The Chase Hotel

Birth of a Resort TheThe ChaseChase HHotelotel and the Rise of Lakeside Tourism

John R. Finnegan Sr. and Cara A. Finnegan Walker newspaper northern Minnesota in 1922. Nearby, been served. Dancing, music, and pronounced it “One of the Chase family’s Isabel Lodge (built obligatory speechmaking made up the Grandest Events in in 1915) offered an additional 22 the evening’s program. The Dot Van A the History of North- guest rooms and a large ballroom orchestra came over from Bemidji, ern Minnesota.” On June 8, 1922, for dancing and other events. Like beefed up with a few additional play- nearly 400 guests came from all over an error-filled game of “telephone,” ers from Minneapolis.7 the state, arriving by train, car, and area newspapers variously reported State representative and local even seaplane to attend the grand construction costs of $100,000 and attorney Daniel L. DeLury set the opening and official dedication cer- $175,000.4 These details aside, it was rhetorical tone for the evening with emonies of the New Chase Hotel on certainly a place the likes of which his speech. Known since the old days the shores of Leech Lake. The hotel Walkerites had never seen. The as “Crying Dan DeLury,” a reference was touted as the future of Walker, Chases, who had for 20 years owned to the pathos-laden strategies he as large and modern as the vision of and run the more modest Hotel liked to use when defending clients its builders and proprietors, longtime Chase in downtown Walker, had re- in court, he both praised the Chases Walker residents Bert and Louisa ally outdone themselves this time. and challenged local citizens to do Chase. Local newspapers embraced “Complete in furnishings and their part. The Walker Pilot summa- it with all the fervor of small-town equipment, every room a glow of rized his remarks: boosterism, praising the New Chase light, beautifully decorated with pot- as “one of the finest and most up to ted plants, ferns and other embellish- Mr. DeLury gave an address that date hotel buildings in the Ten Thou- ments, and thronged with guests, the proved much more than a eulogy sand Lakes district of Minnesota” setting was complete last Thursday to Mr. and Mrs. Chase. He intro- and observing, “There is no chance evening for the dedication of the duced his remarks by paying them but what it will be one of the most New Chase,” reported the Walker the just tribute that was theirs. As popular summer hotels in the State.” 1 Pilot.5 The unofficial start of the day’s a fellow townsman he was fully Attempting to describe this new events came in the late afternoon aware of the trials that had to be civic gem, the Cass County Pioneer when that weekend’s most famous overcome and obstructions sur- observed, “It is difficult to adequately guest, H. W. Fawcett, landed his sea- mounted in order for the propri- draw a word picture of this palatial plane on Leech Lake and motored etors to achieve this, their greatest building and it would be still more over to the Walker city dock. Fawcett, desire. But now that we have seen difficult to describe the beauty of the the Minneapolis-based publisher of their ambitions crowned with interior. It must be seen to be ap- the well-known humor magazine success it behooves each of us to preciated.” 2 The Walker Pilot was a Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, also emulate, according to our ability, bit more architecturally savvy: “The owned Breezy Point resort north of something that will also be for the great white building is situated right Brainerd. His presence—and signa- betterment of the town. on the lake shore and is an imposing ture on the June 8 registry as the sev- structure being of frame construction enth guest at the New Chase—served and finished with an exterior finish of for civic boosters as yet another piece John R. Finnegan Sr., a retired execu- 3 white Kellastone.” It had been built of much sought-after evidence that tive editor and assistant publisher of perpendicular to the shoreline to af- Walker had arrived.6 the St. Paul Pioneer Press, spent his ford every room a lake view. Each of The five-course banquet began childhood summers in Walker with his parents and grandparents, who the New Chase’s 64 rooms featured at 8 p.m. in the ballroom of the owned and managed the Chase Hotel. hot and cold running water and pri- Isabel Lodge, where dinner seating Cara A. Finnegan, a communication vate bathrooms with tub and toilet, for 159 people had to be repeated historian who teaches at the University certainly a luxury for travelers to three times before all guests had of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the author of Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs (2003). The luxurious New Chase Hotel on Leech Lake, about 1923, touted as The authors are father and daughter. “one of the most popular summer hotels in the State.”

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MNHist_Sum09_inside_singlesREV.indd 273 6/23/09 10:45:16 AM As she oversaw final prepa- Chase met Louisa Hansen (he would rations for the evening’s events and later call her Lottie) shortly after he laid out the fashionable black dress moved to Wisconsin from New York. and beaded head wrap that she They were married in Kilbourne City would wear for the evening’s festivi- (now Wisconsin Dells) on January ties, Louisa Chase must have felt any- 2, 1887. To commemorate the occa- thing but celebratory. What should sion, they went to a local studio and have been a night of triumph for the sat for formal portrait photographs. family—Bert, Louisa and their four These show the young newlyweds as adult children, Isabel, Edna, Loren, rising members of the middle class, and Natica—could only have been wearing well-made attire and the bittersweet. Loren was dead. Losing calm, serious expressions required a months-long struggle with pneu- for so auspicious an occasion. In the monia just one week earlier, 21-year photographs the Chases appear to be old Loren was the one for whom this good citizens well positioned in their giant venture had been undertaken local community. Maybe they were. and to whom it would have been But these portraits do not exactly tell given upon his parents’ retirement. Lewis and Louisa Chase, known as the truth. In a practice quite com- While the newspapers did not report Bert and Lottie, in the 1920s mon in the late-nineteenth century, that the Chases were heartbroken photographs of their heads were su- and grieving on the night of the more consumed with anxiety and perimposed on an artist’s rendering opening, stories on Loren’s death grief than flushed with civic pride. of other, better-dressed bodies. As a the week before had noted the tragic Our interest in the Chases and result, the portraits show the Chases irony: “He was very much interested their contributions to the early tour- not as they actually were, but as they in the New Chase which his father ist industry in northern Minnesota wanted us to see them. The newly- had planned and builded [sic] ex- is both historical and personal. The weds, we might say, adopted a “fake pressly for him. His death is a ter- rise of the resort industry is an impor- it till you make it” approach, using rible blow to the parents as he was tant story for both the region and the modern technology to accomplish their only son and they would never state; at the same time, this is also a visually what they would only be able have gone into the new hotel propo- family history. The grandson of Bert to accomplish literally many years sition had it not been expressly for and Louisa Chase, co-author John R. later. While the portraits are fakes his financial good and pleasure.” 8 “Jack” Finnegan Sr. spent his child- in one sense, they are actually quite Indeed, Lewis Woodruff (Bert) hood summers in the late 1930s and truthful in another, for they illustrate and Louisa Chase were 61 and 59 early 1940s working and playing at the that from the very beginning of their years old in 1922, hardly the mo- hotel his grandparents had built and life together Bert and Lottie Chase ment in life to undertake such a bold his parents managed. The story told were always on the lookout for a way economic venture. By 1922 they had here combines archival research with to get ahead. been in the hotel business for 21 personal recollections to communicate They got ahead in earnest in 1898 years. They had raised four children the role the Chases played in the rise when they arrived in the new town of and were grandparents four times of Minnesota lakeside tourism. Walker, some 66 miles north of their over. They were responsible for the home of Brainerd, where Bert had livelihood of dozens of employees, co-owned a saloon. Incorporated in and they were up to their ears in debt. Bert Chase was small in stat- 1896, Walker owed its very existence Now they had to figure out a way to ure but he had big ambitions. His to the state’s burgeoning white pine make the New Chase work, without wife, Louisa, a woman of strong char- industry and the logging camps and Loren. During the laudatory orations acter, was determined that Bert’s am- mills it spawned. According to histo- of the evening, the Chase family must bitions would be realized. Together rian Agnes Larson, who chronicled have been in quite another place, they were a formidable force. Bert the rise and fall of the state’s lumber

274 Minnesota History Walker circa 1896 was a rough- and-tumble town on the rise. There were two hotels, the Spencer and the Spaulding, which catered mainly to lumbermen and railroad workers. Only a few wooden sidewalks lined the town’s dirt streets. The Brainerd and Northern Minnesota railroad (B&NM) had just laid some 59 miles of track from Brainerd to Walker and built a roundhouse and depot in town. (Walker was the end of the line until 1899 when the line was extended to Bemidji, about 40 miles north.) Much of the early B&NM business was hauling logs and lumber from Leech Lake to the mills downriver, replacing T. B. Walker’s Bert and Lottie Chase’s wedding portraits, 1887, showing them earlier practice of floating logs to the as the prosperous citizens they hoped to become Leech River and then down the Mis- sissippi to the mills. In keeping with industry, in 1839 there was only one earliest history to the boosterish Mrs. Walker’s fears, a host of saloons lumber mill in Minnesota; by 1870, efforts of Patrick H. McGarry. De- served the area’s lumberjacks and that number had risen to more than scribed by a Brainerd newspaper as a visitors, as did the brothels on the 200. In the 1860s an entrepreneur “suave, polished gentleman,” he was outskirts of town. Historian Blegen from Ohio named T. B. Walker rec- an entrepreneur and land specula- observes that, perhaps especially be- ognized the value of Minnesota’s tor. Walker historian Duane Lund cause “no liquor was permitted in the virgin forests; his Red River Lumber calls McGarry the “true founder and camps,” the men who “after a season Company began several logging op- developer of the city.” The man who erations that reached “into the large would become Walker’s first mayor and useful body of white pine” plen- (and later a member of both the Min- tiful in areas north and west of what nesota House and Senate), McGarry would become the town of Walker.9 reportedly named the town after The lumber industry was about Walker in order to entice the famous more than trees, lumberjacks, and businessman to build his lumber mill mills, however. As historian Theo- there. But McGarry did not antici- dore Blegen notes, “Lumber played pate the influence of Walker’s wife, important roles in the economic Harriet, a member of the Women’s development of Minnesota. It was Christian Temperance Union, who influential, through its capital, in refused to allow her husband to build financing the flour industry, in giv- in Walker unless its townsfolk closed ing impetus to railroad building, in the 13 saloons and the houses of ill spurring employment, and in for- repute. They didn’t, so Walker set warding manufactures.” 10 The up his mill in the nearby community development of Walker aptly illus- named after his partner, Healey C. trates Blegen’s point. Akeley. That town reportedly grew Despite being named after T. B. to some 4,000 inhabitants after the Entrepreneur Patrick H. McGarry, Walker, the town actually owes its mill began operations.11 about 1890

Summer 2009 275 in the woods, got their pay and wan- neither hotel in town could handle and Edna, arrived a few months later dered into towns . . . spent their cash crowds of people looking for fun and in May, spending their first chilly in a hurry.” 12 relaxation. These kinds of visitors days in Walker in a tent. Despite the obvious drawbacks in sought first-class accommodations, The hotel quickly filled with land bringing their young family into such good food, and entertainment. Mc- speculators, lumberjacks, politicians an environment, the Chases were Garry was prepared to provide those and, that fall, with soldiers of the likely attracted by the opportunities things. He began modestly with 12 U.S. Third Infantry Regiment. They that the frontier of northern Min- tents set up on First Point, the near- had been sent to Walker to arrest nesota offered. McGarry had circu- est peninsula jutting into Walker Bay. Bugonaygeshig (Hole-in-the-Day), a lated ads throughout the state with Just northwest of Walker, his “White 62-year-old Ojibwe man, for failure enthusiastic claims of great fishing Tent City” became the focal point for to appear in court in Duluth to testify and a healthful climate: “From the tourists that summer. Later McGarry against a friend charged with assault. beginning, McGarry saw opportuni- built cabins, a three-story lodge, and Lottie Chase joined other Walker ties for tourism,” local historian Lund a dining hall on the grounds.14 women to serve breakfast to the 80 soldiers before they left by boat for The coming of railroads made it much Bear Island, near the eastern shore of Leech Lake, to apprehend the easier and more comfortable for tourists wanted man. A skirmish there lasted to visit the Walker area. a day, leaving seven soldiers dead and 11 wounded. Indian losses, if any, were never verified. Lottie Chase recalled later that she made coffee relates. “While others were focused But it was the Pameda Hotel that for the troops in two large washtubs on logging, he recognized the sce- McGarry saw as the major player in on her wood-burning stove: “They nic beauty, the excellent fishing and the tourist game. Within the year, had an early breakfast, about three duck and big game hunting as future he started work on his hotel, which o’clock in the morning when Poppa tourist attractions. He believed the hosted its gala opening in September and I got up.” 16 railroad that carried logs and lumber 1897. The occasion featured a din- Bert Chase spent much of his south could bring tourists north.” Ar- ner dance for 300 people, includ- time bartending, buying up prop- riving in Walker in 1896, McGarry ing notables from Brainerd and the erty when he could, and becoming immediately bought up 20 building Twin Cities. As part of the festivities, active in community affairs. There sites. He advertised that the town guests were ferried on the steamer were persistent rumors that Bert got was a railroad center, “a pleasure Flora from Walker across the bay most of his land at the poker table, grounds and an Indian trade area” for a visit to the Onigum Indian although the records show that he that would soon have a wagon road Agency.15 acquired a number of local parcels to Bemidji.13 From McGarry’s point The four-story, 50-room, brick- through paying off delinquent taxes. of view, Walker had a lot going for and-frame building still lacked one Author Maude Bragg Orton claimed it: besides the railroad line and the important thing: a saloon. Bert that he won the Pameda from Mc- nearby Indian Agency, it overlooked Chase and a partner, Dee Holden, Garry at poker, but the village news- a major bay of Leech Lake. then the proprietors of The Bodega papers reported that he purchased Indeed, the B&NM in 1895 and, saloon in Brainerd, were eager to the hotel in September 1901.17 What by 1897, the Park Rapids and Leech correct that situation. After seeing is true is that Bert did like to gamble. Lake railroad spur (leased to the McGarry’s promotional ads about the Family members recalled that he Great Northern in 1900) began haul- opportunities in Walker, they closed always carried large sums of money ing tourists and businessmen. The their establishment and arrived in with him; he said he didn’t trust coming of railroads made it much Walker in February 1898 with all of his bartenders, believing that they easier and more comfortable for their fixtures and equipment. Louisa skimmed off some of his profits. tourists to visit the Walker area. Yet and the couple’s first children, Isabel Within two months of its purchase,

276 Minnesota History the Pameda was renamed the Hotel in a nearby lot and raised vegetables such as fighting to keep wandering Chase, and the following spring the for use in the hotel dining room. His cows off the streets.18 interior was repainted. The transfor- interest in gardening led him to buy The Chases were determined to mation of the hotel and Walker from 160 acres west of town in 1902 and become financially successful and a tough lumber town to a tourist cen- then another section a year later, for a major influence in the develop- ter had begun. which he paid $771 plus $1,000 for ing community. But hotel owner- livestock and farming equipment. ship, Bert Chase was finding out, Bert named his spread Eden Valley demanded constant vigilance. In Settling into his role as a farm. It produced oats, hay, sum- 1903 he remodeled the building. hotel proprietor, Bert stepped up mer squash, carrots, and potatoes A new floor was laid in the main his community activity by joining and the cows, hogs, and chickens lobby, replacing boards wounded by the town’s beautification committee, that ultimately found their way onto years of traffic under the hob-nailed which sought to improve streets, the the plates of hotel guests. When the boots of lumberjacks. A new metal lakeshore, and private grounds. With Walker State Bank was formed in ceiling went into the dining room. Lottie’s help, he planted trees and 1902, Bert was one of seven on its Mahogany-finished leather lounging flowers around the hotel and at the board of directors. He also became a seats and new tables were installed cottage that he owned a block up the trustee of the town a year later. That in the barroom, where a billiard table hill. He also planted a large garden job involved important civic duties had also been added. The remaining scarred floors were replaced beginning in 1904 and the office and main

In town, the four-story Hotel Chase, about 1905, when it was advertised as “the best equipped hotel in this section of the country” (Walker Pilot, May 5). dining room redecorated the following year. Over the next four years, a player piano was added to the barroom, a café joined the dining facilities, and the dining room got new chandeliers and plate-glass doors.19 Outside, the Chases had a new fence installed, seeded a flower garden on the east side of the building, and planted trees around the property. In 1904 J. T. Love, an Afri- can American chef, was hired from Chicago. Chef Love worked for the Chases nearly every summer until 1928, establishing the hotel’s repu- tation for fine dining. By 1905 the Chase was advertised as a $2-a-day hotel featuring steam heat, electric lights, baths, and a bar.20 It became a local center for meetings, parties, weddings, and banquets. The rail- The Chase family, 1900 (from left): Six-year-old Edna and eight-year-old Isabel roads brought more and more tour- with their aunt Etta Thompson (Lottie’s sister) and parents Lottie and Bert ists every summer. Just two years after Bert Chase school system. She did not want McDonald stormed out, cursing. bought the hotel, he began attracting her children educated in what was, He went to his house, where he got conventions. For example, Northwest in many ways, still a frontier town; a .44 caliber pistol, and returned to Editors, a group representing Min- consequently, she sent her two eldest the hotel. He again asked Sexton for nesota newspapers, met at the Chase daughters off to the Sacred Heart a beer. When Sexton reached to get in June 1903. A few years later the Academy in Duluth (now the College it, McDonald shot him once in the Walker Pilot, reporting on a banquet of St. Scholastica). Loren, born in hand and three times in the chest. for state officials, gushed, “A gather- 1900, attended St. Thomas Academy McDonald returned to his house, ing of this kind not only adds a few in St. Paul. barricaded the place, and refused to stars to the crown Mr. Chase wears Indeed, life in Walker could be surrender when the sheriff came to as the King Host of the North Coun- exciting and even deadly. The Chases arrest him. The next day, McDonald try, but gives prominent visitors— found that out firsthand in 1910. was found dead from a self-inflicted of which this village is frequently Howard Sexton had been in Walker gunshot wound.22 blessed—a keen edged conception of for two months when his surveying Just a few months after this the unstinted hospitality of Walker job with a government crew ended incident, getting liquor in Walker people in general.” 21 The summers early in 1910. He took a job as day became more difficult. The United were filled with dances and parties at clerk at the Chase and occasionally States government had declared that the hotel, and during the slow-tourist assisted at the bar. One morning every town in Indian Territory—and winters there were bridge parties, while Sexton was working behind that included Walker—must close its mah-jong tournaments, and other the bar, a local man, Walt McDonald, saloons. Townsfolk were thus intro- social gatherings. came in and asked for a beer. Sexton duced to the marvelously nicknamed Although Walker was flourish- hesitated. McDonald demanded William E. “Pussyfoot” Johnson, a ing and the Chases were members service. An argument ensued. Mc- special agent of the Interior Depart- of its social elite, Lottie Chase was Donald threatened Sexton, and the ment sent to enforce the no-booze not entirely satisfied with the local bartender called him a “bluffer.” ban. By December 1910, the two

278 Minnesota History saloons—one in the Chase and the weekly public dances in the summer. and upper porch overlooking Walker other the College Inn—were closed By World War I, the lumber- Bay. The new hotel would be four and their liquor carted to St. Paul.23 jacks had largely disappeared, and stories high with 64 guest rooms, Loss of the saloon business did the white pine industry had been in two dining rooms, a modern kitchen not deter the Chases, who continued steady decline for more than a de- with a walk-in refrigeration system, to make improvements designed to cade, primarily due to clear-cutting and a large laundry area. Hallways attract tourists. A gasoline engine practices that had eliminated most would run down its center so that all and generator improved hotel light- of the old-growth pine. According to rooms provided a lake view. It took ing and powered the new washing Blegen, “The lumber product of Min- three years to complete the structure. machines, dishwashers, and laundry nesota slumped by 1914 to about half When it opened, the Chases faced a mangles. By the spring of 1915, with its volume in 1905, and it dropped massive undertaking: with the unex- business continuing strong, Bert to about a fifth just after World War pected death of son Loren, the family and Louisa began construction of I. Mill after mill terminated its pro- would have to operate its new facility their second hotel, a two-story frame cessing of white pine.” 25 Such an and continue to run the old Hotel building on the shore of Leech Lake economic transition made it even Chase on Main Street as well.26 near Lake May Creek.24 Named the more important for Walker to build Isabel Lodge in honor of their eldest its tourist industry. daughter, it was designed for sum- In 1919 the Chases renewed As the town of Walker pre- mer-only use. Amenities included 22 plans to build a much larger hotel pared for the opening of the New rooms with modern facilities, a lobby immediately east of the Isabel Lodge, Chase Hotel, Bert was praised in and office, a large ballroom, and a a project they had postponed during local newspapers as “one of the lead- second-floor glassed–in porch facing the war. The main building would be ing hotel men in the state.” Follow- the lake. It not only accommodated 36 feet wide and 164 feet long, with a ing up on the laudatory rhetoric of 50 guests but was also the site of 44-foot extension for a dining room opening night, the Walker Pilot said, “Business people like the Chases are Constructing the New Chase, about 1922; the elements that make towns.” The the Isabel Lodge stands at right. Duluth News Tribune concurred, observing that the hotel was “a distinc- tive mark of Walker’s advance as a tourist center. . . . The hotel is of pro- portions that would reflect credit and distinction on any summer city larger by thousands than Walker.” 27

Summer 2009 279 With the passing of Loren, the Garry, along with John Andrus and told readers that Bert had recently re- Chases turned to oldest daughter local banker I. P. Steade, to build a turned to Walker “after spending the Isabel’s husband, William F. (Bill) golf course near Walker. (The Tianna winter near the Twin Cities.” 29 Finnegan, who became the new Country Club still exists today.) Bert If Prohibition put limits on the manager and joined their efforts to offered a team of horses to help pre- social life of the period, the rise of a improve the hotel and Walker as a pare the land and contributed funds, new mass medium, radio, expanded tourist center. A former traveling as well.28 He also expanded his farm it. In the mid-twenties when radio salesman for Armour and Company, that provided the hotel with produce became popular, the New Chase held Finnegan had ideas about how better and meat for many summers. weekly concerts on Saturday nights. to cater to both tourists and visit- During these years, Bert, like A $400 radio set (about $4,850 in ing businesspeople. Yet despite the many others in the industry, had 2009) complete with loudspeaker brand-new facilities, it wasn’t easy. problems with Prohibition laws. was added to the lobby, and guests In fact, the new hotel immediately Raids by federal agents in March could dine, dance, and play cards to faced major sewer problems; it took 1923 turned up a bottle “with a little the music. all that summer and $4,000 in ad- moon in it” in a hotel guest’s pocket, The hotel grounds, too, were con- ditional funds to correct them. No the Cass County Pioneer reported. stantly improved under Lottie’s direc- one involved in the planning had Bert was charged with sale and pos- tion. A horseshoe-shaped driveway any experience in handling disposal session of liquor. In May the feds was constructed around the hotel, problems associated with a hotel again raided the old Hotel Chase on and stone pillars topped with lights as large as the New Chase, with so Main Street, and one agent claimed were added. A nearby marsh was many bathrooms and laundry needs. he had bought a drink. A search un- drained and landscaped. A clay tennis On the more positive side, the hotel covered several fruit jars containing a court was installed west of the Isabel management enthusiastically sup- small amount of liquor; the hotel pro- Lodge, and a 110-foot water slide ported efforts of town pioneer Mc- prietor again was charged. This time, with a 30-foot tower was built in Bert was sentenced to five months front of the lodge in 1925. Hardwood Regular guest and fisherman L. D. H. and 25 days in jail and had to pay a toboggans running on metal wheels Russell of Kansas City, whose guide $400 fine. He served his time in the in a slotted track launched squealing displays a largemouth bass Washington County jail in Stillwater swimmers 40 feet into Leech Lake. that winter and was released in April. The slide, in particular, caused the The Cass County Pioneer (which had Cass County Pioneer to exclaim, “The never reported on his jail sentence) Chase Hotel people have been establishing good things for Walker. . . . To compensate for these losses, the Daughter Katherine typed the daily Each time it seems they have reached Chase management began buying menus. Son Bill Jr. often worked the limit but they come back with more state and regional advertising, the front desk. Youngest child John, something better every time. The adopting the slogan, “The Only Re- known as Jack (this article’s co- New Chase with its parks, annex, the sort Hotel on Leech Lake.” Business author), was a part-time janitor, well-kept grounds and the glorious owners in Walker teamed up to find bellhop, and occasional fishing guide. lake view, have already become na- solutions to these problems in the Lottie oversaw the laundry and land- tionally famous.” That same year, the tourist industry. In 1934 the Leech scape work. Bert became more physi- Chase Corporation was established Lake Resort Owners association cally limited in the 1930s, as he was with a $70,000 stock issue.30 was formed, later merging with the ill with cancer. Growing up in the hotel business, During the depression years the entire Jack was introduced as a child to some pretty interesting characters. Finnegan family worked at the Chase Three who visited Walker regularly in the summer months. for 20 years were L. D. H. Russell of Kansas City, Missouri, F. E. Hoover of Oak Park, Illinois, and Judge J. H. Keith of Coffeyville, Kansas. All were By now the Chase was attracting Walker Business Owners Club into fishermen who spent much of their people from all over the country, es- the Leech Lake Playground Associa- time looking for largemouth bass. pecially from midwestern and plains tion. Chase manager Bill Finnegan Their daily itineraries were known states such as Illinois, Kansas, Mis- was named secretary.32 to most of the hotel guests, since two souri, and Oklahoma. Many guests As the depression deepened, hotel were very hard of hearing (Judge were avid fishermen. One, H. C. Jew- management focused on attracting Keith used an ear trumpet) and ett from Aberdeen, South Dakota, conventions and annual meetings not only brought large fishing parties that would bring in 75 to 100 visitors to Walker but one year arrived with for two or three days. By 1935 Bert a 40-foot fishing launch, which the Chase confessed to the Walker Pilot Chases purchased in 1928.31 For the on the occasion of his seventy-fourth next 12 years, the launch took daily birthday that “The past few years fishing parties out, towing as many have been slow in comparison to my as a half-dozen 18-foot rowboats first years in the resort business.” to the fishing grounds in the big Even so, there were bright spots: the lake. Guides and the launch skipper opening of Danworthy Girls Camp cooked shore lunches for the guests. south of Walker brought parents and grandparents to the hotel during the summer camping season, among The arrival of the Great Depres- them Dr. William J. Mayo, one of the sion in 1929 slowed expansion of founders of the Mayo Clinic. In addi- the tourist industry. Fishermen were tion, a winter-sports area was devel- a substantial client base, but dur- oped at Shingobee Hills in 1938, and ing the late 1920s more resorts had by 1941 the Great Northern railroad opened on the shores of Leech Lake, sponsored a regular ski train from and by the early 1930s guest num- the Twin Cities.33 bers were declining and the length During the depression years the Sometime bellhop Jack Finnegan (left), of reservations decreasing from entire Finnegan family worked at inside the New Chase with Johnny months to weekends. Families, too, the Chase in the summer months. Roventini, celebrity bellhop in the trimmed their stays to a single week. Isabel Finnegan ran the dining room. “Call for Philip Morris” ads, 1939

Summer 2009 281 they met at 5 a.m. outside the lobby, loudly discussing their plans. Some guests had less wholesome pursuits. One, a lawyer from Mis- souri who worked for the Tom Pend- ergast machine in Kansas City, spent some of his vacation time practicing his marksmanship. He hired several local boys to throw tin cans into the lake in front of the Isabel Lodge; he then fired at the air-borne missiles with a .45 caliber pistol he carried in a holster. (He rarely missed.) This man’s mother had different interests. She liked to play the slot machines Jack and Isabel Chase Finnegan in front of the family business, 1940s in the hotel lobby. When she won, she took the coins back to her rooms named it the Patrick Henry; it was to the Cruse family. Lottie lived for and washed them in rubbing alcohol. torn down in 1952.35 In 1938 Bert many years after the sale, dying in She obviously felt that money was Chase lost his seven-year battle with 1961 at the age of 98. Isabel died 20 indeed “filthy lucre.” Doing bellhop throat cancer at the age of 76. The years later. Lottie, Bert, and their duties, Jack once discovered $5, $10, Chase Corporation, which included children Loren and Edna (who lived and $20 bills drying on a clothesline Lottie Chase, Isabel Finnegan, and most of her life in California) are hung over the suite’s bathtub. Bill Finnegan Sr., continued to run buried in the Chase family plot in Slots had been banned in 1929, the hotel through the World War II Evergreen Cemetery in Walker. Bill but during the 1930s they were back years. Bill Finnegan Sr. died sud- Finnegan Sr., Isabel Finnegan, and in hotels, bars, and stores because denly while duck hunting in 1944; he their daughter Katherine are buried law enforcement was lax. The Cass was only 56. At the time, sons Bill Jr. nearby in the Finnegan family plot. County sheriff publicly urged busi- and Jack were both serving overseas The hotel—renamed the Chase on nesses to “get rid of slots,” 34 but he (daughter Katherine had died in the Lake and later listed on the Na- would conduct a raid only if he re- 1936). After the war, neither opted to tional Register of Historic Places— ceived a complaint from the public. remain in the resort-hotel business. changed hands many times before an Even then, he would tip the owner Bill developed a career as a lawyer in extensive kitchen fire in 1997 closed that he was coming to investigate. the Navy Department and lived for the original building for good. It When hotel manager Bill Finnegan many years near San Francisco, while was razed in the summer of 2007 to learned of the sheriff’s upcoming Jack became a St. Paul newspaper make way for a luxury resort hotel, visit, the slots, housed in a sturdy executive. which retained the Chase name and metal cabinet, would be wheeled aesthetic. While only a pair of leaded from the lobby into a vacant and out- glass doors was saved from the origi- of-the-way bedroom. Despite their Through their hotels, inno- nal building, the new hotel mimics illegality, the machines were useful: vative programming and upgrading, the 1920s style of its predecessor and Finnegan once said that they paid and civic work, the Chase-Finnegan features 70 hotel units, a bar and res- the hotel’s heat and light bills for the family contributed significantly to taurant, indoor spa and beauty salon, winter months. the growth and development of both and a sauna and swimming pool. the town of Walker and the tourist There also are 46 condo units.36 In industry in Minnesota for nearly 50 June 2008 the newest Chase on the In 1931 the old Hotel Chase years. Their relationship with the Lake opened for business, 86 years on Main Street was sold back to P. H. New Chase Hotel ended officially to the month from the date the New McGarry, who remodeled it and in 1946 when the property was sold Chase Hotel opened its doors. a

282 Minnesota History Notes The authors wish to acknowledge the impor- 1895–1905 (self-published, 1981), n. p.; 23. Walker Pilot, Dec. 9, 1910, p. 1. tant contributions of Norma C. Finnegan, Ringle, Bodega, 23; Blegen, Minnesota, 332. 24. Walker Pilot, May 21, 1915, p. 1. whose initial newspaper research forms the 13. Lund, Leech Lake, 106; Cass County 25. Blegen, Minnesota, 329. basis of this article. Pioneer, May 9, 1896, n. p. 26. Cass County Pioneer, Nov. 15, 1929, 14. Frank A. King, Minnesota Logging p. 1. 1. Cass County Pioneer, Apr. 7, 1922, p. 1, Railroads (Minneapolis: University of Min- 27. Walker Pilot, Sept. 29, 1921, p. 1, June 9, 1922, p. 1. nesota Press, 2003), 51–53, 137; Cass June 1, 1922, p. 1; Duluth News Tribune, 2. Cass County Pioneer, June 9, 1922, p. 1. County Pioneer, May 16, 1896, n. p.; Lund, June 25, 1922, auto/sports sec., p. 1. 3. Walker Pilot, June 15, 1922, p. 1. Kel- Leech Lake, 106. 28. Walker Pilot, Dec. 28, 1922, p. 2. On lastone is stucco embedded with stone. 15. Cass County Pioneer, Sept. 16, 1897, the Tianna Country Club, see Lund, Leech 4. Cass County Pioneer, Apr. 7, 1922, p. 1; p. 1; Brainerd Weekly Journal, Sept. 30, Lake, 98, 109. Duluth News Tribune, June 25, 1922, auto/ 1897, p. 1. 29. Cass County Pioneer, Mar. 30, 1923, sports sec., p. 1. 16. Cass County Pioneer, Oct. 6, 1898, p. 1, Apr. 17, 1924, p. 8; Walker Pilot, May 5. Walker Pilot, June 15, 1922, p. 1. p. 1; Louisa Chase, taped interview by her 10, 1923, p. 1. 6. New Chase Hotel register, June 8, grandson, William F. Finnegan Jr., Santa 30. Cass County Pioneer, May 15, 1925, 1922, copy in authors’ possession. Cruz, CA, July 1955, copy in authors’ pos- p. 8, June 26, 1925, p. 1; Walker Pilot, Oct. 7. Here and below, Walker Pilot, June 15, session. At the time of the interview, Louisa 1, 1925, p. 1. 1922, p. 1. Chase was 93 years old. 31. Cass County Pioneer, Sept. 7, 1928, 8. Walker Pilot, June 1, 1922, p. 1. For a detailed account of the battle, see p. 1. 9. Agnes M. Larson, History of the White William E. Matsen, “The Battle of Sugar 32. New Chase Hotel letterhead in Pine Industry in Minnesota (Minneapolis: Point: A Re-Examination,” Minnesota His- Finnegan family fi les; Walker Pilot, May 17, University of Minnesota Press, 1949), 147, tory 50 (Fall 1987): 269–75. There are con- 1935, p. 1. Lund, Leech Lake, 109, observes 156 (quote). See also Theodore C. Blegen, fl icting reports on the number of dead and that once roads were built to allow access to Minnesota: A History of the State, rev. ed. wounded soldiers but all reports agree that other areas of Leech Lake, additional re- (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota no bodies of Ojibwe were found. sorts and cabins sprang up. Press, 1975), 326. 17. Cass County Pioneer, Sept. 20, 1901, 33. Walker Pilot, Sept. 6, 1935, p. 4, 10. Blegen, Minnesota, 319. p. 8; Orton, Birth of a Village, “People” Aug. 2, 1935, p. 3; Lund, Leech Lake, 109. 11. Brainerd Weekly Journal, July 8, chapter. 34. Walker Pilot, July 31, 1936, p. 1. 1897, p. 1; Duane R. Lund, Leech Lake: Yes- 18. Mortgage deed, Cleora L. Fair to 35. On the demolition, see John R. terday and Today (Cambridge, MN: Adven- L. H. and L. W. Chase, Dec. 9, 1903, Cass Finnegan, “Noted Hotel Razed,” St. Paul ture Publications, 1998), 98; W. F. Toensing, Co. Register of Deeds offi ce, Walker; Cass Pioneer Press, May 18, 1952, p. 1, 6. comp., Minnesota Congressmen, Legislators, County Pioneer, Mar. 20, 1903, p. 1;. 36. Walker Pilot-Independent, Aug. 1, and Other Elected State Offi cials (St. Paul: Walker Pilot, Apr. 24, 1903, p. 1. 2007, p. 1. Minnesota Historical Society, 1971), 75; 19. Cass County Pioneer, Dec. 4, 1903, O. F. Ringle, Bodega (Walker: Steingarten p. 8; Walker Pilot, Dec. 4, 1903, p. 6. Publishing, 1993), 45–47. 20. Walker Pilot, May 5, 1905, p. 5. 12. Brainerd Weekly Journal, Apr. 23, 21. Walker Pilot, June 19, 1903, p. 1, The images on p. 274, 275, top, 278, 1896, p. 1; Cass County Pioneer, May 16, Dec. 20, 1907, p. 8. 1896, p. 1; Maude Bragg Orton, Birth of a 22. Cass County Pioneer, Feb. 4, 1910, and 280–283 are courtesy the authors; Village: History of Walker, Minnesota, p. 1. all others are in MHS collections.

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