Photo courtesy of family Billie Petersen of Tait Lake Lodge with a great catch.
Fourteen miles up the Caribou Trail is Tait Lake. The roads around the lake, Cap’s Trail and Billie’s Trail, were named for my aunt and uncle Mathilde “Billie” Petersen and Martin “Cap” Petersen. They once owned the land upon which today’s Tait Lake residents have built their homes. The original Tait Lake Lodge, which Cap and Billie built, was their passion — this is their story.
Billie Petersen was born in southern Ontario, Canada. She was a gifted pianist who studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto “for one glorious year.” When she was 24, her family immigrated to the United States. Billie eventually moved to Chicago to study nursing, graduating as an RN in 1929.
Cap was named for his father, Martin Petersen, a wooden boat builder and founder of Petersen’s Boat Works in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. As a young boy Cap built boats alongside his father, acquiring the carpentry skills that would stand him in good stead. He served with the Coast Guard during the First World War and obtained his ship’s pilot license for the Great Lakes and coastal waters.
After the war he worked on Lake Superior, captaining ships carrying supplies to fishing villages and resorts. In the winters, when the shipping season ended, Cap would return to Sturgeon Bay to work with his father. Somewhere along the line he ended up in Chicago where he met Billie who was, by this time, nursing at the Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
In 1932, Cap and Billie were married. They purchased a corner store in Chicago but by this time the Great Depression was in full swing and the store was losing more money than it made to kids stealing penny candies. Cap had fallen in love with the North Shore during his shipping days and could not let go of a dream of finding a place in the wilderness there. Finally in 1935, with nothing to lose and thinking Cap’s dream would probably die when reality set in, Billie agreed to leave Chicago behind and they headed for the woods.
They explored through the winter when travelling in the bush is less difficult. Strapping on snowshoes, they began on Superior’s shore, moving up its frozen rivers following their natural pathways to the backcountry lakes.
On one of their excursions they came upon a lake with towering white pines along its shores. “Find me a lake like this,” said Billie, “and I’ll follow your dream.”
They found that lake and never left. In 1936, they built a tarpaper shack and spent the winter on Tait Lake—their adventure began.
At that time the Caribou Trail was driveable only as far as Holly Lake. From there, Cap and Billie would park their Chevy coupe, shoulder their packs and begin the six-mile hike along a dim trail to the south shore of Tait Lake where they would get into a boat for a short paddle across and they were home.
In the winter, to insure that a reliable vehicle awaited them, they’d drain the car’s radiator, remove its battery and pack it in on a sled. The battery and a container of water would accompany them on any return trips out. Almost everything, including the first walleye fry, arrived at the lake either on their backs or pulled behind on a sled.
Jocelyn Thornton recalls “the life and legacy” of her aunt and uncle, Billie and Cap Peterson, original proprietors of the Tait Lake Lodge in Lutsen. The News-Herald will publish one of this series of eight reminiscences each month. Do you have an old picture or a story from years gone by that you would like to share with Cook County News-Herald readers? Give us a call, or stop by our Grand Marais office. We’d love to hear your Historical Reflections. Call (218) 387-9100; e-mail starnews@boreal.org; or stop by our officeat 15 First Avenue West.
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