Visitors were drawn to Devil's Lake by its beauty, but the hotels depended on workers and services provided by local families. Local women often worked at the hotels, and employees handled tasks such as laundry near the Pavilion while still finding moments for fun during the busy tourist season. Before a road was built, renting a boat from a livery was the quickest way to travel from the west to the east shore on the south end of the lake. The Pierce family rose at four in the morning to mix and fry 30 dozen donuts for delivery to campers by 6 AM, and they also made pies and bread while Dorothy and Elsie Pierce sold milk and baked goods. The area changed noticeably when it became a State Park in 1911, as the automobile appeared and the hotels slowly faded from the landscape. Camping came to predominate during the warm summer months, and tourists could stay anywhere along the shoreline for free. Local families such as the Martins provided services ranging from hotel work on the south shore to boat rentals and the sale of farm produce and ice to early campers and resort visitors. The Martin Farm stood at the top of what is now called Snake Hill, and family lore held that the road followed the path the Martin children made while taking farm produce to early visitors. Augusta Martin, a widow and mother of ten children, relied with her family on income earned by working at the lake.