A woman living in Las Angeles California remains amazed and enthralled by the Maribel Caves here in Manitowoc County.
Sherry Dewane was born at Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc and lived in the Clipper City for a short while, before moving to English Lake, which is about 8 miles southwest of Manitowoc.
Dewane’s love affair with the historic cave system began with a simple family trip when she was around 5 or 6 years old.
“My family used to take drives in the country after church on Sundays, and we went, on some Sunday, out to the Maribel Caves,” she told SeehaferNews.com. “I remember seeing the Hotel, now this was quite some time ago, so it was still fully standing. I don’t know if it was operational at that point in time or not, and I just thought it was magical. The Devil’s River is right there, the water on the rocks, the green leaves…it was just so pretty.”
Sherry’s family moved out of Wisconsin when she was 11 years old, and after living in Phoenix for the majority of her life, Sherry made her way through Montana, before settling in LA, however, Sherry still sees herself as a “Wisconsin girl”.
“I come back occasionally. We have had a couple of gigantic family reunions in the Maribel area because my family is from there,” she explained. “One or both of my parents visit pretty much every year, and I go back occasionally. I love Wisconsin.”
While in college, Sherry wrote a biography on her Grandmother and learned of a family history with the Maribel Hotel. She explained, “She was born and spent a good chunk of her time at the Hotel itself, so when I was doing the paper in college, she talked a great deal about Maribel Caves and some of her stories from there.”
Sherry currently works as a Financial Advisor but keeps her creative juices flowing through her website, SherryDewane.com. On that site, she wrote an article about her fascination with the Caves, which has branched into a new collection of artifacts.
“Because of my fascination with Maribel Caves, I started collecting bottles,” Sherry said. “Lot’s of people around there probably know that there was a bottling facility. The mineral springs were reputed to have healing properties etcetera.”
Sherry is now also putting together a book about Maribel Caves, and all of her memories, and the stories she has been told over her years. The working title is “Maribel Memories”, but Sherry did say she was open to suggestions. She expects the book to be available sometime in late spring of 2021.
