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. As always, alternate income had to be procured to supplement the lodge income. Cap and Dad bought logging rights to a stand of timber on the Caribou Trail not far from where a sign now designates the Wills Lake Woodcock Management area. They cut pulpwood there and in the spring hired a logging truck which hauled it down to Sugar Loaf Cove in Schroeder.
Small scale timber production was one of many ways that the Tait Lake Resort made ends meet. There was also guiding hunts, building boats— and fishing for moose?
Large groups of men, nine to 10 at a time, came to hunt deer in the late fall. Billie and my mom cooked all their meals and served them in the lodge. My brother Ron remembers listening to their stories in the evening around a crackling fire in the lounge.
We had trails from Tait Lake to Wills Lake and beyond to Williams Lake. Cap and Dad would take clients there to hunt and fish. One of Cap’s wooden boats rested at each location. How did they get there? Boat building was a winter activity. Ron remembers Cap fashioning the lumber for each boat in the shop. He and Dad, with Ron and Goldie tagging along, would pick a nice warm day, pack the wood on their backs, snowshoe into one of the lakes and assemble the boat on the snow.
Fishing was a year-round activity. Clients came for the walleye and northern; we fished for sustenance. Fish was eaten fresh or smoked in a tin smoker down by the workshop.
Cap and Dad were out fishing and had just rounded the point when they spotted a moose swimming in the open water on the big part of the lake. “Ease the boat up by that moose, Lloyd.” As they pulled alongside, Cap clambered out of the boat and onto the moose’s back. “Don’t you think this is kind of dangerous?” Dad asked. “Only if I’m still on when his feet hit bottom” was Cap’s reply as he rode that moose across the lake.
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.
We asked if anyone knew who the unidentified Grand Marais High School Viking basketball players were
in last week’s Historical Reflections. We received numerous responses! The unknown players are Malcom
“Mally” Mercer, Roger Cook, and John Myhr.
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 office at 15 First Avenue West.
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