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The Art of Taxidermy

Two men have found a job that’s equal parts art and work

Pg. 12 - Improve overall endurance Pg. 18 - Interesting facts about golf Pg. 20 - National Hunting & Fishing Day

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The Lakeside Connection

Lakeshirts, Lakeside business owners have forged a strong friendship — built on historic ties to the same building STORY BY VICKI GERDES | PHOTOS BY MEAGAN PITTELKO

W

hen Texas native Chet Collins first set up shop as the new owner of Detroit Lakes’ Lakeside Tavern 17 years ago, little did he know that two of the best friends he would make in the community also had ties to that historic West Lake Drive building.

Back in the early years of their business, Lakeshirts founders Mark Fritz and Mark Hutchinson used the upstairs level of the Lakeside building to print their t-shirts — when they weren’t serving up beer, burgers and fries to hungry customers on the main floor of the building.

“Right after we got out of high school, during the summer of 1982, Lakeside was just reopening as a beer and burger joint,” recalled Hutchinson. “We worked there that summer.”

Fritz added that the two worked there for three years after starting Lakeshirts, too.

“In 1985, we started printing our shirts upstairs,” he said. “We’d screen print by day and bartend by night.”

That summer, Hutchinson said, the people who owned Lakeside offered to lease the building to them.

“We moved our printing equipment in upstairs and were selling our shirts from the cabin next door — our first beach store — while running the bar downstairs,” Hutchinson explained. “Then Lakeside was sold and, in 1986, I graduated from college. Mark decided to take a year off so we could go full-time with Lakeshirts — and just like that, we were out of the bar business.”

By the time Collins took over ownership of the building, it had been re-imagined as a fine dining establishment,

known as Lakeside 1891 — a reference to when the historic building was first constructed.

“When I first moved here, I bought a home on Cormorant Lake, as a fixer-upper,” Collins said. “I had come into Detroit Lakes for the closing (on the home), and saw that Lakeside was for sale. I thought it was a neat building, and Jack (Chivers, his real estate agent) said we could go take a look at it. I owned it a month later.”

After purchasing the business from the Gilsdorf family in 2002, Collins decided to “rebrand” it as Lakeside Tavern — “a more casual bar and grill,” he said. “I felt it was a better fit with my personality and the Detroit Lakes community.”

His first step was to downsize the business and concentrate on delivering quality food and top-notch customer service.

“But our clientele grew so rapidly we had to start expanding again,” he said.

“We had five different expansions over the next 12 years.”

During that time, a friendship had begun to form between Collins and Lakeshirts’ founders, Fritz and Hutchinson.

“We go on a lot of hunting trips together,” said Hutchinson. “We’ve been to a lot of different places.”

In fact, it was on one of those trips-to British Columbia--that Fritz first proposed the idea of adding a brewery onto Collins’ restaurant.

“We were checking out some of the brew pubs up there,” Collins said, “and he (Fritz) says to me, ‘You know what Detroit Lakes needs? A brew pub — and Lakeside would be the perfect place for it.

My immediate thought was, ‘No thanks.’”

But, after some hard thinking and a few more discussions with his friends, Collins said that he decided that it would be a good opportunity to do something great for Detroit Lakes.

As it happens, Fritz is also president of the board of directors for Detroit Mountain Recreation Area (DMRA) — a project he was instrumental in getting off the ground when plans first began to emerge for “repurposing” the former ski lodge into a year-round recreational destination.

Part of the vision of the DMRA board is to make the Detroit Lakes community into a bronze-level Ride Center for mountain biking enthusiasts, as designated by the International Mountain Biking Association. Currently, there are just 37 such Ride Center destinations in the entire world.

“Having a brew pub in town is one of the things you get points for (in the Ride Center evaluation process),” Fritz said. “I remember that initial conversation (with Chet) on the airplane… three months later, the guy was starting a brewery.”

“It’s been a fun ride, no doubt about it — very entertaining,” said Collins, adding that one of the reasons why he agreed to undertake the brewery project was that Fritz and Hutchinson have inspired him to become more community-oriented.

“Mark is very genuine, very community driven, and so is Mike,” he said. “For them, it’s more about doing things for the betterment of the community than for personal gain. I’ve really been inspired by that.”

Fritz and Collins have also started a line of sasquatch-inspired clothing known as “Be Wild,” in part as a fundraiser for AVERAGE JOE 2017 | PAGE 5

Chet Collins, Mark Fritz and Mike Hutchinson have become close friends since Collins moved to the lakes area 15 years ago and became the owner/proprietor of Detroit Lakes’ historic Lakeside Tavern — the same bar/ restaurant business that Fritz and Hutchinson once ran in between printing shirts for their thenfledgling business, Lakeshirts, on a screen printing machine located in the upper level of the building.

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Detroit Mountain, Collins added — another project that was inspired by a Canadian hunting trip.

“Ever since I was little I had wanted to save up my money to go out West and prove ‘Bigfoot’ existed,” Fritz said. “So one day we were in British Columbia, joking about ‘hunting for sasquatch,’ and we walked into this place where the owner had a hat with Bigfoot on it.”

After trying--quite unsuccessfully--to talk the man into selling his Bigfoot hat to him, Fritz began talking with him about the possibility of starting up a sasquatch-themed clothing line — and a new project was born.

To commemorate Collins’ role in the project, Fritz took a 9-foot wooden Bigfoot sculpture that had been sitting in the break room at Lakeshirts for years, and had it delivered to Collins at Lakeside — where Be Wild’s new unofficial mascot

now proudly sits in a corner, inspiring hundreds of clever social media posts, most of them of people posing for selfies with Bigfoot.

“Chet loves that line (of clothing),” said Fritz. “We sell a little bit of it online, and we have a little camper out at the flea market too.”

“Mark and Mike are both exceptional people,” said Collins. “I’m very fortunate to call them friends.”

Over the years, the discussions the three have had have led to a variety of community projects.

“We’re always looking for ways of making things better for this community, of making sure that we’re leaving it a better place than when we found it,” Collins added.

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Bill Briggs listens as the other men chat about life, sports and the weather. One of the only subjects that is rarely talked about, the men said, is politics.

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Coffee break

10 O’Clock Coffee Club still going strong after over 100 years STORY AND PHOTOS BY MEAGAN PITTELKO

T

The 10’Clock Coffee Club meets each day at Main Street Cafe in Detroit Lakes.

However, throughout the club’s history, many different restaurants have served as its meeting place.

he group of men tucked in the front window of Main Street Restaurant laugh heartily, sing boisterously and greet each other with the kind of endearing familiarity usually reserved for sitcom sets.

“Don’t you fall asleep now,” one man teases, winking at the oldest member of the bunch.

As the clock strikes 10 a.m., the 10 O’Clock Coffee Club is officially underway.

A few stragglers are still wandering through the door, though, to jeers from the group of men already seated.

“Where ya been?” one man shouts. “You better have a good excuse.”

Another adds, “Rainy weather always brings ‘em out.

That and food.”

Although the men usually just stick to coffee, today’s Coffee Club meeting is a birthday celebration, with three different pies cluttering the table.

“You get to bring treats on your birthday,” explained Bill Briggs, a Coffee Club member since 1970. “Today, it’s (Detroit Lakes Superintendent) Doug Froke’s birthday, so he got to buy us all pie.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, another man gestures at a waitress busily passing coffee around the table.

“This here is Looney,” he says, “otherwise known as Elaine. For some reason, she likes the nickname Looney, though.”

The waitress flashes the group a smile and bustles away to grab forks for the pie; meanwhile, three tables have been pushed together to make room for the 17 men settling in for the meeting.

The group of men that make up the 10 O’Clock Coffee Club are from all walks of life, coming together each morning for one sole purpose: to socialize. Retired military men and

AVERAGE JOE 2017 | PAGE 9

postal workers mingle with current superintendents and volunteer football coaches, ranging in age from a spry 29 years old to a (still spry) 95 years old.

A wooden sign hangs on the wall near “their table” and reads, “Property of: 10:00 Coffee Club,” surrounded by a variety of photographs that depict Coffee Club meetings from years gone by. The club, it seems, has been meeting—in various locations around Detroit Lakes—since the 1890s.

The oldest current member, Jim Ramstad, has been attending Coffee Club gatherings since 1955, but other members have only been coming for a couple of years.

“When I moved to town two years ago, I wanted to find a coffee thing,” says Steve Dockter, one of the newest members. “I saw this, so I just came in here one day and sat down.”

A few men shout in a tone of faux-outrage at this confession.

“I thought Jim brought you,” one exclaims.

Another adds, “Everybody else has been invited.”

Dockter feigns a guilty look and shrugs.

“I just invited myself,” he says.

After everyone has settled in their seats and finished up their pie, it’s time for one of the Club’s longest-running traditions.

“We all put $2 in the mug and someone picks a number between PAGE 10 | AVERAGE JOE 2017

Photos and a wood-burned sign sit behind the club’s usual table. The photos depict meetings from years gone by.

zero and 1,000,” says member Ron Zeman, standing and clinking a spoon against his coffee cup to get the group’s attention. “We all have to guess, and the guy who loses— or wins, I guess—buys everybody’s coffee.”

As he explains the game, one of the men yells, “Stand up, Ron!” The joke— presumably about Zeman’s height—is an-

swered by a chorus of laughter and a few sly grins before the men seamlessly burst into song.

“Smile, and the world smiles with you,” they sing, garnering a few stares from Main Street patrons unfamiliar with the Club. “Sing a song; don’t be weary, just be cheery all day long.”

As they finish the song, the notes

hanging in the air are quickly covered up been determined, the number game beby chatter about a calendar in which the gins. Each man takes a turn guessing the men write the name of the number game number that has been written down on today’s date in the calendar except—of winner each day.

“When did you start the calendar?” course—the man doing the writing, who Briggs asks a man sitting across the table, is chosen each day by the previous day’s his voice rising above the hum of conver- winner.

“The game is afoot,” the men shout in sation.

“What?” the man asks, tilting his ear unison.

One man guesses 255, which is toward Briggs.

A few men join in, all asking the same deemed high by the writer. The next guesses 163, which is deemed low, and question at different volumes.

“He can’t hear well,” Briggs explains. another guesses 181. The following guess is 183, stirring a big reaction from the “And he just got his new hearing aids.”

In an attempt to help, one man points crowd.

“You1/8 did page a dirty(Sept thing,”2017) Briggs says. at the calendar andDetroit asks again, “When did AverageJoe magazineLakes Newspapers$209 “You jumped on me!” you start the calendar?”

Eventually, Ramstad, the oldest

“January first,” the man answers to member of the group, is the lucky winanother round of raucous laughter.

Finally, someone supplies the date ner—and has been over 10 times this year 1986—”Sure, alright,” the man says—al- alone.

When Ramstad guesses the correct though the calendar itself later proves number, the men—once again—burst into that it began in 1989.

After the traditional songs have been song, singing, “For I’m a young cowboy, sung and the calendar’s start date has and I know I’ve done wrong.”

“Aw, hell,” Ramstad grumbles. “If Briggs would’ve split, I would’ve been out, but no.”

Briggs and Ramstad, who were law partners for years, tease each other good-naturedly, with Ramstad paying the bill and blaming Briggs for it.

“Never should have had you guys pick me up,” Ramstad says, shaking his head.

Briggs laughs, adding, “He always thinks he’s going to lose. He’s always worried, and he’ll worry about this all day.”

They call out thank you’s as Ramstad heads to pay the bill, and the group begins to disperse—but they’ll be back again tomorrow morning, at 10 a.m. sharp.

“There’s a lot of ribbing—that’s most of what it is—and we discuss sports and we talk about nationalities a lot. It’s just a good group of guys,” Dockter says. “If you miss it, you feel like you’re missing a ring or something.”

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AVERAGE JOE 2017 | PAGE 11

Improve overall endurance Pushing oneself physically can be exhausting and demanding.

But whether you’re a seasoned athlete, a part-time fitness enthusiast or even someone who lives a largely sedentary lifestyle, you can find ways to dig down and improve your overall endurance.

Many athletes find pushing their bodies past certain boundaries to be empowering. Letting complacency set in is easy, but finding the motivation to press on and push ahead takes mental determination. The following are a handful of ways to push past physical glass ceilings and improve endurance.

• Join a marathon. The statistics reporting site StatisticsBrain.com states that only 0.5 percent of the U.S. and Canadian populations have ever run a marathon. Running on the treadmill at the gym or a couple of miles around the track is excellent exercise. Runners can take their passion a bit further by enrolling in any of the hundreds of mara-

thons and half-marathons held annually. Crossing the finish line after running 26.2 miles is a rewarding feeling, and few activities do more to improve endurance than running a marathon.

• Try a new gym class. Pushing yourself physically may mean getting out of your comfort zone. Gyms typically offer an array of classes to appeal to as many members as possible. Take advantage of these group classes or personalized training sessions. Explore barre workouts, TRX¨ and ViPR¨, which involve loaded movement and strength training paired with cardiovascular workouts.

• Increase workouts gradually. It can be daunting to think about greatly improving your endurance levels. But taking a gradual, incremental approach to improving endurance is both safe and effective. Also, when engaged, mentally divide the workout into smaller chunks

of time. This way you have several smaller goals to accomplish, rather than one large goal. This can make it easier to digest a tough workout.

• Use friends to keep you motivated. Having friends workout alongside you can keep you motivated. Workout buddies may offer the encouragement necessary to keep pushing through.

Another motivating factor is bragging rights afterward.

• Have a good emotional connection.

A desire to have a great body may not be enough to motivate you to workout and push harder. If not, think of a better reason to exercise, and it may be the mind over matter you need. Many people find inspiration from family health history risk factors or through the goal of reversing negative health reports from doctors’ offices. These motivating factors will help you press on and push harder.

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AVERAGE JOE 2017 | PAGE 13

The fine art of taxidermy Sunram Taxidermy depicts taxidermy as more than just a job

STORY BY NATHAN BOWE | PHOTOS BY MEAGAN PITTELKO

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I

t may surprise people to find out that taxidermy is more art than science.

Just ask Garrett Sunram and Chad Hedman, co-owners of Sunram Taxidermy in Detroit Lakes. They are artists who work with trophy animals.

The “dirty” part of taxidermy -- removing the hide from the body, and the clinging bits of flesh and soft tissue from the skin -- is actually a small part of the job, Sunram said.

It’s the “clean” part -- creating a specimen that is true to life -- that’s the most difficult, and that requires the most artistic skill.

“The word taxidermy means to move skin, to sculpt and detail on the wet skin or hide. It’s understanding animal anatomy and how that animal moves, it’s trying to figure out what (the animal looks like in) nature, and duplicating that,” Sunram said.

Pointing to a full mount of a mountain sheep going steeply downhill, he added that, to make it look lifelike, “I had to build one (leg) muscle up and trim another one down.”

For an experienced, knowledgeable taxidermist, these things come easily once you understand them, he said. But, if a taxidermist

didn’t make those changes, the animal wouldn’t look right.

A lot of work goes into shoulder mounts, including using pins acupuncture-style to hold the face in place around the eyes, shaped with clay.

But full-animal mounts are the most artistically difficult, expensive and rewarding, Sunram said. A shoulder-mounted deer costs $600. The cost of a bear rug is calculated by the foot, but averages about $1,000. A full-body deer mount costs about $3,000.

REACHING THE NEXT LEVEL

Sunram Taxidermy commands higher-than-average prices because the shop produces above-average work. Over the past 16 years, Sunram has won high awards at the state level, and is now moving on to compete in world competition.

“It’s a whole ‘nother level,” he said.

Of the 600 or so licensed taxidermists in Minnesota, only about 10 percent a r e

members of the taxidermy guild and compete in its contests, said Hedman, who took home the Distinguished Service Award this year.

“We mostly do deer head mounts, that’s our bread and butter -- we’ll do up to 70 this year,” said Sunram. “We do quite a few fish, a lot of bear — mostly black, but also Kodiak and grizzly.”

They don’t do polar bears, though, since trophies have not been allowed in from Canada since 2008. The shop does 10-20 bears per year, and Sunram said they are seeing more bears harvested in springtime in Canada, when the fur is in better condition.

Bear hunting in Minnesota opened Aug. 1 but, from a taxidermy standpoint, the quality of bear fur doesn’t peak until October, with colder weather. It’s an example of when a hunting season and the best taxidermy work don’t match up.

WORKING FROM THE GROUND UP

But there’s a lot more to a mount than the animal itself. The simplest fish and deer shoulder mounts are set on a driftwood base. More elaborate bases involve rocks, but not real rocks -- that would make the piece way too heavy. A carved chunk of foam works for smaller rocks, but for big rocks, Sunram and Hedman build a wooden framework, then create a shape using quarter-inch wire mesh, then soak burlap strips in watered-down plaster (like plaster of paris) that creates a shell over the mesh. A drywall spatula is used to give it a mache-like texture and it is then painted to look like a rock. The end result is realistic, but lightweight.

AVERAGE JOE 2017 | PAGE 15

Garrett Sunram and Chad Hedman pose in front of Sunram Taxidermy in Detroit Lakes. The men co-own the business.

“It’s a process, that’s why it’s expensive -- it takes time,” Hedman said.

The base can cost from $500 to $1,500, which is included in the total cost of the piece.

While the rocks help create the animal’s natural environment, they have another purpose: to get a full-animal mount off the floor and up to eye level, where it will command maximum attention. After all, for many hunters, the mount represents the trophy of a lifetime, and they don’t want it lost among the furniture, Sunram said.

“That’s the artwork for their home — taxidermy,” he added.

And some of the most elaborate mounts have more than one animal. The Sunram shop did a fun one recently that has a black bear turning over a rock and scaring up a chipmunk (which also happens to be one of the smallest animals ever done by the shop). It will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the taxidermy guild.

One of the most impressive mounts done by the shop has a bear facing off against a mountain lion atop a small PAGE 16 | AVERAGE JOE 2017

mountain of large rocks. It cost thousands of dollars, weighed less than 250 pounds, and was specially designed to fit on a shelf in the customer’s house.

One of Sunram’s most unusual jobs was to add an eagle head to a 100-yearold bustle for a native customer. It took the man two years to get all the necessary permits, and Sunram learned a lot about native traditions: For example, he said that the eagle feathers couldn’t touch the

floor, the eagle’s body had be buried ceremoniously, and its feathers were saved for the man’s son.

“It was an honor to work on it,” Sunram said.

By the time a skilled taxidermist is finished with an animal, there is nothing left of the animal to decay, Sunram explained. The idea is to show what the animal actually looked like while it was alive in the wild.

That’s why lots of casting and molding is used on trophy fish.

“Fish heads shrink up a lot when you mount them — we make a mold of the actual fish before it shrinks down,” Hedman said.

On big game, ear inserts replace the natural cartilage, and nose septums and open mouths are made to look lifelike.

Hooves are often molded and cast. Natural hooves can be preserved (it’s pretty much required for contest pieces) but it’s an extremely time-consuming process, Sunram said. The end result is taxidermied work that should easily last 100 years.

CHALLENGING EACH OTHER

Taxidermy may well be entering a sort of a golden age: The art has taken great strides in the past few decades, and Sunram said the quality of the work keeps climbing as taxidermists shed their traditionally secretive ways and start freely talking shop at conventions and get-togethers.

“From the early 2000s to to now, the bar has been raised a lot,” he said. “Stuff that would pass as state champion then wouldn’t get a first place now … it’s elevated the industry as a whole.”

Arsenic-tanned mounts were used up to the 1950s, he said.

“Then they had to find safer tan-

A taxidermy wolf stands in the entryway of Sunram Taxidermy.

Other displays include fish and poultry.

ning methods, but they took a nosedive in quality … the junky old mounts from the 1960s and ‘70s turned a lot of people off. They think that’s what taxidermy is,” Hedman said. “Now they can count on a good mount coming out the door.”

Things changed for the better starting in the 1980s, though, the men said.

“The changes taxidermy has gone

through since then are unbelievable,” Hedman said.

“It used to be every taxidermist had his secrets,” Sunram added. “Years and years of back and forth with their work and the judges — that’s how these guys got good — means now we sit down and talk with friends. Everybody talks taxidermy.”

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Interesting facts about golf

Golf is played all over the globe. Golf is one of the world’s oldest sports, boasting a rich history.

Golf is a sport of skill, that can involve not only athletic prowess, but also brain power.

HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE GAME. • To this date, golf is only one of two games to be played on the moon.

The other is a javelin throw.

• Long before the advent of tees, golfers played off of hand-built sand piles.

• In 1889, Ab Smith inadvertently coined the phrase ‘birdie,’ when he

hit a shot he defined as a ‘bird of a shot.’

• Making a hole-in-one during a round of golf is quite a challenge.

However, the odds of making two are incredibly low, at one in 64 million.

• Only around 20 percent of golfers have a handicap below 18. The United States Golf Teachers Feder-

ation defines handicap as ‘a measure of a player‘s current ability over an entire round of golf, signified by a number. The lower the number, the better the golfer is.’

• The word ‘caddy’ comes from ‘cadet,’ the French word for ‘student.’

• A regulation golf ball contains 336 dimples.

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– September 23, 2017 –

National Hunting and Fishing Day

Hunters and anglers, lace up your boots and get ready for an action-packed Saturday.

On September 23, 2017, National Hunting and Fishing Day will be celebrated at events across the country. Learn a new skill or mingle with likeminded folk by taking part in hands-on activities related to hunting, shooting, fishing, archery and more. For more than 45 years, the day has stood as an opportunity to promote the traditions of hunting and fishing as well as the part played by outdoor sportsmen in wildlife conservation efforts.

The role of hunters and anglers in wildlife conservation

The concepts of environmentalism and hunting may seem diametrically opposed; however, the reality is that hunters and anglers contribute $1.7 billion every year to conservation efforts. This sum is derived from a combination of donations, license fees and taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.

Historically, sportsmen were among the first to lobby for wildlife protection in North America. In the mid-1800s, hunters were dismayed to realize that a number of valued species were on the brink of extinc-

tion. In order to protect what they loved, they realized that limits had to be set. These sportsmen crusaded for the implementation of hunting regulations and the protection of various habitats. As they organized, they developed a series of tenets that today inspire the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, a set of principles that informs wildlife management and conservation in the U.S. and Canada.

Thanks to the conservation efforts of hunters and anglers, our nation has preserved countless species

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of wildlife and thousands of acres of wilderness. Continued efforts for preservation are supported and celebrated annually on the fourth Saturday of September through National Hunting and Fishing Day. EIGHT DREAM HUNTING DESTINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

The United States and Canada are both chock-full of prime destinations for hunting big and small game alike. Here are a few suggestions.

UNITED STATES 1. Alaska: black bear, grizzly, caribou, mountain goat, waterfowl and wolf are but a few reasons why Alaska is among North America’s best hunting destinations.

2. South Dakota: they don’t call South Dakota the pheasant capital of the world for nothing! The state is also prime hunting territory for bison, whitetail deer, antelope, cougar and elk.

3. Maine: the Pine Tree State is home to a huge variety of animal species and one of the largest moose populations in the United States. It’s also the perfect spot for hunting wild turkey.

4. Wisconsin: the city of Appleton is one of the best places in the Lower 48 to hunt whitetail deer. Black bear, wild turkey and wolf are also on the menu.

CANADA 5. Anticosti Island (Quebec): with around 53 whitetail deer per square mile, this beautiful island is a true hunter’s paradise! And because they have no natural predators, the whitetails here are more active during the day.

6.

Southern Saskatchewan: mallard, Canada goose, greater white-fronted goose, northern pintail and more — the southern Prairies are teeming with waterfowl come October.

7. The Rockies: home to moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, grizzly, cougar and an abundance of elk, the Canadian Rockies — especially near Jasper in Alberta — have a lot to offer hunters.

8. Yukon: from moose to wood bison, this wild expanse has everything a big-game hunter could ever desire.

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GRILLING UP GREAT THINGS WITH AVERAGE JOE! Enter for your chance to win a Prize Package valued at

MORE THAN $1,300!

• A gift certificate valued at $529 towards the purchase of a Big Green Egg Grill from D & D Appliance • A One-Year Premiere Membership to The Center (valued at $605.60) • A meat bundle from Lakes Processing valued at $200 • $100 Gift Certificate to Lakes Sport Shop

To enter, em mailing addre ail your name, ss, telephone number and story ide as for the ne xt Average Joe to

mswenson@dln

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apers.com Do you have feedback first magazin about this e?

Include it wit h your entry email!

LAKES PROCESSING

WINNER, WINNER PIZZA DINNER?!

As you page through Average Joe, think about some of the exceptional customer service experience you might have had. Then send them to us! It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it does have to be an advertiser in the magazine. Email your positive retail experiences to mswenson@dlnewspapers.com for your chance at one of two $100 gift card bundles from Papa Murphy’s , Pit 611 and Lakes Sport Shop.

DETROIT LAKES NEWSPAPERS No purchase necessary to win. Emailed entries must be received by December 31, 2017.

Only one entry per person, per giveaway. Winners will be notified by January 5, 2018.

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