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.
Lloyd Bowman and lodge guests. Bowman’s daughter, Jocelyn Thornton, is the author of these Tait Lake Lodge memories.
In 1950, my parents Lloyd and Agnes Bowman sold their Firestone store in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, along with their house and all their furniture, packed up their three kids, Ron, 6, Karen, 4, and Audrey, 1, and headed for Tait Lake.
Excitement ran high as they were embarking on a new adventure, partnering with Cap and Billie and a new life in the North Woods.
To backtrack a bit, when my dad shipped overseas with the Canadian Army, my mom, two months pregnant at the time, returned to her parent’s home in Wisconsin. She spent the following two summers at the lake with Cap and Billie. The second summer she had her new son Ron in tow, a delight for Cap and Billie, as they were unable to have kids of their own.
Mom wrote Dad of this beautiful place in the woods. From the trenches in Italy, it sounded like Paradise to my dad. After the war ended, Tait Lake became one of their first vacation destinations. Cap and my dad formed a fast friendship and the seed was planted.
Sometime during the ’40s Cap built a shop in the bay down by the old bridge. The ruins still lie there, in the forest, today. This shop had a portable sawmill that ran off of an old Model T engine. For years prior to construction of the lodge, Cap had been accumulating logs for the event. He chose these logs carefully— popple, birch and pine—and skidded them to the shop. From there he used his saw and planer to fashion the studs and the lumber that would build the lodge.
Cap and Dad built the Tait Lake main lodge through that first winter while Mom, Ron, Karen and Audrey lived in a rented cabin in Grand Marais so Ron could go to school. On weekends Dad would drive down and bring everyone home. They all lived in the “Piano Cabin” until bedtime when Mom and Dad, carrying Audrey, would go to the “Log Cabin” to sleep.
Everyone moved into the lodge in the fall of 1951. A spring, up the hill behind the lodge, brought running water, and with it a flush toilet — no more chamber pots and outhouses!
A diesel generator, housed in a shack behind the lodge, provided electricity. We always called, and still call, that shack the light plant. Propane floor heaters kept it warm. They were living in the lap of luxury.
Snow came frequently and heavily that winter. As the snow piled up it became impossible for Ron to get into school. Consequently, Ron attended grade three from the kitchen table in the lodge.
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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