Involved Three Lakes native announced as Fourth of July Parade Marshal

The 2025 Three Lakes Fourth of July Parade Marshal will be Merle Patnode, a longtime Three Lakes resident.

He was born in his family home in town.

Patnode feels a special connection with the Three Lakes Fire Department, as his dad helped buy it a new 1937 Ford fire truck, which has been displayed in the Fourth of July parade. It held 300 gallons of water, which was siphoned from an area lake as the town didn’t have its own water supply at the time. By a shocking stroke of fate, on the day that the fire department was demonstrating the capabilities of the fire truck at Spirit Lake, Patnode’s father’s garage, home and car caught on fire and the fire department was unable to put it out due to the speed of the fire and the lack of immediate water supply.

Other than a 20-year stint in Milwaukee, where he owned his own business, Patnode has lived in Three Lakes. His love of flying interspersed everything he did, culminating in running the Three Lakes Airport and seaplane base. He flew land- and seaplanes, logging more than 5,000 flight miles, acquiring numerous ratings, instructing students, flying fire patrol, hauling fresh shrimp and tracking wild animals. He flew Marlin Perkins, host of the former TV series “Wild Animal Kingdom,” for a filming of an episode. Patnode has piloted planes all over the United States, including Alaska, as well as in the Caribbean.

Being an inventive person, Patnode engineered and built his own firewood-fueled hot water outdoor wood stove that was environmentally friendly, and a firewood processor that kept him in the firewood business for 25-plus years.

Patnode was an active member of the Three Lakes Lions Club for 40-some years, serving three terms as president. Patnode was instrumental in bringing Ducks Unlimited to town, where breeding ponds for ducks were established on Thunder Lake Marsh.

In between all that, he owned the Oneida Village Inn where Skip Wagner performed.

Former Three Lakes parade marshal Jackie Walker summed up, “When Merle was 90, he decided to write a book about his life’s adventures in the town that he grew up in and loves. It’s titled “Sonny Skies” and is a darn good read. So we salute Merle Patnode and proudly give him the title of Fourth of July Parade Marshall, 2025!”