Great place to start, if you haven't already, is right here on Winni.com "History" forum. It's how I got hooked on Winni.com 5 years ago.
Rattlesnake Gal and McDude have some wonderful threads that will tell a lot of the story. Their threads are also filled with links and references to some of the books on the history of the Lakes Region.
Bruce Heald has written many books about the Lakes Region. Here is a link to his Bibliography:
http://www.ranker.com/list/bruce-d-h...orks/reference
My very first post on this site was to try to find out about the History of Lake Shore Park, they both were great help to me.
Good Luck and Enjoy!