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 Peterson with a resort guest in the Tait Lake Lodge “Liar’s Den.”
With the advent of the Second World War and gas rationing,
the tourist trade in Cook County pretty much disappeared.
Cap worked at the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) Camp at Sawbill, and he and Billie maintained Sawbill
Lodge for their good friend Jean Raikenin while she was
away involved in the war effort.
The exact location of the resort on Tait Lake was no accident.
The bay was chosen because of its calm water: the perfect
landing area for floatplanes. The resort was to be a base
camp for a fly-in tourist business to “The Roadless Area,” a
place that we now know as “The Boundary Waters Canoe
Area.”
This dream ended in 1949 when Harry Truman issued an
executive order establishing an air space reservation over
the BWCA which restricted flying below 4,000 feet.
None of us remember Cap or Billie expressing any bitterness
over this event. They were conservationists. Preserving the
wildness of the BWCA appealed to them. They were, however,
dismayed by the government’s heavy hand in moving
people from their homes and its practice of burning properties
once they were abandoned.
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 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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