Star Island Oral History Project Minnesota Historical Society
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Grant Utley Narrator Carol Ryan Interviewer August 20, 1977 Cass Lake, Minnesota Grant Utley -GT Carol Ryan -CR CR: This is a Star Island history interview. We're interviewing Grant Utley, Cass Lake, MN. It's August 20, 1977. We're in the Cass Lake Times Office. Carol Ryan ofProject Star Island, interviewer. Can we start again with when Cass Lake began - the date? GT: In 1898, when they connected the Great Northern Railway from DeerSociety River to Fosston to complete the railroad from Grand Forks to Duluth and Superior. CR: 1898 was also the date of the Indian battle downHistory at Leech Lake, and this village was being formed at the same time. What about Star Island? When did people start coming to that area? GT: Well, they mentioned this in the history - but they called it by a French name La Grande Isle - and they said that at one time it had eitherOral a Hudson's Bay post or American Fur post on there, just where, I don't know. Historical GT: But there was a fellow by the name of Hank Buring, he was a Deputy Sheriff from Itasca County; and before they put the railroad in there, he was sent by the Sheriff, Mike Toole at Grand Rapids to pick up an Indian at Red Lake. He said he walked. There was no railroad or anything, and he walked across Islandthe country, Where Allen's Bay is, there was the remains of a post there, in pretty good condition, with the name on it. But nobody was there, he said, but that was before anything came in here. CR: ThatStar was before 1898? GT: Oh, yes, long Minnesotabefore that. CR: That's interesting. When do you remember people first going over to the island? GT: They used to go up over to the island just to look at it more than anything else, but it was about 1912 that they started, the Forest Service started to lease lots up on Sunnyside Beach. CR: That's on the south shore. 1 GT: Among the first that rented was the Larsons from Fosston and A.W. Foss, he the editor of the Thirteen Towns at Fosston. CR: I see. GT: They were one of the first. Now, Lillian Lohn is one of the Larsons. She's still living. CR: What about the hotel? Was it on the island by then? GT: No. The hotel was built by Ernest Seelye and Frank Suitor. So the hotel was built by Frank Suitor and Ernest S-e-e-1-y-e, not S-e-e-1-e-y. CR: Oh. Okay. And about when do you think that was? GT: Now wait, that was probably right after 1912, around in there. CR: And that old hotel burned down? Project GT: That burned down, but they rebuilt it. CR: Oh, they did! Society GT: Suitor and Seelye, and they sold it to John Grady, who was postmaster at Cass Lake. He had lost the post office because the Democrats went backHistory in with Wilson, so they were looking around, so they sold this to him, and he ran it; and then it burned down again but it was never rebuilt then. CR: For heaven's sake. Oh, I see. So there were two hotels. Oral GT: Oh, yes. Historical CR: Did they look the same? GT: They were built about the same way. CR: I see, ok. Island GT: That was where the remains of that fireplace is. It was on leased land. It wasn't private land. It was on StarForest land. CR: Yes, in the middleMinnesota of the south side, there. GT: You know where it is, now. CR: I've seen a picture with a big two-story structure with porches. GT: Oh, yes; porches, it was nice to see, a nice place. CR: Did people from town go out there to eat? GT: Not too many people. It was all out-of-town people and then they stayed there for a week. 2 The people at that time around town, they were mostly people that worked in sawmills or in the box factory. They didn't go on vacation. CR: No, no. But I know they sometimes went out on the Zella Mae. GT: Oh, yes, that was different. That was an excursion boat. CR: Yeah. Well, how about the Cass Lake Commercial Club? I've seen some advertisements. GT: The Cass Lake Commercial Club was - it was about 1906 or ‘07 or somewhere in there and the first Secretary was Heber Hartley. He was of the Cass Water, Light and Power Company; they owned the townsite too. He was the first Secretary. But later on there was a fellow by the name of Matt Koll, M.A. Koll. CR: Oh, yes. K-O-L-L - GT: K-O-L-L, and he had it for years, and he was a dynamic fellow. He neglected his own business; just promotion of the town. Project CR: And that was the purpose of the Club? GT: Yes, the promotion of the town. Yes, you bet. Society CR: I've seen an old pamphlet that was published by the Collier Publishing Company in Duluth about Cass Lake, the Home of the Pine, put out byHistory the Commercial Club. GT: Yeah, the Commercial Club, yeah. CR: Have you seen that? Oral GT: Oh, yes. Historical CR: Do you know about when that was? It doesn't have a date on it. GT: No, it doesn't haveIsland a date on it. CR: But it says that lots are for rent on the island for $5 per annum. GT: Yeah.Star CR: And it has a pictureMinnesota of a long, low barracks -like building on the island that says, "Star Island Inn Soon To Be Larger Accommodations" and I don't know if that was Truman Rickard's lodge or the first hotel? GT: That was Rickard's, but that's on private land. CR: Some of it. GT: It was then. He had a nice place, but he was a better musician than he was a business man. He married Grace Larson, who was a sister to Lillian Larson Lohn, and then he sold the place and it went from then on to somebody who could hold it together, you see. But as long as he had it, he 3 was pretty good. CR: So the Commercial Club put out pamphlets like that to try to attract people to the area. GT: Yeah, to try to attract business. CR: Yes, to the area. In that same pamphlet there's a picture of the first cabin to the west of where that old hotel was and it's a big, old rambling thing that I’ve heard the Ranger lived in on the island, or the postmaster lived there? GT: There was no ranger, he was a fire guard. CR: Oh, I see. GT: He wasn't a ranger, he was a fire guard. CR: That was Jim Marstellar’s house and his widow is living there now and Jim told me last summer that the fire guard kept a cow...behind the house. Project GT: Oh, yes. They talk about the low water; they took it off Norway Beach across, waded it across, over to the island. Society CR: Oh, sure. GT: That was the story they told, because it was Historylow water. CR: Would that have been around 1910, or…? Later? GT: It was low water, real low water.Oral CR: For heaven's sake. Was anybody else livingHistorical on the island? Or at the hotel, when this man was the fire guard? Were there any fishing camps? GT: No, the fishing camps they had that on Norway Beach, the first one. And at Turtle River. But the island had that hotel.Island CR: Some people who stayed at the hotel, like the Coens and the Davises built their own cabins after they'd been here. You've talked about the early name of the island, La Grand Isle, have you ever heardStar it called Cooper's Island? GT: Oh, yes. I thinkMinnesota that's in the book there, about that, in Tales of the Old Home Town, and that Cooper's Island, he was a surveyor or something, and this Lake Helen, they called it after Joe Cannon's daughter. CR: Had Joe Cannon been out here? GT: No, but they wanted him - they were trying to get, you know, one of these public relations, you know for Helen Cannon. CR: There was a political party that came out to look over this area to see if it was going to become a National Forest wasn't there? 4 Park. There was a question whether it would be a Park or a Forest, and that was Pinchot. CR: Oh, was it Gifford Pinchot? Oh, my goodness! That was about when? GT: 1905, '04 or '05. CR: And was it called Cooper's Island then? GT: I'm not sure. CR: Ok. When did this area become a State Forest, and then when did it become a National Forest? GT: It never was a State Forest. It was a National Forest, but it was called the Minnesota National Forest. To distinguish it from a State Forest they changed it to the Chippewa National Forest instead of the Minnesota, so they wouldn't confuse it being a State forest. CR: What about Lake Windigo? Do you know when or why they changedProject it back to Windigo? Had it been "Windigo" before they named it "Helen"? GT: That is in question there, but they had the story that this Windigo, you know, a Chippewa devil, you know, and the Indians were there and Lake Helen was alwaysSociety calm, you know.