Minnesota Resort Industry Oral History Project Minnesota Historical Society

Neva Williams Narrator

James Fogerty Interviewer

January 25, 2000

At Neva Williams’ home outside Onamia, Minnesota

JF: Neva, we’ll begin by putting everything into context. Tell me a little aboutProject where you were born, where you began life, and how you first came to Minnesota.

NW: I was born near a little town in Iowa—Williams, Iowa—in 1929, and my parents had a farm. Actually, it was my grandmother’s farm, and my parents Historyfarmed it. It was, I recall, the Depression years. Not only was the economy terrible, but we had two or three summers of very dry weather and they were just not able to grow their crops and not able to receive enough for the crops. It just wasn’t working out. Oral Society

I’m not entirely clear about this, but I think my father and my grandmother had the farm in partnership. At least it was rented after that, it wasn’t sold, and Grandmother oversaw the land. Dad had always loved Minnesota, and he would go off into Canada, hunting. Hunting and fishing were his favorite things to do, andIndustry so he thought, “Well, I can make a living doing that. I certainly am not making a living farming.” Historical

So he had found this resort on Mille Lacs Lake. It was Vineland Lodge, of the Vineland Resort. I believe it is part of the reservationResort property now, but the resort is no longer there. They rented that for the first year. I was four when we came there, almost five years old. I recall I was not old enough to go to school, but Kathio School was perhaps a block away, and the teacher would allow me to go in and sit in onMinnesota the first-grade classes. That was kind of fun.

I remember that when we first lived at Vineland, there were many Indian people that would come to the resort for supplies. We had groceries, kerosene, bread, all those kinds of things, and there wereMinnesota more Indian people that we would see on a daily basis than white people. We saw white people in the summer only, which was kind of interesting.

I became very intrigued, as a child, with their crafts, and appreciated their culture. I did know some Ojibwe language at that time. I still recall a few words, but I’m not fluent. It was necessary, because the older people did not speak English and we learned through their point system and then they would say the word and we would pick up on it. They would point at a loaf of bread, say the word. I believe it’s Babi Kezid, I think. It’s been a long time. And so that’s how

I became familiar with the Indians and their culture. They were very nice people, they were good to us. We never, ever, ever, had a problem.

Then that first year, Mother and Dad rented the resort and Dad had purchased his first launch. I remember going to Lake Minnetonka with him when I was a little girl, and bringing it back on a trailer. It needed a lot of work. Then we had small boats. My uncle was not married at the time. He was living with us also.

Those were times when there were very few launches on the lake. Dad had a fleet of small wooden boats, and my uncle had a big motor to put on one of the boats and he would tie all those small boats, the rowboats, together and he would take the fishermen out to fish—if you can believe this—miles out into the lake and leave them, with their lunch and whatever, and go back to shore. Then go back out in the late afternoon and pick them up again and Projecttow them all back.

JF: That is amazing.

NW: Mother had documented this in her journal. History

JF: Were there cabins at the Vineland Resort? Where did people stay when they came there to go fishing? Oral Society

NW: We had cabins.

JF: So was there a lodge? Was there a main building? Industry NW: There was a main building, and there wasHistorical a porch on this main building. Then, I think everyone who served food or beverages had what they called booths. Well, we still have booths, but there was a summer porch with a lot of booths, I recall that. And in the winter that was not used. In the winter it was justResort the main lodge area and we had our living quarters there.

I don’t recall how many cabins there were. Being six years old at the time, I don’t recall. There were a number of cabins. I don’tMinnesota recall seeing pictures. Not that it’s important. My uncle would remember. He’s still living. And then there was a big house toward the end of the lake. After my uncle married, my uncle and aunt and grandmother lived in that.

After thatMinnesota first year, the resort was sold. Mr. Sandum was the owner and he had sold the resort, so Dad then took his launch down to Shore Acres [Resort] at the south end of the lake. Shore Acres was one of the largest resorts in those days. He drove his launch and operated a launch service out of Shore Acres during that next year, and that would have been in 1936.

He kept telling Mother that the fishing was so much better up toward Wigwam Bay, out on Mud Flats and up toward Wigwam Bay, and he said that would be a place he would like to locate. And so he looked during that summer and fall, and then found the Wigwam Inn Resort. That was in the fall of ‘36. 32

He purchased the resort from Mr. and Mrs. Horton, and at that time they owned the house that still sits next to Rainbow Inn, just south of here. At that time it was just a large house there, and they had all the property from that house up to the corner where Wigwam Bay is located. The resort actually sat close to the lakeshore, and before [State] Highway 169, the current Highway 169, came through, there was a hill in front of the resort building. Mr. Horton had moved the building from the lakeshore to behind the first hill, and the only way you could get to this building was by the Whitefish Road.

This is what a lot of the archaeologists have found so interesting—that the highway had excavated all of this large hill. Of course, it was, unfortunately, the site of so many burial mounds. Project JF: Nothing was probably kept, or very little.

NW: No, unfortunately. No. At that time, tourists thought it was just kind of neat to pick up these artifacts. We couldn’t say anything about that, but we certainlyHistory discouraged and made them return the bones to their resting place. So that was sad. I still feel very bad about the fact that some of the wonderful things that were unearthed were not kept. But as the archaeologists tell me, that was what they call the first terrace and then thereOral is still Society a smaller one in the backyard here, a second terrace, and then it goes down to the marshland, as you notice. Well, we’re getting off the track of the discussing the early Wigwam Inn.

JF: But an interesting sidelight. Was County Road 25 still here at that time? Had that been put in yet as you remember? Industry Historical NW: It was a little gravel road, a little path. I doubt if cars could even pass when I was little. It was rarely used. That road goes back to Whitefish Lake and then from Whitefish Lake, it goes back to Pine Center, so there was this little winding trail that just went west. There really wasn’t very much of a road. Resort

JF: Now—your family has settledMinnesota in 1937, around in there, at Wigwam Inn.

NW: Correct.

JF: KindMinnesota of describe what it was like. What was there on the property? What kind of buildings were there when your father bought this?

NW: Oh, that’s interesting. There was a lodge, and Mother and I do have pictures to document that. It was sitting on poles and had no foundation. It was not lined, there was no plumbing, and we had no electricity. So that winter, while we were still living in a comfortable, warm little house near Shore Acres, Dad was working every day during the winter putting in electricity and lining some parts of the resort as best he could, and preparing it for opening in the spring. There

33 was no water, so he drilled a shallow well, a sand-point well. And iron—oh my. [Laughter] Lots of iron in the water.

The lodge building was an old building and it had lower level and there was a large area for customers. Then there was a large kitchen and a little room that perhaps was a bedroom. We always used it just as a storage room, on the lower level. And then there were steps going upstairs and there were two bedrooms and a living room in the upstairs, and we had a porch that we could walk out on from the upstairs living room, which was kind of fun. When we were little and my mother would say, “It’s bedtime,” then we could go up there and sit out and watch cars or whatever, so that was nice. I do remember the first winter. I could see the stars through the sides of the walls. Lots of heavy quilts were needed. [Laughter]

JF: I bet. And so that’s where you really—the lodge became your home? Project

NW: Correct. That was our home. And with the lodge, there were two cabins. Originally, there were only two cabins, and they had oil stoves in them for heat. We had a big woodstove in the lodge part for heat in the winter and we had a big old cook stoveHistory in the kitchen, which was also used for heating with wood.

I believe earlier I told you the story of the Kingfisher Lodge,Oral which Society was across the street to the north. That was owned by Earle Brown. Earle Brown owned—actually, if you can visualize, from the Whitefish Road, that point area, toward the north, that you’re looking at, and on the west side of the lake, where the golf course is. He owned all that property up to the county line, which is almost up where Terry’s Marina is, north of here. Perhaps it’s two miles north. There was one little house, and that would be Industrywhere the condominiums are, next to the north side of the bay here. Historical

Later my uncle and aunt and their boys lived there, and then Mr. Brown had his old stone house, which is still standing. Mr. Brown would come up during the summer. He had cattle and he had some horses. Resort

JF: His summer estate. [Laughter]Minnesota

NW: Yes. So that was our neighborhood. And so we had lots of space.

JF: So yourMinnesota father spent really the winter of, what, the end of ‘37 into ‘38? Was that when he was wiring and insulating and getting things ready?

NW: The winter of ‘36.

JF: Winter of ‘36, okay. So you were really open for business the spring of ‘37?

NW: Correct.

JF: Do you remember much about that first summer, the business, or how things went?

NW: I do remember that that was the summer—it’s good that you brought that up—that was the summer they did all of the excavating. That’s when they decided to put the road through. Now, before my father had purchased Wigwam Inn—and I do have a copy of this letter from Earle Brown. My father had contacted Earle Brown, asking if he would be interested in leasing the Kingfisher Lodge to him.

And Mr. Brown responded, saying, “Well, it’s not possible.” I’ve forgotten how he worded it, but he said the state has not decided on the route that Highway 169 will take and that some things never change. [Laughter] But he was not anxious to lease it because he was uncertain whether the highway would be going through his property, or what the situation would be. Project JF: But there was already a road out here, a smaller road?

NW: Yes, a gravel road, and it was much different. The lakeshore, as you recall from seeing some of the earlier pictures, was much lower. There was more Historylake shore than we have now and there was a lot of room for parking cars right next to the beach, so that road was even a little closer than the current 169 is and there was still a lot of room, a lot of beach area, in those years. But since then, the lake gradually rose. Oral Society

That first summer, I do recall just being busy, and Mother and Dad were very busy and we were constantly fighting the dust from the road construction. But Dad had such a good reputation for being an outstanding fisherman, so then, fortunately, many of his friends in Iowa heard of his owning this resort in Minnesota, and weIndustry had, immediately, a built-in customer base from Iowa. Historical After the farmers planted their corn, then there was this time, a kind of lull in their farming. Iowa farmers concentrate more on the corn and grains than they do raising cattle and so on, so they weren’t burdened with the chores that you would have with animals. They had this time in the summer just to come up andResort enjoy themselves, and they loved fishing. My father still had that old pointed boat that he bought in Minnetonka. He had that, and then he bought another launch, and that probably was in 1938.Minnesota That was the Donnie boat. You’ve seen the pictures of the Donnie.

JF: Yes. Minnesota NW: That was his favorite. Then he soon outgrew this small launch with the pointed back, and sold that and had another one built to duplicate the Donnie. The Donnie, I believe, was forty feet, and the Donna was a forty-two-foot boat.

We had great boat-builders here in the area. There was a boat-builder, Vivant Boatworks, down on the south end of the lake, and then there was another—Andrew Benson, an older man, who was a great craftsman who lived near Isle, so he did oversee the building of the Donna boat.

JF: In those early years, Neva, did people, when they came up to go fishing, did very many of them—you know, you think of today, people bring their own boats with them. Did many people ever do that in that time? I suppose that was too difficult.

NW: No. No, that’s interesting. That would have been unheard of. They just never did. I don’t know if it was because—well, one reason may have been, during the 1940s, the World War II, the gas rationing was something that affected our business in a positive way. Of course, towing a boat, that would have been another burden.

But no, back to the boats, they did not bring their own boats. My father, at one point, had twenty- two boats, sixteen- and eighteen-foot boats, and then in the spring he would rent additional boats from smaller resorts on Whitefish Lake and Camp Lake. Then, when the spring fishing was over, the launch business would be the only way to get out where the fish were biting,Project so people would go out in the launches, and then the small boats—our boats and the other boats—would go back to the smaller resorts.

JF: What time of the year would that be about? How soon in theHistory season would that happen, as you remember?

NW: The fish don’t start moving out—just typically, theyOral don’t Societystart moving out until probably the second week in June, depending on the temperatures of the water. As a rule, it was about the second week in June when the fish would start leaving the shore, and there was no need for the small boats anymore, because at that time not only did people not bring their boats, but motors were scarce. Industry Some people would bring small outboards up andHistorical my father rented some, but certainly, the motors, I would say, wouldn’t be very reliable if you were to go out very far in the lake and a windstorm would come up. And, of course, there were no house trailers, campers, things like that, and so the cabin business kept us busy seven days a week. Resort JF: Now, you started that with two cabins? Minnesota NW: Yes.

JF: Did your father build more? Minnesota NW: We started with two cabins, and after the Kingfisher Lodge was destroyed by a semi truck, my father bought the remaining cabins. We ended up with eight cabins, so we had two and then he purchased five, and moved them to our resort, and then they built what we called the big cabin, which was built of log siding. It was a very pretty cabin, with three bedrooms and a lot of glass windows, French windows, facing the lake, and it was always in demand.

JF: Now, you can’t just refer on the tape to the semi and the Kingfisher Lodge. You have to tell that great story, exactly what happened to it. [Laughter] Because you mentioned Earle Brown and the Kingfisher Lodge, so tell what the semi did to the lodge and how it happened.

NW: My uncle was hauling some boats and there was a semi following him, and my uncle signaled and the semi didn’t, obviously, realize that there actually was a road that went to the lake. There was a turnoff to the lake, and so he decided to swerve to the left to avoid hitting my uncle, and so when he realized that my uncle was turning toward the right, he tried to compensate for this big swerve, because I think there was another oncoming car, whatever happened, but he lost control of the semi and that went into the lodge, and that was the end of the lodge.

JF: Kingfisher Lodge was no more. Project

NW: It was no more. And so Mr. Brown elected not to bother building another lodge. He had just rented that lodge, and I don’t think he was concerned with that. That wasn’t a big concern. Operating a resort wasn’t his big concern. And Father bought theHistory cabins.

JF: And then moved them over to your property? Oral Society NW: Correct, then the Kingfisher property was vacant for many years. Recently, perhaps fifteen years ago, there was a restaurant there called the Beacon Supper Club, but that burned. That operated for about five years, I recall, and then burned.

JF: Now, what year was it that your fatherIndustry moved over those cabins from—would that have been, what year, about? Historical

NW: I would say 1938, ‘38 to ‘39. Resort JF: So that happened very early.

NW: Yes. I really don’t recallMinnesota any other year, other than that first year, with just those two little cabins. We desperately needed the lodging for the customers, otherwise we were sending them to nearby resorts, and that’s not what resort business is all about. You accommodate your customers. Minnesota JF: Tell me, in those early days, what was a resort stay like? Did people come up for a week, for two, for a weekend? What was the average, would you say?

NW: We had two kinds of customers. We had the weekenders from the Twin Cities and that would be earlier in the spring. The weekends were very busy, and then sometimes during the week business was rather slow. But then when the weather would get warmer and, as I mentioned, the Iowa farmers and their families would come up, they would often stay two weeks at a time. My brother and I had lots of fun, because we were able to meet other youngsters our 37 age from a different state and play with them. This was really a wonderful experience. Not only customers from the Twin Cities, but we also had people coming from Chicago. Oh, yes, some of the interesting, colorful people. “Kid Cann” Blumenfeld, who was a renowned Mafioso.

JF: I know who he was, a well-known gangster.

NW: He and his friends heard about Dad’s reputation as a fisherman, and he was a customer.

JF: Stayed in one of the cabins?

NW: No, no. He would stay at the Blue Goose. There was a little more action up there. But he was a very nice man, well behaved. Project JF: Any other colorful characters that come to your mind? That’s colorful. That’s quite a bit of color right there. Were there families who came back like every year for a while, sort of regulars? History NW: Families would come back every year, and when the children grew up and the parents would become older and the children would marry, they would bring their families up, and this continued. Oral Society

Let’s see, I’m trying to recall what year it was, my father and mother were in an auto accident. It would have been in 1951, because I had a little girl and she was just about a year old. This accident disabled my father, and so my husband at that time and I and our little girl operated the resort for a year. This was not the kind ofIndustry life my husband liked—he didn’t really enjoy it all that much. My brother was in service, so after my brotherHistorical was out of service and married, he then bought the resort from my parents, and that would have been in 19—did I say 1951?

JF: Yes. Resort

NW: Okay. So that was the end of my father’s operating the resort. This accident left him very, very disabled. Minnesota

At that time, we moved to Florida, and my husband worked at Cape Canaveral in the missile industry and I worked as a commercial artist out of Patrick Air Force Base. It was an interesting life, but Minnesotathat’s a different story.

Then my parents bought an older home on the south end of the bay, but it was really too big for them, so when we moved from Minnesota to Florida, then they moved into this house, and it was nice because they were close again to the resort and could help my brother out.

Mother would often go up and open the resort early in the morning, because there was always a demand for breakfast, and we did serve food. They always served food. We had breakfast and lunches, sandwiches and things like that. We did not get into the dinner trade. 38

But then my brother took over the resort. My father had the resort, as Mother stated in her journal, for twenty-eight years, and then my brother had it for twenty-eight years. My brother had a heart attack, and so he had to give up resort life—it’s a very rigorous life, and it’s seven days a week when you’re busy and out in the elements.

JF: That’s amazing. Let’s go back into the late thirties and forties and talk about how the resort business here that you ran, your family ran, kind of evolved. You’ve talked about people who would come up, the Iowa farmers, for maybe a week or two. Talk about the weekend business. Now, you began to talk about it in the spring. People would sort of come for weekends. Did that continue through the years, there would be a certain amount of weekend trade?

NW: And it’s still true now. The weekends are the busy times for Mille LacsProject Lake, it’s so convenient to the metro area. We would depend on this weekend business in spring and in the fall, and then my brother, of course, also, in the winter, for winter fishing. My father never did get into the winter fishing business. He just didn’t care to do it. During the summer, with the people from the Twin Cities, we were always saying, “I’m sorry,History our cabins are rented,” and so they had to make their reservations in advance if they wanted to stay.

JF: So during the summer then, it was almost always peopleOral staying Society a full week or two?

NW: Always, always.

JF: And reserving well in advance? Industry NW: Yes. Historical

JF: What kind of marketing, if you want to call it that, developed over the years? You mentioned word of mouth, of course, firstResort in Iowa, but then how did that proceed?

NW: Well, word of mouth was great for the people in Iowa, but there was an early Mille Lacs Resort Association. I believeMinnesota I showed you the folder that they had published, and this was available in the Twin Cities, I believe mostly through trade shows and through their resort association. There was an address that people could call or send for literature. I’m not sure how many resorts—I doubt if very many ever advertised in the Twin City papers, perhaps some of the larger ones,Minnesota like Izaty’s or Shore Acres.

JF: Would people write for reservations, call for reservations?

NW: Both. We were receiving letters all throughout the year, all throughout the winter.

JF: What time would you open up in the spring?

NW: Fishing season, pike season is usually around May 15th, and that was when we would open. And it was seven days a week from then until after Labor Day. That seemed to be the very busiest, regarding fishing. And so after Labor Day, there would be a few people coming up, but after Labor Day, we would just pretty much plan on closing some of the cabins. Sometimes we had two or three that were winterized and we kept those open for late fall fishermen or deer hunters. But it was pretty much a summer type of business.

In the fall my father, as many of the other resorters did, in those days, netted fish. This is legal. You still can do that. Anyone can. You just get your license and you have your nets. That's very difficult work, I know. There was one fall when my father was—well, this was after his auto accident. He insisted that a neighbor boy use his nets and said, “Neva, you’re a big, strong girl. You go out, you help him.” [Laughter] Project I didn’t realize what a hard job that really is. You take your boat in the fall and it’s about the time when it’s beginning to freeze, so you break ice. I didn’t pick the nets, I was the oarsman and it’s very cold. We had a neighbor on Whitefish Lake who would then smoke the fish. History Dad did netting—and many other resorters, such as, Rainbow Inn, which was formerly Vic’s Place. Victor Sohlin, bought that resort from the Hortons, and Vic netted. As a matter of fact, unfortunately, he drowned in a netting incident. He andOral one of ourSociety other neighbor’s boat capsized. The other neighbor survived. But anyhow, it’s a tough business.

My father then would net these fish and sell them. At the lodge we always had gas, and so the hunters would buy gas, they might stop for a beer and get some gas. Dad had a reputation for having the greatest whitefish in the area,Industry so then in the fall, it was almost like a mini Morey’s fish market. Historical

JF: People would stop and buy the fish as well.

NW: Yes. Resort

JF: Tell me a little about what—I’mMinnesota trying to imagine this Mille Lacs—talk about the evolution of the resort industry, if you would, a little bit, at Mille Lacs, because it has some characteristics that are a little different than some other resorts west and north of here, in terms of what people came for, what they expected to find, and what they actually did when they got here. Minnesota NW: Mille Lacs has always been noted for great fishing. It is not quite the fishing lake that it used to be, because there are so many other options now, but historically, Mille Lacs has always been the lake sought after from miles and miles around for its walleye fishing and northern fishing. You have seen pictures of the sizes of the northerns that were caught.

JF: Huge.

NW: When I was little, huge fish were common. My father always used to say the twenty-fourth of July was the magic date when the water is nice and warm, when he would start fishing for northerns, instead of going out deep in the water. When the pike were not biting, he would start trolling closer to shore, probably not more than a hundred yards out from the beach, for northerns, and so then the northern fishing was kind of exciting.

So we’re a fishing lake, and it stayed that way until—well, I think it’s still noted as a fishing lake, but now we do have a few golf courses and some of the nicer lodges with more amenities, swimming pools, that kind of thing. The things that you would find on Gull Lake, like the Ruttger’s Lodge, and at Madden’s. What are some of the others up there?

JF: The large ones with many different— Project NW: Grand View. Some of the oldies.

JF: Cragun’s. History NW: Yes. Cragun’s is, to me, relatively new. They had these kinds of the nicer amenities to offer, the tennis courts, the golf courses. Fishing was not the reason that people went to that area. Oral Society JF: In the 1940s, I’m curious, when people came here and your Iowa farmers would come with their whole families, did everyone go out fishing during the day? The wives, the children, did they all pile into the boat, or did only Dad go fishing, and then what did the rest of them do?

NW: Well, it was mostly just dads that Industrywent fishing. Sometimes mothers would go, but then with children—children need supervision, so mothersHistorical were there. My mother was the greatest social hostess. She made everyone feel at home, and they would come in the afternoon and sit and visit and have tea. Resort Of course, my brother and I were in the lake probably ten times a day. Couldn’t refuse. Our friends wanted company and we knew what was safe and what was not safe to do, and so the mothers began to trust us. WeMinnesota were not reckless youngsters. We obeyed. We had rules set by parents and we obeyed those rules, and this was fine with the parents. This was a perfect playground for them.

Oh, at thatMinnesota time there was a lot of area to roam around, to take hikes, to pick berries. Along the road toward Whitefish, was great for grapes, and up toward Mr. Earle Brown’s area, raspberries. We could pick wild strawberries, and so there were those kinds of things and there were all the things that children come up with. If one couldn’t imagine one kind of a game, then the other one could think of something else, so it was almost like a summer camp, now that I recall. It really was. It was just like summer camp.

JF: Were these housekeeping cabins?

NW: Yes. Yes, they all had iceboxes. That’s another thing of the past. We had iceboxes to keep everything cool in the lodge and in the kitchen, and we had iceboxes in each cabin. We had an icehouse, so in the winter we had a neighbor, who had a team of horses, saw and put up ice. He just lived down here on Timber Trails Road, in a log cabin, and his log cabin has been preserved. It’s still there. Someone bought the property and has restored the roof, and so the cabin is still there where Mr. Ben Olson lived, with his wife and family. (It has been nominated for the National Historic Register.)

Ben and his boys would come up with their team of horses, and I don’t recall how they sawed, but they did. I don’t recall that they had anything like huge power saws. I would have to ask my uncle exactly what type of saw they used, to saw those ice chunks. Then they would pull them out of the lake with big ice tongs, and load them on the sled, and the horses would pull them up to the icehouse, which was lined with sawdust. You put a layer of sawdust down,Project you put a layer of ice cakes down, and then another layer of sawdust and another layer of ice cakes, and the ice would keep. Really, we had ice until the end of August.

Then when the boats, the launches would come in with their stringsHistory of fish, and the customers, of course—would have to ice their fish down. Maybe they wanted to clean the insides out, or maybe not, right away. Maybe they just wanted to grab some food and go back out again in the afternoon. So then you’d simply shovel the sawdust back,Oral put theSociety fish on the ice, and cover them with sawdust, and clean them all at night then or the next day.

JF: Then you also used the ice, I suppose, for the icebox?

NW: For the iceboxes. Industry Historical JF: In the little cabins.

NW: Yes. And the stoves wereResort mostly just little kerosene stoves. I know we didn’t have gas. There were two, sometimes three, little plates, burner plates, so it must have been kerosene.

JF: So they weren’t woodstoves.Minnesota They must have been kerosene stoves.

NW: We did have woodstoves in some of the cabins that were used more in the later months of the year, two or three. But no, there wasn’t any other heat. It was just the cooking plate, the cookingMinnesota stove plate and the iceboxes—and cupboards and dishes. And, oh, my, the laundry. [Laughter] We did not have the services of a laundry, a local laundry. There were no laundry trucks. So I have many pictures of myself and my mother and these clotheslines that just wouldn’t stop.

We always had a hired girl and a hired man, and one of my uncle’s three boys, one or the other, would stay with us during the summer, and when it was Monday, everyone, everyone except Father, was involved in laundry. We were hoping that the weather would cooperate and the birds would be nice to us. [Laughter] 42

JF: When your clientele changed over, was it usually a Sunday afternoon?

NW: Yes, yes. Oh, Sunday afternoons were horrible. I dreaded Sunday afternoons. That was cabin-cleaning time and we cleaned and got as many cabins cleaned as we possibly could and finished the rest on Monday, but hopefully we’d get them all done on Sunday. We did have one girl who would come in during the summer as an extra, a local girl who would come in just to help with the cabin-cleaning. There was another lady that would stay with us all during the summer, all week long, and then myself. Mother didn’t clean cabins. She was the only one to operate the lodge. Dad was out on the lake all the time.

JF: The women of the families who came up to the resort, did they cook in the cabins, dinners, breakfast, lunch, or whatever? Project

NW: Oh, yes, yes. And heaven forbid—we were always happy when they brought their wives along, because when men were here by themselves, it was a different story. [Laughter] History JF: So, in fact, the mothers were well occupied? I mean, you could play with the children, you and your brother, but they were, indeed, cooking three meals a day, for the most part? Oral Society NW: Correct.

JF: Did many people go out to eat? Were there places to go out to eat in the evening?

NW: I don’t recall people going out to eat.Industry I think they were very happy to be here, and at the end of the day, we had our own little social hour.Historical There were lots of chairs out of doors and everyone would just kind of bring some chairs out of the cabins or whatever and sit around and have a little campfire on occasion and sit around and visit, so it was a very social kind of time for parents, too. Resort

JF: When people came, Neva, did they bring their food supplies for a week or two with them? Minnesota NW: They brought as much as they could possibly. During the forties, there wasn’t a grocery store in Garrison. I don’t believe there was a grocery store in Garrison until the fifties, so then they would do what we did, go to Onamia. But the other nice thing was that Mother had trucks stoppingMinnesota out of Brainerd. We had a bread truck stop, like every other day, a milk truck stop every other day. Oh, and a meat truck—Donovan’ meat service, out of St. Cloud, would stop a couple of times a week, at least. And then there was Nash Finch Company out of Brainerd, where Mother would go in and buy a lot of canned goods and supplies, and sometimes they would deliver. So we had really almost everything there that people would need.

JF: So these various suppliers you’re talking about would sell them to your family, who then resold them to the guests?

NW: Correct. And often they would drive to Onamia. They would like to see other parts of the lake. It was a big trip to go around the lake. They had to do that once a summer, to drive around the lake. But they would go into Onamia to shop. As Brenda Boyd was saying earlier in the day, Dahlgren’s store was so colorful. People used to say—“Oh, this is just like an old country store. They have everything there.” It was, I think, a store/semi-museum.

JF: And this is in Onamia?

NW: Yes. It was a large building and they not only had the dry goods—clothing, shoes and fabrics and things like that, a few tools—but they also had a good grocery store, and a very, very good reputation for their meats. That family had been there forever and they did a wonderful business. Project JF: Now, the provisioning of a small store to serve people must have meant your mother really had to be a very astute manager to know what to order and how much to order and what people were likely to buy, and how to price it, because she had to pay for it. Tell me a little about that. I mean, that was really running a little business there, beyond theHistory resort business.

NW: Yes, indeed. Before she married my father, her father owned a grocery store in Webster City, Iowa. She grew up in the grocery business. Wasn’tOral that something? Society

JF: Fortuitous, yes.

NW: Oh, yes. Convenient, whatever. She just had this knowledge of what to buy, what not to buy, how much, and so on, because she Industryhad grown up in a grocery store. Historical JF: And some of the food that you were talking about, like the meats and things, were perishable, so you couldn’t just buy them like canned goods and put them on the shelf, and if no one bought them for a coupleResort weeks, that was fine. You had to sell them soon.

NW: Most of the perishables we purchased from neighbors. Minnesota JF: Vegetables and things like that?

NW: Yes. Tomatoes and cucumbers, corn, berries, all those kinds of things. The customers would justMinnesota kind of know when the locals were going to come and bring their wares. It was sometimes like a little farmers’ market. Sometimes Mother would purchase from them and sometimes they would just buy directly from the local people.

JF: Talk a little about—because you showed me a fascinating couple of pictures earlier in the day—of the little bar/lunch counter/store area in the lodge. You know, a little mini-mart, it seemed to me, all put together in one room. Talk a little about how that evolved.

NW: The basic lodge part was a large room. Of course, I was a small girl. To me, it looked large. [Laughter]

JF: A child’s eye view.

NW: The first year that we moved there, the Gluek’s Brewery put in a bar that you saw, with the old brass rail, and a back bar. And so under this bar, we had the coolers for beer, pop, milk, and so on, and in the back bar, from waist height up, there were displays of a few Minnesota-related things just as decor. We always had Indian crafts tucked away in some little corner. Mother had purchased tons of Indian crafts when we lived in Vineland.

That was kind of a different story. Maybe I will just mention that. That was a very difficult winter. It was a very cold winter, and it was difficult for the Indian people. TheyProject didn’t have an income, so Mother would purchase their crafts in exchange for commodities—bread, kerosene, lard, whatever, sugar, flour, those kinds of things.

JF: So it was really a barter, almost. History

NW: Right. And my father, “What are you ever going to do with all those canoes and those birdhouses?” The next summer, they just disappeared. OralSo she wasSociety really a very astute buyer, very sharp.

Back to the lodge room. Below the back bar, we had some shelves that had sliding doors over them, and there we stored cigarettes, candy, peanuts, all those kinds of things. A few were on display on the back bar. Industry Historical It’s amazing, where I had mentioned a little storeroom off one side of the lodge part, and that was—I don’t know how we would have survived without that storeroom. Can you imagine? A place to put all the canned goods,Resort keep the pots, and all of those kinds of things.

And then on the north wall, as you saw, there were shelves, with all of the groceries, the bread and those kinds of things, cannedMinnesota goods and so on, were on that wall. There was a little counter, with four stools, four little round stools, and people would just love to sit and look out the window toward the north and watch the traffic, which was a big thing then. Now we don’t think it’s so great. Minnesota Toward the east side of the room was solid windows. Oh, I’ll never forget those windows, these little, tiny, square-paned windows that needed leading all the time and washing all the time. They were pretty, but—and in later years, probably in the early fifties, late forties, my father had some big bay windows replace those. I mean, those windows had seen better years anyhow.

On the south side of that room, there were two fabulous old wooden booths. They had tall backs and there was some hand-carving on the wood on the sides. They were just treasures. There was room for another two tables to sit in front of those windows that looked out toward the east. We 45 had two smaller round tables with chairs, so there was a considerable amount of seating in those days.

JF: Who would patronize the food area there? Who would come up there, your guests or people traveling?

NW: Primarily the fishermen. If the men were by themselves, they were not too excited about cooking breakfast, so breakfasts were a big thing, cooking for the men—many, many platters of bacon, eggs, toast, and pancakes. The launches would leave about eight o’clock and come in about noon and then back out again at one-thirty or two, and back in at six. When they would come in at noon, it was hamburgers and chili, hot dogs—those kinds of things.

In the evening, it seemed as though the men wanted to get out. They’d go toProject Garrison or some place where there was a little more activity. So we weren’t into evening meals.

JF: You brought up a point, though, that I want to explore, because it’s interesting. You talked about two kinds of clientele. Maybe there were more, but you talkedHistory about two. One is the families who came, and you had the mother and kids, and the father, who went fishing, probably. But then you’re talking about the fishermen who came, usually in groups, by themselves? How did they tend to come? The men came, clearly, by themselves,Oral notSociety with their families.

NW: They would come in groups, three or four. Friends. That would be from the Twin Cities, just up for the weekend.

JF: In those years when you were here,Industry your teenage years in the forties, if you had to divide your clientele, what was it, 50 percent family, 50Historical percent fishermen? What was it like?

NW: I would say it was a 50-50 situation. We were busy with families from middle June through middle August, and we wereResort busy from May 15th to June 15th with more on the weekends, and the middle of August until after Labor Day again would just be more from the Twin Cities.

JF: So you would say that theMinnesota fishermen groups were kind of like bookends to the season? They came in the spring and the fall, and the families were in the summer? Is that correct?

NW: To a point that’s correct. The families would have priority on the living accommodations, housing Minnesotaaccommodations, and whatever during the summer, but somehow we always accommodated these fishermen, who really loved going fishing with my father, because he really had a wonderful reputation—

JF: For knowing where to go.

NW: Yes. If there was anyone on the lake who could catch fish, it was Howard [J.] Welty. So then often, as I mentioned before—I’ll mention the name—Kid Cann, there were other people from Chicago and different areas who would come up and stay at the Blue Goose, as an example, 46 and then just come down for the day to fish with Dad, and come down the next day again and the next day, but would stay at other places where they could find accommodations.

JF: So really if you look at the resort business that your parents ran in those years, in the forties particularly, and probably on into the fifties, although maybe we’ll talk about that a little later, in looking at the way the business was organized, you had the cabin rentals, you had the store and the restaurant operation, and you had the fishing, each of which was, if you want to call it in the very modern terminology, a revenue stream.

NW: Yes.

JF: An activity that produced revenue for the business. Project NW: Yes.

JF: Were there others that I’m not thinking of? History NW: Oh, well, perhaps I shouldn’t mention it, but slot machines at one time were legal, and we did have slot machines, so that was another, if you will, source of revenue. I remember nickel machines and dime machines and quarter machines. WeOral also had Society punch boards, and that was one of the responsibilities, quite a responsibility for children. My brother and I would watch the men at the punch boards, making certain that they didn’t take more punches than what they had paid for. [Laughter] Quite the responsibility for children. It was a good experience.

JF: Just part of the business. Sure. Industry Historical NW: Another wonderful experience was operating the cash register at a very young age. That was excellent. And, of course, the customer relations. I think I could have been an introvert. I really was quite a shy little Resortgirl, and I think I would have been very shy had I not grown up in that element. You couldn’t be shy and survive.

JF: It sounds like you were veryMinnesota much depended on, too, to help entertain children of guests, even when you were children.

NW: Yes. Minnesota JF: That was part of your role. You talked about taking them swimming.

NW: Yes.

JF: You had your own duties to help them feel welcome. I mean, children relating to children.

NW: Correct. My mother would say that a particular family—I can remember some of the names. Wow. Haldebridle. “The Haldebridle kids would like to go swimming now. Take them down,” and so we would, and told them where we were allowed to go and where not to go.

I learned to swim when I was five. I fell off the dock. I fell off the dock when we first moved to Vineland, and my uncle fished me out and he said, “Young lady, you’re going to learn to swim right now.” [Laughter] And so I learned to swim, and I learned to love it.

I’ve been swimming all my life, and now I still, when I do get my endurance up during the summer, I’m able to do a half mile and enjoy it so much. I am a very, very good swimmer. Later in life I did get my WSI [Water Safety Instructor] and taught swimming in this area for ten summers. So that was—if you could call it a talent, I guess it probably was. My brother was a good swimmer also. We were, I would say, good role models for those children.Project They respected what we could do and knew that we respected the water.

JF: As you and your brother became teenagers and the resort was going on, tell me how your roles changed, the things that you did to help out, the tasks youHistory were assigned. How did those change as you became twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old?

NW: Well, we matured earlier, I think, because of the Oralresponsibilities. Society Then we were responsible for doing everything that the adults did, if it was cooking or cleaning. My brother got his first pilot’s license when he was sixteen, but he was operating boats before then. That’s a big responsibility for a kid. My brother turned out to be a big man like my father, and so he just picked up the responsibilities of a man. Industry At that age I knew enough about the buying andHistorical those kinds of things at the lodge part, so that if Mother felt like going to town, to Brainerd for an afternoon, if the parents wanted to go someplace for overnight, we were perfectly capable of handling the whole thing.

JF: Taking care of the resort?Resort

NW: Yes. We had our hiredMinnesota help there, so we were not just two kids alone, but we were able to do it.

JF: Did your parents, as the resort went along, make any attempt to keep in touch with clients over theMinnesota winter?

NW: Oh, yes, always. Tons of Christmas greetings went out and received. My grandmother lived in Webster City, Iowa. She lived until I was seventeen. It was tradition during our Christmas break for Mother and Dad and my brother and I to go to Iowa and visit not only relatives, but a lot of their friends, too. That was quite the social whirl, and every afternoon at somebody’s farm or every evening at some other relative’s house. Yes, we stayed in touch with customers also.

JF: I’m always interested, as we talk throughout this resort project, how people even informally kept the clients thinking about next summer. You always needed reservations every summer, and clearly the more—I would imagine, in most businesses—the more repeat business you can get, the better.

NW: It truly was mostly word of mouth. It was people from Iowa would tell their friends, and their friends would start coming up. Now that I reflect on it, wasn’t that just ironic that my father would come here with a built-in clientele.

JF: When you were running the restaurant and cooking and things like this, who did the cooking and all that stuff for breakfast, lunch, burgers, hot dogs?

NW: Mother, myself, and the hired girl. Project

JF: What time would you start serving breakfast in the morning? When I think of fishermen, I think of early. Is that really not true? History NW: Six thirty.

JF: Did you have menus? Oral Society

NW: No. [Laughter] I’m sorry. We made an attempt at menus, but it just didn’t seem to be very beneficial. Some of the beer companies, like Schmidt’s, Hamm’s, whatever, gave us menu paper, and we would attempt to write menus on occasion, but it was always the same thing. The people always knew what they wanted. Industry Historical JF: How did you price? I think of a menu as not only having a list of stuff, but the prices that you were going to pay for a hamburger or a hot dog, a pancake, or whatever. Resort NW: I don’t think Mother changed her prices very often. They were accustomed to just bacon and eggs or ham and eggs and toast. Breakfast would be a dollar and a half, plus all the coffee that you could drink. Minnesota

JF: That was the way it was.

NW: That’sMinnesota the way it was. Hamburgers were—gee, I don’t recall. Some ridiculous price— perhaps outrageous like fifty cents. These were the huge man-sized hamburgers. We didn’t go in for deep frying. We didn’t have the facilities. It was just—call it country cooking.

JF: Did you get much road traffic, people stopping by for lunch or stopping by for gas or stopping by for a candy bar or whatever?

NW: Quite a lot for gas. We did a good gas business. We had gas, oil, and we also mixed gas for outboards. In those days the proportion was so much oil to gas, and so we mixed the fuel for the outboards, too.

JF: So you did do a little bit of drop-in traffic, but it doesn’t sound like a lot.

NW: No, I shouldn’t say not a lot. We truly were quite busy all the time. Another thing I did was pump gas. I remember pumping a lot of gas. So did my brother, at a very young age. We were on the corner of the road that goes back to Pine Center, and there wasn’t a gas station until Pine Center, toward the west, and there wasn’t anything in those years until Garrison, five miles to the north, and then I don’t know what there was out on the south end of the lake.

JF: So you were it, kind of. Project

NW: Right. We were kind of a little convenience store, in a sense. Yes, I’m glad you mentioned that, because I recall people coming from Whitefish Lake and Camp Lake to buy a few supplies and gas and so on. History

JF: I was going to say, because you mentioned trading boats with some of the smaller resorts back in on the other lakes. They were much more remoteOral than youSociety were in those days.

NW: Right.

JF: So you must have been kind of a— Industry NW: In those days, most of the resorts that hadHistorical cabins had some food supplies. They did the same thing that my mother did. They had the staples for their customers.

JF: You mentioned the pointResort at which they widened and reconfigured 169, the highway that runs along the lakeshore here. Do you remember that as beginning to bring more traffic as it became a major artery? Minnesota NW: Oh, yes. People were able to drive faster and more comfortably.

JF: Tell me. You know, one thing that has always interested me here in Mille Lacs, and it does make it aMinnesota little different than some resort areas, is that for a large part of this west shore here, the road is built on the lakeshore so that the resorts like yours were, in fact, across the road. You had a beautiful beach, but there was a road between the resort and the beach.

NW: Right.

JF: I think of it as a safety issue with children and things like that.

NW: It always has been. Right here we’re just accident-prone, you know. It’s not safe—I don’t think it was planned well. It was difficult to keep a family dog because dogs, of course, are going to want to go toward the water, and as well as you can train them, many dogs will cross the road and, unfortunately, there can be a fatal accident for a child. So now you’ll see at the beginning of the bay those big flashing lights on both ends of the bay for pedestrians crossing the road. In the summer on weekends now, it’s just—oh, it’s just almost impossible to get across the road.

JF: I would think so, because this has become the major artery up through Central Minnesota.

NW: And on the major holidays, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, it’s stop-and-go traffic.

JF: I’ve been on it, and I know. [Laughter] Project NW: And that is why eventually this road is going in back.

JF: They’re going to reconfigure it? History NW: Yes.

JF: My goodness. Oral Society

NW: That’s another reason for my becoming familiar with what MNDOT [the Minnesota Department of Transportation] is planning. I was not happy with how close they were planning it. Fortunately, their archaeologists saw it the same way after doing digs and finding all these wonderful artifacts. All of this land has Industrynot been touched, it was just unreal, the amount of artifacts they found with such few digs. It was almostHistorical 100 percent full of things.

JF: It will be a huge archeological project, then, as they get ready for a change in the roadbed, I would think. Resort

NW: Correct. And so the MNDOT archeologist, in her opinion, has said what the proposed route would be is much too close, Minnesotaand so she’s telling them it should go back further. Then, of course, there’s interference with the Whitefish Creek in the back. There’s just nothing between this property toward the west, other than Whitefish Creek and Whitefish Lake.

There areMinnesota other interesting things about this property in the back, I’ve been reading about the archeologist who did the explorations in 1900—Jacob V. Brower.

JF: Yes.

NW: Brower had made mention of this first terrace where he camped. That would have been that hill right in front of where the resort sits, and he was looking north toward the Chippewa village on the north shore. So we are sitting now on an ancient Sioux village. As I was saying he had mentioned islands back in the swamp area. I’ve been away for a number of years. My time was 51

involved with visiting Mother and, in later years, caring for her, so I certainly didn’t get out to explore the islands and didn’t have the time to just tramp all over, which I do a lot of now.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to go back and look for some of those islands, and there are islands back there with large trees. It’s amazing.

JF: So that’s what Brower was seeing, in fact, from the top of the hill.

Talk to me a little, Neva, about what it was like at the resort in winter. I mean, was the little store part, was the lodge open all year, or by the end of September did you begin to shut down?

NW: I’m just thinking about the winters. The winters when I was younger, and this would be through my teenage years, as I mentioned before, my father just did not wantProject to get into the winter fishing business. He thought it was not profitable enough for the amount of effort put forth and the investment and so on. He had his own private [ice] fishing house, but that’s as far as that went. History In the fall, after netting tullibees, after that season, then he wanted to do things that he enjoyed a lot. He enjoyed duck hunting. He enjoyed grouse hunting. He enjoyed pheasant hunting. He and my brother and uncle and other people would go to southernOral Minnesota Society for pheasant hunting. Then, of course, there was deer hunting, and that was a big thing. And truly, I don’t recall not ever having a venison dish or fowl as almost part of our daily diet. I just don’t recall when—so anyhow, there was deer hunting. We did have some customers that would stop during deer hunting. Often they would want Dad to guide, because certainly he was as good a hunter as he was a fisherman. Industry Historical Then after deer season, it was getting close to the holidays. After deer season, I don’t recall any other people other than what my parents called the locals would stop. They would continue to stop to buy their everyday staples rather than take that long trip to—as I said, there wasn’t a store in Garrison—rather than goResort to Onamia or Pine Center. Then they would just stop and continue to buy their milk, and we served 3.2 beer. Then it became kind of like a local—if you would call it local—hangout. Not that it wasMinnesota a real bar, but they would stop for a couple of beers, and the men would just visit. Saturday nights, it was the place to go and play cards.

JF: Did your mother cook? Did you serve food at that time, too? Would people order food? Minnesota NW: I don’t recall. They came just for the evening, just for cards and socialization.

JF: So it was really open all year?

NW: Yes, it was open all year.

JF: But you didn’t really have the resort business as such, and everything kind of ended by the end of hunting season. 52

NW: My father loved it. He loved his trapping. My brother and I also trapped. I was a real tomboy. [Laughter]

JF: So that was kind of the rhythm of life, and then, of course, you would be in school.

NW: Yes. And they were good parents. They allowed us to participate in a lot of school activities, in grade school through high school, and it was difficult for them to take us in to Onamia and sit and wait, of course, for the activities and then to bring us home and so on. So what we would do is stay with friends, and then, in turn, the friends thought it was really fun to come out in the country and do all the fun things that we do here, skating, skiing, a multitude of things. It was great fun for them, and so they would, in turn, come and spend the evening with us, overnights, or a weekend, or whatever. Then my brother was able to be involvedProject in football and I was able to participate in class plays, anything that I really cared to do.

JF: You made a passing reference earlier that I’d like you to expand on, if you would, to World War II. How did it, with whatever rationing there may have been,History of food, of petroleum products and that kind of thing, how did that affect your business?

NW: Tremendously. I know my parents attributed thatOral situation Societyto their good fortune. The gas- rationing stamps would allow them to come about this far. They could not go all the way up to Bemidji or all the way up to the north shore of Lake Superior. There just was not enough gas stamps to go that far. Gas was truly rationed, and so they came this far. And we were so busy, we couldn’t hire enough people, we didn’t have enough space to house more. We worked very hard and it was very profitable. They did well.Industry Historical JF: So that’s very interesting. So the war years were really a benefit, and it was partly simply location, location, location. Resort NW: Right, right. Unfortunately, but it was just that we were here.

JF: Might as well benefit, that’sMinnesota right. That’s very interesting.

NW: Yes, and this was true of all the other resorts around the area, also. It benefited all of our neighbors. Minnesota JF: That’s fascinating. And you don’t remember, or do you, problems with getting the necessary food, to keep the store stocked or the restaurant portion going, that sort of thing?

NW: Well, there were restrictions on such things as beer, and somehow my parents were always able to manage. Mother had such a good rapport with her suppliers that they always saved her enough to fill her needs. They just had a nice rapport. I think my parents were—well, it was because they were such hard-working, honest people that any time they ordered, the vendors were always paid immediately. 53

JF: Which they probably appreciated a great deal.

NW: They truly did. And it was that my parents didn’t want to build up huge bills, and so they would deliver, and the delivery person would write up the order and the total and we would pay them. So that was good for them and good for us, too.

JF: And good for you, too. As the years went along, did you notice any change in the kind of amenities that guests began to expect or to wish for, etc.?

NW: Well, actually, I didn’t, because the resort life that I recalled, which was my life until I was seventeen and graduated from high school. After that I went to the University of Minnesota, then was married, and as I mentioned, operated the resort for that one year. TheyProject expected pretty much the same things, they didn’t seem, at that time, to really want more. I think the whole atmosphere began to change after my brother purchased the resort. Then more people were bringing their boats, more people were bringing their campers. My brother did rent this property north of me, and he purchased a little more from my father thanHistory the original resort property. My father owned—well, actually, down to this house, or a little north of this house. So my brother started a small campground, and the campground grew and grew and grew. Oral Society Then Mother and Dad allowed him to use some of their property, until Mother said, “No, they’re getting too close. I don’t care for this. I want my privacy.” And so when my brother sold the resort, as you can see, the cabins became obsolete. Everyone was bringing their own campers. It became more difficult to rent the cabins, and economically you could make more money with the campers. Industry Historical JF: Now, he took over in—when was that, about ‘58? Would that have been right?

NW: Yes, that would approximatelyResort be right.

JF: This is literally from notes that I took when you and I met in my office. And he operated it until 1980 or so? Minnesota

NW: Yes.

JF: HowMinnesota far into that, as far as you know, did he go when the trailer business, the camper business began to become the dominant mode of renting to people, renting space, in fact, for campers rather than renting cabin space?

NW: I think at the time he sold the resort, it was at least 50-50, if not more, toward the campers.

JF: So that had evolved all through the sixties and the seventies, into that?

NW: Yes, yes. In this big garage that my father had built in back of the resort, there were shower facilities, bath and shower facilities, and so there were those facilities for the campers. I believe my brother did actually put in some more septic systems to accommodate them. I know that was expanded tremendously after he sold the resort. Then it was converted totally to campgrounds.

JF: Did he continue to operate a sort of a little store, convenience store and gas station and that sort of thing?

NW: Yes, yes. They continued in the same manner that Mother and Dad had.

JF: He was a fish guide, too, wasn’t he? Did he inherit your father’s incredible talent for—

NW: He did, he did. In the obituary article, I believe was written by Joe Fellegy,Project who is our local historian—do you know Joe?

JF: I’ve met him, yes. History NW: He knew my parents and my brother extremely well, and he did sing my brother’s praises. Yes, my brother did inherit my father’s talents. Oral Society JF: So that was part of his business, too?

NW: Yes, inherited his father’s talents. And Francis kept both the launches going, and also the family tradition. His oldest son, Patrick, piloted one of the other launches, and another one of his sons, Mark, also was a pilot. The WigwamIndustry now, as I mentioned, it is owned by the band [the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.] And the ironic thingHistorical is that the man who leases the Wigwam now is Jim Kalk, who is Ojibwe, and he learned his fishing skills by going fishing with my brother. He loved my brother. My brother just thought he was a neat kid, so he would take him out fishing with him whenever he decidedResort he wanted to go fishing.

And, of course, boys, there’s another motive for that, although my brother loved children. He had six—actually seven. OneMinnesota baby died. But Fran just loved kids and my son was another one. I was a single parent and raised my children as a single mother. Francis was a wonderful role model for my son. And when these boys go fishing with their uncle or with Fran, then they learn how to help customers untangle their lines, help them with their bait and all of those things, which isMinnesota a real help.

JF: And just how to run the whole experience of taking somebody out.

NW: Right. And then he would allow them to sit behind the wheel and tell them—he’d just go take a little nap if he wanted to, or whatever, or just go chit chat with the customers, and so then the boys would sit behind the wheel, and this was great experience.

JF: Experience for them. Did your father, to your knowledge—I mean, did people with resorts on Mille Lacs or in this area ever get together once a year or occasionally, to talk about the business or just to socialize?

NW: Yes. As I was reading through my mother’s journal last evening, she had made mention of, during the winter, a group of the area people were at Twin Pine. They went out to dinner and they were playing cards, and Irvin Kuschel, who had the Marina, just as you leave the lake here, and when you come back to see the lake again, on St. Alban’s Bay. She had mentioned that Irv went outside and looked at the weather and came in and said, “Well, everyone better get ready to go home, because there’s this huge snowstorm going on now. We had better all leave right now.” Mother said it was a difficult drive home.

And in those days there was a dance hall on the south end of the bay called DocProject Mashon’s, and that was a Saturday night thing that a lot of the people got together for. I think there must have been a lot of young people getting married. There were all these wedding dances. [Laughter]

JF: Sounds like a social center for the area. History

NW: Oh, yes. And they had their—I don’t recall that they ever had formal get-togethers. I know they had their commercial club, Garrison Commercial OralClub. They Society would have meetings and so on, but informally, they managed to find ways to get out and play cards and socialize and so on.

JF: Did your father or your brother ever go to fishing or resort industry shows or did they ever join the Minnesota Resort Association or anything like that, to your knowledge? Industry NW: No, they didn’t. They didn’t have the needHistorical for it.

JF: They had built-in clientele and didn’t need it. Resort NW: Right. You’re referring to, perhaps, like the boat shows?

JF: Yes, the fishing industryMinnesota shows and stuff, where some lodges go and advertise.

NW: I do know that the Mille Lacs Lake Association would often have someone representing them with a booth. They would have a booth with literature and so on. But individually, they didn’t. Minnesota

JF: Tell me now, though, Neva, just so that we get it straight. You left the resort when you were married, and that was in the early 1950s?

NW: 1952.

JF: 1952. How often did you come back? How did you keep in touch with the way the business was going along in that time? 56

NW: Well, I left the resort actually in 1952. My oldest daughter was just a year old, but then, as I mentioned, my husband worked as an electrician and so we stayed here. I had three children, and so we stayed here until the baby was almost three. So when I left, the children were three, five, and seven. So I was here—actually, before we left, I also taught in Onamia the year before we left. Let’s see, about 1958. I was in the area until 1958.

JF: And that was about the time that your father turned the resort over to your brother. Your brother purchased it about that time.

NW: Right.

JF: What haven’t I asked you, that you think I should have? What story haven’tProject you got the chance to tell that I just didn’t fit in with my questions? Anything in particular you’d like to add?

NW: Well, I can’t offhand think of any other specific stories, but I would say that my parents were a great example of early family resorts at Mille Lacs Lake.History They were here for a long, long time. We’ve seen so many other resorters come and go. It’s not an easy life. And so they were a great example. [One thing that does come to mind is was our family depended to a great extent on the help of our Indian neighbors for both full time andOral part timeSociety help. We were always grateful for that resource.]

And, of course, we had Izaty’s Lodge, which was the closest thing on Mille Lacs Lake to anything that Gull Lake had to offer in those days. And that was about the only other place that was a little more elegant. All the other resortsIndustry are very similar to our resort, but I don’t recall any others that really, you might say, just hung in thereHistorical like they did. So I truly think they were a good example of what life was like.

JF: And now you’ve comeResort back to the shores of Mille Lacs.

NW: Full circle. Minnesota JF: Full circle, yes, with this beautiful view in front of you and the beautiful trees all around you, so that you can come back almost where you started. That’s great. Well, thank you. This is great. Minnesota NW: Thank you very much.