Generations f a l l t w o t h o u s a n d e i g h t e e n • detroit lakes, mn
MUSIC MAVERICK
Performer, teacher and radio host John Hutchinson
ALSO INSIDE:
• T he world champ women’s bicyclist of DL •M ary Erickson explores Cormorant history • T amarac’s nomadic Resident Volunteers
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Generations
Supplement to the Detroit Lakes Tribune, August 26, 2018 511 Washington Avenue • Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 218-847-3151 • Fax 218-847-9409 • www.dl-online.com Melissa Swenson, publisher Marie Johnson, magazine editor Luanna Lake, magazine designer Sara Leitheiser, creative manager
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The Blues Man: DL’s John Hutchinson is a force among area musicians Woman on the Move: Becker County’s world champ women’s bicyclist, Tillie Anderson Shoberg Two for the Road: Retired couple finds satisfaction as full-time travelers Still Teaching Us All A Thing Or Two: Former country school teacher Mary Erickson digs into Cormorant’s early days
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The blues man
Performer, radio show host, teacher: DL’s John Hutchinson is a force among area musicians STORY: NATHAN BOWE | PHOTOS: PAULA QUAM
J
John Hutchinson of Detroit grandmother, who loved to play Over the years, he has done a lot Lakes has done a lot of things it. The guitar is made of Brazilian of research (including a weeks-long in his life — as head of the local rosewood and has what appear to be solo motorcycle trip to Mississippi) newspaper’s graphic arts department, ivory tuning pegs. The guitar is “a into early forms of blues music, and he took the paper from cold type to Romantic, similar to a parlor guitar, his knowledge comes out in “Cruisin’ its first (Mac) computers. He was the which are getting popular again,” he the Blues with Mr. Jack,” his weekly first in-house line artist for national says. “She was playing it during the show on Niijii Radio (89.9 FM), markets at Lakeshirts. He was the Civil War.” which airs at 4 p.m. Wednesdays and first in-house photographer for WE Those smaller guitars gave again at 6 p.m. Sundays. Fest. For years, he’s been a popular way to larger versions in the early “I’ve been studying the blues music teacher who seems to click 1900s because guitars were getting since 1984,” he says. naturally with young people. And drowned out by louder band Hutchinson has produced several he’s been a force among area CDs of his own and helped musicians most of his adult life. students do the same, but has Hutchinson, 62, started kept his principles. As “I’ve never made a living (off performing). always playing guitar when he was 19. part of a two-person electric duo “A friend of mine taught me called Off the Luff, he was asked I play because I love music.” a song a year out of high school. to open for the great blues artist -John Hutchinson He taught me ‘Stairway to B.B. King in Fargo. But they Heaven’ on a cheap Montgomery would have had to play acoustic, Ward guitar. The second song I instruments: “Nobody could hear not electric. It wasn’t easy, but he learned was ‘Take it Easy’ by the them,” Hutchinson says. The solution said no. Eagles. They were hits at the time, arrived in the late 1920s, with “I declined on principal,” he says. not classic rock,” he says with a resonating guitars. Hutchinson has “I wasn’t about to change who I was laugh. one with a 9.5-inch metal resonating or what we were doing.” Today, Hutchinson teaches tube that was used for playing Hutchinson doesn’t wear his guitar, bass and contemporary popcountry music. spirituality on his sleeve, but he has rock vocals out of his garage studio, Hutchinson loves country, but is a deep love for the Lord, which came which is jam-packed full of photos best known for his work with blues about in his early adulthood as he of past and present students as well and Gospel blues groups including was also learning to love the guitar. as old instruments, music and other the Sky Blues Band, Vincent and the He grew up in a home without much memorabilia. Van Goghs, and the Warped Melon respect for religion, and they never Included in his collection is a Blues Band (now the Blue Wailers). went to church as a family. But after small guitar built in the 1860s that He has played three or four times at his parents divorced, his mother was once owned by his great-great the Fargo Blues Fest. became very interested in the Bible. John Hutchinson plays one of his guitars in his Detroit Lakes studio. The metal tubes in this classic country music guitar were used to amplify the sound. On the cover he holds a rare guitar, a Gretsch 6118 model, with a special color top (copper mist). He says only 12 were ever made in that color. He has No. 8 of 12. Paula Quam / Tribune
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Photos of former and current students (above) and all sorts of memorabilia decorate Hutchinson’s Detroit Lakes studio. John Hutchinson in his studio (left). Paula Quam / Tribune
“I saw a big change in my mom — she was peaceful, happy, wise — my mom had a big Bible and was reading it, underlining it, and I was asking her questions.” She told him, “All you have to do is accept Jesus as savior and he’ll make it happen for you.” After several answered prayers that were job-related and too unlikely to be coincidences, he developed a strong faith that he never lost. His very first band was a country gospel group in Fargo called Messiah’s Messengers, which played in coffeehouses in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hutchinson married his high PAGE 8 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
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John Hutchinson holds a photo (left) of his great-great-grandmother, Jenny Andrews, age 19, who in the 1860s owned the Romantic guitar he is holding in his other hand. A close-up of that same photo of Jenny Andrews, age 19, (above) back home in the Cleveland area town of Lakewood where Hutchinson’s family has deep roots. This Romantic guitar from the 1860s (below) is made of Brazilian rosewood and is in near-original condition. Paula Quam / Tribune
school sweetheart, Marci, 42 years ago, and they have two daughters, Jennifer Russell of St. Louis, Missouri (who has two boys, ages 3 and 5) and Jill Blair of Grand Forks, North Dakota (who has a girl and boy, ages 2 and 4). A mentor as well as a teacher, Hutchinson has been teaching music to kids ages 10 and up since 1993. He says one of his big goals for his students is “getting them out to perform.” “I have kids who have kids now,” he says. “I can relate to kids real well — I build a really good rapport with them.” One of his students, Tayler Paige Devall, 17, of Detroit Lakes, recently won an award for best singer/songwriter from the Fargo organization called Celebration of Women and their Music. Other young promising Detroit Lakes songwriters include Sadie Jesness and Sierra Branson, Hutchinson says. He has also recorded a CD for Jacob Woody of Lake Park, whose style is classic country, even though Woody is not his student. Having an old-style recording studio in his garage complements Hutchinson’s lessons, he says: “It’s fun for my students to hear themselves (professionally recorded) — where else can they do that?” He tells his students that most musicians don’t make the big time, but it’s still a great lifelong hobby. “It’s better than softball or bowling — you get paid for it,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s not a money-making deal unless you do it all the time… I’ve never made a living (off performing). I play because I love music.” PAGE 10 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
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Call 218.847.0894 for a tour EssentiaHealth.org GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 11
Swedish immigrant Tillie Anderson Shoberg, who resided in Becker County from 1924 until her death in 1965, was the world champion of women’s bicycling from 1897 until her retirement in 1902. Submitted Photos
Shoberg, seen here in one of her racing sweaters, won a variety of medals during her bicycle racing career.
Woman on the move Becker County’s Tillie Anderson Shoberg was a 7-time world champ in women’s bike racing STORY: VICKI GERDES
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oday, women in the world of bicycle racing are something the world takes for granted — but there was a time the so-called fairer sex was deemed “too delicate” and the sport “too dangerous” for their supposed fragile constitutions. Perhaps no one made a greater contribution to the acknowledgment of women as serious competitors in bike racing than longtime Becker County resident Tillie Anderson Shoberg. Shoberg was known as the “female bicycling champion of the world” from 1897 to 1902, and this PAGE 12 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
fall she’s the subject of an exhibit at the Becker County Museum. Born in Skane, Sweden on April 23, 1875, Shoberg was the fourth of five siblings — and her reputation for having a strong will and perseverance began early. After her father died when she was eight years old, Shoberg began working for a neighboring farmer during haying and harvesting season to help support her mother, brother and three sisters. In 1891, Shoberg and her brother August emigrated to America,
joining their older sister Hanna in Chicago. The rest of the family came to America the following year. Shoberg found work as a seamstress in a tailor’s shop, and in two years she had saved enough money for a bicycle. During the summer of 1895, she took part in a race over the ElginAurora (Illinois) century course, and broke the century record. She later traveled around the U.S. as part of a racing circuit that included sixday races for women. According to Shoberg’s great niece, Alice Roepke,
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GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 13
This is one of the panels for the Tillie Anderson Shoberg exhibit, on display at the Becker County Museum through September. Submitted Photo
those women would race around a velodrome racetrack at top speed for two hours on each of the six consecutive days.
SETTING RECORDS
it is a delightful sport and the best possible exercise, though I regularly practice club-swinging, dumbbell lifting, a little boxing, take lots of outdoor exercise and look after my health as best I can.” Over the course of her eight-year racing career, Shoberg held records for practically every distance, from sprint to endurance. She once rode half a mile in 49.25 seconds, and on another occasion, rode 100 miles in six hours, 52 minutes and 15 seconds. She reportedly entered 130 races in her career, and was first over the finish mark in all but seven of them.
“It was because a woman — who was not a professional racer — had crashed and died from a fall off a bicycle,” says Emily Buermann, programming director for the Becker County Museum, who has conducted some research on Shoberg. Women were thus deemed “too delicate” for the sport, though the fact that the racers wore skin-tight clothing that showed off their form — considered quite scandalous at the time — might also have had something to do with it, says Roepke. Not only that, but “the women racers were drawing big crowds and becoming very successful. The men didn’t like it.” In December of 1897, at the height of her career, Shoberg married her trainer and manager, J.P. “Phil” Shoberg, himself a former racer who had given up his cycling career to manage hers. Race managers of that time trained their athletes, found sponsors to pay expenses, scheduled races and didn’t let go at the starting line until they had given their cyclist the strongest push they could muster. Unfortunately, Shoberg’s husband developed tuberculosis shortly after their marriage, and died in 1902. Widowed at age 26, she never remarried.
Shoberg was just 20 years old when the League of American Wheelmen (the national professional bicycle racing organization of that LEAVING A LEGACY era) recognized her as the best Though many people, including woman cyclist in the world. Shoberg’s own mother, brother and Newspapers liked to characterize Bible teacher disapproved of women her as thin and weak when she first riding bicycles, Shoberg remained an came to America, but in an 1897 advocate for the sport throughout her interview with a St. Louis, Missouri, entire life, and often boasted about newspaper, Shoberg keeping within four was quoted as saying, pounds of her racing “I did not take to weight. “From the start I have been in love with wheeling... the wheel for my She remained I think it is a delightful sport and the best possible exercise, active in the League of health, particularly. I suppose it was more though I regularly practice club-swinging, dumbbell lifting, American Wheelmen for the reason that and the Bicycle Stars a little boxing, take lots of outdoor exercise and look after bicycles were being of the 19th Century used by women and organizations until my health as best I can.” -Tillie Anderson Shoberg in 1897 I wanted to try the her death in 1965, fad.” at the age of 90. She “From the start I have been in She remained world champion from is buried in Becker County, where love with wheeling,” she continued. 1897 until 1902, when women were she spent many of her post-racing “I was very weak when I began, but banned from the sport of bicycle years. Her headstone at the Shell now I never suffer from pains and racing due to the level of danger Lake Immanuel Lutheran Church aches, as most women do. I think involved. cemetery reads, “champion of the PAGE 14 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
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DID YOU KNOW? The sport of Women’s Bicycle Racing began in 1879, during the high wheeled bicycle era. But it was considered more a novelty than a sport until the advent of the diamond-framed safety bicycle in 1890. world” and has a small bicycle engraved on it. “She (Shoberg) built a cabin out on Island Lake in 1924 — I believe it’s the oldest building still on the lake,” says Roepke, adding that, “Even though it had been 22 years since she stopped racing, she kept a collection from her career that included a little bit of everything.” Shoberg’s collection was intended to help recreate the era of women’s bicycling in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Roepke says: “She brought that collection to the cabin on Island Lake back in the 1920s, and it’s been there ever since.” Roepke inherited her great aunt’s racing memorabilia and the family’s Island Lake property from her mother. Though she was just three years old when Shoberg
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Alice Roepke, great niece of Tillie Anderson Shoberg, is seen here wearing some of her aunt’s medals on one of her racing sweaters, with several historic photos of Shoberg on the wall behind her. Submitted Photo
died, Roepke has become very involved in curating the newspaper clippings, bicycling gear and other memorabilia of her great aunt’s racing career. She says interest in Shoberg has continued on and off through the years, but really picked up in the 2000s. Shoberg was the subject of a 2011 children’s book, “Tillie the Terrible Swede,” by Sue Stauffacher, as well as the soon-to-be-published “Women on the Move: The Forgotten Era of Women’s Bicycle Racing,” by Roger Gilles, scheduled for release by the University of Nebraska Press in October 2018. And more may be coming. “I’m working with five different authors around the world right now, on stories about Tillie and the women who competed with her,” Roepke
says. “We’re pretty excited about that.” The Becker County Museum exhibit is part of the Smithsonian Institute’s annual Museum Day initiative at museums across the U.S. “The theme for this year’s Museum Day is ‘Phenomenal Women in History,’” says Buermann. “So we decided to feature a phenomenal woman in Becker County history that most people don’t know that much about.” Museum Day 2018 is Saturday, Sept. 22. The local exhibit on Shoberg is being featured from late August throughout the month of September. For more information, visit www.tillieanderson.com, contact the Becker County Museum at 218-847-2938 or visit www. beckercountyhistory.org.
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Shannon and Alan Jones (right) sold their home in Lino Lakes, Minn., several years ago to travel the countryside in their RV with their two dogs. They spend several months of the year volunteering at federal and state parks, forests and refuges, and are spending this summer at Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, near Detroit Lakes. Helping maintain Tamarac’s grounds and trails, like the Blackbird Wildlife Drive, seen here, (below) is one important way Resident Volunteers contribute at the refuge. Marie Johnson / Tribune
Two for the road
Retired couple, spending their summer at Tamarac as Resident Volunteers, find satisfaction as full-time travelers
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STORY AND PHOTOS: MARIE JOHNSON
hey haven’t had a “stick house” in six years. Alan and Shannon Jones decided a long time ago that a life on the road was the life for them. Soon after they retired, they sold their home in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, packed what little was left of their belongings into their new RV, and headed down the highway. “We set out in the fall of 2012 and haven’t turned back since,” says Alan. The couple has seen a lot of countryside since then. They’ve traveled to Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, Arizona and many other U.S. states, as well as parts of Canada.
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They’ve taken several purely recreational RV trips, but usually they do something more charitable with their time—volunteer. The Joneses are regular Resident Volunteers at federal and state parks, forests and wildlife refuges all over the country. Resident Volunteer gigs typically last three to four months and entail a dedicated number of volunteer hours per week, in exchange for a free RV “camping” spot at whichever scenic and secluded parkland the gig is at. For example, Alan and Shannon are currently stationed at Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, where they’re helping with maintenance projects and at the Visitor’s Center
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GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 19
Alan and Shannon Jones bought this RV in 2012, after selling their “stick home” in Lino Lakes, Minn. They’ve been touring the country ever since. Marie Johnson / Tribune
above all else, opting for places for about 24 hours a week. They something to do, and it also allows that are unique and that interest arrived at Tamarac in mid-May and us to travel—to go to different places them—and aren’t “way out in the their RV will remain parked in its for periods of time, where we get to boondocks.” They prefer customer spot there through the summer, until meet and talk to people, get to know service-oriented roles, so they look the local customs, eat the food,” says their gig is over and they’re on to the for opportunities at Visitor’s Centers. Alan. “It seems to be a perfect fit for next place, hundreds of miles away. They also like to pick places that are us.” It’s a nomadic lifestyle, full of close to family: their two grown sons, When they first started out, the freedom and adventure and open Joneses vowed to never return to any daughters-in-law and grandkids live road. For the Joneses, “home” is one place since “there are so many in Minnesota and Oregon. wherever they are. Wherever they The Joneses chose happen to be at the Tamarac this summer moment. It’s not always the easiest way to live, “This is a means to give us something to do, and it also so they could be for their oldest but they say they have allows us to...go to different places for periods of time, around grandson’s graduation. no regrets. where we get to meet and talk to people, get to know the Neither one had ever been to Tamarac ‘SO MANY local customs, eat the food.” -Alan Jones before, despite living PLACES TO SEE’ within just hours of it Tamarac is the for so many years. In fact, wildlife places to see,” Shannon says, but 23rd Resident Volunteer gig the Joneses have held. They tend to favor they’ve broken that promise—twice— refuges really weren’t on the couple’s radar at all until they started wildlife refuges, and they love the after falling in love with two places Southwest—most of their volunteer that particularly touched their hearts: volunteering, they admit, despite their extensive camping experience experiences have been in desert the Petrified Forest National Park and Alan’s decades-long career in states like Arizona and New Mexico. in Arizona, and Bosque del Apache forestry. Wherever they go, the Joneses National Wildlife Refuge in New try to soak up the local culture and Mexico. The Joneses find their Resident get to know local folks. They visit ‘WE PULLED THE PLUG’ Volunteer gigs online, at volunteer. local museums and historical points Alan is originally from of interest, attend local festivals, dine gov, a federal government website Pennsylvania. Before retiring in that lists all such volunteer openings out at local restaurants, and see all 2010, he worked in forestry for available in the U.S. When deciding the local sites they can. decades, first in Wisconsin, and then where to go, they look at location “This is a means to give us in northern Minnesota for a number PAGE 20 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
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GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 21
Resident Volunteers at Tamarac get to enjoy the refuge’s flora and fauna all summer long, like this water lily, which seems to be playing peek-a-boo from behind a leaf. Marie Johnson / Tribune
of years, with the Department of started thinking very seriously about Natural Resources. Shannon is a taking up the lifestyle themselves, Colorado native and was a piano and ultimately, as Shannon says, “We teacher and church musician who pulled the plug.” also taught part-time retail jobs on They started by downsizing, and-off. The two met in college, at bigtime—selling or giving away their Colorado State furniture and finding University. They new homes for raised their sons most of their family “It’s been very freeing.” in the Bemidji area heirlooms. Some -Shannon Jones before moving to things got packed Lino Lakes later up in boxes and put on. into storage, but for the most part, Longtime nature lovers and avid the Joneses became unburdened by campers—the couple used to have belongings. a Scamp and has camped at every “It’s been very freeing,” says State Park in Minnesota, among Shannon. many other locations in multiple That freedom, along with a sense states—the Joneses took their first of adventure, meeting new people steps down the path of Resident and learning about other places and Volunteering after listening to a ways of life are all major “ups” to presentation on it while camping at a life on the road, the Joneses say. Padre Island National Seashore in But living out of an RV has some Texas. “downs,” too. It was the right presentation at Shannon says she wishes she the right time. Alan had just retired, could spend more time with her and Shannon was just about to. grandkids, and as a former Master They were entering the next stage Gardener in Minnesota, she really of their lives, and they were looking misses having some dirt to call her for something fun and different to own. There are also challenges with do with their newfound free time. health care—the Joneses are getting They could see themselves becoming tired of having to establish a new Resident Volunteers. primary care doctor at every new Over the next year or so, they location they visit, or of having to made it a point to seek out and talk wait and travel to receive care from a to Resident Volunteers whenever and doctor they’ve already seen. wherever they went camping, and Some everyday things can be the volunteers’ stories only made the more of a hassle, as well, when you couple even more interested. They don’t have a traditional permanent
PAGE 22 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
address. For mail and licensing purposes, the Joneses have set up a “personal residency” in South Dakota, a state that Shannon says is a popular choice for RVers because it charges no personal income tax. They have South Dakota license plates on their vehicles, and their mail is forwarded to them through a mail service, when they request it. Despite the frustrations that inevitably go with full-time travel, the Joneses wouldn’t trade it for a conventional retirement. They look back on their experiences on the road with fondness. They’ve met wonderful people, seen beautiful countryside, breathed in the fresh air, and made lasting memories. Traveling and volunteering have enriched their lives, but after several years of seeing the world, the Joneses are beginning to feel like their time as Rvers might be winding down. They have at least one more Resident Volunteer gig ahead of them after they leave Tamarac at the end of August, but they’re not sure how many more gigs they’ll take on after that. Ultimately, Alan and Shannon say, they plan to “land” in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They won’t buy another “stick house” again—instead, they’ll reside in a senior complex or rent an apartment. “We’ve been doing this long enough and seen enough places that we’re thinking about going to the next phase, of stopping and settling down again,” Alan says. “Of course, when we decide to stop doing this, we’ll have to get more stuff again,” Shannon adds with a laugh. “It’ll be like starting over. But it should be fun.” The Joneses adopted a nomadic life on the road after retirement. They’ve visited multiple states, but they say their favorites are in the Southwest. Despite living in Minnesota for decades, they now prefer desert areas. File photo
A home for the summer
Resident Volunteers bring diverse life experiences, skills to Tamarac STORY AND PHOTO: MARIE JOHNSON Since Tamarac National to focus on other priority Wildlife Refuge joined in on projects or duties, such as the national park system’s dealing with downed trees or Resident Volunteer program facility issues, planning events in 2010, it has welcomed and working on reports. “It volunteers from Texas, New helps us to accomplish more,” Jersey, Mississippi, Colorado says Bengtson. and numerous other states. “There’s a workload there, Some volunteers come alone, and sometimes budgets Tamarac Park Ranger Janice Bengtson says Resident Volunteers play a crucial role at others come in pairs or groups. don’t allow for the hire of the refuge, performing day-to-day maintenance and Visitor’s Center duties so staff Some stay for the whole has time to focus on other high-priority projects, reports and grounds upkeep. The enough seasonal employees. summer, others only a few It definitely helps during the refuge has been hosting Resident Volunteers since 2010. weeks. They’re young, old and summer months.” in-between, and come from all walks “We try to be flexible with their As an added bonus, many of the of life. Yet they have a couple of very schedules, too. We want them to Resident Volunteers are retirees, important things in common—a love enjoy their time here, so if they want and they’ve spent their lives enjoying for nature, and a giving spirit. some time off, we work around that.” the outdoors, either in their past Resident Volunteers usually Prospective Resident Volunteers find professions or for their own personal arrive at Tamarac around mid-May and obtain positions just like job interests. They then bring those and remain into early fall. They stay in searchers often find and apply for experiences with them to Tamarac— their RVs or campers at a designated jobs. They go online (to volunteer. a big benefit for the refuge. area up on a hill near the Visitor’s gov, which has a listing of all the One of last year’s Resident Center. There are two cement RV open volunteer gigs at public lands Volunteers, for example, was a pads with hookups there, along with a across the country), find a volunteer retired trail foreman at a national storage shed for things like bikes and gig they’re interested in and fill out park. He used his skills to design kayaks, and a clothesline. Laundry an application through the website. a re-route of the Discovery Center facilities are also nearby, inside a People who apply at Tamarac are Trail at Tamarac, making it more house that seasonal workers and also asked to submit a resume, and accessible and completing the work interns live in over the summer. they go through an interview process. himself, with the help of another Janice Bengtson, a park ranger Bengtson says she usually gets volunteer. at Tamarac, says Resident Volunteers quite a few applicants. She selects “A lot of them have all this commit to spending 24 hours a candidates based on their skills, prior awesome experience, and it’s neat week helping out around the refuge. experience, how they’d fit in with the because then we learn from them,” Depending on their preferences, they rest of the staff, and their reasons for says Bengtson. They’re coming might mow the grass around public wanting to come to Tamarac. from the outside and see things accesses and historical sites, work the “It’s kind of competitive out differently...they’ve seen other ways desk at the Visitor’s Center, do some there, because there are a lot of of doing things. It’s always good gardening or perform other tasks people doing this right now,” she says to have someone come in and say, that fit their talents. of Resident Volunteering. “People try ‘Hmm, you should do it this way,’ or, Tamarac once had a volunteer to line it up a year ahead of time, so I ‘Have you thought about this?’ That’s who was excellent with computers, usually try to select people in October always a good thing.” for example, so that person helped or November.” Tamarac National Wildlife build databases for the refuge. Resident Volunteers have a lot Refuge is located about a 25 minute Another was an experienced birder, to offer the refuge, Bengtson says. drive northeast of Detroit Lakes, at so she conducted Breeding Bird They live on-site and are accessible, 35704 County Highway 26, Rochert. Surveys for the wildlife department so if something comes up at an odd For more information, contact the and presented special birding tours hour, they can be called on to help. By refuge at 218-847-2641. For more and programs to the public. seeing to the day-to-day operations information about the national “We try to match their interests, around the grounds and Visitor’s Resident Volunteer program, visit talents and skills,” says Bengtson. Center, they allow Tamarac staff volunteer.gov. GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 23
Still teaching us all a thing or two Retired teacher, active historian Mary Erickson digs into the early days of Cormorant
R
etired school teacher Mary Erickson is a local history buff. She has been archiving Cormorant Township homesteaders and digging up information about the area’s history for quite some time. Erickson spends a good chunk of her days at the Cormorant Community Center, a place she is forever PAGE 24 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
STORY AND PHOTOS: EMILY DRISCOLL connected to. The community center used to be a schoolhouse where she taught for about two years back in the 1950s. Even then, the building served the people of Cormorant in multiple ways. “This has been a community center for as long as I remember, because it was too far to go anywhere
else,” Erickson recalls. “We’re really proud of it.” Built in 1905, the building stopped operating as a school in 1965. Today, lady slippers bloom outside and light floods into the building’s inviting gathering room. Some parts still resemble a school. There are chalkboards, portraits
Mary Erickson shows the Library Link room (facing page) in the Cormorant Community Center. The room contains a few antique school desks and old classroom decor. The retired teacher’s former desk sits in the corner. Original portraits from the old country school (right) in Cormorant Township still hang in the building today. It was standard to display portraits of U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in classrooms back in the country school days. Emily Driscoll / Tribune
of U.S. Presidents Lincoln and Washington, and original wood floors where desks used to sit and children used to learn and play. There have been several changes and additions to the building over the past few decades, including an additional event space, computer room, Library Link site, exercise
facility and more. The event space is available to rent, while the other facilities are free to the public. The desk that Erickson once used while teaching at the school now sits in the building’s basement, next to a display of her old encyclopedias, archiving materials and scrapbooks. There are other relics from the
schoolhouse around, too, such as gas lamps that were used before the days of electricity. Throughout her teaching career, Erickson worked at the Cormorant school, in District 110, Lake Park, and also in Pelican Rapids for 10 years. She fondly remembers her days of teaching, and says her GENERATIONS FALL 2018 | PAGE 25
students rarely misbehaved. “One of the common questions parents asked was, ‘Did so-and-so behave?’ Because if they behaved, then they’ve learned,” Erickson says. Country schools were small, and grades one through eight were all held in a single classroom. The teacher was the only adult on site. “It was very interesting,” Erickson remembers. “We had no playground people, so when they (the kids) were outside playing, I was out there playing with them. One day one of my little boys hung on a branch and fell down and split his head open on a rock. I brought him in and cleared the blood and cleaned him up.” At the time, there were no phones, so Erickson had to send someone to locate the boy’s mom to ask whether or not he should be seen by a doctor. “You were a nurse, mother,
Mary Erickson’s old encyclopedias and other memorabilia (above) sit on a shelf on display. Some of Erickson’s history scavenging on early Cormorant settlers (below) has been turned into exhibits that hang on the walls of the basement at the community center. Emily Driscoll / Tribune
who homesteaded here.” Forever a teacher at heart, Erickson likes to share those histories with other ‘students of life.’ Some “You were a nurse, mother, everything.” of the old stories and information she’s curated -Mary Erickson, on teaching hangs on a wall of the community center as at a country school museum-style historical exhibits. Her hope is everything,” Erickson says. to eventually publish a book on She recalls school Christmas programs and activities as some of the great delights of teaching. One year, for example, her students wanted a toboggan for Christmas, so she decided to host a basket social to raise the funds to buy one. The kids were “very thrilled” to receive it, she says. Erickson retired early at age 50 due to some health problems. She’s now 86 and occupies her time studying the history of Cormorant, motivated by her fascination with the township’s earliest families as well as her own personal connection to the area. “I’ve been doing histories of a lot of the early settlers in Cormorant Township,” she explains. “The people
PAGE 26 | GENERATIONS FALL 2018
Cormorant Township’s history, but that’s still a work in progress. Some of the photos she’s dug up in her studies, however, are already featured in a book — Becker County Museum’s Research Director, Jenn Johnson, recently published a book on local country schools, called “Remembering Country Schools: Memories of Becker County Rural Schools.” The book is available for purchase in the museum’s gift shop.
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