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Preserving the past while serving the present, future
November 10, 2025
HARSHAW – Rondele Ranch, the lodging and event venue located just minutes off Highway 51 near Harshaw, is celebrating the latest addition to its lineup of event spaces: the Graham Center.
Rondele Ranch Sales and Marketing Director Vonda Backhaus said the center includes a 14,750-square-foot main structure and 4,072 square feet of canopies built from wood framing.
Backhaus said the facility also includes a covered drive-through entrance, a well-lit parking lot and a “modern Northwoods” design.
The new center, she said, now allows Rondele Ranch to host larger private events year-round, as well as a variety of public events for residents and visitors of all ages.
“[During] our winter months, we would really slow down and pump the brakes, and we don’t want to do that,” she said. “We wanted to keep the momentum going all season. So, last year we broke ground on the Graham Center, and it [was] completed Nov. 7.”
Backhaus said the Graham Center is already attracting attention, with bookings going quickly for 2026.
“[Business Development Leader] Meg [Ellefson] has been very busy planning, reaching out to top performers [for events],” she said. “She’s planning a trade show right now, [too], and I am almost booked up for 2026 for weddings in the Graham Center during the summer.”
Backhaus said the facility will offer a range of spaces, designed with the patrons’ needs in mind – including a full bar, a catering kitchen, a bride’s lounge, a ceremony area, a reception hall and outdoor patios.
Large custom windows, intricate casework and elegant interior features, she said, add another touch of pizzazz to the layout of the new event center.
Backhaus said the Graham Center is an important addition to the ranch’s current offerings, which boast 700 acres and multiple event facilities and lodging options, including a lakeside four-season room, event promenade, botanical gardens, gazebo and a variety of locations to spend the night or weekend.
She said she hopes the new center will lead to creating more cherished, lifelong memories for its patrons, including the many couples who will marry there.
“I’ve had brides now that have gotten married at the ranch, have had their first anniversary at the ranch, then had their child’s baptism [here]… and then we go [host] the first birthday party,” she said. “So, it becomes a family tradition at Rondele Ranch, and that is very important to me.”
Offering a new option for larger guest lists
Backhaus said the Graham Center includes several spaces designed with weddings in mind, including a bridal suite with a private bathroom, two makeup counters and a large living room area for the bridal party.
The opposite wing houses the groom’s area, complete with a stone fireplace, an auxiliary bar and a private bathroom.
Both suites, Backhaus said, offer wooded views and access to a patio area.
Though the ballroom can accommodate more than 400 guests, Backhaus said it was designed to feel inviting regardless of event size.
“There are lots of natural beams that are up into the ceilings…,” she said. “It is acoustically designed for that comfort feeling, where [you don’t feel like you’re] in this big, cavernous building.”
Backhaus said the auxiliary room – known as the Graham Center “West” – serves as a smaller venue space that can also be used as a wedding chapel.
She said it can accommodate up to 200 people and opens onto a heated outdoor patio with views of the surrounding Northwoods.
“It’s nice that the cement floor has heating in it, so it will not ice over in the winter,” she said. “There are two grand windows in the Graham Center that overlook that patio. They open up and fold into the wall. You have that beautiful outdoor-indoor feeling, without having to tug open a very heavy deck door. It opens up and you’re bringing the outdoors in.”
From cheese to hospitality
Founded in 2004, Ellefson said Rondele Ranch began as a private retreat for Owner Claude Bourguignon, who moved to the United States from Montreal as a young man.
Decades earlier, in the 1970s, Ellefson said Bourguignon and his partners had acquired a cheddar plant – All Nations Cheese Organization (ANCO) – in Merrill and launched production of Rondele, a French-inspired spreadable cheese.
In 1990, after years of success, Ellefson said they sold ANCO to Kraft Foods.
Backhaus said Bourguignon went on to build Rondele Ranch as a private retreat for family, friends and colleagues from the cheese business.
Following his death, she said ownership passed to his close friend and business partner, Bob Chadwell.
The ranch’s evolution into a public event space, Backhaus said, began when Chadwell’s granddaughter chose it as the site of her wedding.
Ellefson said Chadwell’s hands-on approach as an owner is reflected in the careful planning and amenities of the Graham Center.
“[The center] is just unique…,” she said. “There’s just a different feel to it that I think has so much to do with our owner and his family and their engagement in Rondele.”
Ellefson said Chadwell has continued Bourguignon’s original mission of sharing the Northwoods experience with others.
“Bob’s sense of hospitality is contagious, and I think that transfers over to his employees,” she said. “He owns this beautiful property, and he could have kept it to himself and his family – and frankly, sometimes I think that’s what I would have done. But he wants to share it with others – he loves it so much. This is just genuinely the kind of person he is. That is, he wants… to share his blessings with others, and especially the community.”
More memory-making ahead
As the team at Rondele Ranch looks toward the future, Backhaus, Ellefson and the rest of the leadership team said they are excited about the potential ahead for their patrons and guests of the Graham Center.
The team said it is eager for visitors and community members to start experiencing the new space as the momentum and excitement build, whether for future weddings, large corporate and community events or their planned entertainment and musical acts.
“I’ll tell you, it’s a magical place,” Ellefson said. “With the Graham Center, I want to create fun events for people – a place where people know they’re going to have a great time.”
