Selling perfect campfi re nights

cow/calf operation for three decades and did rotational grazing, but in the 1980s when the economy took a turn, they had feeder pigs; then they had up to 30 beef cows. They also sold hundreds of fence posts made from solid white oak off their property.

At fi rst, Lanners did business word of mouth, he’d place ads in the paper and then, when the internet grew and calls started to fall, he had someone build him a website. Even though he no longer does any advertising, his phone rings once a day with calls for wood, even in the off-season.

Lanners keeps a book containing the name and contact information of every single person he’s ever sold wood to. It’s his calling list in case he ever runs out of customers, but he’s been so busy through the years he’s never taken it out to make any calls.

Though the wood today is his main business, but in earlier years it was a side job that could be done when he wasn’t working on the ski and tube hill. He and Ursula ran the business and the farm together. She was from Germany and didn’t know any English when she came to America, she taught herself the language by watching soap operas when she wasn’t working on the farm or the ski hill. Ursula died at the age of 79 in December of 2019.

Together, they brought snow tubing to the area.

Lanners page 19

PHOTOS BY ANNA HAYNES Bob Lanners pauses near a pile of pole wood, which is sold to be used in large outdoor furnaces. Lanners manages his land with an assistant who works one day a week.

Bob Lanners sells his sticks of wood by a rack that holds 153 pieces of wood.

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In 1973, Lanners went to a gas station to ask if they had any inner tubes he could have. Most tires were tubeless at the time but farm equipment had tubes, so he left the gas station with a bunch of tubes that needed patching. He brought them home to Eagle Mountain and the two got to work patching.

Lanners brought the idea to the Midwest Ski Areas Association and said people laughed at him, but they began offering something that was new to the area anyway, snow tubing on the beginner ski hill.

In 1986, just after they got the fi rst crop of hay cut and the calves were born, the Lanners went to Vail, Colorado to get some commercial snow tubes. They drove out in a Blazer and rented a U-Haul trailer to pick up tubes from a ski business that was ready to sell them because tubers kept breaking through their ski barriers.

The resort put the Lanners up in a hotel and they toured a few ski resorts in the area. They looked at each and every tube, counting them and deciding which to bring home. They decided on a batch of 300 or so and had to rent a bigger trailer to haul them all back.

And so began the true And so began the true

PHOTOS BY ANNA HAYNES Behind remnants of Eagle Mountain Ski and Snow Tube, a pile of fi rewood stretches roughly a thousand feet down Bob Lanners’ driveway near Burtrum. Equipment from Eagle Mountain Ski and Snow Tube is visible on Bob Lanners’ property, pictured May 18 near Burtrum.

legend of Eagle Mountain Ski and Snow Tube. They had hard-bottom tubes that went faster and soft-bottom tubes that were safer and went slower. They sold extra tubes to other local hills. Through the years they expanded their technology on site, too, moving from rope tows to handle tows for better ease of going up the hill.

The business offered cross-country skiing, a restaurant complete with a wood-burning fi replace and a bunkhouse at the bottom of the three-story chalet so groups could stay the weekend.

For the Lanners, business – even though it wasn’t what they always envisioned – was good.

“I’m 6’4”, but now I’m half bent over,” he said. “I think all that hard work made a guy into good shape (but also took a toll).” - Bob Lanners

(above) Bob Lanners stands behind a large wheel that was used to pull snow tubes up Eagle Mountain t Ski and Snow Tube, which Lanners ran for 35 years S with his wife, Ursula. w (right) Bob Lanners keeps track of his fi rewood sales in a handwritten notebook. Lanners refers to the book as his calling list in case he ran out of customers; he’s never used it.

(right) written in case

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