If you’ve got a couple of hours to spend and want to get away from it all—and I mean really get away from it all and be entertained and enlightened on your journey— then pick up a copy of the Tucker Lake Chronicle.
Local Cook County News-Herald columnist Joan Crosby recently published a memoir about her and her husband Dick’s 13-month stay at Tucker Lake in 1969.
In a flight from city life and their jobs, the couple made the decision to chuck it all and move to a small primitive cabin on Tucker Lake on the edge of the BWCAW.
The Crosbys lived in a primitive cabin with their malamute puppy Nooky. They had none of the comforts of modern living. No electricity. No running water. No phone. No TV. Kerosene lights. An outdoor privy. And no road to their cabin, which was located on the edge of the BWCAW, two lake trips by canoe, snowshoe, or snowmobile to a trail that led to their blue and white Bronco, 40 miles away from Grand Marais.
Their one link to humanity was an “old radio that we hooked up to an antenna wire strung between two trees,” writes Joan.
Joan recounts the trial and tribulations of cooking with a Coleman stove, the daily chores of Dick cutting firewood, building a garden from scratch, the relentless work of hiking out to get mail or to visit with the folks at Loon Lake Lodge or make the occasional trip into Grand Marais for shopping and laundry.
It’s not all drudgery. They fish. They picnic under a sky full of stars on a ledge of granite overlooking the lake. They have many encounters with animals, some humorous, some terrifying. They dance, they fight and they live as few people get to – or take – a chance to live.
With beaver and moose, wolves and whiskey jacks (grey jays) for neighbors, a curious dog and the wondrous outdoors just outside their door, Dick and Joan survived and often thrived through their time at Tucker Lake. But with a starting bank account of $1,100, as Joan recounted, they could live off of love just so long. They would have to find jobs. Make a decision on where to live. Plan their future and think about starting a family. Lucky for us, they picked here.
Loading Comments