TALKING WITH THE POWELLS:
“The stories don’t always fit the narrative.” By Shawn Perich Dicky Powell holds court on the porch at Chippewa Inn on Lake Saganaga. He has lived his entire life beyond road’s end. | LAURA POWELL MARXEN
D
icky and Sherry Powell haven’t been home for a while. Specifically, they haven’t been home since the U.S. Canada border closed over a year ago in March, 2020 in response to the covid pandemic. Fortunately, they own a home in Silver Bay where they have been waiting to return to their Chippewa Inn resort on the Canadian shore of massive Saganaga Lake. The resort, founded by Dicky’s parents, Bill and Dorothy Powell in 1959, has been the epicenter of the Powell family ever since. But it is by no means the beginning of the Powell family’s history in the north. Dicky’s grandparents were Jack Powell and Mary Ottertail, an Anishinaabe woman. Her family disapproved of the marriage, so the young couple traveled by canoe from Winton to Lake Saganagons (north of Saganaga in Ontario), where they built a cabin and raised their five children. They lived a northern life; guiding fishermen and trapping for income, getting their food from the lakes and the forest. Dicky’s parents, Bill and Dorothy, moved to Saganaga in the 1930s. On Saganaga’s Skandia Bay in 1945, they established a fishing camp they called Chippewa Lodge; they operated that prior to
Airboats allowed the Powells to traverse weak ice. Sherry is shown here with her twins, Paula and Laura. | SUBMITTED 20
JUNE 2021
NORTHERN WILDS
1957, when they bought land next to Canada Customs for starting Chippewa Inn. They, too, lived the northern life. And to a large extent, Dicky and Sherry still do. The couple met in 1975, when Sherry moved from Minneapolis to take a job at End of the Trail Lodge, where Dicky was working as a fishing guide. Dicky had two children from a previous marriage, Rich and Shelly. He and Sherry had twins, Laura and Paula. The two girls grew up on Saganaga. I recently sat down with Dicky and Sherry to talk about the life they’ve led beyond the end of the road. The conversation was anything but chronological, as one story led to another. As Sherry remarked, “The stories don’t always fit the narrative.” That’s ok. I’ll just share some of the stories with you.
