added that finding young players to continue the sport has been difficult, with many leaving Lake Tomahawk after having played for only a few years. But, there are a handful who he hopes will continue the legacy, he said.
While attending a game is free, donations are accepted to help the league sustain itself. In 2014, the league raised over $35,000 from the community to bring in the USA Patriots, the Wounded Warriors’ amputee softball team.
The Snowhawks and USA Patriots played two games of regular softball and one game of snowshoe baseball — the game that remains the most impactful for Smith to this day, he said.
“That, to me, was the epitome of how awesome the small town softball is … I never would have been able to do anywhere else,” he said.
Each week, a different local organization in the town of fewer than 200 residents runs the concession stand to raise money for their work.
After spending several years volunteering at the concession stand on her own and with the Lake Tomahawk Bible Church, Kuckkahn has taken on the role of concession stand manager.
She said she loves the job because it allows her to contribute to saving a “dying breed” of volunteers — those that bring the community together.
Six and a half hours before the first pitch at 7:30 p.m., she and the game’s volunteers arrive at the stand to cut about 50 pounds of onions, used for burgers and brats. At 3:30 p.m., the grills are heated and by 5:30 p.m., people are lining up for food — despite there being two hours before the main event began.
The concession stand also relies on edible contributions from Lake Tomahawk’s residents. Every game, local attendees bring in anywhere between 400 to 500 homemade pies to be sold. The assortment ranges from common flavors, like apple, to the more unique, like bacon.
“Especially once people start buying the pies, then it gets real crazy because you basically have two different organizations. One doing the burgers, brats and stuff like that, and then one doing just pies,” Tym Sauter, the chairman of the Elder Board at Lake Tomahawk Bible Church, said.
For Sauter, who has been volunteering with the church since he joined it in 2012, the best part is being the middleman between the order-takers and the cooks because it allows him to be a “loud, boisterous presence” and draw people in, he said.
Sauter said internally, it’s a way for him to build stronger relationships with members of his church. Everyone lives in a wide geographical region, so it’s hard to get together beyond Sunday services, he said.
The funds the church raises at the stand contribute to its benevolence fund, which helps community members in need.
For some out-of-town attendees, the games serve as a way to relax after exploring the surrounding lakes and forestry, George DeMet, the town chairman, said. For others, snowshoe baseball serves as an introduction to their future home.
“We get a lot of people retiring up here, so it’s an introduction to the community and to the area, and that often leads to permanent houses up here,” he said.
DeMet, who has lived in the area since 1973, said his family didn’t usually go to games because they were all busy in the summer. However, when his kids come back to visit Lake Tomahawk, the sport is something they “can always count on.”
“It [is] reassuring that no matter what else is going on in the world, you have an event that you can come to and enjoy with a lot of other like-minded people. We’re all different in our own individual lives and have different attitudes about things, but it’s something that everybody can come together and have a good time,” DeMet said.
