Anchorage Inn

Business owner protects lake that provides for him

Anchorage Inn owner is founding member of Inguadona Lake Association

By Travis Grimler

Inguadona Lake is a renowned fishery just outside of Longville. Over the years, its bluegill population has attracted the attention of national fishing magazines, and in recent years the fishery has only improved.

Jeffrey Knuf said he and other lakes association members have worked long and hard to make sure it stays that way.

Inguadona is an important part of Knuf’s life. Not only does he live on the lake, but since 2003 he’s been the proprietor of Anchorage Inn - a bar, restaurant, convenience store and off-sale liquor store situated right on the narrow road between upper and lower Inguadona Lake.

Knuf came to Longville when a fellow coworker at American Express, Larry Gavin, agreed to buy the Anchorage Inn with him.

“He had a cabin on Big Boy,” Knuf said. “We’d come up fishing all the time and drive home Sunday night. We thought about what we could do for a living up here so we didn’t have to go back and forth. In 2001, my job was eliminated and I was working as a contractor. I decided I’d look and see if I could find something.”

“There were cabins right on the lake. During high water they would literally have waves blowing up into them.”

Jeffrey Knuf

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PHOTOS: The Anchorage Inn on Inguadona Lake has many windows overlooking the water.

Photos by Travis Grimler / Echo Journal

Knuf looked at resorts, grocery stores, liquor stores and more. A real estate agent knew the Anchorage Inn was just about to come up for sale. Knuf and Gavin agreed to buy it.

The place was a unique fixer upper. At the time it was almost more of a small resort with a small bar and a series of small cabins.

“There were cabins right on the lake,” Knuf said. “During high water they would literally have waves blowing up into them.”

At the time, most of the business consisted of original structures from the 1940s, with the exception of a small expansion in 1994.

It was a fairly new experience for Knuf, who had worked in information technology at his last job. He wasn’t too far in the weeds, though, as he had tended bar in college and helped friends who owned bars and restaurants. Still, it was a learning experience.

“I was learning on the fly,” Knuf said. “I kept a lot of employees from the previous

Anchorage Inn brought hot, brick oven pizza to Longville, filling a void in nearby dining options.

Contributed photo

owner. In fact, off the top of my head, I have five on staff from 19 years ago. That helped a lot in our transition.”

The building had issues. It was a collection of add-ons, with the latest being in 1994. Knuf remembers they had to put extra heaters in the bathrooms, which were located on an outside corner wall of the building, and so were prone to frozen pipes.

“We tore most of it down and rebuilt,” Knuf said.

Within a year they gave the business a face-lift, demolishing most of the cabins and most of the building’s older sections. They rebuilt with more restaurant space, an updated bar and outside patio.

Knuf and Gavin also saw an opportunity to make their mark. Years later they added a brick oven for pizza.

“There were really no handmade pizzas close to here,” Knuf said. “Probably in Walker. Pizzas go well, typically, if you do a good job. So that was kind of our thought. It was one big opportunity in the area.”

As is easy to imagine, Inguadona Lake is part of his business’ identity. He also lives on the southern part of the lake, making it an even more important resource to Knuf. So important that he was one of the

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Inguadona Lake is important to the Anchorage Inn. The business is located on the narrow road between the upper and lower part of the lake.

Contributed photo

“Panfishing was getting pounded. The winter before we got the reduced limits there’d be 100 trucks down on the ice. Some people might not like it, but the quality of both the crappie and bluegills has definitely increased since 2008. I guarantee it worked here. That was a big accomplishment and we did a lot of work around here.”

Jeffrey Knuf

founding members, and first president, of the Inguadona Lake Association in 2007.

“Several of us were talking about forming a coalition,” Knuf said. “We didn’t have a lake association yet. There was a multi-lake association with Little Boy and Wabedo and even Cooper and Inguadona. In a meeting with the DNR we had to have an individual lake plan. The only way we were going to get that was to have our own lake association.”

Knuf said Inguadona’s members felt like the previous plan didn’t give enough attention to their own lake, so they decided to branch out. It fit into Knuf’s schedule. He worked mostly nights and weekends at the restaurant, leaving weekday evenings open for lake association duties.

They worked hard to keep a healthy fish population in the lake.

“As part of the coalition we got the walleyes started on this lake,” Knuf said. “Now there are panfish limits on a lot of lakes, but we did that ourselves (on Inguadona) in 2008 and it’s worked spectacularly well. It’s always been a great panfish lake, but it’s that much better now.”

Knuf said the lake was under extreme pressure with panfishing after an article in