Indritz family cabin (continued)

In the 1970s, Mildred began coming up to the Gunflint Trail and staying with friends on Poplar Lake.  In 1977 this friend, Dr. Brill, persuaded Mildred to buy a lot on Poplar Lake – currently the lot owned by Richard and located on Moose Ridge Road.

When Dr. Brill retired and moved to Kansas to live with her sister (she died a few years later of a stroke), Mildred bought her cabin in 1980.  In 1981 Mildred went to St. Lucia, met a urologist from Georgia, and invited him and his wife to come up to the cabin.  In preparation for their visit, Austin went up and cleaned out the cabin – it had an old Franklin stove in it, no carpeting, no garage, no doors on cabinets in the kitchen, and the bedroom next to the deck was the storage room for the boat, motor, and gas.  Mildred decided it needed to get fixed up – doors to cabinets were put on by John Kurkowski (who often helped improve the property over the next 30 years).  Austin built a cabinet and microwave cabinet, installed carpet from the Holiday Inn on Nicollet Mall, moved all boats, motors, lifejackets, and oars out of the storeroom (and stored them next door in the Beattie’s garage) to make a second bedroom.  Water came in from the lake – the cabin had a bathroom with seasonal water.  An outhouse was dug and built by Austin.

Also in 1981, Austin built the second cabin; just the current living room section.  The garage was built within a year or so.  The second cabin was finished several years later by Kim Linnell by adding a bedroom, bath, and kitchen along with water and electicity.

In 1982, Austin bought the lot next door from the Meyers family from Blue Island, IL (he was a milkman and they drove up each summer with cases of soup; they had one son) and tore down the cabin.  Austin had talked to Mr. Meyers about wishing to buy the property if they ever thought to sell it and when the time came, the purchase was made; Mr. Meyers died a few years later of appendicitis.  Later, Mike Roehrick built a boathouse on the property.

Late in the 1980s, Austin bought Peewee Lake from Olar Snevets’ church after Olar’s death (Olar had wanted to hold onto the property and build a marina on the lake but ended up giving it to the church upon his death.) Mildred gave Richard the Moose Ridge Road property in the mid-1980s.  In the early 1990s, he added to the property by buying a piece that bordered his and had shoreline on Little Ollie Lake; this small piece was sold in 1997.

In 1991 Austin, with a promise to caretake the property, bought the solar-powered cabin on Lace Lake from the Hoffmans, who wanted to move closer to town.  Austin put in a driveway and had an addition built by Isak Hanson and Son in 1992.  Austin and Mary bought more property on Lace Lake from Duane Johnson in 2007.

Mildred retired up there for the summers starting in 1995 until 2001.  It was her great pleasure to be part of the community on the Gunflint Trail and to introduce the magic and lessons of the woods to her friends and, later, her grandchildren (Claire, Alexandra, Jack, and Paige)  Along with her vigilant maintenance of the buildings, her legacy was the hundreds of red and white pines she planted on these properties.  Austin and Mary, in addition to the maintenance of the cabins, continue the legacy of planting white and red pines to reforest what time and wind takes down.  The family takes great pleasure in being a small part of the community on the Gunflint Trail and looks forward to the time when they can spend long periods of time retreating to the woods.

Trail Center: The Flavell Family Years – 1948-1963

Located at the east end of Poplar Lake along side of the Gunflint Trail is a small business place where workers and travelers rest and refresh themselves. This has always been so, and will probably always be so.

It was love a first sight when Will Flavell first saw Trail Service Center in March of 1948. He had brought his family to Pike Lake Resort for a vacation and fell in love with the lakes and woods of the Gunflint. Bev Johnson, an owner and realtor, took Will up the Gunflint to see the property. That winter had been mighty tough and some say the snow was so deep that only the rooftops were visible. Either Bev was a good salesman, or Will had that gleam in his eyes, the look of a dream coming true. Will said, “I’ll take it.”

William “Will” Flavell and his wife Carrie Haslam Flavell purchased the 9-acre Trail Service Center property from Bev Johnson for $9,000. The Flavells moved “up the trail” from LaGrange, IL with their three youngest sons: Tom, George and Harold. The snow of 1948 interrupted their move when the car became stuck in Wisconsin, and the trip hold to be completed on the Greyhound bus. Will could not wait to embrace this new place.

A WWII naval veteran, Tom Flavell lived and worked at Trail Service until 1950. He returned to Illinois 1951, married Wanda Wasilewski, and then had a family of two sons (Austin and Terry) and two daughters (Linda and Laurie). Tom named the small pond across the road “Tamarack Lake.” In those days this little pond was a source of minnows were trapped and were “free” not “store bought.”

George Flavell was quite a football player and track runner. He was the running back on the undefeated Cook County High School football team where he graduated in 1951. He served in the Air Force for four years, and subsequently returned to the Trail Center to help his folks run the place. George never married and remained at the Trail Center until 1963.

The youngest son, Harold, graduated from high school in Illinois in 1953 where the family often spent winters. Harold remembers his first car—a 1931 Model A Ford. Apparently a logger up the trail owned the car and was asking $75.00 for it. After Will finished with negotiations, the car was purchased for $37.50. Harold served for two years in the Army. He married Vera Wagg in 1955 and a family of four sons (Harold Jr., Jeff, Ti and Tom) and one daughter (Julie). Harold and Vera later moved to Grand Marais, where he worked in construction, and she worked as a nurse at the Cook County Hospital. They also owned Flavell’s Cabins in Grand Marais.

Trail Center was originally a sawmill. The original building was believed to be a mess hall for the loggers. Logs were floated or trucked to the east end of Poplar Lake and brought up the hill to the sawmill. The original mill location was located near the lake.

For a short time Will tried his hand at logging. He bought a Diamond T truck and loaded the logs by hand. His logging career almost ended in Lake Superior as the truck’s brakes failed while going down the steep hill into Grand Marais.

In those days the Gunflint Trail was a somewhat narrow, hilly, two lane gravel affair. The Gunflint followed the topography. In other words it was a breathtaking ride from Trail Service to Swamper Lake. Visitors and residents alike never forget this roller coaster ride. From Swamper to Grand Marais the road was improved and the ride was less thrilling. Jeff Halverson, one of the county employees who ran the motor grader on the Gunflint, frequently had to dismount and work the edges with his shovel. On one such occasion in early summer the Trail Service crew remembers poor Jeff shoveling away and the black flies showing him absolutely no mercy.

In 1961 grading and paving brought civilization to Poplar Lake. The road construction company needed a place to park their trucks (Euclid’s) and place their maintenance tent. A swampy area that is now the lower parking lot was filled with gravel by the road crew in exchange for a place to park. Today, this area, which was marshy extension of Poplar Lake, would need an environmental impact statement before it could be filled, moreover, such filling would probably never be approved. In those days, however, the fill was thought to be an improvement.

This parking improvement was also the demise of a small minnow pond located near the lake. Minnows were stocked here and sold to fishermen by the dozen or half dozen. It was a handy location near the dock. The minnows were moved to a tank by the store. It is likely the little intermittent spring that fed the minnow pond still winds its way through this area to Poplar Lake.

Without electricity things were done differently. There was a generator located behind the gas station, but its use was limited. Gas was pumped by hand and iceboxes provided food refrigeration. Gas lanterns did not necessarily mean you were “camping out.”

Cutting ice was annual winter event at Trail Service. As the best ice needed to be at least two feet or more thick, the work did not start until the ice conditions were just right. With the aid of a three-foot ice saw supplied by Ollor Snevets, the crew would cut a 2 by 2 foot grid in the lake. If timed right a 2X2X2 foot ice cube would result. Sometimes these could be up to 3 feet if the ice was thicker. With weights of 100 pounds or more, bigger was not better.

The ice crew would break each block loose from the grid and pull the block from the lake with tongs. Next the block was loaded on a truck and to be hauled to the icehouse. The first icehouse was located near the lake. Later, a new icehouse was later built behind the motel.

At the end of the day the contents of the icehouse resembled a 15X15X9 foot high ice cube. It was covered with sawdust for insulation. New sawdust was never used because it gives off heat as it cures. Old sawdust, in plentiful supply at Trail Service, was the best insulation. If covered properly, the ice could last all summer.

“Ice boxes” were the refrigerators in those days. A huge icebox was located behind the bar. It primarily cooled meat and beer for sale at the store. Iceboxes were also used in homes and cabins. Summer home residents bought ice, and fisherman iced down their catch for the trip home from the stores in the icehouse.

Gas pumps were hand powered in those days. The 10-gallon beauty standing in the Trail Service restaurant was once the main source of fuel. One would pump up to 10 gallons into the glass tank and then drain the needed amount into the auto’s tank. This pump stood in front of the only gas station, now the little trading post. It was quite the celebrations when Benson’s Texaco brought the new electric gas pump in 1961.

When the new road project was under construction the newly crushed gravel on the road acted like razors on tires. There was a tire-fixing boom at Trail Service that summer. It was good for business, but not for morale. Tires were fixed with hand tools in the little gas station. One hot summer day George proved this case. A gal who brought in a flat tire, kept looking over George’s shoulder and worst of all kept talking. Whenever she talked, George added 50 cents to the job cost. By the time George was done, the tire was not the only thing inflated.

Will started the grocery store, but he did not have an adding machine or cash register with a fancy tape; so he simply wrote and added the cost of groceries on the outside of the grocery bag. Grocery bags were made of brown paper in those days; plastic bags had not yet been invented. Customers never any complaints or any returns, so this simple method seems to have worked well. Some of the Poplar Lake “locals” that traded at Will’s store were: the Youngs, Bridgemans, Giroux, and Minny “Highpockets” Staples and her next door neighbor June Barnes.

The YMCA canoe groups also stopped at the store. Poplar Lake was a stop on their route to Winchell Lake. Some of these groups had 15 or more canoes. Giant Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars were the undisputed favorites of these starving teenagers.

Will had a “barrel stove” in the store to take off the chill. It was an old 55-gallon drum with store bought flue and door hardware attached. Will religiously fed his stove with wood, paper and cardboard. Waste disposal was not a bid issue with Will.

The dump, not a sanitary landfill, was located on the Hungry Jack Road. The frequency of dumping often related to bear activity. One such bear became extremely interested in Trail Center garbage cans. Nightly raids became common.

George Flavell designed what he thought to be a bear proof garbage can. He ran a chain from one side handle through the lid handle and secured it to the other side handle. That night the enterprising bear simply crushed the can with his arms, and ate his fill. Using the old Diamond T truck, the Trail Center crew started taking garbage to the dump every afternoon. By the way the bears were plentiful at this open dump. Today open dumps are considered to be environmental disasters, but in those days, it was a tourist attraction.

Harold and George took the 1931 Model A to the dump one day, whereupon the front wheel fell off and rolled into the garbage pile. Six bears were munching on used melons at the time. Fully understanding the severity of the situation, George looked at Harold and said, “You go get it.” Harold recovered the tire, as it was his tire and his car, and they made it home safely.

The bear saga continued however. Once the garbage cans had been removed, the enterprising bear went next door and decided to eat Ollor Snevets lunch. This was a bad meal choice on the bear’s part. Ollor shooed the bear. That is to say he literally walked up to the picnic table and said, “Shoo, go away!” This bear was not impressed, and continued with lunch. Ollor went up the hill for his rifle. On his return the bear was gone, but Ollor tracked the bear westward down the Poplar Lake shoreline. There were bear burgers at the Trail Center that night. The whole philosophy of not habituating wildlife to human food was known on the Gunflint long before it became a popular topic.

Ollor Snevets was a person of American Indian descent who owned the canoe outfitter next door to Trail Service. It was said that his real name was Rollo Stevens and he spelled it backwards to avoid questions about a checkered past. Whether true or not, Ollor did stomp out of the store when once questioned about it.

Will and Carrie retired and moved to town in 1960. They lived in Grand Marais for the rest of their lives. They are buried at Maple Hill Cemetery.

Will and Carrie sold Trail Center to their oldest daughter Eleanor Flavell Elza and here husband James “Jim” Elza. George Flavell stayed at Trail Service as a full partner in the business. The Elzas brought with them five children: James Jr., Ronald, Kathy, Steve, and Scott.

Quite a building program was initiated. The kitchen and bathroom addition to the main building was built in February-March 1960, the new icehouse was built across the road, and a new motel was built that summer. Herb White of Road Lake, did the masonry work for the motel. Much of the beautiful stonework and stone fireplaces along the gunflint can be attributed to Herb. He was a superb stone craftsman. Herb and his wife later move to a new home he had built just down the road from Trail Center

East and West Twin were hot walleye lakes at that time. Catching your limit was never a problem at the secret spots on these lakes. One could even drive to these lakes on the “old railroad grade.” These lakes were reserved for tourists who had trouble-catching fish. At the end of a stay, Jim, George or Jim Jr. would take any luckless tourists to catch some walleyes. On one such occasion Jim. Jr. was rowing in with a full stringer of walleyes and some happy fisherman. Unfortunately, he had tied the rope stringer through the ore lock, and when the party arrived on shore, a short piece of rope was the only evidence of the fishing trip.

Fortunately, there was still the last resort (no pun intended). The last resort was the icebox where previously caught walleyes and northern were kept. No one went home empty handed, even though a few fish stories were likely invented.

Toddlers Steve and Scott, not to be outdone by bigger fishermen, went fishing in the minnow tank. They caught their limit, cleaned the fish and brought them to Eleanor.

The Forest Service maintained portages before the BWCA rules were implemented. These improvements made canoe trips somewhat easier. The portages had little docks for the canoes, portage signs announced each location, and small motors were often used to propel the canoes. Paddling around to locate a portage was a lot less frequent. This is not to say things were better or worse, they were just different. The BWCA rules came into effect in 1964.

James “Jim” Elza Jr. also played football at Cook County High School were he graduated in 1962. He married Leslie Erickson of Tofte in 1965, and they have one daughter: Jill. He entered the Army after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1966, and served five years including a tour of Viet Nam.

After 1962 Trail Center was sold to George and Eva Cleaver and later to the Liebertz family.

Jim and Eleanor Elza returned to Downers Grove, IL with their four younger children. They later retired in Hayward, WI.

George Flavell also moved to Hayward, WI in 1963. He worked in construction in the Hayward area where he lived the rest of his life.

After the family returned to Downers Grove, Ron Elza graduated from high school in 1965. H joined the Army and was assigned to the Big Red one in Viet Name. He was killed in action on reconnaissance patrol in 1967 and awarded the Bronze Star for valor. Many of the young men who lived and worked at Trail Service served their country, but Ron made the greatest sacrifice.

This is the story of some of the owners and their families that lived and worked at the Trail Service Center from 1948 to 1964. Although the buildings have changed and people have changed, fond memories of this little place on the Gunflint Trail never change.

James “Jim” Elza Jr., August 2008
Edited by Ted Young, August 27,2010

Rolf Hugenvik, Poplar Lake Summer Home- 1925-2009

Ina Hugenvik- Rolf Hugenvik (Huggie) was born in 1925 and served in the Army during WWII. While stationed in the Philippines, he saw a picture in a Sunday news magazine of a northern lake with blue sky and pointy evergreen trees. He wrote his mother that he would like to have a cabin some day on a lake like that. Fast forward to 1948: His parents happened to know Doc Remple’s wife and somehow made it to the Gunflint Trail to visit her. Doc showed Huggie the lots he had for sale, completely wooded over with downed trees, brush and raspberry bushes but with plenty of those pointy trees as well as a big pine or two. Huggie could see there was an island in front of the lot and possibly a view to the east and so he thought this would be a good location, if he could get it cleared enough to erect a simple shack for hunting and fishing. Later Remple sent a note that a professor from Iowa was interested in buying some land but Huggie and his mother, Dora, had first choice. Dora sent the money, $800.00 for 200 feet of shoreline at $4.00 a foot. A lot of money in 1948. His sister, Ninnia, bought the adjoining lot to the west for, I think, $5.00 a foot because it was lower and closer to the water. The professor from Iowa (Keitha Herron’s father) bought a different lot west of the Huggenvik spot.

The rest is known history. The following year, with no experience in building anything except a car, Huggie started clearing space enough to erect a simple 16’ x 30’ cabin, buying supplies wherever he could get them, carrying them through the woods on his back or rowing them over in Remple’s boat. He had minimal tools - hammer, handsaw, drawknife, but no ladder. He eventually made a ladder out of small logs. A friend, Al Anderson, from Northfield, helped occasionally and Dora came up to cook. Eventually the mosquitoes were so bad that Huggie sent her home.

The following year he built a similar cabin for his sister Ninnia, on the lot she and Bob, her husband, had purchased. The cabin was furnished with leftovers from home, stuff that was no longer needed or wanted at his parent’s house, or he built emergency items such as a bed, shelves, a booth for eating by the big window looking into the woods. An oil drum-like stove provided heat and a two burner white gas stove was used for cooking. No refrigerator. No running water unless you consider running to the lake with a bucket to be that convenient. Bath time? Go jump in the lake.

Sixty years later, after many additions, renovations, changes, additional small buildings and more land behind the original lot, Huggie decided his quilt (his term for the cabin and site) was finished and turned over the responsibility for it to his four children who had been co-owners for many years.

Huggie was diagnosed with glimo blastome, an inoperable, incurable brain tumor in July of 2008 and died at his Green Valley home January 26, 2009.

Meteorite Impact Evidence near Gunflint Lake

From: "Mark Jirsa" <jirsa001@umn.edu>
To: <gta@boreal.org>
Sent: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:55:34 -0500
Subject: Meteorite



I'm writing to tell you about some web content that might interest your
resort clients and their guests. During the Ham Lake Fire in 2007, I
discovered some unusual rock layers near Gunflint Lake that hold evidence of
one of the worlds largest and oldest meteorite impact events. Although the
deposits were first identified in Thunder Bay in 2005, this is the first
discovery in rock outcrops in Minnesota. The meteorite hit near Sudbury
Ontario 1,850 million years ago, and spread ash and debris, probably around
the globe. The impact was likely a "globe-killer," though there wasn't much
organic life to kill during that early time of Earth history. The
meteorite was so large and was moving at such a tremendous velocity that it
vaporized on impact, so no actual meteorite pieces exist near the Gunflint
Trail, or anywhere else.

Visit the Minnesota Geological Survey website ( <http://www.geo.umn.edu/mgs>
http://www.geo.umn.edu/mgs) and click on the left menu "NEW--Minnesota's
evidence of an Ancient Meteorite Impact"

A slightly expanded version, also for the lay audience, appears in the
December 2008 edition of ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE

If you or any of the resort operators and guests have questions, feel free
to contact me. I am happy to share information about where the rock
exposures are, what they look like, and how they formed. Scientific study
of these outcrops and others in the Lake Superior region is on-going.
Because they are in the Superior National Forest, and for the sake of
preserving scientific value, I discourage collection of rock
samples---photos say 1000 words though!

Mark

A Brief History of Kloek's Island- Poplar Lake

Jim Kloek-The history of the Kloek family on Poplar Lake began in October of 1937 when my parents, Dell and Mernie Kloek, spent their honeymoon at Rockwood Lodge. The cabin they rented is still there, and still being rented. After the war ended, they returned to Poplar Lake, and in 1947 purchased from the owner of Northwoods Lodge a rustic cabin at what is now 7991 Gunflint Trail. (At the time the lodge owner was gradually reducing the size of Northwoods by selling off cabins at each end of his property.)

Poplar Lake was very different in the late 1940’s. There was no electric service on most of the Gunflint Trail. If you wanted electricity, you needed to have your own generator. The Gunflint Trail was paved only as far as Swamper Lake; the remainder was gravel. The cabin lights and stove were powered by propane, and we had an honest-to-goodness ice box. We would buy blocks of ice from Carl Brandt, Sr. at what was then Balsam Grove Lodge. He would cut ice from the lake in the winter and store it in an ice house which would last all summer. After a few years, our family’s purchase of a Servel propane fired refrigerator was a significant upgrade. The cabin had no running water, and my brother and I were in charge of hauling 5 gallon buckets of water up from the lake when needed.

My parents quickly introduced others to the Gunflint experience. In 1948 his brother, Ken Kloek, Sr., bought the cabin next door (now 7997 Gunflint Trail) from Ben Katzenmeier. Ben had two lots, so he moved to the westward of the two and built a new cabin at what is now 8005 Gunflint Trail (currently the Moe cabin). Ken’s original cabin was quite similar to ours. Eventually he built a more modern cabin on the same lot, and tore down the old one. Ken’s family still own and maintain the cabin, and my cousin, Ken, Jr. has a lot more stories to tell of those early days.

The Young family lived in our neighborhood in Minneapolis (Morningside) and attended the same church we did. They visited our cabin, and subsequently bought their island from the Grewe family. The Jolly family, who were related to my father, also visited, and now own a cabin at 80 Fireplace Point.

Summer life on Poplar Lake in the 1950’s was a great experience for a kid. Many of the cabins were owned by families with children, so there was always a lot of activity. Swimming and water skiing in the afternoon were popular. It seemed like there was always a gathering at someone’s dock if the weather was good. In addition to my brother and I there were Ken (Jr), Judy, and Linda Kloek; Ann, Mary, John, and Marcy Waugh; Ted, Tim, and Nancy Young; Sue and Arnold Swenson; the seven Bridgeman siblings (more about the Bridgemans later), and sometimes Carl Brandt, Jr. At times we had as many as three boats pulling water skiers.

My family also took portage trips. This was before the BWCAW was created, and many of the original docks and signs that the CCC had built on the portages were still in place. In 1954 the Minneapolis Star sent a reporter and a photographer to accompany us on a camping trip to Winchell Lake. The result was full page feature story in the newspaper about a family enjoying the Minnesota wilderness. We still have a reprint of the article and prints of all the photographs the photographer took.

By the middle of the 1950’s electric lines were being run up the Gunflint Trail, and plans were in place to finish paving the entire road. Two islands in Poplar Lake came up for sale, and my father bought them both in 1956. He sold the smaller of the two to Truman Smith (whose son Doug was the same Boy Scout troop as I was), and in 1957 built the cabin which we still have today.

At the time my father was managing the Bridgeman Ice Cream store in downtown Minneapolis. He had two bus boys working for him that were also training at Dunwoody Institute to be carpenters. He hired them to build the cabin, and sent my brother and I with them to help. At the time, my brother was 17 and I was 12. In two weeks, the four of us roughed in the cabin. My job was to bring the lumber and all the other materials from the shore out to the island in a boat (actually two boats lashed together for a more stable platform), while the other three built the cabin. They did it completely by hand since there was no electric service to the island. When we were done, we had a completed box: a plywood floor, four walls, a roof, windows and doors. The inside was completely unfinished.

The cabin features seven very large windows in the front and side walls, and they are a story in themselves. The entire front wall of the Bridgeman store my father managed was glass, from sidewalk to ceiling. This was very thick architectural glass, but even then, from time to time, it would break. When the glass people would come to replace it, my father would have them cut large, square pieces of the waste glass, and store them in the basement of the store. He had a picture in his mind of the cabin he wanted to build one day, and by 1957 he had collected enough glass for the windows he wanted. The panes of glass were moved from downtown Minneapolis to Poplar Lake in a trailer towed behind our car, and then moved out the island via boat. They all made it without breakage. Then we made a mistake. We leaned one of the panes against a small tree while we were getting ready to install it. It was a windy day, the tree swayed, and the glass cracked. We had to make a sheepish call to my father back in the Cities. Fortunately he had a spare pane, and was able to drive it up to us over the weekend, so we could finish. As of this writing in 2008 the original windows are still in place, having held up to 51 years of rain, wind, snow, and bird strikes.

Over the rest of the summer of 1957 and early 1958 we finished enough of the inside of the new cabin to move in. We sold the original cabin to Bill and Phoebe Bridgeman in 1958. The original cabin continued to be owned by the Bridgeman family until August, 2008 when Dan and Paul Bridgeman had it torn down to begin construction of a modern cabin.

The new cabin on our island was still rustic - no electricity, no telephone. One improvement, however, was running water. We built a log tower behind the cabin and put a large water tank at its top. This tank was filled by a water pump powered by a lawn mower engine at the lake shore. It was my job to “pump up the tank”. The water tower would then provide us running water until in was empty, at which time my mother would tell me to go pump it up again. So we had faucets that ran, and a flushing toilet, but still no hot water.

Over the course of the next 15 years the inside of the cabin was gradually finished off. In 1961, a second building was started. My father and I built a pole shed behind the cabin to keep lumber and other supplies covered in the winter. This was a simple shed built of logs, with a roof but no sides. As usual, finishing this was a last minute affair. On Labor Day, we still had to nail on the roofing. We had to leave that afternoon because I started school the next day. I remember very well my father and I nailing on roofing, while listening to the Twins game on a portable radio. My mother was fretting because it was getting late, and continually asking when we would be done. Oh, did I mention all this was going on in the middle of a snow storm? Weather on Poplar Lake is never dull.

The next big changes to the cabin took place in the mid-1970s. My father retired and he and my mother began to spend their entire summers on the island. Electricity and telephone service were run to the island with underwater cables. With the help of Ted Young, the pole shed was enclosed and finished inside to become a bunk and tool shed. The cabin was enlarged with the addition of a bedroom and a utility room which held, for the first time, a hot water heater. Luxury had arrived on the island when a shower was installed and connected to the hot water line. Electric appliances replaced the old propane stove, refrigerator, and lights.

Another improvement after their retirement was the purchase of a lot at 46 Voyageurs Point to serve as a parking area and boat dock. My father and John Kurkowski built a small boathouse on the lot to store the boat for the winter.

My parents continued to spend their summers together on the island through the summer of 1997. It was a long and happy retirement for them, and they had many visits from friends, relatives, and grandchildren. In 1998, my father passed away. For the next three summers my mother was able to be on the island for part or most of the summer with other family members staying with her.

My wife Lynne and I are now spending our summers at the cabin. When my father passed away we were living and working in Rochester, New York, so our visits were limited to three weeks each summer. But by 2006 we were both semi-retired so we moved to Anoka, Minnesota to be closer to the island. We have spent the last three summers enjoying the lake and all the usual Gunflint Trail activities, and catching up on a lot of the continuous maintenance that a cabin requires. We are about to the point where we are going to start making some improvements, so stay tuned.

Growning Up on Youngs Island

Nancy Olmem-My family purchased our Poplar Lake Island cabin on Memorial weekend in 1952. Neighbors of ours in Minneapolis, Del and Mernie Kloek, had a cabin for sale on Poplar Lake and invited us to check out their cabin. It was not what my parents were looking for, but after looking at many properties they were shown the island. It was love at first sight and became our new summer residence.

That summer we spent some time on the island, but did not know that it would be the last time that our family of five would be together on a vacation. The following fall my dad suffered a stroke and died. It could have ended our trips north, but the following summer and many summers after, my mother loaded my two older brother, me and our collie dog into into our car and headed north. We were fortunate in many ways. After my dad died Dar Noyes who was owner of Rockwood Lodge and our Realtor, held the mortgage and called my mom and told her that there would be no interest and if she had trouble making the $15.00 any month, not to worry. Mother’s boss also felt that it was important for us as a family to go to the island so she was given two months off every year.

I was very young, 5 years old when we bought the island, and have wonderful memories. There were many other children who had cabins or resorts on the lake and also there were many resort guests with kids close to our ages. We spend our days playing in the woods, hiking, picking berries, swimming and doing many other outdoor activities. We were inside only on rainy days. As we got older, water skiing and surf boarding (behind a boat was also added to out list of activities. During high school I worked as a cabin girl at Balsam Grove Lodge (now known as Norwester).

As I entered adulthood, my love for the Gunflint and for the island continued to grow. In my early twenties I married Terry Olmem who also liked the area and the island. In the early years of our marriage, it was difficult to go north for long periods of time, but our love never lessened. When it was possible, we exposed our three children (Andy, Sheila and Matt) to the island. Now that we are older we are able to spend more time on the island and enjoy having the kids visit us. Andy, our oldest, is the fondest of island living and Sheila’s husband, Matt Lichty, also enjoys it. Our Matt live too far away to spend much time.

Summers for me are now mostly spent on the island. I am north as much as time allows and enjoy my alone time and family time on the island. People often look at me like I am crazy when they find out that I stay out there by myself. Yes, I need to take a boat hauling necessities back and forth, I do not have the modern conveniences and there often are animals that I share the island with; but that is what makes island living so special. If I want to be alone I stay home. If I want to be with people, I go to shore. It is my decision and I love it!

There are many stories that I have about life up the trail. When I was very young I can remember almost burning Rockwood Lodge down. The Noyes (the owners) went to town and left Sandy, their teenage daughter, in charge of the lodge. Sandy left the lodge for a while leaving Janet, her younger sister, and me in charge. Neither of us were even close to being teenagers. We got bored and decided to light the cigarette in mouth of the moose that was mounted above the main fireplace. We discovered that if we blew on the cigarette, the end would glow red. Everything was going well until the moose’s whiskers caught fire. We threw water and 7-up on the moose and were able to avoid the moose and the lodge from going up in flames.

A favorite story about a former resident has to be about Phoebe Bridgeman. The Bridgeman’s had 7 children of their own and had a very small cabin on Poplar. The Bridgeman’s were very generous and also let their children bring up friends to their wilderness retreat. I always felt that Phoebe and Bill’s philosophy was that there is always room for one, two, or three more. Yearly there was a lake picnic on Blueberry Island that was on the other side of the lake from their cabin. In order to get everyone to the picnic or any other place that they went as a family you would see a boat towing another boat both filled with people. Phoebe also realized that there were lots in her group and would come loaded with many dishes to pass.

Ollie O'Brien Greco- Red Pines Outpost

The mid 1930's -the Gunflint Trail was a winding dirt road, electrical power and phone service along the trail was still decades away. Mainly loggers, CCC workers, and several resort families populated the area. It was during this era that Ollie O'Brien and her future husband, Jimmy Greco, purchased property on a remote point of land between Little Ollie and Poplar lakes, south of the inlet from Poplar into Little Ollie Lake. Located one half mile from the nearest road, their new property was accessible only by traveling across Poplar Lake.

Ollie and Jimmy spent the next few summers building a log cabin home on the property. Some seventy spruce logs for the cabin were cut near the building site. The logs then skidded to the site by a timber horse rented by Ollie and Jimmy from a local logging camp. The logging camp was most likely Sam Seppala's sawmill. Trail Center Lodge and Restaurant is now located on the site of this mill. As the cabin neared completion, it was christened Red Pine after a large Norway Pine located near the new building. With the cabin completed,
Ollie and Jimmy spent their summers there; returning to Chicago for the winter. In later years they moved to Red Pine year around.

Another two cabins were built in the 1950's and 60's which the Greco's rented out to friends of theirs from Chicago. The name of their rental business became Red Pine Outpost.

Ollie wrote about her experiences on Poplar Lake. Two of her articles appeared in Outdoors Magazine; " I wanted a Log Cabin." April 1939 and "Red Pine" July, 1939. Among Ollie's many other writings were the following written in August of 1935:

The greatest joy anyone can have is to learn to appreciate nature and learn to be comfortable in the world of nature. To live in a simple way--to learn to take care of oneself and be adequate-

Living in the out of doors brings health and strength of both body and character.

A deep sincere love of nature is the surest guarantee for true character building.

Many meet people socially for years and never recognize their true nature-- but live with them a week camping and nothing shows up so quickly as their character.

Olive died in April of 1973 and is buried in Grand Marais' Maple Hill Cemetery. Little Ollie Lake is named in her honor. Her beloved Red Pine Cabin and the majestic Norway Pine, by the cabin, still remain much as they were some seventy some years ago.

A collection of Ollie's poetry, much of which written at the Red Pines Cabin, was found after her death. This poetry has been reproduced and is available at Poplar Creek Guesthouse's office.
Ollie O'Brien Greco: 1887-1973