Merit Lodge sat on the south side of Leech Lake right to the west of Huddle's. Most of the old cabins are gone now, but the lodge is still there and is used as a restaurant by Trapper's Landing. They are building upscale time share condos where Merit Lodge cabins used to be. The Merit Lodge resort was owned for a time by Huddle's(a great old time family resort) but was sold sometime after 2000 I believe.
The Merits originally used the resort to entertain guests of their business that they ran and then I believe that it eventually morphed into a resort.
Merit Lodge was a beautiful resort. I hope that someone will find this and share a story with us. The color picture is more as I remember Merit Lodge. Although I think that they were painted a dark red at some point in time after this picture was taken, they were the red color at the end of Merit Lodge's life as a resort. Anybody out there stay at Merit Lodge? Tell me about your experience!
I have an update. I bought this on eBay a few years ago and I'm trying to date it by the names of the owners. I left my copy of The Early Resorts of Minnesota by Ren Holland at the lake, so I'll post it here until I can get up there again.
A very interesting thing on this lighter is they refer to it as Merit Lodge the Exceptional. I've never heard that tag line on Merit Lodge. Of course about the same time I've seen Forest View the Beautiful on a lot of things from Forest View in that era.
From the late 1950's early 60's Chamber of Commerce map:
Merit Lodge - AAA American and housekeeping Plans. Family resort an convention catering. Boat Harbor, launching, safe beach, meals, movies, water-skiing, guides, launch, playground. Al and Jean Schwarz, Walker, Minn. Tel. VE 6-2321
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