The Viking Boat Treehouse

Viking boat treehouse built by Gerald W. Lyons at 17 Washington Park, Waukegan, IL. November, 1963. 

News-Sun Collection, Dunn Museum. 

To a kid in Waukegan, the Viking boat treehouse felt like something out of a storybook. I was one of those kids, standing at Shirl’s Drive-In with an ice cream cone in my hand and staring in awe at the ship perched high in a tree.

In 1963, Gerald W. Lyons (1931-2022) of Waukegan created a treehouse for his four children. It was no ordinary treehouse, but one that sparked the imagination of an entire community. 

The Viking boat treehouse project began when Gerald and Margaret Lyons’ children asked for a “tree-top house like the one on television.”

It’s likely they had seen Disneyland’s Swiss Family Treehouse on NBC’s Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1961–69). Disney’s film Swiss Family Robinson introduced treehouses to a wide audience and inspired a popular attraction at Disneyland’s Adventureland.

Poster for the "Swiss Family Treehouse" in Disneyland's Adventureland, circa 1962. 

During this era, children throughout the United States built tree houses in local woodlots—some with the help of their parents—but always with the goal of having a place of their own where their imaginations could run wild. These treehouses were often made simply with plywood and cardboard in a tree’s canopy, creating a place to sit and dream.

Lyons was in the midst of carving a “dragon head” for a friend’s boat when his children asked for the “tree-top house.” Since the friend’s boat never came about, the dragon figurehead became the spark for building an out of the ordinary treehouse in the shape of a Viking boat.

The inspiration may have been close to home. Vikings in Waukegan were a somewhat familiar presence. Not actual Vikings, of course, but their Swedish descendants.

Headline announcing the Independent Order of Vikings convention in Waukegan. 

Waukegan Daily Sun, August 7, 1915. Newspaper.com

The earliest wave of Swedes arrived in Waukegan in 1891 with the opening of the Washburn & Moen Wire Mill. Their community gatherings featured music, food and a “Swedish Glee Club.”  

In 1949, the club built a sprawling clubhouse on Belvidere Road next to Roosevelt Park. It offered entertainment, music and fish dinners that were open to the public. The clubhouse became a local favorite; and the Gerald Lyons family may have enjoyed fish dinners there.

Lyons, who worked in Waukegan for the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway as a yardmaster, considered himself a “jack of all trades, master of some.” Though he had no experience building a Viking boat, he had watched ship builders in Portugal while serving as a U.S. Navy photographer.

“Boats in the water are more trouble than they’re worth,” Lyons told News Sun staff writer Carl Luomala. He decided to build the 24-foot Viking boat perched on top of a 20-foot-tall stump of an old poplar tree in the family’s backyard at 17 Washington Park. It was as impressive as it sounds.

Perhaps Gerald Lyons’ Irish ancestors had a bit of Viking blood in their veins. After all, the Vikings invaded Ireland in the 9^th century. His paternal grandfather, Edward J. Lyons (1877–1963), immigrated from Ireland in 1895, and opened a plumbing shop in Waukegan.

News-Sun Staff photo of Gerald Lyons building his Viking boat treehouse in July 1963. 

News-Sun Collection, Dunn Museum.

The Lyons’ backyard sat next to an alley that led to the Shirl’s Drive-In parking lot. Shirl’s, located at 1535 Washington St. (today’s Poppy’s), had a direct view of the neighborhood curiosity as it was taking shape in July 1963.

Lyons’ Viking boat treehouse was built for his family, but its towering presence made it a cultural icon the entire community enjoyed. His creativity and imagination brought the community together.

Those who stopped at Shirl’s Drive-In to enjoy a soft-serve ice cream cone with family or friends would stand in the parking lot marveling at the towering Viking boat next door. The more adventurous walked a short distance to the alley for a closer look. As one of those adventurers, I can attest to how our imaginations ran wild as we pondered that glorious oddity.  

Gerald and Margaret Lyons with their four children in the Viking boat treehouse. News-Sun Staff photo, November 1963. 

News-Sun Collection, Dunn Museum. 

Thanks to the News-Sun story, “He Builds His Boat… In a Tree!” from November 28, 1963, we have a record of this marvelous creation. What became of the Viking treehouse, however, remains unknown.

If you have memories of it—or know what eventually happened to the boat—I’d love to hear from you.

- Diana Dretske, Curator, ddretske@lcfpd.org 

For more about Lake County residents and their fascination with Vikings, check out my Vikings in Lake County blog post.

Sources: 

Lake County History Archives, Bess Bower Dunn Museum, Libertyville, IL
News-Sun Collection, Bess Bower Dunn Museum, Libertyville, IL. 
Ancestry.com 
Treeographrer.com. Accessed August 22, 2025 The Real Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in Tobago – The Treeographer.
Positive News for You.Com. Accessed August 22, 2025. Building Childhood Dreams: Constructing a Treehouse in the 1960s - Positive News

Vikings in Lake County

In 1951, Ronald Mason was driving a bakery delivery truck on the north side of Waukegan when he spotted an animal horn in the road. The horn had carvings on it, and though it was interesting, Mason just kept it on a shelf and occasionally drank beer from it.

In the early 1960s, an acquaintance of Mason's met Dr. O.G. Landsverk who identified the piece as being a "Viking horn." According to Landsverk, the carvings on the horn depicted ancient Norse gods and legends. The horn became known as the "Waukegan Horn" and members of the Leif Erickson Society felt it could prove that Vikings had explored the St. Lawrence River and traveled through the Great Lakes.

No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

The "Viking Horn" or "Waukegan Horn" as photographed for the News-Sun, July 29, 1978.

 

The buzz about the horn continued into the 1980s when it was sent to the University of Arizona in Tuscon for Carbon 14 dating. You may recall that this same university also had the privilege of dating the Shroud of Turin.

Everyone was convinced the horn would pre-date Christopher Columbus's voyages of the 1400s. As it turned out, the bovine horn was dated to about 1920, and was probably carved by a Swedish immigrant to Lake County.

Though that may have been a let down for many, it did heighten awareness of Scandanavian immigration to this region. Swedish immigration began en masse to the United States in the 1840s, and in earnest by the end of the 1860s due to a series of famines in Sweden. The fertile farmland of the Midwest became the destination for many of these Swedes.

As a child, my knowledge of the area's Scandanavian heritage was limited, but represents some of my favorite memories. For instance, my favorite local landmark was the giant Viking ship constructed in a guy's backyard next to the Shirl's Drive-In on Washington Street in Waukegan. It was awesome with its classic dragon head and one of the reasons why I loved going to Shirl's. We'd get our soft serve ice cream cone and look at the ship from the Shirl's parking lot.

Another favorite spot was the Swedish Glee Club located at 621 Belvidere Street, and shown here in a Curt Teich postcard from 1957.

The Waukegan based Swedish Glee Club had its roots in 1892 when Hjalmar Fredbeck formed a Swedish quartet. In 1905, the quartet expanded to a chorus and became known as the “Swedish Glee Club.” By the 1950s, the club had its own building for performances and dinners, and became popular with not only Swedes, but also the surrounding communities.

My Irish grandfather was a member of the Glee Club. They had terrific dinners and the building was very open and full of light from its large windows. When we went there, my grandfather had to present his membership card before the door would open to let us in. What an experience!

There was also the Independent Order of the Vikings who bought property on Deep Lake to build a recreation center, but decided the site was too difficult to get to from Chicago. They then purchased property from David Beidler off “old” Grand Avenue in Gurnee in 1912. The Gurnee property was adjacent to the railroad line. The Vikings held annual picnics at this location, drawing upwards of 18,000 Swedish-Americans from the Chicago area. Below is a photo of the Viking Club House from the collections of the Warren Township Historical Society.

Also, at this location from 1925 to 1967, the Vikings ran a nursing home for Swedish-Americans. The building was sold to the village, then to the Special Education District of Lake County, and finally razed in 1973. Today, the site is owned and operated by the Gurnee Park District as Viking Park--a testament to the Swedish-American organization that once called it home.

So, Vikings in Lake County? Swedish-Americans would certainly agree!