One of the enduring subjects enjoyed by members of the BWCA forum is the recognition (or non-recognition) of lake images on Hamms Beer commercials. This contest started in 2011 and , although most active in the early years, seem to reappear every so often. Last weekend (2/28/24) I went on Google and eBay out of curiosity to see what value a lighted sign I, and my parents before me, have owned for over 50 years. I am holding the sign in my profile page: deviltracker. No surprisingly, there are as many lake names as there are lakes: Sag, Kettle Falls on Kap., Turtle in Itaska County !!!Right, Burntside.Everybody is sure they recognize the scene depicted in the ad. Since the photograpy trips spanned several years, guides and locations, it could be Blalock one year and someone else another guiding the photographers. I can only say with certainty that the sign I am holding depicts an island on the Seagull River between Sag and Seagull. Why can I be so sure? Because my family operated a small resort, Camp Windigo, at the south end of Seagull, six miles from the landing, between 1947 and 1959. Sometime around 1956 the Hamms Beer photographers showed up at our dock in the company of their guide, Rolf Skrien , a close friend of our family who lived on Seagull. He is featured alongside the red canoe pulled up on the island. The film crew also climbed to an overlook behind the cabin of our neighbors across the bay, the Tibbetts, to film across the bay to capture the red rolled roofing log cabins on our resort. Guests from places like Chicago told us they recognized the commercial tv ads with "their" cabin shown on the ad. We moved those log cabins to Poplar Lake in 1958-59 where they stand today as part of then Windigo Lodge, now Poplar Haus. So that's the end of the story!!!!

Great history

My mother and Gail Skrien were roommates in a Duluth maternity ward when my sister and Sandy were born. We got to know the family as a result and saw them occasionally on trips to the end of the Gunflint.

You have probably seen this already, but it’s worth (re)reading in any event:

Sky-Blue Waters, Bears and Beer

I have a Hamm’s beer sign in my Man Cave. It was made in 1956 and is called the TV Rippler. It was called that because it was to look like a colored television and the waves rippled on the sign. It has a loop plastic screen that slowly rotates simulating wave movement. The current value is around $1000, but I will never part with it.

For years, I have been searching for the location where this picture was taken. I contacted the Hamm’s beer sign club and they have never identified where this picture was taken. One of the members here, The Great Outdoors before he died, gave me a line to some photographers that might have taken this picture. These two only said there was many pictures taken by many people for these adds. So my search continues.


Here is my Hamm’s beer sign.

From one beer lover to another… thank you.

Very cool.... a couple of my signs, and one outlaw picture.

Savage Voyageur: "I have a Hamm’s beer sign in my Man Cave. It was made in 1956 and is called the TV Rippler. It was called that because it was to look like a colored television and the waves rippled on the sign. It has a loop plastic screen that slowly rotates simulating wave movement. The current value is around $1000, but I will never part with it. I have been searching for the location where this picture was taken for years. I contacted the Hamm’s beer sign club and they have never identified where this picture was taken. One of the members here The Great Outdoors before he died gave me a line to some photographers that might have taken this picture. These two only said there was many pictures taken by many people for these adds. So my search continues. Here is my Hamm’s beer sign… "

your decade old thread

Les Photo's

I've made a few hamm's pictures for fun over the years.

tumblehome: "


I've made a few hamm's pictures for fun over the years."

Love it

This Scenorama is in my shop. A friend gave it to me a couple years ago. I had to rebuild some of it but it does work. The parts came from Minnesota. I always wondered where the picture came from.

Just for fun, here is most of my Hamms beer cans in a collection of about 300 vintage cans I have had for 50 years or so.

Every once in a while, I will enjoy a Hamms 16 ouncer in a shorty glass, enjoying what I can only describe as drinking liquid aluminum. Yum

Cheers, scat

Fun Hamms beer fact - a six pack of cans floats like an iceberg. At last it did in salt water - discovered this while in serving in the military in the Pacific in the 1960’s.

Savage Voyageur: "I have a Hamm’s beer sign in my Man Cave. It was made in 1956 and is called the TV Rippler. It was called that because it was to look like a colored television and the waves rippled on the sign. It has a loop plastic screen that slowly rotates simulating wave movement. The current value is around $1000, but I will never part with it.

For years, I have been searching for the location where this picture was taken. I contacted the Hamm’s beer sign club and they have never identified where this picture was taken. One of the members here, The Great Outdoors before he died, gave me a line to some photographers that might have taken this picture. These two only said there was many pictures taken by many people for these adds. So my search continues.


Here is my Hamm’s beer sign."

When I was a kid and my parents took me into bars, I would set and stare at that thing for hours watching it loop and the water move. Wish I had one now.

deerfoot: "Fun Hamms beer fact - a six pack of cans floats like an iceberg. At last it did in salt water - discovered this while in serving in the military in the Pacific in the 1960’s."

So do six packs of carbonated non-alcoholic beverages. Discovered this while watching several of them float down a river in the Black Hills in the early 70s, immediately after a member of our party interpreted the instruction to "put them in the river" as "throw them in the river."

About 10 years ago, my brother who has a nice bar at his house was telling a story.
He was visiting a high school friend's parent's house recently after the father had passed. He mentioned setting up his bar in his new house. The mother said that there was an old beer sign in the garage that he was welcome to have.
I stopped his story right there.
"Please don't tell me that it is a Hamms motion beer sign."
Yep, and get this........it was still in the original box and had never been used!
He told her that it was worth some good money, but she insisted that he take it.
I'm like that would look really good in my mini-bar in my up north themed man cave.
He's like "Nice try."
But he did give me a Bent Paddle sign recently, not quite the Hamms (that lucky dog), but it works.

George's Buffet, Iowa City, Iowa