LOVE LAKES ECHO JOURNAL'S
2020 EDITION
OF THE
FOR THOSE WHO ENJOY PLAYING IN THE WATERS OF THE
LAKE COUNTRY
PLUS:
Loon protection Purple martins Paddling club Trout fishing Fisheries challenges Green Roof Lodge Clamshell Beach Resort Cragun’s Resort
shop.cub.com 1-hour delivery from the store to your door
Shop Online With Us Using Our New Delivery System! Give us a try... your first order is FREE Powered by instacart
Go to shop.cub.com for delivery cost and fees.
Better fresh. Better value. Save more with My Cub Rewards! 417 8th Ave. NE, Brainerd • 14133 Edgewood Drive, Baxter
www.cub.com
INDEX Editor’s Note: Get away to the lake ..................................................... Page 5 Gull Lake feature Cragun’s Resort ........................................................ Page 6 Gull Lake Chain map ................................................................................ Page 9 Woman Lake feature Green Roof Lodge .......................................... Page 12 Woman Lake map .................................................................................. Page 13 Fisheries challenges ................................................................................ Page 18 Loon protection programs ...................................................................... Page 24 Crow Wing Paddlers Club .................................................................... Page 26 Purple martins ......................................................................................... Page 28 Nisswa Lake feature How this lake got its name ............................. Page 30 Nisswa Lake map ................................................................................... Page 31 Trout fishing .............................................................................................. Page 34 Whitefish Chain feature Clamshell Beach Resort ............................ Page 36 Whitefish Chain map .............................................................................. Page 37 Fun on the Lake with our Readers .................................................. Pages 40-41 Island-Loon Lake project ........................................................................ Page 42 Leech Lake feature Making memories .............................................. Page 44 Leech Lake map ..................................................................................... Page 45 Pine River Watershed Plan .................................................................... Page 49
Submitted Photo Debbi Foss canoes on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes.
PUBLISHER Pete Mohs ................................. pete.mohs@brainerddispatch.com
EDITOR Nancy Vogt ...................................... nancy.vogt@pineandlakes.com
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Susie Alters Eller .................. susie.alters@brainerddispatch.com
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Pete Mohs ................................. pete.mohs@brainerddispatch.com Nancy Vogt ...................................... nancy.vogt@pineandlakes.com Travis Grimler ............................ travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com Dan Determan ......................... dan.determan@pineandlakes.com Mike Rahn
ADVERTISING STAFF
• • • • • • •
KAYAKS, SUPPLIES AND GEAR for sale & rent (including sails) Stand-up PADDLE BOARDS for sale & rent BIKES for everyone in the family for rent. NEW: Guided Tours of Pine River SHUTTLE SERVICE to Pine River, Whitefish Chain and area waterways FLOATING FOAM PARTY PADS for sale & rent Locally made BEACH RACKS to store kayaks and stand up paddle boards.
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY WITH OUR ACCESS ON THE WHITEFISH CHAIN E HOM OF
CALL
218-692-1200
to plan your paddle/pedal this year Our amazing kayaks are durable, stable, portable and affordable. We make them on site! Located 1 mile North of DQ
4
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
Group Rates Available
Susie Alters Eller .................. susie.alters@brainerddispatch.com Kathy Bittner Lee ................ kathy.bittnerlee@pineandlakes.com Jill Wasson Sprague .............. jill.wasson@brainerddispatch.com Gina Roach .............................. gina.roach@brainerddispatch.com
MAGAZINE DESIGN Chris Johnson.................... fccspecialsections@forumcomm.com
ADVERTISING 218-855-5895 or 800-432-3703 advertising@pineandlakes.com PRODUCED BY ECHO JOURNAL P.O. Box 974, Brainerd, MN 56401 218-829-4705 | 800-432-3703 www.pineandlakes.com Cover Photo: Sheila Johnston is chair of the Gull Chain of Lakes Association’s Environmental Committee and, along with Jane Edwards, created loon safety programs for the lake chain. Here, she sits in her kayak near a sign that’s part of the Loon Caution Sign Program. © 2020 Echo Journal No part of the material contained herein may be reproduced without prior written consent. Printed by Forum Communications Printing of Fargo, North Dakota The Pineandlakes Echo Journal is a weekly newspaper covering the Pequot Lakes and Pine River areas and is owned by Forum Communications Company in Fargo, North Dakota. Love of the Lakes combines stories with information and maps for different lakes in the area. We dedicate the magazine to the families and businesses around each featured lake or lake chain. Sources for lake map information and statistics include the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Get away to the lake
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
wondering about your favorite events, including the weekly Turtle Races held on Wednesdays in Nisswa and the weekly Duck Races held on Fridays in Pine River through the summer. Unfortunately, the weekly Kids’ Fishing Contest held on Tuesdays in Hackensack was canceled this summer, but those in charge vowed to bring
it back in 2021 if possible. In the meantime, get outside and enjoy our precious lakes and rivers in any way you can, no matter what the season. I hope you enjoy our 14th annual Love of the Lakes magazine. Nancy Vogt Editor
218-963-7700
PONTOONS • TRITOONS • JETSKIS • FISHING BOATS SNOWMOBILES FISH HOUSES
www.BoatsandBeyondRentals.com
GAS!
001835694r1
There’s no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the world - including the lakes area - in 2020 robbed each and every one of us of so much, including family-fun events that have occurred annually for years, many for decades. But COVID-19 - the contagious respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus that led to business and school closures, stay at home orders and event cancellations - hasn’t affected our beloved lakes. I’m sure Sheila Johnston, a Gull Chain of Lakes Association member, is still paddling her kayak on Upper Gull Lake keeping track of loons. Read her story in this issue of Love of the Lakes. I’m sure David and Tracy Smith are still welcoming guests to their resort, Green Roof Lodge on Woman Lake; I’m sure Kris and Jenna Pederson are excited about their first resort venture after buying Clamshell Beach Resort on the Whitefish Chain; and I’m sure Dutch and Irma Cragun are still proud to be celebrating the 80th year of Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake this year. Read about the rich history of these resorts in this issue as well. I’m sure Jim Bergquist, of Crosslake, can’t wait to take other enthusiastic paddlers out on the lakes and rivers in a kayak or paddleboard - they’ll just have to practice social distancing. Regardless, read about the Crow Wing Paddlers Club in this issue. I’m sure we are all still marveling at the wild critters around us that carry on from season to season according to their instincts. Learn a bit more about purple martins and their nesting habits in these pages. I’m sure we’re all getting out to enjoy the great outdoors and our favorite outside activities whether it be spring, summer, fall or winter. If you’re considering adding trout fishing to your outdoor hobbies, read up on that form of fishing in this magazine. Unfortunately, what we won’t be doing for some if not much of the summer and possibly beyond is participating in our beloved outdoor events that others plan and host throughout the year. This page in Love of the Lakes is traditionally dedicated to a month-by-month listing of those events. But with so many unknowns, so much speculation and so many event cancellations at press time, we decided not to run that feature this year. We do know of events that plan a return in 2021 - including the longstanding Whitefish Chain Classic Boat Show on Moonlite Bay in Crosslake on June 19, 2021. For now, we advise you to check area chamber of commerce websites if you’re
@ Love Lake Marina
On Gull
Smooth, Easy, Pay at the Pump
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 5
FEATURE
Submitted photos (Above) A beachside cabin is shown at Cragun’s Resort. (Inset) The first cabin built at Cragun’s in 1941 is where the family slept and ate.
Cragun’s Resort marks 80 years on Gull Lake bait, including worms, minnows and frogs. He was 9 when Cragun’s Resort officially opened It’s likely Dutch Cragun never imagined to guests in 1941. That journey to opening as a boy visiting and working on his family’s wasn’t easy. property on Gull Lake in the 1930s that he’d Resort history one day witness the 80th anniversary of his In a written history of the resort, Dutch’s family’s resort. dad, Cragun Sr. said: “In 1939, Jack Madden Cragun’s Resort, founded by Merrill K. began to ‘sell’ me on the idea of getting into Cragun Sr. and his wife, Louise, is celebrating the resort business, 80 years in the Pine but I didn’t know Beach Area on how.” Steamboat Bay on Cragun Sr. was in “Many times I’ve wondered the south shore of the printing business Gull Lake in 2020. how I had the guts to ask in the Twin Cities, but The Craguns’ son, convinced my wife and family to help Madden Merrill Cragun Jr. him in the summer - better known to me in this venture.” of 1940 to consider everyone as Dutch acquiring Pine Beach - said his dad and Merrill K. Cragun Sr. Area property for a Jack Madden (of housekeeping resort. nearby Madden’s “Dad (Dutch’s Resort) were college grandfather, Virgil buddies at the University of Minnesota. It was Cragun) and I walked all over the area and Madden who got Cragun Sr. into the resort took a row boat and rowed all round the business. lake edge of the property to see how shallow “I give the Maddens credit. They’re the it was for a swimming beach,” Merrill Sr. reason I’m here,” Dutch Cragun said, calling wrote. “We also looked at Sylvan Lake at Madden’s a competitor but not an enemy. the property which is now Kavanaugh’s but Dutch’s official start in the family business decided the Sylvan location would be too all those years ago was being in charge of far away from the other Pine Beach resorts BY NANCY VOGT
6
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
VOTED ONE OF THE TOP THINGS TO DO IN BRAINERD Public & Private Cruises Available on Gull Lake
GULLLAKECRUISES.COM 833-232-0317
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Submitted photos (Left) Louise and Merrill K. Cragun Sr., shown in 1971, founded Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake. (Right) Shown with Cragun’s staff are Merrill K. Cragun Sr. and his dad, Virgil Cragun, at left, and Louise Cragun, at right.
and I felt that Gull Lake was better known for advertising purposes.” “... I didn’t have the credit or the money to take all of this property,” Merrill Sr. wrote. “Many times I’ve wondered how I had the guts to ask my wife (Louise) and family to help me in this venture.” He recalled paying $12,500 for the original 1,200 feet of shoreline. He
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
borrowed $3,000 to begin building cabins and the main lodge. In September 1940, he brought his dad to Gull Lake to live in Madden’s original home. Merrill Sr. ventured north on as many weekends as possible to bring supplies in a two-wheel trailer behind his car, hauling shingles, paint, etc., because he could charge those items in Minneapolis where he had credit.
“The merchants in Brainerd didn’t know us yet,” he wrote. Merrill Sr. and his dad brushed and cleared the land. “We worked like Trojans when I came up weekends to pay off the workmen and consult with Dad,” Merrill Sr. wrote, adding it was a nice fall with good weather to work outdoors.
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 7
Submitted photos (Above) This aerial photo shows Cragun’s Resort on Steamboat Bay on the south shore of Gull Lake. (Left) This photo includes Virgil Cragun, Jack Madden and Merrill K. Cragun Sr.
Cabin One was roofed, enclosed and the fireplace built. Cabin Two was framed and the fireplace halfway up when the Armistice Day blizzard struck on Nov. 11, 1940, he wrote. Two more blizzards occurred that winter, preventing the Craguns from returning to Pine Beach until mid-April 1941. They hired workers with the goal to complete some cabins by summer so they could have a cash flow to complete work on the lodge. “Does that sound familiar?” Merrill Sr. wrote. They had eight cabins, and the family slept and ate in Cabin 1. “Our resort was ‘ultra-modern.’ Inside toilets, inner spring mattresses, ice boxes, cabinet showers, hot and cold water and electric stoves for cooking,” Merrill Sr. wrote. “Our credit was established so we could get long-term installment payments from most of them,” he said about the businesses they purchased furnishings from. The Craguns built the lodge on the narrowest point of their property with a small store and office where they could see guests come and go. They planned to place a foundation under the ground floor and then step down to another level, but encountered problems with the area’s sugar sand. “It caved in faster than a crew could dig. All week they had been digging and cribbing
8
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
with logs driven into the bank so they could pour a wall of concrete,” Merrill Sr. wrote, noting that’s how what is now the Dutch Room came into existence. “Try to envision a foundation sitting on a hill of sugar sand, and you’re running out of money,” he wrote. “I had borrowed on my life insurance and as much as I could from my bank in St. Paul. I also tapped two of my personal friends for loans. Louise had loaned
“I said, ‘Can you make a living at the resort?’ He said, ‘Hell, no. What do you think I have to work all winter for?’” Dutch Cragun me her meager savings and borrowed from her credit union.” By the Fourth of July 1941, they had completed the first six cabins, the ice house and enclosed the lodge’s first floor. Merrill Sr. had run out of money to pay for labor to build the fireplace, leaving a gaping hole in the lodge floor.
“When we swept the floor we could just sweep into the hole,” he wrote. The fireplace in the main lobby and below in the dining room were built later that summer. A man Merrill Sr. called Mr. Eckstein, of Motley, built all four floors of the fireplace for $125. Eckstein “cut each stone by hand - rolling the stone until he found the exact right place and then whacking it with a hammer,” he wrote. Merrill Sr. noted that each stone in the fireplace in the lobby is exactly matched on each side. Eckstein also built the fireplaces in the first seven cabins. Finally, in summer 1941, Cragun’s opened for business at $28 per week on the smallest cabins (two-person minimum with $2 per day additional per person and $1 for children). Merrill Sr. wrote that his parents and wife, Louise, were in charge of the resort and he was a “weekend warrior.” “I would take Dad and Mother up to Gull Lake in early spring and Louise, Dutch and Pat (Dutch’s sister) as soon as school was out in June,” he wrote. “On Labor Day we would close operations and I would load the family, plus my Mother, plus the dog and surrounded by all the curtains to be washed and stored for the following year into the car for the trip home.” His father stayed to drain the plumbing and lock up for winter. 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Leech Lake
64
Leech Lake
371
GULL LAKE
Walker
BRAINERD/NISSWA AREA Akeley
Area: 9,947 acres
6
Little Boy
Woman Lake
Hackensack
30 3020 20 10 10
371
Lake Marg aret
20 20
Lake Wabedo
47
371
10 10 20 20
8
30 30
30 30 20 20
54
84
40 40
77
87
10 10
20 20 Pine Mountain
49
13
30 50 30 50 40 40
Water Quality: Mesotrophic - clear water with occasional algal blooms in late summer.
10 10 20 20 30 30 40 40
60 60 10 10 20 20 10 10 30 30 FOOT 20 40 20 40 30 30 HILLS
87
Invasive Species: Zebra mussels
371
Fish: Panfish, largemouth & rock bass, northern pike, walleye, bluegill, crappie, tullibee, yellow perch
40 40
2
10 10 10 10 30 30 40 40
Historic Fact: Nisswa Marine was once located on Nisswa Lake.
43
50 50
50 50
70 70
10 30 10 30
84
Norway
60 60
10 10 20 60 60 20 40 40
10 10
371
60 60
85 85
50 4050 3040 30
5040 50 40 30 30 20 20 10 10
Pine River
1
77 77 48 48
1
371
20 20 30 30 40 40 50 50
16
60 60
77
70 70
112
60 60
50 50
168
40 40
33 33 20 20 10 10
125
Sorenson
119
25
146
77
Sylvan
Gu
1 36
210 Pillager
Gilbert
77
77 Red Sand
Whipple
210
49 Mud
18
Horseshoe
Wise
Wilson Bay
PILLSBU RY STATE FOREST Pillager
Motley
Campbell
Merrifield
127
Hartley
10
218-829-4705 Staples | pineandlakes.com 210
Crystal
127
126
77
40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10
77
Fawn
3
North Long Lake
Rock
30 30
70 20 20 10 10
Little Hubert
Bass
3
4
115
40 40
64
10 10
115 Round Lake
19
Mollie
137 Hubert
15
20 20 30 4030 40
Lower Missio
116
Lake Edward
Gladstone
Gull Lake
r
10 10
Perch
13
13
371
77
Upp
Garden
Clark
20
371
ive
40 40 20 1020 10
60 60
Markee
Nisswa Roy
77
Bass
109
Lower
1
50 50 60 60 70 70 80 80
30 30 20 20
Little Pelican
118
Margaret
40 40
30 40 30 40 50 50 60 60
40 40
50 50
Horseshoe
4
Upper
Nisswa
ll R
10 20 10 20
Pine
Fawn
Lougee
Upper Gull
Lake Shore
10 10
36
103
103
Pelican Lake
107
107 29
Breezy Point
llen CuMiddle
West Twin Edna
40 40
Duck
Lizard
371 East Twin
Mayo
10 10
30 30 40 50 40 50 10 10
10 10 20 20 40 3040 30
39
3
Pequot Lakes
Loon
57 57
10 10
Star
Kimball
11 1
3
11
Sibley
40 40 30 30 20 20
66
Cros
112
Upper Loon
50 50
16 Grass Clear Lake
Upper Hay 16
17
17
60 60
60 60
Bertha
145
10 10
60 60
tt gge Da
Rush
Cross Lake
Ideal Corners
Clamshell
Ossawinnaamakee
60 60
Sources: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, minnesotalakes.net and Wikipedia
Lower Whitefish
Lower Hay
371
Jenkins
78 78
Mud Lake
15
15
10 10
Manhattan Beach
Big Trout
Ox
60 60 60 7060 70
134
Arrowhead
Upper Whitefish
1
West Fox
Fifty Lakes
Swanburg
60 60
50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10
Kego
54
50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10
84
80 80
Clough 10 10 20 56 20 30 30 40 40 50 50
50 50
64
Pistol
Jail Lake 56
Lizzie
60 60
30 30
10 10
48
Horseshoe
10 10 16 16
40 40 50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10
60 60
Mildred
10 10 20 20 30 30
Public Accesses: East shore off County Road 115; north end of Boomingout Bay near Upper Gull Lake; off County Road 70 near dam; on northwest side off County State Aid Highway 77.
30 30
Eagle
10 10
Blind
10 10
20 20 Hattie
10 10 20 20 30 30 40 40 50 50
STATE FOREST
48
Lake Ada
Lind Lake
Backus
Number of aquatic plant species: Over 35 species
40 40
Iguad
84
ke La
Defining Characteristics: The Gull Chain of Lakes, for which Gull Lake is the namesake and largest member, is a collection of a number of connected lakes and two bays: Gull Lake, Upper Gull Lake, Nisswa Lake, Roy Lake, Margaret Lake, Spider Lake, Spring Lake, Love Lake, Round Lake, Bass Lake, Steamboat Bay, Wilson’s Bay. 64 The chain collectively covers 13,000 acres and its shores host over 2,500 homes. The chain87spans across Cass County, MN and Crow Wing County, MN.
Eating Places by Boat: Places to eat by boat include Bar Harbor, Zorbaz on Gull, Lost Lake Lodge, Sherwood Forest, Dock 77 at Quarterdeck Resort, Ernie’s on Gull, Cragun’s Resort and Madden’s Resort. Nisswa Lake Park offers public docks for people to tie up and walk to eating establishments and shops in downtown Nisswa.
7
54
e ak yL RRo
Ten Mile Lake
12
Longville
5
wa ss Ni
Deepest Point: 80 feet, 30 percent of the lake is 15 feet deep or less 34 Nevis Homes Per Shoreline: 27.8
200
200 U ppe r G ull Lak e
Location: Cass & Crow Wing County, MN
VITAL STATISTICS
371
34
Rice
Sand 2020White LOVE OF THE LAKES 9 Baxter 210
48
48
25
142
Brainerd
371
144 123
Submitted photos (Left to right) Merrill K. Cragun Sr. rests against a tree; Louise Cragun, Dutch’s mother, holds a fish; Merrill K. Sr. and Louise Cragun are shown in a resort cabin; Virgil Cragun (Dutch’s grandfather) is shown in front of the resort lodge; Dutch Cragun is shown as a youngster..
As a result of World War II, many resorts closed while a few stayed open, Merrill Sr. wrote. In December 1942, a group of about 30 resort operators met in Brainerd and formed the Minnesota Resort Association, and he served on the original board of directors as secretary-treasurer. The association was able to advertise that the area resorts remained open during the war years. Cragun’s Resort continued to grow, with the original lodge built in 1945. By the end of 1947, the resort had 12 cabins. In 1948, the first food service with a dining room to seat 20 was begun, followed in 1949 by the first six motel-type units being built. Dutch recalled that when he was in college, he sent for water skis from Chicago. “We thought we were hot stuff,” he said, adding his dad bought a Larson boat and they
learned to water ski, and then taught it. “It was such a new thing to do besides fishing,” he said. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a political science degree, Dutch - who loves politics - helped run a congressional campaign and then joined the Army and traveled to Germany. “My dad said, ‘I got a job at the university year-round so I have to sell the resort, or do you want to buy it?’” Dutch said. “I said, ‘Can you make a living at the resort?’ He said, ‘Hell, no. What do you think I have to
work all winter for?’” His dad told Dutch he could travel all winter and run the resort in the summer. Dutch took over as manager in 1957, and continued to expand the operation each year. The outdoor swimming pool opened in 1963. Dutch met his wife, Irma, in California, and after marrying in 1965 he brought her to the resort, where she ran the dining room. They continued to re-invest toward developing a year-round resort so Dutch didn’t have to continue to find a job every winter. The area had enough snow for cross
FIND YOUR DREAM
HOME NORTH POINTE REALTY
NORTHPOINTERA.COM
Submitted photo Irma and Dutch Cragun are shown at the Paul Bunyan statue at the Brainerd Chamber Welcome Center in 2012. They donated the statue in 2005 in memory of Dutch’s parents, Merrill K. Sr. and Louise Cragun.
10 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
“Our real estate office practices bold, new marketing strategies and offers old fashioned service and expertise from experienced agents with local area knowledge and connections.”
Kari Crimmins
broker/owner 218-568-1111 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
country skiing, Ski Gull had opened for downhill skiing, ice fishing was popular, as was snowmobiling, Dutch said. By 1977, the pool area had become enclosed and the operating season started to expand, the resort’s website says. They hired full-time personnel, and in 1983, the Craguns acquired neighboring property Cronoble’s, followed by neighboring Island View Lodge in 1988. They continued to winterize and build more units, as well as build golf courses. As it celebrates 80 years, Cragun’s Resort now has 57 cabins and 205 hotel rooms. Every hotel room has a lakeside view, unless the room is poolside. The resort covers 4,500 feet of shoreline, employs more than 300 and hosts many conferences and vacationing families.
Future
Eric Peterson, the resort’s general manager, said Dutch Cragun is an expansionist with a continued goal to grow the business. “He’s always growing the business. Now the focus is to go back to reinvest and bring the quality of lodging up,” Peterson said, citing recent work to remodel and refresh lodging and conference areas. While conference and corporate groups became the bread and butter of Cragun’s, the resort is now converting back to catering to families and “weekenders,” Peterson said. The resort’s original eight cabins on the
Submitted photo Cragun’s Resort has beachside cabins.
hill that was the original Cragun’s remain, though the original structures also have been renovated. “It’s such a valuable piece of property when it comes to Gull Lake,” Peterson said. “Dutch will keep it, letting people vacation for generations to come.” Dutch said at one time he thought of lakes as a body of water to take fish out of. Now he realizes lakes are so much more than that. He’s proud of how his resort takes care of its guests, and he’s proud of his employees.
“The ones who are still with me are the ones who take good care of my guests,” he said, noting he has great people doing great work. “I still try to go greet people,” he said. “There’s just nothing better than getting paid for people to have a good time. It’s the one profession where people pay you money to relax and have fun and unwind and make friends.” u
Nancy Vogt is editor of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. She may be reached at 218-855-5877 or nancy.vogt@pineandlakes.com.
Making sure you get to your “Happy Place!”
• Shannon’s Auto Body has provided auto body repair in Brainerd, MN since 1996. • We go above and beyond to make sure you receive the repair services you deserve. • We can repair vehicles of every make and model. • Our company is an I-CAR Gold Class Member, ASE Certified, and Sikkens Waterborne Certified. • Our team is committed to 100% customer satisfaction.
CHOOSE SHANNON’S AUTO BODY FOR COLLISION REPAIR AND AUTO REPAIR IN BRAINERD, MN & BEYOND.
We are proud to provide service to customers across Aitkin County, Cass County, and Crow Wing County.
www.shannonsautobody.com • 218-829-6764
CONTACT US 13540 Ironwood Drive • Brainerd, MN 56401 | HOURS Monday - Friday 8am-5pm 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 11
FEATURE
True to its name, the Green Roof Lodge really has a green roof.
Submitted photo
Green Roof Lodge proves resorting is still alive and well Smiths tout family-friendly resort there was a central shower house for people to use.” David said there are some stories about controversy surrounding the resort in its early years. Before the Green Roof Lodge there was the family-owned Red Roof Lodge. Part of the
In approximately 1996, David said the owners at that time installed a ninth, larger cabin with room for 13. Bathroom amenities Many years after what some would likely were added to cabins by that time as well. consider the end of the Minnesota resorting Most of the facilities at the resort had been boom, some hard working individuals still constructed long before the Smiths took over, find success and passion in the smaller though they weren’t always resort industry. well taken care of. When David Tracy and David Smith, of “None of our cabins are air conditioned. It’s on and Tracy bought the resort, rural Backus, are just such a they had a lot of work to do. couple. They have owned the a beautiful lake with a big beach and a sandy “Things were in rough Green Roof Lodge on Woman shape,” David said. Lake since March 2013, and bottom and everything, and we don’t have TV in The guests the Smiths they have worked to turn it into the cabins because we want the people to get inherited from the previous a family resort where visitors owners immediately noticed can find a quiet, relaxing and outdoors and not just be stuck in their cabin.” their efforts to improve the fun break from everyday life. David Smith, Green Roof Lodge owner property. About the resort “The first year we had a The Smiths are the eighth family group that came at the owners of The Green Roof Lodge since 1940. property was given to one family member who end of July,” David said. “They take over the A lot has changed since then. decided to open his own resort and call it the whole resort. They came in and asked if we put “Eight of the cabins are original,” David Green Roof Lodge. Of course, this caused a new carpet in the cabin. We just cleaned it.” said. “They’ve been added to over the years. split in the family. Under the Smiths’ ownership the resort has My understanding is when they were originally The Smiths don’t know how much of the story more than doubled its occupancy during the built there were no bathrooms and no indoor is true, but it is a well-known story among other resort season from approximately 30% to 65%. plumbing. There was just a bunk house. Then lake residents. “We put a lot of work into it and we’ve still BY TRAVIS GRIMLER
12 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
WOMAN LAKE
LONGVILLE
VITAL STATISTICS
46 20
Leech Lake
30
47 200
10
6
200
5
Laura Lake
19
Longville
5
7 7
54
Iguadona Lake
84
11
Little Boy
Woman Lake
Thunder Lake
ck
Island Lake
20
5
55
Lake Wabedo
Lake George
47 8
54
84
160
Blind
20
48
Hattie
Lizzie
84
Pistol
Jail Lake 56
43
Clough
Mitchell
56
Eagle
54
40
84
371 2
9
1
Pine River
1
6
1
15
371
16
Ideal Corners
Lower Hay
15
Bertha
145
Jenkins
16
Clamshell Grass
Kimball
Clear Lake
Hay 16 112 Upper Location: Longville, Cass County
Cross Lake
18
Ossawinnaamakee
Duck
103
Pine
Fawn
3
ne Riv er
11 Lizard
109
n
Adney
r ive
Public Water Accesses: Lower TwoDean DNR publicNelson accesses on the north shore
Goggle
Mission C Middle FishingWest Regulations: Northern pike from 24-36 inches must be immediatelyUpper released. PossesTwin Lougee 107 Edna sion limit is three with Lower only one over 36 inches. 19 Markee 107 Perch
118
Lower Mission
77
Gladstone
Gull Lake
115
Little Hubert
3 127
Crystal
128
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com Merrifield
1
Round Lake
127
Sorenson
115 15
North Long Lake
126
119
25
Campbell
Riverton
210
French Lake
105
CROW 1.) 5 miles southwest of Longville on Cass County141Road 5: 1 concrete slab ramp, 1 asphalt WING parking lot, 20 vehicle/trailer parking spaces, 1 dock, 1 restroom STATE
FOREST
6 2.) 7 miles southwest of Longville: 1 natural ramp, 1 gravel parking lot, 1 vehicle/trailer parkiver pi R issip ing space, no docks, no restrooms Miss
Fool
11 Interesting Fact: In a Playstation 2 video game “NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona,� Woman Lake, 11 Minnesota, is the home address of a fictional company called Schneider Boats, a potential 32 Aitkin sponsor forWest the player East of the game. This is apparently one of many nods to Minnesota in Rabbit Rabbit the game. 30 30
116 UpperSpecies: Black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, burbot, green sunfish, Fish Gull Nisswa Garden Miller smallhybrid sunfish,Nisswa largemouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, Lake Clark Lake Edward mouth bass,Roytullibee (cisco), walleye, yellow bullhead, yellow perch, bowfin (dogfish), greater Menomin Shore 77 Black Bear 13 13 shorthead redhorse, white redhorse, redhorse, sucker, common19shiner, golden shiner, Johnny Mollie Margaret 137 Bass Fawn darter, spottail371 shiner Hubert 3 4 29
Gun Lake
Perry
R ne Pi
Bass
Blind Lake
Stark
Invasive Species: None listed, but purple loosestrife, rusty crayfish and banded mystery snails 105 have been identified.
Shore Length: 30.31 11miles Sibley Pequot Horseshoe Defining Characteristics: and Girl lakes arePelican connected to Woman Lake. Longville can Lake Lakes Child Breezy Loon Point Lake. Woman Lake was named in commemoration of be accessed by boat from Woman 168 4 109 371 who Upper Mayowomen East Twin Ojibwe were killedLittle there in a battle against the Sioux. Pelican ulle
29
1
Ross
Upper Dean
114
Upper Loon
1
3
3
Rogers
36
36
Greer
Pi
11
17 54 feet Deepest Point:
Bass
Waukenabo Lake Round Lake
36
O'Brien
36
103
Esquagamah Lake
Mud
Dolney
3
20 10
106 Island
Star
39
169
Snodgrass
Goodrich
Crosslake
Area: 5,519 acres 112 17
66
Birchdale
Pickeral
Little Pine
tt gge Da
Rush
Emily
Sand
Mud Lake Lower Whitefish
Lows Mary
1
Ox
Upper Whitefish
50
20
Duck
1
Ruth
30 Emily
Butterfield
Beach
Big Trout
Little Pine
Anna
Eagle
47 15 Manhattan
Arrowhead
4
Blue
Fifty Lakes
134
29
Squaw
14
West Fox
Swanburg
Morrison
Lawrence
Papoose
Kego
10
Horseshoe Hor Island
32
14
13
58
Lake Leavitt
20 Outing
Roosevelt
136
30
40
Horseshoe
Norway
10
48
Lake Ada
nd Lake
6 10
10
Washburn Lake
49
87
s
8
14
Carlson
Sources: Minnesota DNR and minnesotalakes.net
31
Crosby
Black Hoof
Agate
Ironton
Cedar Lake
Deerwood
Serpent Lake
12 Hamlet
102 Wolf
Lookout
Nord Lake Hanging Kettle Lake Ripple Lake 12
28
12
Sissabagamah Lake
111
210
10
202028LOVE OF THE LAKES 13Elm Island 169 Lake
Portage
8
133
Lone Lake
28
Section Twelve Lake
Rab La
Submitted photo Green Roof Lodge overlooks Woman Lake with 250 feet of sugar sand beach.
got a long way to go,” David said. The Green Roof Lodge has many features expected of a small resort, along with small, personal touches. The resort has a game room with video games and a pool table, Wi-Fi, a basketball court and playground, and a lodge equipped with most grocery items cabin goers would likely want. “We sell old-fashioned, hand-dipped ice cream in the lodge, Heggies Pizzas and grocery items. Nothing perishable though,” Tracy said. “The ice cream is huge,” David said. “We
sell a lot of ice cream. People come in by boat. There will be a pontoon full of 10-15 people that get off and come in for ice cream and stuff like that.” During the 2019 season, the resort went through 93 3-gallon tubs of ice cream, with the best selling flavor being sea salt caramel cheesecake, though children prefer Superman flavor. Being on Woman Lake, perhaps the resort’s biggest draw is the lake life. The resort has a large boat landing equipped with a pontoon for rent along with a gas pump, two fishing
boats, canoes, kayaks and paddleboards that are free to use to those staying there. And there’s a private beach reserved only for resort guests. “We have 250 feet of beautiful sugar sand beach,” David said. “All the beach toys and all that stuff is included.” Among those beach toys is a huge floating trampoline called a Bongo. “That’s been a huge attraction for the kids,” David said. “The kids love that.” The resort is designed to get families out onto the beach or in the water. That’s so effective
*See sales associate for rebate form with complete details. Only valid at participating KitchenAid brand retailers. Rebate in the form of a KitchenAid brand Visa® prepaid card by mail. Additional terms and conditions apply. ®/™ © 2020 KitchenAid. All rights reserved. D191485KMA.
MAKE IT YOUR OWN
16603 State Hwy 371 North, Brainerd/Baxter (Just North of the Pine Beach Rd)
218-829-3624 SCHROEDERSAPPLIANCE.COM 14 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Submitted photos (Left) Ice cream is a huge attraction at the Green Roof Lodge on Woman Lake. Guests and visitors from all over the lake swarm there for cones. (Right) David Smith puts gas in a boat at Green Roof Lodge on Woman Lake.
that guests don’t seem to notice the amenities that are intentionally missing. “None of our cabins are air conditioned,” David said. “It’s on a beautiful lake with a big beach and a sandy bottom and everything, and we don’t have TV in the cabins because we want the people to get outdoors and not just be stuck in their cabin. We’ve had some people that say, ‘What? You don’t have that? We gotta find someplace else,’ but we’ve also had people say, ‘Don’t ever get it.’”
The simplicity is not a detriment to the resort. “The rustic appeal for a lot of people is actually a draw,” David said. His guests find it’s hard to get away if they bring everything with them. Being encouraged to disconnect helps the vacationers to have a real vacation. The Green Roof Lodge appeals to a variety of guests, so long as those guests are respectful. “Spring and fall we see more fishermen, just
groups of guys coming fishing,” Tracy said. “In the summer months it’s mainly families with kids and grandkids.” “A lot of times it’s family groups,” David said. “We have probably three or four weeks where we have family groups take over the whole place. Maybe there’s one or two cabins available, but in some cases they take all nine cabins as their annual reunion.” The Smiths market the resort based on its family appeal, and that has always been
The Adventure Starts HERE!
8322 State 371 NW 1-1/2 miles north of Walker on Hwy 371 Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm Sat 8am-1pm - Closed Sun
Check us out on Facebook at Lakes Area Powersports and on Instagram @lakes_area_powersports STIHL KLIM 509 TROPHY-TRITON
218-547-1558 | www.lakesareapowersports.com 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 15
Submitted photo Woman Lake is known as a good fishing lake, and in the early and late season Green Roof Lodge is rented by groups that come just to drop a line
important to them. “We advertise as a family-friendly resort and that’s really what it comes down to,” David said. Challenges they have faced include guests who don’t understand that family label and insist on drinking and talking loudly outside around a fire all hours of the night. That family label extends not only to whom they appeal to as guests, but to their plans for the future. “Our goal is to own it and hopefully eventually if any of the kids are interested, pass it on down,” David said. In the meantime the primary goal is to build the resort back up to its heyday. “Talking to the old-timers, there used to be 18 or 19 resorts on Woman Lake,” David said. “I think there’s only six left. It seems like a dying industry, but there’s also so much room for growth because people want to come and play. It’s been fun to watch it grow.”
Home Care & Hospice knutenelson.org/homecare | 218.820.3984
About the Smiths
Before resort ownership, David worked for the Scamp trailer company in Backus as the sales and production manager for many years (38 years by the time he quit to work at the resort full time), and he drove bus for the Pine River-Backus School District. Tracy and David raised three children who help at the resort when available. The family is well-known in the Backus area. They are members of the local church community and regular participants in an annual mission trip to Honduras. This is not the first time the Smiths have considered resort ownership. Their resort aspirations go back to 1991, when they
16 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
DeluxePremierpontoonswithfourstrokeMercurymotors. Half day, daily and weekly rates available. Marine repair, Premier Pontoons, Hewitt docks & lifts, boat storage & accessories and mini storage available.
218-692-3752 • CROSSLAKE
SALES & SERVICE
LLC
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
first considered buying a resort on Pine Mountain Lake. “We were young with three kids and no money,” David said. “The bank said no and so we just said OK and didn’t pursue it any further.” Looking back, the Smiths still wonder what could have been had they pursued that newly refurbished five-cabin resort, then being sold for $150,000. It would be years before they dipped their toe back into the market. “In October of 2012, I was taking the cross country team from Pine River up to Deer River and I went up 371 and County Road 45 and then around Longville and we went right by (the Green Roof Lodge) and saw the for sale sign,” David said. Returning home, he asked Tracy if she still thought about resort ownership. Sure enough, they were still interested. They worked hard on the paperwork and red tape, and on March 1, 2013, they signed papers to buy the resort. However, the purchase was almost scuttled by an unexpected setback while they were on their annual mission trip. Hundreds of miles away the Smiths received an email from their loan officer. “He said, ‘We’ve got a hiccup.’ It was because we sell gas on the lake and he didn’t know if the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) would sign off on the gas tank and all that stuff. I said, ‘That’s a deal breaker,’ and he said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’” David said he started worrying that they would have to wait months before they knew if the plan would go through, but it only took two days and the sale was back on track. At first David juggled his job at Scamp, driving school bus and running the resort. “It just got to where the resort was busy enough that Tracy couldn’t handle it on her
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Being located on Woman Lake, one of the main draws of Green Roof Lodge is its waterfront activities.
own, so January of two years ago I pulled the plug on Scamp,” David said. Because the resort season is mostly in the summer when school is out, David now drives bus full time during the school year, and Tracy has been working as a school paraprofessional for the past four years. Working with the school district has given them the ability to focus on the resort when classes end. Winter is also when the family takes inventory and manages repairs and updates needed at the resort. They have found themselves in a reliable pattern that works for them and the resort as well. Some duties of resort ownership were familiar to the Smiths, while others have grown on them over time. “I already knew how to scrub the toilet and make the bed,” Tracy said. “I’m still learning Quickbooks and some things to do with
Submitted photo
having a website.” Resort ownership is a people oriented career, and Tracy and David have found that to be their favorite part. “We’ve met some amazing new friends. They come back year after year and you get to watch their kids grow up,” David said. “It’s fun to see that, and we’ve met amazing new people over the years.” Their gas pump and ice cream have gotten them acquainted with more than just their guests. “Because we sell gas on the lake we’ve gotten to know a lot of people that live on Woman Lake that come in for gas on a regular basis,” David said. u Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5853 or travis.grimler@ pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Travis.
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 17
FEATURE
Moonlite Bay in Crosslake is a popular bay on Cross Lake for people to fish.
Submitted photo
Change brings challenges for Minnesota’s fisheries managers and the pessimistic, it’s only if these challenges are acknowledged and confronted head-on In much of life, change is not the exception that fisheries managers - and the angling but the rule. As tradition-rich as angling has public to whom they’re accountable - can always been, many changes have come to hope to meet them. our sport, and more are likely to come. Anticipating and attempting to manage change has been - and will remain - a task for fisheries management professionals. Their “In terms of technological success at this task will be of the greatest aids to help us find fish, importance to anglers of today and tomorrow. One of the fisheries professionals on the we’re certainly not where we front lines of anticipating and managing were even 20 years ago.” change is Owen Baird, fisheries management specialist at the Department of Natural Owen Baird, DNR fisheries Resources Brainerd office. Baird and his management specialist fisheries management contemporaries are among those to whom anglers will be looking for answers and solutions. Invasive species disrupt Baird shared his insights into the challenges they now face and will face in the aquatic webs of life A major challenge in fisheries management years to come. today is invasive plants and animals, creatures While examining these challenges may seem like undue dwelling on the problematic not native to our waters that have been BY MIKE RAHN
18 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
transported here, found living conditions to their liking and thrived. They can become a serious problem if there are no limiting factors here, no native predators to keep their populations in check. Invasives range from large and conspicuous to extremely tiny. What they have in common is that their arrival in our lakes and rivers has been unintended and negative.
Zebra mussels
One problematic stowaway came from Russia and Europe, arriving in the ballast water of ocean-going ships making trans-Atlantic commercial voyages to East Coast and Great Lakes ports. The zebra mussel is near-microscopic in its immature or “veliger” stage, when it can be transported within a body of water by the motion of waves or current. It will eventually develop into a distinctive looking dual-shelled clam, typically the size of a fingernail, though sometimes larger. “Zebes” attach themselves to underwater surfaces in solid masses that kill native mussels, 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
encrust dockage, damage marine engines and clog municipal and industrial water intakes. Swimmers and “sandbar partiers” have had the soles of their feet cut badly by their razor-sharp shells. The zebra mussel’s spread into the Heartland from the Great Lakes has been dramatic and can be traced chiefly to their being unknowingly transported on boats and trailers moving from one body of water to another. Only now are we understanding the potential impact of zebra mussels on Minnesota fisheries and fishing. Lakes invaded by zebra mussels first see improved water clarity, a fact colorfully shared by an angling friend: “The water on Mille Lacs - places where you could once barely see the bottom is now so clear you can tell whether a quarter resting on the bottom is heads or tails.” Greater water clarity sounds like a good thing, and in badly polluted waters it might be. But on a healthy Minnesota lake that is not the case. Zebra mussels contribute to water clarity by filtering out and consuming tiny phytoplankton - microscopic floating plant life. These creatures are a primary food for zooplankton - similarly microscopic animal life - that feed the just-hatched “fry” of walleyes and other fish. By consuming these microscopic creatures at the bottom of the food chain, zebra mussels ultimately compete
Technology has helped people catch fish, such as this Humminbird fish locator.
with tiny game fish for vital food. Some of central Minnesota’s prime walleye lakes, like Gull, North Long and Pelican, are feeling the effects of this competition from zebra mussels. These lakes have some naturally reproducing walleyes, though these fisheries are supplemented with walleye stocking because of the angling pressure that comes with their popularity. “We’re now finding poorer survival of
Submitted photo
the walleye fry we’ve been stocking in these lakes,” Baird said. “Food that the walleyes need at that tiny fry stage is less available, thanks to zebra mussels.” One way the DNR is compensating is to stock more walleye fingerlings, larger fish that are roughly 4-6 inches, to compensate for poorer survival of walleye fry. Fingerlings consume larger prey - like aquatic insects - and are not dependent on the plankton
WAPOA will be celebrating all summer long! Join us on August 22nd for a celebratory picnic at the Ideal Township Pavilion. Join online at: www.WAPOA.org
WAPOA, P.O. Box 342, Crosslake, MN 56442
• CELEBRATING 50 YEARS • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS •
• CELEBRATING 50 YEARS • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS •
WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA
Find us on Facebook at WAPOAMN
WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA • WAPOA
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 19
whose abundance has been reduced by zebra mussels. But stocking fingerlings presents its own problems, as the DNR must first raise them to that size before stocking. Just-born walleyes are transferred from a DNR hatchery to a shallow, natural rearing pond. There are survival dangers there, too, but those that make it will grow during the open water months, to be recaptured with nets in the fall and stocked. Though fewer fingerlings are stocked, their odds of survival are higher than the zooplankton-dependent walleye fry. The stock-as-fingerlings process is more labor-intensive, and therefore more costly than stocking just-born walleye fry. “Good, strong year classes from walleye fry would definitely be more efficient,” Baird said. Also not to be ignored, fry born of the naturally reproducing walleyes in these lakes are also being lost to the zebra mussels’ appetite for zooplankton. Precisely how much zebra mussels can harm a natural walleye lake is still an open question, but this invasive is clearly emerging as a significant factor.
Eurasian watermilfoil
Don’t Forget About Your Boating Buddies... Get All Their Needs Right Here! Offering over 20
ALL NATURAL FOOD Check ou t
varieties for both dogs & cats!
& SPA
ou
r reptile
ply area
20 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
File photo / Forum News Service Zebra mussels, first found in Minnesota in the Duluth harbor in 1989, eventually overwhelm lake ecosystems, clinging to nearly every surface underwater, like this metal rod. A University of Minnesota study has found that a copper-based pesticide can kill the mussels while leaving native species unharmed.
p su
Some invasives are very visible, with effects far more apparent than others. Eurasian watermilfoil is native to Europe and Asia, and arrived in the United States in the early 1900s. Their arrival has been blamed on such vectors as ships’ ballast water - like zebra mussels - or domesticated aquarium plants escaping into the wild. Over a century they have found their way to our region and to Minnesota lakes. Their spread into our inland waters has been aided by plant fragments and seeds transported on boat trailers and in undrained live wells and boat bilges. Eurasian watermilfoil rises from roots at depths as great as 10 to 15 feet and can form dense mats at the surface - so dense that bass fishermen describe having to fish weighted jigs and rigs vertically to get their lure presentations down through the tangle to where the fish are. This invasive plant does provide cover and will hold fish, so fishing it purposefully can be an angling strategy. Some anglers credit Eurasian milfoil with producing bigger bass. But beyond a certain point, dense milfoil that dominates a lake will harm the food chain. It reduces sunlight penetration and can diminish the supply of aquatic invertebrates that nourish the young of both game and prey fish species. Anything that compromises the survival of immature fish is a net negative for a lake. When milfoil stems’ annual growth has not yet reached the surface, it’s possible to fish lures over the top with success. But when it has formed dense surface mats, anglers who fish top-water or shallow-running lures in the
“Your Lakes Area Pet Food Supplier
24463 Hazelwood Drive l Nisswa, MN
218.961.PETS (7387) • Spa 218-961-7389 wwww.nisswapets.com linda@nisswapets.com
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
conventional manner may find themselves Not only do spiny waterfleas eat the same zooplankton that newborn walleye fry do, harvesting milfoil instead of fish. It hardly but they’re a nuisance to fishermen. They can needs mention that its dense growth is also not collect in tackle-clogging masses on fishing welcomed by swimmers, wakeboarders, skiers lines, reels and line guides. Downriggers and or recreational boaters. anchor lines accumulate them, too. The most common Eurasian milfoil control The spiny waterflea is native to northern measures are poisons and mechanical Europe, and - like the zebra mussel - is thought harvesting. Both are expensive on a per-acre to have come to North America in the ballast basis, and neither has proven successful water of ocean-going cargo ships. And like the in eliminating milfoil once it’s established zebra mussel, it’s believed to have spread to and thriving. interior lakes primarily by hitchhiking on boats, Because the plant spreads from fragments trailers and gear that has not been thoroughly as well as from roots and seeds, mechanical dried before moving to another body of water. harvesting - though temporarily clearing an They were first reported in Lake Ontario in area - can actually create more milfoil growth 1982, had spread to Lake Superior by 1987, as broken fragments settle to the bottom and and are now found in 35 to 40 northern take root. Use of poisons has the potential to Minnesota lakes. Island Lake, near Duluth, is harm desirable non-target aquatic plants, too. believed to have the highest density of spiny The best solution might be natural or waterfleas of any body of water in North biological control. Research at the University Submitted photo America. They’re also found in such popular of Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Boaters are asked to clear plants and weeds from their border waters as Rainy Lake and Kabetogama, Research Center has found promise in an boats and trailers to avoid spreading aquatic invasive species to other bodies of water. where they’re believed to already be reducing aquatic insect, the native milfoil weevil. In its the growth rate of popular game fish. immature stage it attacks milfoil by burrowing Spiny waterflea Despite its newness as an invasive species into and consuming stem tissue. The spiny waterflea, like the zebra mussel, and its limited presence in Minnesota waters, According to the university’s website, plays a food chain disrupting role that can the spiny waterflea’s potential to become “milfoil weevils affect Eurasian watermilfoil reduce the survival of just-born fry of game fish, a serious problem should not be under-esmainly by boring through the stem and like walleyes, and young forage fish like perch. consuming the cortex. This results in “They definitely have the potential to timated. At this time there is no magic reduced plant buoyancy and accumulated negatively restructure the food chain that bullet, no known means of reducing their population once they’ve been introduced to a carbohydrate stores, which may ultimately supports game fish,” Baird said.. body of water. decrease overwinter survival ...” It’s barely visible, from one-quarter to just “Prevention is certainly our best opportunity But success in controlling milfoil by over a half-inch in length, with a tiny round this means depends on the weevil’s body and a thin, spiked tail. It is a zooplankton, to control them,” Baird said. The best defense is to thoroughly dry all abundance. The weevil also happens to but much larger than the nearly invisible boats, trailers and gear when moving from be a food item for a lake’s fish, including zooplankton it eats. A clump of a dozen or one body of water to another. middle-food-chain panfish. more could fit on a fingernail. Even more broadly, prevention is the best The weevil’s potential to control milfoil led Because of their spines they are believed defense against these and all Uncompromised invasives. Quality - Exceptio an Ohio firm to propagate and sell them forUncompromised 15 to be indigestible small fish that would Qualityto- Exceptional Value Since 1989 Uncompromised Quality Exceptional Value years, but it ceased operations five years ago. otherwise prey on them, and thus are Climate change Uncompromised Quality - Exceptional Value Since 1989 Since 1989 as the weather” Sinceis1989 Research continues, but for now biological without apparent natural predators to keep “Unpredictable a familiar control remains a hope rather than a reality. and universal expression. Fortunately, it has them in check.
Great Selection Huge Inventory Models from 14’-26’
Uncompromised Quality Exceptional Value Since 1989
Models From 14’ - 26’
Models From 14’ - 26’
Deep Discounts | Extended Warranties
Powered by
Save BIG $ Save BIG Save $$$$ BIG $$$$
Models From 14’ - 26’
Save BIG $$$$ Deep Discounts I Free Extended Warranties
Models From 14’ - 26’
Deep Discounts | Extended W
Deep Discounts | Extended Warranties Deep Discounts | Extended Warranties
Junctions Hwys 18 & 25, SE B 218-828-4728 OR Toll Free: 8 Junctions Hwys 18 & 25, SE Brainerd, MNHwys 18 & 25, SE Junctions Brainerd, MN WWW.BRAINERDSPORT 218-828-4728 OR Toll Free: 800-450-7669 218-828-4728 OR Toll Free: 800-450-7669 WWW.BRAINERDSPORTS.NET WWW.BRAINERDSPORTS.NET
Junctions Hwys 18 & 25 Where You Get The Best Deal Every Southeast Brainerd — TRADES WELCOME — Junctions Hwys 18You & 25, SE Brainerd, MN You Where Get The Best Deal Everytime Where Get The Best Deal Everytime 218-828-4728 Toll Free: 800-450-7669 218-828-4728OR OR Toll Free: 800-450-7669 — TRADES WELCOME —— TRADES WELCOME — WWW.BRAINERDSPORTS.NET WWW.BRAINERDSPORTS.NET
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Where You Get The Best Deal Everytime — TRADES WELCOME —
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 21
become less and less true as the science of meteorology has made future weather much more predictable. Death and disruption on the scale of the historic 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard is unlikely to ever again take us by surprise, thanks to our ability to predict future weather. Weather and climate are inextricably bound together. Climate’s factors of temperature, precipitation, air flow and even such seemingly distant influences as ocean currents combine to determine the day-to-day and year-to-year conditions we call weather. Politicians argue over terms like “global warming” and “climate change.” But changes in weather patterns that are actually measured and recorded by meteorological instruments tell a story that can’t be ignored. These changes are already having impacts on our fisheries. “This is especially true for our rivers and streams,” Baird said. “More and larger rain events are becoming a common pattern.” The summer of 2019 provides an example. “The Mississippi River remained above its normal flow for the entire summer,” he said. The upside of high water is easier navigation, “but high water can affect smallmouth bass spawning success, with poorer year class survival,” Baird said. In a cold water fishery, young stream trout suffer when large inflows of warmer runoff raise stream temperatures to unsurvivable levels and flush insects and other foods downstream. Warmer year-round average temperatures are leading to fewer days with ice covering our lakes. Some lakes in northern and central Minnesota are now averaging one less week of ice cover than the historical norm. Smaller lakes, in particular, are experiencing higher year-long average water temperatures. In the long term, this could lead to more bass and fewer walleyes - the fish many consider the holy grail of angling.
More angling hours?
Submitted photo Invasive species are a threat to our lakes and should be pulled from boats and trailers upon leaving a body of water.
One measure of angling pressure is hours spent on the water. Unlike hunting, some forms of which are in dramatic decline, Minnesota angler numbers have remained relatively constant. Some anglers are putting in substantially more time on the water. Or on the ice, as it so happens, with the most conspicuous evidence being seen in winter. It’s due in great part to a proliferation of pull-behind or “wheel house” style ice fishing shelters. The primitive, quaint, one-of-a-kind shacks seen in the movie “Grumpy Old Men” are becoming a rarity. Bright, shiny, streamlined structures pulled by pickups and SUVs are becoming the new normal in ice fishing. Equipped with appliances and amenities once found only in recreational vehicles or hotels, these angling shelters have become weekend cabins on ice, making fishing possible more or less around the clock. “There’s even a name by which some people describe this: the wheel house effect,” Baird said. While those who fish in these structures may also be doing other things - watching the Minnesota Vikings on satellite TV, for instance - the number of hours spent with lines in the water is believed to be significantly greater.
will survive. Water and air temperature, time spent out of water, where in its anatomy a fish is hooked, and the length of time from hooking to landing are important factors in the survival of released fish. Under ideal conditions, as few as 3%-5% of fish that are caught and released will die. But when air and water temperature are at mid-summer highs, and especially if fish are brought up from a great depth, as many as Management solutions not always welcomed 35%-40% may die after release. One of the consequences of angling Putting a fish back in the water makes us feel good, but the story doesn’t always end pressure can be changes in angling well for the fish. Anglers should do their best to regulations, changes that are not always well received. Regulations for 2020 for Minnesota’s control the mortality factors they can. ► Use tackle stout enough to land a fish highly popular and very accessible walleye destination, Lake Mille Lacs, are a quickly, rather than playing it to exhaustion. ► Limit the time a fish is spent out of water. case in point. Annual walleye harvest there is carefully Unless a fish truly merits immortalizing in a classically posed photo, consider a release monitored, one important reason being that this natural walleye lake’s harvest is divided without lifting it from the water. ► If it’s necessary to fish at extreme depth, between sport anglers and Native American consider keeping fish caught at those depths; treaty-allocated harvest. Sport harvest Fishing pressure or use a “descender” device, required in some includes both through-the-ice winter angling Baird also sees angling pressure as a factor offshore ocean fisheries, to return a fish to the and open-water harvest, both walleyes that that will have to be reckoned with. That may depth at which it was caught. are caught and kept, and the estimated loss seem a paradox when the catch-and-release ethic is so pervasive today. Bass, muskie and trout fishermen, in Contact the experienced team particular, are apt to keep few - if any at Ryan Tree & Landscape fish. Many anglers will snap a photo of a for your yard projects, including: particularly good specimen, then return their catch to the water. On some waters there are • SHORELINE RIP RAP & RESTORATION size restrictions, if not the catch-and-release • BOULDER RETAINING WALLS ethic, that limit what can be kept to maintain a • TREE PLANTING & REMOVAL healthy fish population.
Catch-and-release mortality
Unfortunately, the mere act of catching and releasing a fish can jeopardize its survival. Several factors play a role in determining whether a fish that is caught and released
22 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
218-820-1519 • www.ryantreeandlandscape.com 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
We’re Your Local
Submitted photo A happy angler shows off a prize catch.
due to hooking mortality. As early as late March, the Minnesota DNR had projected that a record winter ice fishing walleye harvest would influence open water regulations, which would be extremely restrictive. Due to this record winter harvest, walleye fishing during the open water season will be catch-and-release only, with no walleye-targeted fishing permitted in July. To enforce the latter rule, no live bait use will be permitted during July - a peak month for hooking mortality - with the exception of sucker minnows greater than 8 inches, which is thought to limit or eliminate the incidental hooking of walleyes on live bait. While some might argue that Mille Lacs angling rules could be more liberal if not for Native American netting harvest, the counter-argument is that any lake can sustain only so much harvest, and when that harvest reaches a sustainable limit - whether by catchand-keep, by netting, by hooking mortality or in combination - harvest pressure must be reduced if damage to a lake’s natural reproduction is to be avoided.
Technology and angler sophistication
Fishing pressure can also be a consequence of greater catching efficiency. Human nature motivates us to learn more and develop tools to be more successful in most things we do, including fishing. One can hardly argue against learning, and yet - as we become more successful anglers - we put more pressure on a lake’s fish population, particularly on smaller waters. Ever-more-sophisticated technologies help us find fish, which is the first step in catching them. If you ignore the mobility given us by outboard motors, technology’s pivotal role began in the late 1950s with Carl Lowrance’s Fish-Lo-K-Tor, the “green box” that took us beyond just lake maps to a real-time knowledge of the depths over which we were fishing. Combining depth knowledge with an 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
understanding of fish movement patterns made catching fish less of a random event. Much has changed since then. We’ve gone from a mere flash of light that revealed lake depth, to units that print out a depth chart on paper, to having the ability to precisely pinpoint and identify fish, that scan the bottom in multiple directions around our boat, give us 3-D underwater views, provide autopilot steering to maintain a route or keep us at a set fishing depth, mark “hotspots” and guide us unerringly back to them via GPS, and more. “In terms of technological aids to help us find fish, we’re certainly not where we were even 20 years ago,” Baird said.
On a bright note
Baird is realistic about the challenges that face fisheries professionals, but optimistic, too. It starts with understanding the status of our fisheries resources. “Minnesota has one of the most robust survey programs,” he said, “and we’re way ahead of most other states.” He cites ambitious plans for lake surveys during the open water season, intended to further refine the DNR’s knowledge of angler effort and success. Baird further points out that Minnesota is one of the biggest recipients of payments for fisheries management programs, received under the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act. Excise taxes paid with purchases of fishing tackle and related marine equipment are returned to the states based on their license sales, and Minnesota is perennially one of the biggest beneficiaries. Plus, fishing license revenues - the primary way that state fisheries programs are funded continue to hold steady. Not an entirely bad position if you’re a fisheries professional. u
Window Covering Design Experts High Style. Expert Service. No-Surprises Price. No Questions Asked Warranty.
25% off All Products Excluding Installation.
Schedule your FREE Consultation today! Jane and Michael Larsen Budget Blinds of Brainerd
844-7Blinds - 844-725-4637
www.budgetblinds.com/brainerd
Mike Rahn writes Inside the Outdoors, an outdoor column published in area publications, including the Pineandlakes Echo Journal.
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 23
‘Loon lady’ Sheila Johnston has passion to protect Gull Lake loons GCOLA programs aim to do just that
Ole and Lena spend a first day on the water with their chicks, Uno and Dos, on June 1, 2019.
Program, all for the Gull Chain of Lakes Association. Johnston is chair of GCOLA’s Sheila Johnston - known as “the loon lady” Environmental Committee. - was propelled to action to protect loons, Loon Caution Sign Program particularly on Upper Gull Lake, after a Johnston first wanted to place buoys in loon heartbreaking incident she witnessed several nesting areas to warn boaters, but learned she years ago. likely wouldn’t get permission to do so. Then she As she normally does, Johnston paddled her thought of signs. kayak out on the lake after the Fourth of July The first yellow sign with black letters holiday to see how the loons fared. A loon proclaiming, “Caution! Loon chicks ahead. Go familiar to Johnston - whom she’d named Lena slow!” went up in 2018. Now there are two - swam up to Johnston’s kayak and then over to signs on Lake Margaret with a third coming, some reeds. Johnston followed and discovered two on Upper Gull and one at the south end the loon’s chick floating in the reeds. It hadn’t of Gull. survived the holiday activity on the lake. “I definitely think they’re effective,” Johnston Johnston said Lena stayed near the chick for said. “I’ve actually been sitting there in my days, calling plaintively. kayak and have seen people see the sign, slow “Each time she called, my heart broke a little down and look for loons. I’ve heard kids read more,” Johnston wrote in an e-news story for the sign and say, ‘Slow down,’ and ‘Look for Minnesota Lakes & Rivers Advocates. loon chicks.’” That heart-wrenching experience prompted The program’s goal is to increase boater Johnston to actively seek ways to better awareness of adults and chicks in the chick protect loon chicks, who are at risk of getting rearing areas and to increase caution in run over by boats, and educate people who those areas. The lake association hopes more use the lakes about how their activities can residents near these areas will agree to post threaten loons. signs on their shorelines or docks, particularly Along with Jane Edwards, Johnston created near Point Narrows, entering Spider Lake, the Loon Caution Sign Program, the Loon-Safe Roy Lake and near chick rearing areas on Boating Program and the Loon Ambassadors Lake Margaret. BY NANCY VOGT
24 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
Sheila Farrell Johnston
GCOLA will provide the signs at no cost to association members and will help install them.
Loon-Safe Boating Program
One of the most common causes of loon deaths is collisions with watercraft. GCOLA’s Loon-Safe Boating Program has a goal to protect loons by educating boaters about safe boating practices near loons, chicks and nesting sites, and to promote a greater understanding of loons. To that end, in 2019, Johnston and Edwards developed postcards with tips for people to boat safely near loons. The card they use in May and June lists information about nesting loons and when chicks are first on the water. Boaters are asked to stay away from nesting sites so they don’t disrupt breeding, hatching and chick rearing. Then they switch to a card that has tips for safe boating near loons out on the open water, including to keep a safe distance from adults and chicks. The cards have pictures of chicks at different stages of development so people know what to look for. They give these postcards to boat rental businesses, Gull Lake area resorts and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gull Lake Recreation Area and campground to hand out to people. 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
1
2
June 1
4
3
July 22
August 4
5
August 9
6
August 9
October 20
Sheila Farrell Johnston 1) Lena deliver a minnow to chicks riding on Ole’s back. 2) Uno and Dos, at 6.5 weeks old, start transitioning to their flight feathers. 3) Uno pecks and bites Lena so she will feed him. 4) Lena feeds Uno at 9 weeks of age. 5) Ole is with Uno and Dos at 9 weeks of age. 6) Uno and Dos are together again shortly before migration.
Loon Ambassadors Program
especially if they have chicks. Chicks can’t Through the Loon Ambassadors Program, dive out of the way like adults can. ► Never separate loon families when volunteers welcome new neighbors and give them a folder with information about GCOLA boating or tubing, and don’t circle or chase loons with personal watercraft. and how to protect loons. “Be alert and give them space,” Loon survey Johnston said. GCOLA expanded its loon survey in 2019 to include a third survey. In June, volunteers look for occupied nests. In July, they count adults and chicks. And now they count the surviving chicks before they leave the area for winter. “It seems if they make it through the Fourth (of July), they’re likely to survive,” Johnston said of the chicks, citing predators and lead sinkers as other threats to chicks’ survival. The goal is to survey nesting sites throughout the Gull Lake Chain and identify reproductive success and survival. GCOLA hopes to protect nesting sites and support adult and chick survival with the survey information.
GET INVOLVED
Tips to keep loons safe
Johnston shared her own tips to keep her beloved loons safe: ► The best way to observe loons is with binoculars to give them a safe distance. ► Stay away from nesting loons. Even if you approach them in a kayak, they may abandon the nest. ► Don’t cast fishing line toward a loon nest. ► Slow down and give loons space, 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
A month-old chick stretches its wings.
Sheila Farrell Johnston
To get involved in the Gull Chain of Lakes Association’s loon protection programs, email Jane Edwards at jedwards3718@ gmail.com or Sheila Johnston at sheilafjohnston@me.com. Or visit gcola.org.
She encourages people to put out nesting platforms for loons, but said they must be in good repair and clean with fresh nesting material. Platforms can’t be too close to other nesting sites as loons can be territorial. People are required to register and tag platforms before putting them on the water. Platforms should be placed in locations where they will not be disturbed. Also be careful when fishing. “If you lose your line, pick it up,” she said, noting broken fishing line can get wrapped around a loon’s beak. “And if you’re paddling or boating and you see lost fishing line, pick it up.”
A passion for loons
“People call me ‘the loon lady,’” said Johnston, who lives with her husband, Doug, on Upper Gull in Lake Shore. “Loons will pop up right next to my kayak because they know me.” She isn’t hard to spot. She wears a pink hat and pink life jacket for visibility, and her kayak is white with lavender trim. She’s been known to yell at boaters to stay away from loons if they are getting too close, so a friend gave her a megaphone last summer. Johnston’s passion for loons began when she was a child visiting Gull Lake during the summers. She remembers hearing the loons from her cabin at night and seeing them during the day. Since moving to the area full time in Loons continued on page 47
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 25
Paddlin’ Along
Each event organized by the Crow Wing Paddlers will see a dozen or more people in kayaks or on paddleboards take to an area river or stream.
Submitted photo
Crow Wing Paddlers enter eighth year
but one in eight years - I’m still going to go.” Assuming individuals already have the necessary equipment, there is no cost to The Crow Wing Paddlers Club has provided participate. Any equipment needed - including lake goers plenty of opportunities to enjoy area paddles and life preservers - can be rented lakes and rivers from a kayak or paddleboard. from Bergquist’s store, often at half-price if used Now in its eighth year, the club is for these events. going strong. Moving forward, the “I had gotten the idea “I just came up with this idea of, ‘You give me coordinator hopes to add of starting a paddling club your email and you’re in the paddling club.’ … more of an educational aspect because my vision has been to to events - including topics spread the sport of paddling,” It’s open-ended, and it is open to anybody. If such as fishing from kayaks, club coordinator Jim Bergquist bird-watching and foraging for said. “I figured if I spread you come, you can bring somebody else edible plants. the sport of paddling, we’re without telling me about it.” He hopes to line up an going to do OK. We’re the overnight trip, where paddlers only ones around here doing it Jim Bergquist, Crow Wing Paddlers Club coordinator would likely camp on the island and then you just meet people between Upper and Lower and you get to experience all the different waterways around you. It’s just a trips throughout Crow Wing and Cass Whitefish lakes. counties from May through October. At the Regardless, the club expects to have plenty win-win situation.” Bergquist - owner of Crow Wing Kayaks time of publication, no 2020 events had of activities planned to provide an enjoyable and relaxing experience. and Wind, Water and Wheels in Crosslake - been planned. “Some are hard, some are easy,” Bergquist “It’s such a different pace of life,” Bergquist believes he reaches roughly 300 people with his club emails. He also believes he coordinates said. “Some are long, some are short. We just said. “It’s kind of a neat sport because you can tried to make it so that everybody can find a do it in a group, but you’re still by yourself. one of the largest paddling clubs in the state. You’re still on your own. We figured out in “I didn’t look into many other paddling paddle or two that they would want to do. “You don’t even have to tell me (if you are the river, there’s plenty of room in the river to clubs,” he said. “I think a lot of them do it differently than I do. I didn’t want a club where coming along), because I’m going. If I’m the do what you want to do. I find it extremely I have to keep track of the members and collect only one there - and I have been on every one therapeutic.” BY DAN DETERMAN
26 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
dues. I just came up with this idea of, ‘You give me your email and you’re in the paddling club.’ … It’s open-ended, and it is open to anybody. If you come, you can bring somebody else without telling me about it.” In 2019, the club embarked on 15 paddling
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
For Bergquist, spearheading the club provides a better perspective for someone in the business of kayaks and paddleboards. “First of all, it’s educational for me, because it’s rivers and places I want to know about for work,” Bergquist said. “Secondly, it just makes it worthwhile for me. If I just sit here the whole time, working … These are the kinds of things I want to do. “We’re not a high-end racing club. That isn’t me. This suits the waters around here and it suits our kayaks. You don’t take them out on Lake Superior, and please don’t take them down whitewater. They’re just handmade … this works for us.” One success of the club in recent years has been the Paddle to the Moon and Back event, which sees paddlers trek an area lake under a full moon. “Three years ago, I had set up a night paddle. I found a night of the full moon and I thought, ‘Hey, this would be cool.’ So I put it as one of our regular events. We did it on a small lake between Crosslake and Jenkins. About 30-some people showed up, and they just loved it. It was a perfect night.” After a few successful night trips - growing in numbers to 100 paddlers last year Bergquist decided to open the event to the whole community as a benefit. In the event’s first year, proceeds went to help fund some costs of the new Crosslake Community School building. Since then, and for the foreseeable future, proceeds go to Saving Hearts for Suicide Prevention. “Unfortunately, that is always going to be an issue,” Bergquist said of suicide. “It covers all races, age groups and communities.” This year’s Paddle to the Moon and Back event is tentatively scheduled to take place Thursday, Aug. 6. Paddlers will take off from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Campground in Crosslake and paddle to Moonlite Bay before returning south, ideally with the moon shining on their faces. “So this year, we’re going to do it on the night of a full moon,” Bergquist said. “We have a lot of people that want to support this group, but they don’t necessarily want to paddle, so they meet us at the bar … I don’t know what the largest paddling event in Minnesota is, but I would like to someday see if we could get 500 paddlers and raise money for a good cause.” Those looking to join the club or take part in a paddle can find more information on the Crow Wing Paddlers’ Facebook page. u
Dan Determan is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5879 or dan.determan@ pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Dan.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
“It’s such a different pace of life. It's kind of a neat sport because you can do it in a group, but you're still by yourself. You're still on your own. ... I find it extremely therapeutic.” Jim Bergquist, Crow Wing Paddlers Club coordinator
Submitted photos The typical summer schedule for the Crow Wing Paddlers will have more than a dozen events in which paddlers can participate, spanning several locations in both Crow Wing and Cass counties. The event schedule has something for everyone, with varying degrees of length and difficulty.
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 27
Lake home owners love purple martins That feeling is mutual
Submitted photo Unlike many birds, purple martins thrive in the presence of humans in part for protection against predators and in part due to the houses they have come to depend on
BY TRAVIS GRIMLER
People who spend time on any big lake likely notice birdhouses of a particular nature - that is, large houses that look like bird hotels with many “doors” to “rooms” and several levels. These houses are a labor of love that provide homes for purple martins, a variety of bird that humans have long admired. Larry Leonard, of Brainerd, has had purple martin houses since 1975. He maintains houses with 40 pairs of martins on his own property, as well as colonies on the Central Lakes College Campus in Brainerd, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Campground in Crosslake and the Brainerd Lakes Visitor Center on Highway 371 south of Brainerd. He’s been a valuable source of information for others establishing their own colonies. He enjoys seeing other colonies, such as one in Audubon, Minnesota, where a house boasts 250 cavities. “It’s right on the highway next to the liquor store,” Leonard said. “Usually I go there every year and sit and watch for a while and see how active that house is.” According to Birdwatching.com, the tradition of humans providing houses for
28 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
“We know that in the early 1930s, they were still nesting on Hennepin Island, which is a small island on Lake Mille Lacs, and they were nesting among the rocks and boulders there. Nobody ever went back there to see when they stopped doing that, but they certainly haven’t been doing it any time recently,” North said. “Mike Loss, a retired DNR wildlife technician, has a recollection of purple martins nesting in tree cavities, woodpecker cavities and trees in his yard in about 1965, and there is some evidence that maybe some purple martins are still nesting on the rock cliffs that sit above Winona. That needs to be verified.” This means martins are dependent upon people during their nesting period. “Purple martins used to nest in trees, and in the entire eastern United States it’s considered that they’ve abandoned natural habitats for nesting and are strictly limited to houses,” North said. “There’s a couple exceptions, but they are reliant on human beings for their nest structures now.” Once the young are able to leave the nest, Nesting habits change purple martins return to natural habitats for At some point, humans inadvertently roosting and foraging; but until then, they live changed the birds’ nesting habits, and now closely with human neighbors. purple martins in Minnesota are believed to have completely abandoned natural nesting Threats to martins Because they nest exclusively in human-built sites in favor of the human built houses. purple martins started with Native American tribes, such as the Choctaw and Chickasaw, who mounted gourds on poles for the birds to inhabit. “One of the thoughts is that Native Americans would put up gourds around their cornfields because martins would exclude red-winged blackbirds and blue jays and crows from raiding the corn,” said Michael North, regional forest wildlife habitat coordinator with the Department of Natural Resources. “It’s kind of a way of the Natives using nature to protect their crops from other species.” Settling Europeans quickly adopted the practice and likely were responsible for starting the trend of building elaborate, miniature models of extravagant homes with decorative architecture and many openings for the birds. Extravagant purple martin houses built for entire colonies are still something to behold, though gourd shaped homes are becoming popular again.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
dwellings, purple martins are susceptible to threats that come with human-built shelters, such as threats from other birds. Both starlings and house sparrows compete for nesting space and will kill purple martins. North believes these birds invading commercially available houses, along with the chemical compound DDT and other threats, may have contributed to a decline in purple martin population. A decrease in available human-built housing may have contributed, North said, since the birds depend so much on human interaction now. There may be contributing factors in the Amazon where purple martins spend their winters, but that impact is less known. Another threat is due to sanitation issues. If not regularly cleaned out, houses can develop mites and various fly larvae.
Purple martin population
Though the purple martins’ large dwellings and colonies may make them seem quite abundant, they have actually experienced a sharp decline in population. “Populations have declined considerably,” North said. “Probably in a magnitude of 70-80% decline and they continue to decline across a lot of their range.” Homeowners near bodies of water can help by keeping martin houses. Martins enjoy broad, open areas with good foraging, such as marshes, bays and other wide open areas at least 40-50 feet square. The house should be located in the center of the opening, or on the end of a long pier or dock. Martins prefer the safety provided by having a human dwelling within 100 feet. It’s not as simple as just putting up any house. Because people are now responsible for the birds’ nesting habitat, North asks that those who decide to keep houses for purple martins do some research to assure the houses they put up are appropriate. “One thing I would discourage people from doing is going out and buying a metal house from a hardware store or big box retailer,” North said. “Those are better habitat for starlings and house sparrows and squirrels, which are competitors with martins. They’re harmful to martins rather than beneficial.”
Submitted photo Groups that are dedicated to the well-being of purple martins also help to band and monitor them. Here you can see the purple martins have blackish feathers that shine blue/purple in the light.
“People have to try to keep the colonies closed early in the season when starlings and house sparrows are most apt to take over,” North said. “(They should not) open their houses until the martins are back, and that can be kind of tricky. But there’s experts to help figure out how to do that.” “The biggest problem with most houses that people build by themselves is that they don’t build big enough cavities for the birds,” Leonard said. “The recommended cavity is 6 by 6 by 11 inches so that the birds can build their nest way to the back. That will save them from predators that like to get up on the nest sometimes and reach in and grab the young birds.” People should take precautions against pests as well. “They all need to be maintained, and people that are really into raising purple martins will often get in there and clean the houses out a couple of times a week and put in fresh bedding to make sure there’s no fly larvae or parasites,” North said. “That doesn’t hurt the young birds to be handled and have their nest boxes replaced with fresh nesting material. They get used to it. But once the birds are about 3 weeks old, it’s time to stop handling them because it can cause them to fledge prematurely at that point.”
Those who want to provide a home for nesting purple martins can certainly build houses from scratch. “I started by just building a purple martin house in about 1975,” Leonard said. “I started with the martin house they had plans for in Woodworking for Wildlife, a DNR magazine.” Because of quality needs, building houses can be as expensive as buying them. “The Conservation Association sells plans to build them,” Leonard said. “The plans aren’t too expensive. I built two or three from the plans, but I found that you end up spending more money than if you just went and bought one with the quality of cedar you get where half of it is waste.” There might not be any financial benefit for building houses, but they should be decent quality, attractive to purple martins and constructed with safety and sanitation in mind. Some kits come highly recommended. North and Leonard recommend looking for houses that come highly recommended by experienced martin fanatics. They especially recommend houses from the Purple Martin Conservation Association in Pennsylvania. Among the Purple Martin Working Group, T14 houses are recommended, though they are more expensive than the gourd houses the PMCA sells. Those interested in maintaining purple martin houses should also consider the weight of those houses if they were to fall and the strength of the poles they are mounted on, as some houses could cause significant injuries.
Attracting purple martins
Once the dwelling is ready, there are some steps that can be taken to attract purple martins. “Enjoying Purple Martins More,” by Richard A. Wolinski, says adult male and female martins, called scouts, arrive at colony sites first in April. Martins continued on page 48
Hosting a house
Keeping purple martins is an active hobby. Those who choose to keep martin houses should take the responsibility seriously by taking an active role in guarding them from pests and competing birds.
Submitted photo Purple martins live in colonies. They nest in large groups and travel in large groups using the approach of safety in numbers.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 29
FEATURE
Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal Bicyclists stopped at the Department of Natural Resources public access near Nisswa Lake Park to enjoy a view of Nisswa Lake.
Smile(y) when you’re in Nisswa How did Nisswa Lake get its name? BY TRAVIS GRIMLER
It is often the case that a town founded on the shore of a lake might take the name of that lake. In the case of Nisswa, the town actually had the name before the lake did. According to local historians, it was a real process getting there. Records from the Nisswa Area Historical Society say the community that became Nisswa started with a nucleus centered around the site of a logging camp run by Web Hill, a teamster for the Gull River Lumber Company. The camp was located on the shore of what is now Nisswa Lake. At that time there was no lake or town named Nisswa, at least not according to any official maps. The lake was Middle Fish Trap Lake to some, and Three Mile Lake to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maps since 1895. It received the name Three Mile Lake because it was three miles from the John Bishop halfway house on the Gull-Round thoroughfare. The community itself was Smiley Township after the founder, Ernest E. Smiley, who moved
30 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
into the area in 1896. Smiley was responsible for the first mail and train stop in the township. He erected a loading platform in 1897. Because all of this was on Smiley’s land, it received his last name. If it weren’t for Leon Lum, a lawyer from Brainerd, the community might be known differently today, perhaps still as Smiley. Lum was a wealthy, though reportedly eccentric, individual. He was well respected, considered kind and generous, but odd. He had a summer cabin on what would be Lake Nisswa. And he admired the local community a great deal. “The Oldtimers” book by Carl A. Zapffe says Lum petitioned the U.S. Postal Service to change the name of the Smiley Post Office to Nisswa, and he succeeded on March 25, 1908. There are several theories why, but Dick Carlson, curator for the Nisswa Area Historical Society, said in Ojibwe the name translates closely to “three.” Carlson suggests that Lum had chosen the Ojibwe word because the Ojibwe used waterways as their main form of transportation, the lake was significant, and Lum may have wanted to reflect that.
“The reason the lakes were renamed was Leon Lum, who was a big civic activist here. He didn’t like the names of Upper, Middle and Lower Fish Trap Lake because he felt it should be something more that talked to our heritage and that type of thing,” Carlson said. “Nisswa was chosen because it means ‘three’ in Ojibwe. The reason it’s three is the Native Americans. All lakes are important to them because the Ojibwe, unlike other tribes in the United States, were not pony Indians, they were canoe Indians.” The name was somewhat a mistranslation, however. Zappfe says the correct word was “nisswi” or “nisswae.” Zappfe said the word in its current form was part of a larger description or expression explaining the lake’s location. “‘Nisswa’ was but part of a longer expression the Indians used to describe the fact that Hill’s stopping place was just three miles north of Bishop’s halfway house,” Zappfe wrote. In a way, it’s still Three Mile Lake. The name might otherwise simply be a reference to its placement among the group of three lakes. Regardless of the actual reason, Lum didn’t stop with the post office. According to “Once in a Hundred Years,” the Nisswa Centennial book by Earl C. Leslie, Lum filed 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
7 54
Iguadona Lake
84
Little Boy
Woman Lake
Thunder Lake
NISSWA LAKE
ensack
Island Lake
55
NISSWA AREA
Lake Wabedo
Lake George
47
8
Washburn Lake
49
87
160
ackus
Blind
84
1
Pistol
43
Clough
Mitchell
56
Eagle
Squaw
Kego
54
Blue Anna
Eagle Norway
84
371 2
1
Fifty Lakes
134
1
Butterfield
Big Trout
Duck
1
Ruth
Emily Emily
Sand
Birchdale
Ox
1
Lower Whitefish
15
371
16
15
Bertha
39
Pine
Fawn
112
3
Pi
11
1
Loon
168
371 East Twin
Mayo
Upper
Nisswa Nisswa Roy
30
Miller
13 Hubert
115
Little Hubert
Round Lake
Bass
3 Crystal
Riverton
Merrifield
127
Sorenson
115 119
North Long Lake
Black Hoof
128
Campbell
12
12
210
Hamlet
102
25
Lookout
125
8
133
Gilbert
77
77
20
Red Sand
371 Whipple Location: Nisswa, Crow Wing County 18
Sylvan
Rice
142
r
159
Gu
Deepest Point: 23 feet
23 144 24
123 Defining Characteristics: Nisswa Lake is part 5 Chain of Lakes and is accessed ay of the Gull sw Russell resNisswa Fire Department hosts Hardy from Roy Lake. The South Long Lake through a channel its annual Ice Fishing p x E n 25 officially opened in 2019 on Derby on this lake in Februaryunas ya a fundraiser. Nisswa Lake Park B 21 ul Nisswa Lake, as did a Department of Natural Resources public access. 371 Pa 144 22 CROW WING Fish Species: Black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, brown44 bullhead, green sunfish, hybrid STATE PARK sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, tullibeev (cisco), walleye, r ve Ri pi yellow bullhead, yellow perch, bowfin (dogfish), common carp, white sucker, Johnny darter, sip s 121 i ss Mi er mimic shiner, spottail shiner. Nokasippi Riv 131
Mud
169
Partridge
PortageDNR public access offTurtle Public Water Accesses: One Hazelwood Drive.
18
Round
18
Grave Rice From the Highway 371-County Road 18 stoplight, go west on Colonel Thorp Lane and turn right on Hazelwood Drive for .16Scott mile:10 1 concrete slab ramp, 1 gravel parking lot, 3 vehicle/ trailer parking spaces, 1 dock, 1 restroom. Borden
8
INTERESTING FACT: The Carl A. Zappfe “Old Timers II” book has historic maps from U.S. Army Special Agent William McAboy showing the old Leech Lake Road and the lakes along that route. The map displayed Nisswa Lake very differently than today, split in half with a Garrison narrow river connecting the two pieces.26Whether this is due to a change in topography since 22 Mille Lacs Lake Mille Lacs then or poor cartography is anyone’s guess. Lake 8 Source: Minnesota DNR
169 2
pi
Ri
ip
5 g Da ett B g
Sebre
ok ro
To L i
Fort Ripley
Birch
10
8
2 Round
21
11
23
131
121 ve 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com 2 r
Crooked
Invasive Species: Zebra mussels
18
48
Nokay
Twin Island
159
Baxter 48
Tame Fish
Bay Lake
Clearwater 124
Mud
Brainerd
ive
ll R
25
White Sand
Area: 219.3 acres 210 Shore Length:36 2.78 miles
14
210
49 Mud
kas No
Lone Lake
28
102
2
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 31
White Fish
Section Twelve Lake Elm Island Lake
Farm Island Lake
Eagle
146
Crow Wing
10
6
Horseshoe
Wise
Wilson Bay
CAMP RIPLEY NATIONAL GUARD RESER VATION
169
Wolf
77
Pillager
Hanging Kettle Lake Ripple Lake 12
Portage
Hartley
Pillager
Nord Lake
28
28
126
PILLSBU RY STATE FOREST
Cedar Lake
Deerwood
Serpent Lake
Ironton
Sissabagamah Lake
111
210
Fawn
3 127
Agate
Crosby
Aitkin
30
Carlson
31
Menomin
Black Bear
19 4
Gladstone
15
32 East Rabbit
West Rabbit
116
Mollie
137
371
ock
11
Lake Edward
13
1
11
Lower Mission
Perch
Garden
Clark
Gull Lake
77
Upper Mission
19
Markee
118
Upper Gull
77
Bass
109
iver
pi R
issip
Miss
Lougee
Lower
Margaret
6
Fool
Little Pelican
105 141
109
107
107
Lake Shore
Pelican Lake
French Lake Nelson
Lower Dean
CROW WING STATE FOREST
Horseshoe
4
llen CuMiddle
West Twin Edna
29
Breezy Point
Perry r ive
R ne Pi
Lizard
Pequot Lakes
Sibley
Gu
105
Goggle
ne Riv er
Blind Lake
Stark
Upper Dean
114
1
Ross
Adney
11 11
Upper Loon
3
Rogers
36
36
Greer
29
36
O'Brien
36
103
103 Ossawinnaamakee
3
Mud
Dolney
3
Crosslake
Duck
17
17
66
Island
Star
Kimball
Clear Lake
Upper Hay 16
112
Clamshell
16 Grass
145
Jenkins
Cross Lake
Ideal Corners
Lower Hay
Bass
106
Goodrich
tt gge Da
Rush
Waukenabo Lake Round Lake
Snodgrass
Pickeral
Little Pine
Mud Lake
Upper Whitefish
Esquagamah Lake
Lows Mary
1
Manhattan Beach
Arrowhead
Pine River
6
West Fox
Swanburg
169
Little Pine
Papoose
Horseshoe
ed
Morrison
Lawrence
Roosevelt
136
Jail Lake 56
Lizzie
29
Outing
48
Hattie
58
Lake Leavitt
48
Lake Ada
Lind Lake
VITAL STATISTICS
54
84
Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal Boaters on Gull Lake can use these public docks on Nisswa Lake to park and then walk through Nisswa Lake Park and through the tunnel to downtown Nisswa to spend time.
a form with the state of Minnesota on March 5, 1921, to have a section of Smiley Township platted as a new town, called Nisswa. Zapffe’s book says Lum’s original plat wasn’t immediately adopted, though it did help to shape some of the streets. “In 1946 when the entire Township organization finally did become the specific Village of Nisswa, it’s coverage overflowed Lum’s neat little plat by a factor of some 100 times,” Zapffe wrote. Lum worked to have the local railroad stop renamed as well. The stop had to be moved in 1909 due to a dip in the grade in its prior location and when it did, up went the new name. Years later the lake finally got its new name. The Corps of Engineers officially changed the name of the lake on its maps to “Nisswa” after 1911, according to Zapffe. Lum was well regarded in the area. He died March 18, 1926, while shoveling snow at his home. A lifelong bachelor, Lum didn’t have a wife or children to pass his wealth to, but instead bequeathed more than a dozen women he had dated throughout his lifetime $1,000 each. Under “relationship” he called them “stranger.” If the name Lum sounds familiar, that’s because Lum Park on Rice Lake in Brainerd was named after him, proving that his influence did not stop in Nisswa. Many of the nearby lakes also changed names, such as Upper Fish Trap, which became
32 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal Upon docking a boat on Nisswa Lake at the park, signs point people toward downtown Nisswa, accessed via the tunnel under Highway 371.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal This bench at Nisswa Lake Park allows people a quiet place to sit to enjoy a sunset over Nisswa Lake.
Clark Lake after Col. Freeman Woodward Thorp’s son, Clark. Thorp brought his son to the area in the spring of 1894 by recommendation of doctors who thought the environment might help Clark Leonard Thorp, who was dying of tuberculosis. The colonel had the lake name changed in honor of his son. It goes to show there is a lot of history behind the names of many area lakes. u Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-8555853 or travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Travis.
Nancy Vogt / Echo Journal A trail looping around Nisswa Lake Park goes past this outdoor classroom and the picnic pavilion. People can access the park by boat by tying up to public docks at the park
Police Officer & Teacher Loyalty Program offered.
Your Chair Awaits!
10424 Squaw Point Rd, East Gull Lake, MN 56401 • erniesongull.com • 218-829-3918
nt Ready for a differe type of agent?
Angela Sherack REALTOR
HENRY’S WOODWORKING
218.838.4494 AngelaSherack@gmail.com
Rough Kitchen & Bath Cabinets • Furniture Custom Small Batch Interior Pine Doors Sawn M-F 7:30-4:30, Sat By Appointment Only, Closed Sun
218-587-4899 • www.henryswoodworking.com 4 miles N on Cass Cty 42, Pine River • henryswoodworking@tds.net
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
NextHome Horizons 13432 Elmwood Drive, Suite 5, Baxter, MN 56425
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 33
FEATURE
Owen Baird/ DNR Fisheries A rainbow trout caught from a Brainerd area lake.
Trout fishing gains foothold in area BY DAN DETERMAN
It should be no surprise that fishing is one of the most popular outdoor activities in the area. Walleye, bass and panfish all have their fans, but various trout species have garnered a number of devoted anglers as well. “It’s a smaller group of anglers then, say, those fishing walleye or panfish, but there is definitely a good number of trout anglers in the area, and they are pretty dedicated to that,” said Owen Baird, fisheries management specialist at the Department of Natural Resources Brainerd office. “When fishing for trout, you are probably going to be on small and mid-sized streams or smaller lakes that don’t have a lot of development.” “I like the solitude that it affords,” trout fisherman and area Scout master Denton Newman Jr. said. “A lot of people don’t trout fish, so it doesn’t seem as crowded. It just seems
34 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
more basic. Instead of the electronics (used in most modern fishing), you don’t use a depth finder, and you don’t need a boat or any of that stuff. It’s like a return to basic fishing.” Baird said some of the best trout fishing can be found on some of the mine pit lakes in the Crosby area, many of which the DNR has stocked. However, several northern Crow Wing County lakes - including Big Trout Lake on the Whitefish Chain and Strawberry Lake in Ideal Township - house trout as well. They can also be found in various area streams, including Stony Brook in Lake Shore. “That stream is almost 20 miles long and most of the trout are in the lower few miles of the stream, just before it goes into upper Gull Lake,” Baird said. “That is all wild brook trout and brown trout - all naturally reproduced fish in there.” Primarily in the Crosby area, some area lakes have been stocked with rainbow, lake
and brown trout. “Some of (the lakes), we stock with more of a fingerling size and then they grow a bit before being targeted by anglers,” Baird said. “In others, we stock yearlings that are more catchable right away … We hope that, in the future, these lake trout we’re stocking will start reproducing and we will be able to stop stocking at some point.” Part of the appeal of trout fishing is the variety of ways an angler can pursue them. “They can be pursued in a lot of different ways, from pretty fancy fly fishing to using bait such as corn and marshmallows,” Baird said. “There is quite a range of approaches people use. A lot of times, they can all be pretty good, too.” Newman has taken to fly fishing for trout. He serves as an instructor for the fishing merit badge for Scouts, but when some of his Scouts wanted to try fly fishing, he decided to sit in 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Denton Newman Jr. (Left) Denton Newman Jr., of Backus, shows a 12-inch brook trout he bagged with a brook trout wet fly streamer and fly rod. (Right) A Brainerd lakes area trout stream in summer.
“It’s a smaller group of anglers then, say, those fishing walleye or panfish, but there is definitely a good number of trout anglers in the area, and they are pretty dedicated to that.” Owen Baird, DNR fisheries management specialist with them during instruction. “I had thought about taking up fly fishing when I was about 16, and I never got around to it,” Newman said. “When I sat in on that merit badge instruction, I thought maybe I could find a used fly rod at a flea market or garage sale and try this out. I found one for five bucks so I bought it, cleaned it up, bought some flies and just went and tried it, and I really enjoyed it.” When fishing in a lake stocked for trout, there is a very good chance that is the only type of fish to catch, as other predatory species tend to make life difficult for trout. “Trout do best when they don’t have any other fish in the lake with them,” Baird
said. “They don’t do well with competition or predation. An ideal trout lake doesn’t really have much for other fish. They can do pretty well just eating the different insects in the water.” Those interested in taking up fly fishing should find the initial costs to get started are manageable, but shouldn’t expect to master the craft right away. “At the beginning. I found it relatively hard to catch any large trout,” Newman said. “I started out with little 6- or 7-inch brook trout and brown trout. Eventually I got good enough and figured out where the trout are.” To find ideal trout locations, Newman said it is all a matter of reading the water.
“There are certain spots in streams where you can find trout and certain spots where you’ll never find one,” Newman said. “In a stream, they are just like us. They don’t want to be working all the time - exercising to stay in one place and fighting the current - so they will find places to hide, where they are not in the current. That’s where they’ll sit and wait for food to drift by. They’re smart.” Trout season runs through the end of September in the lakes area. u Dan Determan is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5879 or dan.determan@ pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Dan.
Check Us Out On Facebook
FOR MASS SCHEDULES & UPCOMING EVENTS VISIT
www.crosslakecatholic.com 218-692-3731 All Visitors Welcome
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Custom Slaughtering & Processing Farm Animals • Wild Game Homemade Sausage & Jerkies • Smoking Monday-Saturday 8am - 5pm For After Hours & Emergency Butchering Call Dave & Jan Schmid 218-947-4960 or 218-820-3702
218-947-4220
www.backuslocker.com 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 35
FEATURE
Submitted photo A lakeside view of Clamshell Beach Resort on Clamshell Lake on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes.
New resort owners carry on tradition Pedersons buy Clamshell Beach Resort a fresh new perspective and enthusiasm. They also have great kids, who will continue the (resort tradition).” It was a perfect fit. The tradition at Clamshell Beach started in After 23 years of working hard to build up 1939, when it was founded by Henry Ecklund, Clamshell Beach Resort, David and Lisa Moe a single man who quickly discovered the were looking for new owners who would challenges of taking care of a resort. He sold continue the tradition while adding a fresh the resort that same year to Carl and Lillian perspective to the business. Olson, who resold their four framed cabins to They found those owners in Kris and George and Agnes Johnson in 1941. George Jenna Pederson. put his masonry talents to work at Clamshell “David and Lisa really wanted to sell Beach, including adding the resort to us because stucco siding to the cottages we have many things in “We love the area, and both of our families are and building the grand rock common,” Jenna said. “They wall at the lakeshore. were looking for someone still here, so it’s great to be back. We’re also George and Agnes’s with management and excited that (Clamshell Beach Resort) has a cool son, Rollie, was a popular development experience, fishing guide. When Rollie and we have that family tradition. Almost everyone has a family went off to war in 1944, experience.” connection with the resort. That’s why we have a he sent his service money Jenna and Kris became familiar with the tourism lot of multigenerational families who stay here.” home for his mom and dad to save. Instead of saving, world with their part-time they invested the money in jobs while attending Pequot Jenna Pederson, resort owner with her husband, Kris the resort and when Rollie Lakes High School. returned home, they told him “We were familiar with hospitality jobs growing up in the Brainerd the day-to-day problem solving. I’m a planner his “investment” now made him part owner area,” Kris said. “Jenna worked with lodging who likes to plan for tomorrow while Jenna’s of the resort. His “investment” was clearly (accommodations) at a resort and I grew putting out the fires today. She’s quick to come evident as a 14-unit seasonal mobile home park was added. up working at a golf course. So we had up with solutions.” That partnership should lead to success Rollie helped run the resort with George and backgrounds in renting rooms and booking as new owners of Clamshell Beach Resort, Agnes until they had to sell the resort because tee times.” They both left the area after graduation in located on the shores of Clamshell Lake on the of George and Agnes’ ill health. In 1964, the resort was sold to Harry and Ruth Smith, 1998, but they continually built a resume that south side of the Whitefish Chain of Lakes. “(The Pedersons) will be great,” David who then sold it two years later to Bob and would be ideal for resort ownership. “My dad, Joe Re, was co-owner of Superior Moe said. “They bring experience, plus Fran Lorenzen. This was a time when seasonal 36 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com BY PETE MOHS
Shores Resort in Two Harbors,” Jenna said. “That’s how I became involved working at the resort. So I’ve been in customer service all of my life.” Kris also became involved with Superior Shores when Re approached him about co-managing the business in 2013. “I enjoyed that experience over the past six years,” Kris said. “I liked having the opportunity to build a team that works together. My focus is more behind the scenes while Jenna likes
Leech Lake
64
Leech Lake
371
WHITEFISH CHAIN Walker
CROSSLAKE AREA
371
200
34 Ten Mile Lake
66
Nevis
Crosslake
Akeley
6
12
200
VITAL STATISTICS
3
34
Laura Lake
Longville
5
36
7 7
54
Iguadona Lake
84
Little Boy
Woman Lake
Thunder Lake
Hackensack
87 30 20
FOOT HILLS STATE FOREST
43
16
Bertha
10
10 103
90 70
Lower 10 Whitefish
Mayo
West Twin Edna
15
88
40
80
29
107
Lower
46
70
Upper Gull
Lake Shore
Nisswa Roy
77
13
Clamshell Lake
15 30
10
24
60
66
55
Upper Whitefish
24
50 40
126 Hartley
125
77
70
40
60
86
50
Pillager
10
10
Whipple
CROW WIN STAT FORE Fool
11
Lougee
19
Perch
NisswaLength: 32.2 miles miles. Shore Garden Clark
r ive
R ne
Lower Mission
116 30
Miller
Lake Edward
Deepest Point: 138 feet. 13
Menomin
Black Bear
19
Mollie
3
128
Riverton
210
Public Access to119Whitefish: 3 miles North 25 North Long Lake and East of Jenkins on Co Rd 15, then 0.75 mile East on Jenkins TwpHorseshoe Rd. Wise Facilities: 1 concrete ramp, 25 vehicle/ 146 210 trailer parking49spaces, 1 dock, 1 toilet. Gilbert Mud 142 (Other sites on the individual lakes) 25 77 Rice
Black Hoof
CROW WING STATE PARK r ive iR pp ssi ssi Mi
12
10
102
159 Mud
20
371Species: Zebra mussels Invasive
Twin Island
Brainerd
159
Fish to catch: black bullhead, black Baxterbluegill, brown bullhead, crappie, 210 23 48 burbot, 48 green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, lake 144 whitefish, largemouth bass, northern 123 5 pumpkinseed, rock ay pike, northern sunfish, sw Russell res Hardy South Long Lake p xsmallmouth bass, tullibee (cisco), bass, E n 25 ya un walleye, yellow bullhead, yellow perch, B 21 ul 371 Pa bowfin (dogfish), greater redhorse, 144 22 44 redhorse, shorthead redhorse, silverv redhorse, smallmouth buffalo, white 121 sucker. er Nokasippi Riv 131
Crow Wing Mud
23
131 Source: Lake-Link; Minnesota Department of Natural Resources LakeFinder 2
121
Round
21 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 37 5 g Da ett B g
Sebre
ok ro
tl e F To L it
Fort Ripley
kas No
ip
2
pi Ri
ver
Lake Alexander
Iro
W
White Sand
145
Lower Hay Lake
10
Shamineau Lake
15
Pi
8
18
G
24 8
16
50 40
Goggle
11
Horseshoe
Pelican Lake
Area: 7,714.19 acres. Markee 118
Red Sand
r
10
16
Wilson Bay
ll R ive
10
Breezy
4
77
69
Adney
ne Riv er
115
115
CAMP RIPLEY NATIONAL GUARD RESER VATION
Cushing
Pi
Gladstone and wading, with good clarity and low 3 Crystal 127 Little Hubert Campbell algae levels throughout the open water Merrifield Round Lake season. 127 Sorenson
Gull Lake
77
36
Fish Trap Lake
114
Greer
137 Quality: Suitable for swimming 371 Water Bass Fawn Hubert
15
Sylvan
Pine
Fawn
Point Location: Crosslake, Manhattan Beach, 4 109 371 East Twin Fifty Upper Lakes, Jenkins, Pine River in Northern Little Pelican 109 Bass en ll u Upper Mission C Middle Crow Wing County
107
20
60 56
103
Lizard
Pequot Lakes
168
36
36
103
11
Loon
O'Brien
Crosslake
Duck
3
39
50
1
Dolney
3
11
Sibley
40
50
29
20
10 60 10 11
39
Clear Lake
Upper Hay 16
66
Star
Kimball
17
Upper Loon
21
60
Clamshell
16 Grass
145
Pickeral Goodrich
tt gge Da
Rush
Cross Lake
Ideal Corners
Lower Hay
17
20 50
Lower Whitefish
15
371
1
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Sand
Little Pine
Mud Lake
Upper Whitefish
112
PILLSBU RY STATE FOREST
Em
1
Manhattan Beach
Big Trout
15
1
Butterfield
Ox
Pig Lake
15 30 40 46
23
50
7 90 100
1
112
10
71
134
Arrowhead
40
80
10
100 90
20 90 10
70 80
1
Pine River
Pillager
210
Ann
Fifty Lakes
Swanburg
84
1
Rock
Blue
West Fox
103
16
Norway
Ossawinnaamakee
10 50
30 20
210
Kego Eagle
Jenkins
Motley
Ro
136
Mitchell
56 54
18
Staples
Clough
Eagle
23
130 7 10
60
50
Lizzie
84
Margaret
64
O Pistol
Jail Lake 56
371
15
20 10
10
Blind
48
Horseshoe
Mildred
134
Arrowhead Lake Verndale
48
Hattie
2
64
Washburn Lake
160
Lake Ada
371
15
130 135
20
17
20 50 70 90 100 110 90 130 120
Lake
60
Big Trout
87
54
49
Lind Lake
Backus
Lake George
47
84
87
Pine Mountain
ahga
103
Cross Lake
64
55
Lake Wabedo
8
Bertha Lake Gu
87
371
Rush Lake
Island Lake
Park Rapids
Island Lake
139
22
al
1
2
3
4
Submitted photos 1.) Cottages at Clamshell Beach Resort. 2.) Beach toys are available at Clamshell Beach Resort. 3) The sun sets in this view from Clamshell Beach Resort on Clamshell Lake on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes. 4) Clamshell Beach Resort sits on the calm water of Clamshell Lake on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes.
residents were pitching in to help with mowing, trimming trees and various repairs. Meanwhile, Bob added water skiing at the resort - after all, he had the perfect boat for pulling skiers complete with a 25 horsepower motor. Bob and Fran ran the resort until 1977, when they sold it to Dick and Marty Coombs, both of whom were teachers in the Twin Cities. Dick loved to paint and yellow was his favorite color - yellow trim, yellow docks, yellow screen doors. They added a new game room and remodeled the existing game roomYour (which Trusted Bank Since 1902 used to be George and Agnes Johnson’s original house) into a cabin. Marty got a teaching position in Pequot WE FINANCE IT ALL Lakes, but Dick’s love of coaching led him to - Purchases - Construction - Remodel Loans coach professional football in Europe. Dick - Home Equity Loans - Land/Acreage - Refinance and Marty wanted to retire, and they sold the Commercial Loans Lake Lots - VA Loans resort in 1993 to Jim and Mary Stockard, who in 1997, sold the resort to the Moe family. - Purchases - Construction - Remodel Loans Local Lending Team - Fast Approval Process - Construction -Purchases At that time, there were 22 cabins (11 of Home Equity Loans Land/Acreage Refinance - Land Acreage -Home Equity Loans the 1950-60s vintage mobile homes, plus 10 Commercial Loans Lake Lots VA Loans cabins and an owner’s home). -Commercial Loans - Lake Lots - Purchases - Construction - Remodel Loans David grew up in the resort business, and - Home Equitythe Loans - Land/Acreage - Refinance Lending Team he witnessedLocal number of resorts that went - Fast Approval Process - Commercial Loans - Lake Lots- Remodel -Loans VA Loans out of business as a result of not adapting to - Purchases - Construction *Subject to Approval customer needs and industry trends. Therefore, - Home Equity Loans - Land/Acreage - Refinance they recognized the need to make changes. - CommercialToday, Loansall the- Lake - VA Loans mobileLots homes have been
Your Trusted Bank Since 1902 Your Trusted Bank Since 1902
Your Trusted Since 1902 WEBank FINANCE IT ALL
Your Trusted Since 1902 WE Bank FINANCE IT ALL WE FINANCE IT ALL
WE FINANCEwww.fnbnorth.com IT ALL*
www.fnbnorth.com
Local Lending Team -Fast Approval Process
Local Lending Team - Fast Approval Process
Local Lending Team - Fast Approval Process 38 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
- Remodel Loans - Refinance - VA Loans
www.fnbnorth.com
www.fnbnorth.com
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Submitted Photo
removed and the resort consists of 17 cottages (three or four bedrooms), including eight units that were added since 2004. Meanwhile, all the remaining cabins have been removed and replaced. A new lodge with a snack bar and game room was added in 2004, and two new swimming pools with a spa room were built in 2008. The Moe family is one of the longest tenured owners of Clamshell Beach Resort, located off County Road 16 in Ideal Township, about halfway between Pequot Lakes and Crosslake. “Clamshell is unique because of the high level of cabins and amenities that it offers,” David said. “We’ve had great guests and employees over the years. We have big resort amenities with a small resort footprint.” Now the Pedersons start the next chapter of Clamshell Beach Resort history as new owners. “We love the area, and both of our families are still here, so it’s great to be back,” Jenna
e h t e e r Wh s Go Local
Submitted Photo Kris and Jenna Pederson
said. “We’re also excited that (Clamshell Beach Resort) has a cool family tradition. Almost everyone has a family connection with the resort. That’s why we have a lot of multigenerational families who stay here.” One thing the Pedersons plan to continue promoting is the year-round activities. “Summer months are booked, but there
are spring and fall opportunities for lodging,” Jenna said. “This area is great in the winter as trails run through (the property) for skiing and snowmobiling.” u Pete Mohs is publisher of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River and the Brainerd Dispatch daily newspaper. He may be reached at 218-855-5855 or pete.mohs@brainerddispatch.com.
4450 Main St., Pequot Lakes www.footaids.com
(218)568-6690 1-800-797-8447 We feature the best in today’s footwear at the best prices.
OVER 10,000 PAIR IN STOCK!
Lynco Ready-Made Orthotic Systems
New Balance Clarks Aetrex Asics
SAS Minnetonka Klogs Birkenstock Merrell Red Wing Naot
Vionic Rockport Halflinger InStride Drew Propet Chaco
ENJOY OUR OUTDOOR PATIO DINING
218-587-2564 | www.BitesGrill.com
On the Paul Bunyan Trail a mile south of the light in Pine River
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 39
1 2
3
5
6
Lake
Fuonnthe
with our
Readers
4
7
40 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
8
1) Sunrise on Lake Washburn - what’s not to love? asks Vicki Lipstreuer, of Outing, who shares this photo by Mark Wolf. 2) Joe Eberhardt enjoys water skiing on Lake Ossawinnamakee. 3) Jim Giles shares this photo of his brother, Ray, while both were jet skiing while the sun was setting on Whipple Lake in Baxter. The brothers are from Brainerd. 4) Sunset fishing on Lake Washburn. Vicki Lipstreuer, of Outing, shares this photo by Holly Hosch, of St. Joseph. 5) Susan Koering enjoys a shoreline ride in her new kayak with grandniece Sabrina, 7, on the east side of Pelican Lake. 6) “It’s a Dog’s Lake Life,” says Kristin Larsen, sharing that Maisy is always up for an afternoon or sunset cruise on Sibley Lake. 7) Vicki Lipstreuer, of Outing, shares this photo of Puck going for a float. 8) The Lake Ossie ski team - Tony, Thad and Audrey Sundeen and Ron Engblom - on Lake Ossawinnamakee.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
9
10
12
11
Internet • Digital TV • Phone
1-866-240-5905 tdstelecom.com
Lake
Fuonnthe
with our
Readers
9) Don Reierson show his biggest bass ever - 4 pounds - on West Fox Lake. 10) Marika Olivier shared this photo of her dog, Gunner, taken off the end of the dock at their home on Lizotte Lake near Chickamaw Beach. 11) Cash, a chihuahua-pug, enjoys a ride in the pontoon on North Long Lake. He belongs to Nicole Vogt and Brady Feist. 12) Paul Berthiaume, of Crosslake, spots an eagle while kayaking on the Pine River.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 41
$475,000 Clean Water grant funds awarded for Island-Loon Lake stormwater project BY CROW WING SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
This Place is a MUST stop for the Families – it’s so much more than what you see from the Highway!
Step 1: House and Driveway
Crosslake citizens joined forces to identify locations of polluted runoff in their city. In 2018, the Crosslakers Water Quality Group, Crow Wing County Highway Department, city of Crosslake, and the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District discovered that 96 catch basins and eight sub-catchment drainage areas along County State Aid Highway 66 drain directly into Crosslake and Island-Loon Lake (from CSAH 3 to CSAH 1 in Fifty Lakes). Island and Loon are two separate lakes that are surveyed as one lake totaling 232 acres with 5.2 miles of shoreline with a maximum depth of 18 feet, according to whitefish.org. They are part of the Whitefish Chain of Lakes. “We identified Island-Loon Lake as having
This Place is a MUST stop for the Families –
it’s so much more than what you see from the Highway!
Gemstone mining mine for real gemstones!
’S
ORITE FAMILY A
AC TI O N
#1 FAMILY FUN SPOT
FAV
TTR
THANK YOU FOR MAKING US YOUR
BRAINERD
Step 2: Road
NEW fo Snow Ler 2020 opards
THREE YEARS IN A ROW!
8493 Hwy 371, Brainerd, MN 56401
Step 3: Lake
42 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
2 Miles North of the Welcome Center, or about 5 Miles South of Brainerd on 371
218-454-1662 • SafariNorth.com 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
the largest drainage area to the county catchment system along CSAH 66,” said John Forney, Crosslakers Water Quality Group. “The drainage area is about 43 acres (see map). Rain and snowmelt flow off roof tops, driveways, lawns and roads (Steps 1 and 2) and enter the CSAH 66 stormwater collection system. The runoff mobilizes soil sediment, trash and debris that is deposited into Island-Loon Lake (Step 3).” Melissa Barrick, district manager for the SWCD, said: “Island-Loon Lake is a high priority lake statewide because tullibee live below the water’s surface. This native forage fish relies on the lake to provide cold and clean water. Walleyes, muskies and loons all depend on this fish for a high protein meal. This lake is very sensitive to pollution compared to other lakes statewide. Island-Loon Lake has decreased water visibility by 48 inches due to an increase in pollution to the lake (data collection 1992-2016).” In 2019, the SWCD was awarded $475,000 from the Minnesota State Clean Water Fund to filter and treat the pollution before it reaches Island-Loon Lake, Forney said. This project is located on the corner of CSAH 66 and Manhattan Point Boulevard. How will this work? The water and its pollution load will be channeled to the northwest corner of CSAH 66 and Manhattan Point Boulevard. The water will filter through large sediment and debris catchment devices before entering a constructed pond. Contaminants that pass through the filters will have time to settle in the pond. Plants and microbes will consume pollutants (nitrogen and phosphorus) and help clean the runoff before it is discharged to the lake. “This project will reduce approximately 1.5 tons of algae growth for summer 2020,” Barrick said. “The filter area and pond will trap 1.2 tons of dirt and sand per year.” Construction is anticipated to start in summer 2020. Engineering and design was completed by Widseth Smith Nolting engineering firm. “This is a great example of citizens and local government units working together to solve a 30-year pollution problem,” Forney said. “We are very grateful for all the partners who contributed to this project, which included $50,000 from the Crow Wing County Highway Department and over $43,000 from the city of Crosslake.” For more information about the project, contact Melissa Barrick at melissa.barrick@ crowwingswcd.org or 218-828-6197. Funds for this project provided in part by the Board of Water and Soils Resources through the Clean Water and Land Legacy Amendment. u
WATERSHED DELINEATION MAP
NORTH CSAH 66 (D) POND (C)
MANHATTAN PT. BLVD. (B)
SOUTH CSAH 66 (D)
Open To The Public To Rent! CURLING CLUB BUILDING at the Fairgrounds
More than a County Fair…
Space available for your special event: Wedding 3 Anniversary Parties 3 Graduation Parties 3 Auctions 3 Craft Shows 3 Class Reunions 3 Family Reunions 3 Business Picnics 3 Benefits 3 Birthday Parties
We are a Concert Venue too!
Boat, Classic Car and RV Storage available Early Fall thru Spring.
Call the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds at 218-829-6680 or Gary Doucette at 218-838-9671 for more information or to reserve a date for your event.
Crow Wing Fairgrounds
PO Box 361, Brainerd, MN 56401
www.crowwingcountyfair.com 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
CAMPING AVAILABLE FOR ALL EVENTS!
2020 FAIR DATES: AUGUST 4 - 8
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 43
FEATURE
Submitted photos Walker City Park is located along the shore of Leech Lake in Walker. (Inset) Anglers spend a May fishing opener on Leech Lake.
Living life on Leech Lake And making great memories along the way families for several years. We crammed six More recently, yet another Leech Lake resort adults and three kids into a tiny cabin that first has become the place my husband - with a I was first introduced to Leech Lake 30 years year before expanding to larger accommoda- group of relatives and friends - has called home for many years during the May walleye ago, in the summer of 1990. I wanted nothing tions as our group grew each year. more than to spend my vacation at my parents’ small yet modern cabin on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, but somehow instead found myself with friends in a truck camper at a Leech Lake Resort. I’ll be honest. I cried. I didn’t want to go. I’d never camped. Turns out we had a blast. We fished. We jumped off a dock into the water far below and swam. We went water skiing. We sat around a bonfire. It was my first-ever camping trip, and we had fun. Hwy. 371, Nisswa | 800-322-3525 | info@nisswadock.com I found myself happily venturing to Leech Lake again a couple of years later. In 1992, another Leech Lake resort became a summer vacation destination for us and several other BY NANCY VOGT
44 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
VITAL STATISTICS
Leech Lake
64
Leech Lake
371 Walker
5 10
200
371
34
200
Laura Lake
Akeley
1015 20
Longville
5
7 54
34
15
20
7
Iguadona Lake
10 5
Ten Mile Lake
6
12
84
Little Boy
Woman Lake
Island Lake
8
FOOT HILLS STATE FOREST
48 Blind
Hattie
371
5
Pistol
Clough
Mitchell
56
Eagle
2
1 1
Clamshell
Bertha
16 Grass
145
Jenkins
39
103
Ossawinnaamakee
10
5
168
Pequot Lakes
5
5
371 East Twin
E.V.
29
Upper Gull
1
15
15
Nisswa
5
Nisswa Roy
15 25
45 65 8595
40 30 40
Markee
77
371
35
Sorenson
119
North Long Lake
25
55 65 75 75 371 75 Baxter 210 150 15 125
Wilson Bay
15
Mud
1
Hardy
10 371
B ul Pa
nE ya un
CROW WING STATE PARK ippi siss Mis
s
Hamlet
35 E.V. 25
133
Wolf
45 45
Nokay
7565
Crooked
5
8
18
Portage Grave
23
144 123
159
Mud Twin Island
Russell
25
75
44
Garrison 144
65 75 85
8
121
169
er Nokasippi Riv
131
2
Sugar Lake
30
Mille Lacs Lake
15
10
21
White Fish
35
5
ro
ok
139
27 8
Isle
E.V.
5
10 15 15
47
169 25
10
30
30
15 20
Dag ett B
5
5
20 20
30
18
5
E.V.
2
20
38
g
Sebre
20 25
25 15
5
5
15
35 25
10
10
Bear Island
65
20
35
10
10
47
Mille Lacs Lake
30
15
27
Twenty Lake
18
20
5
27
10
Swamp Lake
10 Pelican Island 5
2
Round
20
Clear Lake
12
20
23
2
47
5
Rice Lake
4
2
10
20
26
22
22
16
10
5 10
10
10
25
20
Long Lake
Rabbit Lake
10 15
15
18
South Long Lake
25
21
4
Section Twelve Lake
169
30 35
10
Borden
8
20
Turtle Round
18 Scott
5
Birch
10 Partridge
20
11
Tame Fish
Rice
24
28
Farm Island Lake
14
Bay Lake
Clearwater 124
25
Elm Island Lake
Lone Lake
35 25 15 20
6
159
40
Portage
8
169
25
Dam Lake
Sissabagamah Lake
20
Nord Lake
Hanging Kettle Lake Ripple Lake 12
28
al ls
Randall
kas No
le F To Litt
Cushing
Ri
ver
2
Fort Ripley
142
5 10
121 131
Mud Lake Alexander
res xp
y wa
Deerwood
5
Lookout
v
er Riv
Crow Wing
Fish Trap Lake
Rice
48
85
102
10 65
10
13
40
Cedar Lake
12
102
Brainerd
lR
48
Pillager
Shamineau Lake
20
White Sand
36
CAMP RIPLEY NATIONAL GUARD RESER VATION
Gilbert
Whipple
Gul
Motley
210
12
Portage Lake
20
pi
Staples
28
McGregor
Aitkin
111
210
Eagle
Red Sand
18
Agate
Serpent Lake
Ironton
210
49
77
77
Sylvan
iver
PILLSBU RY STATE FOREST Pillager
Horseshoe
Wise
146
10
30
Carlson
31
Black Hoof
15 210 10 5
Hartley
77
25
Crosby
Riverton
Campbell
Merrifield
er
5
15
210
25 30 35 40
i Riv
ssipp
East Rabbit
West Rabbit
128
Crystal
126
64
20 30
E.V.
Rock Lake Fleming Lake
105
11
Menomin
31
Wilkins Lake
141
Fawn
3 127
127
115
Rock
Bass
3
4
Gladstone Little Hubert
6 Round Lake
Gun Lake
32
Miller
Hubert
115 Round Lake
Nelson
Lower Dean
Missi
Black Bear
19
Minnewawa Lake
Flowage Lake
5
French Lake
11
Lake Edward
13
Island Lake Horseshoe Lake
Blind Lake
Stark
6
Mollie
137
Gull Lake
77
116
Garden
Clark
13
3
20 15 10
105
15
Fool
5
Lower Mission
Perch
118
Margaret
5
Upper Mission
19
Rat Lake
35
3
Perry
CROW WING STATE FOREST
Lougee
Lower
Sandy River Lake
Palisade
1
Ross
Upper Dean
r ive
eR Pin
109 Bass
109
36
Adney
Goggle
E.V.
4 Little Pelican
107
107
Lake Shore
Greer
Horseshoe
Pelican Lake
Upper
llen CuMiddle
West Twin Edna
5
Breezy Point
Goose Island E.V.
Rogers
114
ne Ri ver
20 25 30
Big Sandy Lake
36
36
11
Mayo
E.V.
Pi
Lizard
25 10
Round Lake
29
3
14
Glacier Lake
5
Mud
Dolney
E.V.
3
Bass
106 Island
11
Sibley Loon
Pine
Fawn
112 17 11
1
Pickeral
36
103
Birchdale
Snodgrass
O'Brien
Crosslake
Duck
Emily
Aitkin Lake
169
Waukenabo Lake
Mary
Goodrich
3
Star
Kimball
Clear Lake
Upper Hay 16
112
66
Cross Lake
15
Sand
gett Dag
Rush
16
Ideal Corners
Esquagamah Lake
Lows
10
Little Pine Lower Whitefish
Lower Hay
15
Upper Loon
5
Mud Lake
15
5 10 15
Duck
1
Ruth
Emily
1
Ox
Upper Whitefish
17
6 Butterfield
Manhattan Beach
Big Trout
371 Minnesota Island
5
134
Arrowhead
10
Pine River 1
64
Anna
West Fox
Fifty Lakes
Swanburg
84
371
10
Little Pine
Blue Eagle
Norway
15
Squaw
Kego
54
Mildred
30
18
25
Papoose
Horseshoe
43
29
Morrison
Lawrence
Roosevelt
136
Jail Lake 56
Lizzie
15 10 5
20 25
Outing
48
E.V.
84
58
Lake Leavitt
E.V. 20 65
160
Lake Ada
Lind Lake
Backus
15
Washburn Lake
49
87
Pine Mountain
15
54
84
64
5 10 15
Lake George
47
87
20
55
Lake Wabedo
371
87
15
Thunder Lake
Hackensack
ip
s
LEECH LAKE
WALKER
10 25
27
Wahkon
27
47
169 27 47 8
65
Onamia
27 3
Pomroy Lake
3
LOCATION: Walker, Cass County AREA: 110,311 acres DEEPEST POINT: 150 feet, located in Walker Bay DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: The lake is the third largest lake entirely within Minnesota’s boundaries and covers approximately 112,000 surface acres, nearly 80 percent of the lake is less than 35 feet deep. It is geographically located in three glacial zones and has an irregular shape with many large and small bays. NUMBER OF AQUATIC PLANT SPECIES: 49 FISH: Crappie, sunfish, bowfin, bullhead, catfish eelpout, large/small/rock bass, muskellunge, northern
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
pike, tullibee, walleye, white sucker, perch. Special 169 Fishing Regulations: This lake has special fishing regulations that differ from statewide or border water regulations for those species identified below and take precedence.Walleye: All from 20-26" must be immediately released. One over 26" allowed 169 in possession. Possession limit four. INVASIVE SPECIES: Eurasian watermilfoil, zebra mussels PUBLIC WATER ACCESSES: Many located around lake including on northwest shore at Squaw Point off State Highway 371 and Oak Point Road; on northeast side at Battle Point off County Road 136; on southwest side at Stony Point off County Road 39
Knife Lake
21
5
33
20
34
37
32
16
24
Ogilvie
11
22
11
6
18
12
13; on Leech Lake River off Highway 8; on southeast corner off County Road 39; south end off State Highway 200. HISTORIC FACT: According to “Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance,” the name “Leech Lake” is historical, if not particularly glamorous. The French called it “lac Sangsue,” literally “Bloodsucker Lake.” The French adopted an earlier name, as Lac Sangsue is the French translation of the Ojibwe “Ozagaskwaajimekaag-zaaga'igan,” which translates to “Lake abundant with bloodsuckers.” 19
8
Ann Lake
47
65
6
1
5
23
70
65
Sources: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, minnesotalakes.net leech-lake.com and Wikipedia
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 45
Advanced Careers
Submitted photo A group of anglers had success during a fishing opener on Leech Lake.
and northern pike fishing opener. We enjoy Leech Lake in the winter too, whether it be a quick overnight in November for my husband’s birthday when we visit restaurants and shops in Walker, or later in the season when we drive onto the ice from yet another lodging establishment for a weekend of ice fishing. So it’s no surprise to me that the Leech Lake Tourism Bureau says the Leech Lake area has a reputation for family vacations and fishing getaways, with more than 30 resorts, lodges, campgrounds and hotels. Leech Lake - the third largest lake in MInnesota - is a prime lake for anglers in search of walleye or muskie. The lake boasts
Submitted photo Boats are docked at Spirit of the North Resort on Leech Lake.
195 miles of shoreline with several bays. A few more facts from the tourism bureau: Most of Leech Lake is less than 35 feet deep, though it is around 150 feet in Walker Bay. Leech Lake is primarily located in Cass County and the nearest town is Walker. The lake is located mainly within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and completely within the Chippewa National Forest. u Nancy Vogt is editor of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. She may be reached at 218-855-5877 or nancy.vogt@pineandlakes.com.
“We fished. We jumped off a dock into the water far below and swam. We went water skiing. We sat around a bonfire. It was my first-ever camping trip, and we had fun.” Nancy Vogt
Precision Machining • Fabrication • Assembly
MACHINISTS & FABRICATORS Milling • Turning • Fabrication Excellent compensation program with full benefits. You CAN get the best of both worlds; this is where career meets lake country! ISO 9001
Apply online at
www.pequottool.com Submitted photo The sun sets over Leech Lake
46 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
E-mail resume to: lstromberg@pequottool.com 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Loons continued from page 25
the summer of 2015, Johnston became an avid kayaker on Upper Gull Lake. “Just paddling around, I got to know the different pairs,” she said of the loons. Her neighbors named Ole and Lena years ago, and Johnston named other pairs after people she knows - Hazel and Iver, Ray and Myrt, Bertsie and Rums. She named Ole’s and Lena’s chicks last summer - Uno and Dos. She can identify each loon by the shape of their heads and beaks, among other distinguishing features. “As soon as I hear that first call, my heart just starts pounding,” Johnston said of the male loons who arrive back in the area each spring to scout for a place to nest. “It just makes me so happy to hear that first call.” She calls the nightlong calling from various parts of the lake a loon symphony. Conversely, Johnston dreads the Fourth of July holiday because of all the boat traffic and other lake activity. “Be alert and give them space,” she said. u
(Sheila Farrell Johnston is a Master Naturalist and photographer from Lake Shore. Her photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is a two-time McKnight Foundation Photography Fellow and received a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for her project, Last Resorts, a documentation of Minnesota’s mom and pop resorts. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the contemporary art collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Bass Museum of Art, and private collections.)
TIPS FOR LOON-SAFE BOATING wish to come to your watercraft. ► Do not circle loons with your watercraft. This is harassment and is subject to a fine from the MN DNR. ► Please stay at least 150 feet ► When pulling tubers, warke-boarders or skiers, do away from loons, if possible. not allow them to get close to or ► Young chicks are unable to separate loon families. dive or get out of the way of ► Do not feed loons! Loons boats. If struck by a boat, they will start chasing baited hooks, will die. endangering their lives. ► SPEED KILLS! Please keep ► Do no cast toward loons. your speed down near adult ► Remember, the best way to loons and chicks, especially observe loons is at a distance outside no-wake zones where with binoculars. loons rear their chicks. ► Do not separate loon families ► If you see a sick, injured or by boating between them. Loon dead loon, please call a conserparents are not able to protect vation officer at 888-646-6367. (Source: Gull Chain of Lakes Association postcard) their chicks when separated. Nancy Vogt is editor of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. ► Do not pursue loons. Let She may be reached at 218-855-5877 or nancy. them decide how close they vogt@pineandlakes.com.
Sheila Farrell Johnston Sheila Johnston's husband, Doug, puts up a sign warning boaters to be careful of loons on the water.
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 47
Martins continued from page 29
The song of the early arriving adult males, called a dawnsong, attracts other martins, including mates for the adult males and late arriving sub-adult birds that were raised the previous summer. They do this dawnsong to increase the size of the colony for defense, mating and genetic diversity purposes. Many people enjoy the presence of these birds for their song, but the hobby is popular for other reasons. “A lot of people are familiar with purple martins from their childhood,” North said. “There were a lot of colonies in cities and lakes back in the 1950s and ‘60s and prior to that. The purple martin was a very common urban lakeshore bird.” The birds are simultaneously flashy and subtle, as adult males sometimes appear black, sometimes vibrant purple/blue in the right light. “The adult males are black or it’s kind of an incandescent color,” Leonard said. “Females have kind of a grayish belly to them.” Because of their presence near bodies of water, many people incorrectly believe purple martins eat mosquitos. Purple martins don’t have the enormous mouths of many mosquito-loving birds like whippoorwills, and therefore prefer larger insects. Their flight patterns also determine their diet. Wolinski writes: “Perhaps the value of having this species in our midst is more aesthetic than practical.” Wolinski writes that purple martins eat
wasps, ants, drone bees, flies, stink bugs, damselflies, beetles, moths, butterflies and dragonflies. Local experts say they regularly consume dragonflies. “The main ones they eat are dragonflies because they’re large and have a lot of energy in them,” North said. Nests are constructed by both sexes from twigs, dried grass or straw and bark. Parents also bring in a constant supply of green leaves, the purpose of which is unknown. Wolinski says 4-6 weeks may elapse between arrival and egg laying to make time for courtship, mating and nest construction. Eggs are almost always laid within a week of the nest completion. In Minnesota, purple martins will only likely brood once with 3-7 eggs laid, 4-6 being the norm. The eggs are incubated 16 days. The female is the prime incubator, with the male filling in during feeding for warmth as well as protection. Eggs do not hatch all at once, but once they hatch, the oldest will leave in approximately 28 days, according to Wolinski.
Purple martin fanatics
Those interested in purple martins don’t have to dive in alone. There is a large community behind keeping purple martin houses. “In Minnesota there is a group called the Purple Martin Working Group,” North said, “which was started by Kelly Applegate with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and includes lots of private individuals who have nesting purple martins on their properties, and it’s got federal wildlife officials and universities
involved and a few corporations. It’s a good citizen science project all around.” Leonard became aware of another such group after his first martin house started falling apart from years of use. “I never really paid much attention to it,” Leonard said. “I knew I had some kinds of birds, black and brown. After about 20 years or so, the plywood started to really get bad on it, so I started looking on the internet for plans for purple martin houses and I came across the Purple Martin Conservation Association and boy, it opened up a whole new world for me as far as knowledge.” The Purple Martin Working Group is involved in educating people on keeping martin houses. They also have formed a network of volunteers who take part in banding and attaching tracking devices to purple martins. They track them daily during their migration through use of GPS systems and visual reports. In addition, Leonard tracks the birds online in the mornings, as they migrate in such large, condensed numbers that they show up on weather radar. North said Brainerd area birds may roost the first night on the Iowa/Missouri border, then the Missouri/Arkansas border, followed by New Orleans and then the Yucatan Peninsula. The group tracks the birds all the way to their winter locations in the Amazon. u Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5853 or travis.grimler@ pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Travis.
Purple martin house features
► Easy access to nest cavity for inspection and cleaning. ► White exterior. ► 1 ¾-2 ½ inch entry holes (though 2 1/8 inch is preferred). ► Cavities that are a minimum 6x6x6-inch interior, but bigger is better if steps are
Just 10 miles South of Pine River in Pequot
Submitted photo Purple martin houses can be extremely elaborate or they can be simple gourd-shaped vessels. Often, those who keep colonies have a combination of designs.
48 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
taken to control starlings. For this, an 11inch depth is recommended. ► Entry holes 1 inch above the floor of the cavity to make room for nesting material. ► Adequate ventilation and drainage. ► Rain proof.
Your Up North Grocer for all your Outdoor Cooking Needs
LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED 30581 Patriot Avenue, Pequot Lakes, MN 56472 • 218-568-5001 • www.pequotlakessupervalu.com
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
Citizens, counties join forces to develop clean water plan for Pine River Watershed
BY CROW WING SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT
AND
WATER
In winter 2020, Cass County, Crow Wing County and both counties’ Soil and Water Conservation Districts adopted a comprehensive local Pine River Watershed Plan. “This is a voluntary program designed to develop specific actions to improve and protect water resources in the Pine River Watershed,” said Jacob Frie, Crow Wing County environmental services supervisor. “Since 2018, counties and SWCDs have been working with stakeholders and state agencies to develop a science-based plan with measurable outcomes for both habitat and water quality.”
The Pine River Watershed:
► Has more than 500 lakes. ► Is part of Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing and a slight slice of Hubbard counties. ► Includes the cities of Backus, Pine River, Breezy Point and Crosslake. ► Starts near Pine Mountain Lake in Backus, then follows the Pine River to the confluence of the Pine River/Mississippi River northwest of Crosby. “The plan provides a framework for individuals and groups to complete specific activities that will achieve common water goals,” said Ron Meyer, Pine River Watershed Alliance. “The plan prioritized and ranked lakes into two categories: Enhance/Fix it or Protect/Keep it. The ‘Enhance’ means there is a water quality concern. Plan actions are needed on land to reduce pollution. ‘Protect’ means high quality habitat and water resources. The private forest land is at risk for development and fragmentation. Plan actions are needed to preserve private forest land.” The area economy is directly dependent upon the water clarity of our lakes, Meyer 218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
“QUALITY WORK” = CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Mike & Kim Hemmerich’s
AUTO BODY & BOAT REPAIR
27 Years of Experience
218-963-2991
3622 County Rd 77, Nisswa
1-1/2 miles west of Sportland Corners
2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES 49
said, noting the Whitefish area land values are worth more than $2.7 billion. The advisory committee developed a vision for the watershed “harmonizing people, water, forest and the economy in a place that renews your spirit.” “This plan will provide financial resources and technical resources to help landowners choose options to manage and protect their land,” Meyer said. Once the plan is complete, the watershed
50 2020 LOVE OF THE LAKES
is eligible for $482,000 in Board of Water Soil and Resources non-competitive grant funds, said Melissa Barrick, Crow Wing SWCD district manager. Funds will be used to implement actions in the approved plan. The first phase of funds will be available in summer 2020. “We are so grateful for all the people that participated in the planning process and leadership from the Cass and Crow Wing SWCDs,” Meyer said. “I believe this was one
of the most efficient and effective planning processes. It is great to see all partners working together for a common goal.” For more information, contact Barrick at melissa.barrick@crowwingswcd.org or 218-828-6197; or visit https://www. crowwing.us/1476/Pine-River-1W1P. Funds for this project were provided in part by the Board of Water and Soil Resources through the Clean Water and Land Legacy Amendment. u
218-829-4705 | pineandlakes.com
EST. 1992
BOAT SALES • PRO SHOP • SERVICE • STORAGE • FIBERGLASS REPAIR
OUR FAMILY PROUDLY SERVING MINNESOTA’S 10,000 LAKES SINCE 1992 BAXTER SALES & SERVICE CENTER / 15779 EDGEWOOD DRIVE BAXTER, MN 56425 EXCELSIOR SALES / 720 GALPIN LAKE ROAD EXCELSIOR, MN 55331 TWIN CITIES SERVICE CENTER / 260 STATE STREET NEW GERMANY, MN 55367
A Toast...
to time spent together sharing good food.
Hwy 371 Nisswa • (218) 963-2265 SchaefersFoods.com