A Family’s History on Ten Mile Lake

Gail Dahlstrom – February 10, 2011

Christmas Eve, 1940, Uncle Sam called my father, Dr. L.G. Idstrom, to report for duty in the U.S. Army. His final orders came on November 1, 1941, Fort Snelling. We moved back to Minneapolis, and on December 3, 1941, my brother, John, was born four days before Pearl Harbor! I finished third grade in Minneapolis even though Dad was transferred to Camp Crowder, Missouri.

In May, we were on the move again, this time to Neosho, Missouri, where I attended fourth grade (1942‑43). It was during this school year that my parents heard about a cabin on Ten Mile Lake! Ms. F.O. Padgett was selling a cabin, the address was Fernhurst, Ten Mile Lake, Hackensack, MN. A one‑bedroom cabin that was supposed to have been the bath house for a girl’s camp, front and back porch, completely furnished, with boat! They decided they would take it, sight unseen!!

The summer of 1944, my father received his orders and was sent overseas to England and France. My mother’s brother, Dr. Harry A. Johnson, had already received his orders to the South Pacific. The summer of 1944, with gas rationed and World War II threatening, my mother, Gladys, my brother, John, and I, Auntie Esther, (Uncle Harry’s wife) and their four children, 11 years and younger, spent the summer at Fernhurst, on Ten Mile Lake.

We learned to live that summer without running water or electricity. The original kerosene lamps are still at the cabin. At night, when it was late and dark, before bed, we would line up to gather and walk single‑file along the pathway in the woods to the “outhouse”. We were concerned, we thought for sure that we had seen bobcat tracks in the sand during the day, big ones too! And what was that rustling noise? The hanging mirror on the Birch tree was a familiar sight, perched high above the oil‑clothed shelf which held, securely, the enamel water pitcher and basin. It was up to us kids to keep that pitcher filled with lake water for washing and brushing teeth. With only one bedroom, we used the front and back porches and the living room for sleeping. If it rained really hard at night the porches would get wet. But we sure had fun anyway, swimming, rowing, and paddling the boats, hiking, and hunting for rocks and wild flowers!

We ate a lot of pancakes and popcorn. After pancakes in the morning we always had a “rest” time for reading, writing, or helping, before swimming! The big tan and green enamel Tea Kettle would be filled with pump‑water to the brim, put on the cook stove, and heated for washing dishes. Sweeping the sand off the linoleum floors for our mothers, writing letters to our respective fathers overseas and walking way up to the mailboxes on the main road to mail them, and waiting for Mr. Prince to bring us a letter from our Dads, will be everlasting memories. Gertrude Hertzmen and friends would come by rowboat to swim, visit, and have coffee. The Steins would come to visit from Ah‑gwah‑ching and sometimes we would go to Ethel Burns’ cabin on the North Shore for a picnic. We loved their sandy beach.

It was always exciting to hear Burton Woock’s truck coming! We knew that he would be delivering ice. He would lift up the top of the ice‑box and with big tongs, he would drop a chunk of ice inside, sometimes we would “hitch” a ride on the back of the truck, if he let us! Sometimes we had fun going up to Al Woock’s Farm.

I found a letter I had written to my father that he had saved through the years. It was written to him, overseas, via Air Mail, dated August 7, 1944:

Dear Daddy,

Today is Sunday and Mr. Colonel Harold Cox just came, but I haven’t seen him yet, but we sure hope to. Oh, Daddy, did I tell you, Mr. Prince made two paddle boats ‑‑‑ orange and green ‑ with orange and green paddles! Dr. Hertzmen came two weeks ago and is staying until the 13th of August. Carl built a dock on their beach and is it nice. Auntie Esther got 4 letters from Uncle Harry yesterday. We got your “TABLE GRAM” the day before yesterday and two letters. We were so happy. Daddy, will you write to me and tell me about England ‑‑‑ if it isn’t against the rules?

The day before yesterday we went to Dr. Herbert Bums’ cabin across the lake on the North Shore. You know Ethel, she invited us and we had a picnic and then we went swimming ‑‑‑ you can walk out twice as far as here. Ruth Ann is getting to be a pretty big girl now. She plays the flute.

Last night we went to the Serley’s and was their cabin nice! It had electric lights and an upstairs! When we got home we made popcorn and went to bed. This morning we ate pancakes and milk. Then we waited for an hour to go swimming. Just now we got through riding in the motorboat! The Coxes are renting the motor and it was really fun! I guess that is all I can think about to say. “JoBoy” is “rationing” his kisses. Mother is okay and so am I. Auntie Esther and her family are fine to! Take care of yourself, Daddy.

Good Bye Dear Daddy,

Gail

Summer, 1946, the War was over! We were thankful, more time spent again as a family at Ten Mile Lake! What a glorious time to remember! Still no electricity, no indoor plumbing. We were just thankful that Dad was finally home and that we were all together!! I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day when Dad brought home a surprise for all of us…A Champion motor from Montgomery Wards! Wow! A 5 Horsepower motor! We were all very excited! And a Coleman lamp (just like having electricity) that we were going to “try out”. We had about fifty house guests that summer. Relatives came from as far away as New York and Arizona, Illinois and Minnesota and still no electricity, running water or indoor plumbing. It was that summer that Dad “rigged” battery-operated (home-made) miniature lights for the children’s beds, so that if they would wake up at night they wouldn’t be afraid. Outside of some having hay fever and some catching poison ivy, the main concern that summer was the polio epidemic affecting the cities and large crowds which caused many to spend time away at cabins up north. Because of the epidemic, schools started later that fall.

The summer of 1948, we finally had electricity, how exciting! The cabin was remodeled in the early fifties and it had running water and indoor plumbing!

In 1956, Donald Dahlstrom and I were married. During the summer of 1959 through September, before he started medical school at the University of Minnesota, Don hauled rock and helped as a carpenter, working with Al Woock and Andrew Jackson Bray to build a boathouse. Two years earlier the basement had been built. Fortunately, I was an English schoolteacher and had my summers free.

That next summer, 1963, we took our new baby daughter, Deirdre, out on the dock and for a ride in the motorboat with our German Shepherd, Angel. The summer of 1965, we brought Deirdre and her new baby sister, Alissa up to Ten Mile Lake. Of course Angel always loved coming with us.

July 20, 1967, we brought our third baby girl, Amy, from the hospital and straight home to Ten Mile Lake. Amy was ten days old! It was a beautiful day on the lake and Mother and Dad wanted to take a ride on their pontoon boat. With my Aunt Ruby Seashore visiting from New York, we all decided to go, of course! And there was plenty of room! The lake was as calm as glass. We would take Amy for her first boat ride on Ten Mile Lake! Everyone was commenting on the beautiful day and the perfect weather, and by this time we were way across the lake when all of a sudden the clouds started rolling in, and the wind started to blow, and the waves grew larger in size. We changed our plans immediately and headed back to Fernhurst. It was a wild and wet ride! I remember our neighbors on the cove waiting for us as we headed into shore with Baby Amy. Her big sisters were exclaiming with excitement all details about the ride! In May of 1973, our fourth daughter, Enid was born. Of course, her big sisters, and their favorite companion, Angel, introduced her to the lake that summer.

Memories, memories! A very special treat was going into Walker for the Pow Wow, or to see a special movie at the State Theatre on Main Street or the Marlow Theat

re in Pine River. It was always fun to stop at the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park in Brainerd on our way to the cabin.

We liked to come up in the wintertime too! Of course, everything looked so different in the winter! We would drive as far as we could go, which was to the mailboxes, and then toboggan through the woods to the boathouse, with children, luggage, and dog in tow. It was always fun to shovel a patch of ice for skating on the lake, and to snowshoe in the woods! Our family celebrated many New Year’s Eves on Ten Mile Lake!

Now, Ten Mile Lake is like home to our daughters. They grew up here, and now their children are growing up here. Ten Mile Lake bonded our family together through the years, summer and winter! ”It is always, and always has been home to me!” exclaimed our daughter, Deirdre.

Our four daughters are married now and they and their husbands: Deirdre and Christopher Hultgren, Alissa and Eric Canfield, Amy and Adam Gislason, and Enid and Shane Mason, all enjoy coming up north to Ten Mile Lake! Our eight grandchildren, Lacey Canfield (15), Jackson Canfield (13), Olivia Hultgren (13), and Carver Hultgren (10), Walker Hultgren (6), Ellery Mason (6), Lily Canfield (5), Colton Mason (4) are making a whole new set of their own memories at Ten Mile Lake!