Old Northwoods Lodge sits on the site of the original Northwoods Lodge, one of the founding resorts on the Gunflnt Trail. In the early 1930s, Dr. Rempel, a Russian CCC Camp Director, owned and operated the Northwoods Lodge, a premier hunting and fishing destination for visitors from the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago.
In 1937, fire claimed the first lodge, and another was built in its place the next year. The original native stone firepalce, which was part of the second lodge, still stands beside the new cedar log lodge. In the heyday of the 1940s and 1950s, there were 22 cabins at the Northwoods Lodge resort. In the late 1950s, the property changed hands, and E.H. Ruidl became the new owner.
When the lodge burned again in 1965, the resort folded.
Over the years, several of the outlying cabins and lakeshore were sold, and in 1990, when present owner Gale Quistad bought the property, there were seven cabins remaining and no lodge. "It looked like a ghost town from the movies," explains Gale. "It has been unattended for 25 years, and if I was going to open it up as a resort again, I had my work cut out for me." Gale worked for the telephone company for many years and remodeled a cabin at a time in the hours when he wasn't working. He completed and opened about one cabin a year for the next five years. Gale met Yelena Yevseyeva while vacationing in Russia, and sometime later they were married. Yelena immigrated to the United States and made her new home here on the Gunflint Trail. Now they two of them had a big project about to begin: it was finally time to build a new lodge.
It is our intend here to preserve the history of the people, cabins and businesses on Poplar Lake. If you would like to have the history of your Poplar Lake cabin or business included please write it up and email it to bct@boreal.org. Poplar Lake's is located along the Gunflint Trail thirty-two Miles from Grand Marais, Minnesota.
5 comments:
Received this comment from a long time cabin owner on Northwoods Point. Concerning a error in Old Northwoods History-
Northwoods firstlodge was actually built on the end of our Fireplace Road point, just below where Propers cabin is today. The old piers still remain to this day. I have a picture of this first lodge, which I cut out of the paper several (many?) years ago. I think the picture came from the historical society. According to Rolf Huggenvik,who has had a cabin on the point since the 1940's, there was something suspicious about the fire that burned this FIRST lodge. Doc Remple rebuilt his lodge just off the Gunflint trail (now Old Northwoods Lodge location).
This was a great article that really was really helpful to me and I really can’t wait to learn more from your valuable experience. This was really very interesting to me.
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Hi, I am Donald Wheat, I leased Northwoods Lodge in the early '60s from Ed Ruidl, fixed it up and repaired the water system, painted the Lodge and all the cabins. It was a great place but little income. When the Lodge burned down I had it rented to the Children's home out of Duluth. One of the kids kicked over a gas can they had sitting by the hot water heater. I have lots of pictures of the old place and a lot of great memories. If anyone remembers Oler Snyvites (sp) he built one of our docks for us and was a good friend.
Hello Donald Wheat. My wife and I own Big Bear Lodge and Cabins (previously Old Northwoods Lodge) We would love to see pictures of the Northwoods Lodge when you leased it from Ed Ruidl. We can be contacted at info@bigbearlodgemn.com Would love to know exactly how many cabins there were and where the were located. How they got water to the cabins then and other information and pictures you care to share. Our website is https://www.bigbearlodgemn.com/
Thanks
Andy D.
I'm searching for a cabin on Poplar Lake where my parents, grandmother, aunt and uncle went in 1930, My parents were just dating at the time. My mother did a magnifying glass birchbark burning of her initials MFD Marie Frances Douty 1930. She told me it was at "Poplar Lake Lodge on Poplar Lake. but there was no such named place there in 1930, nor even in 1939 when they went back for their honeymoon. I have a photo of all four of them standing outside a rustic vertical slab wood sided cabin, seems to be L-shaped. Can I send you the two photos?
How can I find picture referenced in the comment above of the first Northwoods Lodge on Fireplace Point Road?
I'm in contact with the Chick-Wauk Museum on this as well. From the comment above I'm wondering if this first Northwoods Lodge on Fireplace Road Point might be where they went. Was it there in 1930? Thank you, Mary Wareham Apple Valley
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