Monday, September 17, 2012

Up North at the Cabin

I think I will post this, although it isn't really about resorts, but about my time at Leech Lake.  Actually, it would apply to everyone's time at any lake if you went as a child or if you took your own children.

This may be one of the best books I have ever read.  My mom bought it for our family as a Christmas present when our children were first born.  It is listed as a children's book, but as I read it to my son and daughter many times as they were children, it always made me smile as I thought about my own childhood memories and the people, some of them gone now, that were central to those memories up north at the cabin.  And not only my memories as a child, but my memories of my own children as they have grown up now, they were always so excited to go.   Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, my wife and children, my siblings, Augie and Mettie, the VanWerdens and the Ottos, the Crandels, the list is way too long to put everyone in there.  I'm sure you all have your own memories.  We continue to make memories at the lake each year.

The book Up North at the Cabin can be bought just about anywhere, ebay, amazon, etc.  If you ever spent any time up north at the cabin, you have to get this book.  Take my word for it.  It was written by Marsha Wilson Chall, pictures by Steve Johnson.




Sunday, September 16, 2012

Bear Island View

Bear Island View was an old resort that is long gone on the east side of the lake near Brevik.  It was owned by a family named Coleman.

They had a big long harbor that was cut into the land, and the cabins pretty much sat around the harbor that I remember.  I don't know if any sat on the lake.

I can remember as a kid that they had plywood cutouts of bears around the harbor and if I remember some of them had things written on them.  I always thought that it was very, very cool.

Anybody out there have a clearer memory about this resort?  It closed down as a resort quite some time ago and as the fate that befell many of the resorts on Leech, it now is private cabins.

I don't have any pictures.  Anybody that knows, please feel free to comment.  If you have any pictures, send them to me and I'd be glad to post them.

These pictures are from Skearth of Bear Island View.  See his posts below to get some great history of the resort.  Thanks Skearth!