DETAILS SINCE 1870

 Non-native settlement and development in the Mille Lacs Lake watershed was seeded in the

1870s. That decade preceded the peak 20 years of pine logging at Mille Lacs, and predated

establishment of lake towns, farms, autos and roads, a 30-year steamboat era, railroad

connections to Mille Lacs, lakeshore alteration and shoreland development, and the start of a

sportfishing and tourism industry. Nevertheless, as pine harvests crept northward up the Rum

River and its tributaries in the 1860s and 1870s, large stands of towering white pine within a few

miles of the big lake beckoned the timber interests. And Mille Lacs as a potential "summer

resort" began drawing notice among would-be boomers and investors – especially after the

establishment of towns in the greater Mille Lacs region.

 

Intersections of the new Northern Pacific Railroad and the Mississippi River spawned Aitkin

(1871), 14 miles north of Mille Lacs; and Brainerd (1870), 20 miles west of the lake. The rise of

other towns similarly brought people and commerce to the lake, which in turn encouraged better

roads and trails, economic activity, and population growth. These included Mora (1882) to the

southeast, and Milaca (1892) and its forerunner "Oak City" (1882) to the south. Prior to the

1870s and 1880s, the more distant communities of Little Falls and Princeton, both dating to the

1850s and about 50 miles from the lake, were the nearest trading centers. Their historic

contributions to Mille Lacs development aside, all these towns lie outside the Mille Lacs Lake

watershed.

 

The small lake towns – including Garrison, Isle, Malmo, and Wahkon – trace their histories to

the 1880s. Also beginning in the 1880s, settlements evolved at Nichols and Wealthwood on the

north shore, and Cove on the south shore. There were other small settlement-era (circa 1900)

trading places – often with a store and post office, and maybe a blacksmith shop and sawmill –

located in or near the watershed within several miles of Mille Lacs Lake. Glory and Bennettville

in Aitkin County; Dykeman, Flak, and Neutral in Crow Wing County; and Opstead and Redtop

east of the lake in Mille Lacs County, are examples of such short-lived "towns."

 

Onamia, 4 miles south of Mille Lacs Lake, is situated near the Rum River's exit from Onamia

Lake, one of three "rice lakes" (also including Ogechie and Shakopee) downstream from the

outlet of Mille Lacs. Onamia grew as a "gateway to Mille Lacs" following the arrival of the Soo

Line railroad in 1908, and with successive improvements on Highway 169 and its forerunners.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indian community on the west shore has seen marked growth in

buildings and infrastructure since the 1960s, and especially after the start of Grand Casino Mille

Lacs in 1990.

 

Pine logging era. A timber industry in the lake region continues, but "logging" in Mille Lacs

history most often refers to the peak era of pine logging operations at the lake beginning about

1885. Much of the pine harvest within several miles of the lake was landed on the ice and later

boomed and towed by steamer to the Rum River outlet for drives to sawmills at Anoka and the

Twin Cities, and later to the large Foley-Bean mill at Milaca. This large plant closed in 1907, the

symbolic end date for major harvesting of the Mille Lacs pineries. Local sawmills inland from

Mille Lacs have continued to process hardwoods and other species.

Roads, railroads, and resorts. Article 3 of the 1855 Treaty, which created the original 61,000

acre Mille Lacs Indian Reservation that later included the present Kathio, South Harbor, and Isle

Harbor townships, provided that $5,000 be spent on a road from the mouth of the Rum River (at

Anoka) to Mille Lacs. In 1861, the federal government built a "military road" to facilitate the

movement of troops and supplies between Fort Ripley (on the Mississippi River between

Brainerd and Little Falls) and Lake Superior – via Mille Lacs' north shore.

News from the Rum River Watershed July/August 2006 3

From the 1870s forward, as settlement in the Mille Lacs region grew, foot trails became

wagonroads, some of which transformed into roads and highways capable of carrying auto

traffic. The first automobiles reached Mille Lacs before 1910, and road upgrades became

essential during the transition from horse-and-buggy to autos and trucks. The Soo Line

(Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie Railway) was completed between Brooten and

Duluth in late 1909, reaching the south Mille Lacs area in 1908. The Soo Line connected the

lake to the outside world like never before, ending years of speculation about which part of Mille

Lacs would most directly benefit from rail service. Over the next several years, depots were

built at Onamia, Wahkon, Isle, and Redtop. The railroad contributed to commerce,

development, settlement, and tourism at Mille Lacs before auto traffic blossomed, and for

several more decades.

 

As part of the Babcock Plan for Minnesota roads, the Scenic Highway (forerunner of present

#169) project reached Mille Lacs about 1920. A resort-building boom followed. Places like Bay

View, the Blue Goose Inn, Izatys, Rocky Reef, and Shore Acres date to the 1920s. The next

several decades brought more resorts. But since the 1960s, the development trend has been

towards fewer resorts and more lakeshore cabins and permanent homes. Now, there are fewer

active resorts on the entire west shore than there once were on Wigwam Bay alone!

There is less "main highway" presently hugging the lake than in the early days. Highway 18 on

the north shore, built in 1937-38, has fewer close-to-the-lake stretches than the old primitive

"lake road." The post-1950s trend is similar for Highway 169 on the west shore.

In the early 1990s, several modern hotel/resort complexes were built, including Eddy's Lake

Mille Lacs Resort (southwest shore), and McQuoid's Inn & Conference Center (Isle). Izatys Golf

& Yacht Club (south shore) evolved from one of the earliest resorts on Mille Lacs into a large

modern resort complex with inland marina, town homes, golf courses, and convention

accommodations. The Econolodge (southwest shore) and Garrison Inn & Suites (originally

Country Inn & Suites) were built in the 1990s.

Lake traffic. Steamboats – sidewheelers and propeller-driven craft – operated on Mille Lacs

between 1885 and 1915. There were never more than several steamers in business at a time.

These were mainly work boats intended to tow booms of pine logs, landed on the ice in winter,

across the lake to the Rum River outlet for downriver drives. The 101-foot Queen Anne, the

largest of these steamboats, burned cordwood for fuel. In 1909, envisioning steamboat links

between the lake towns and the new Soo Line Railroad at Wahkon, the Mille Lacs

Transportation Company built steamboat piers at points around the lake. The scheme soon

fizzled because of docking and navigation problems due to severe drought and low water in

1910, and also because of rapid growth in overland transportation. Aside from logging work,

Mille Lacs steamers also carried cream, building and household supplies, passengers, and even

cows.

The first gasoline-powered launches appeared shortly after 1900. These were private boats,

often owned by investors and real estate agents. During the 1910s, at least one party,

headquartered at Wahkon, towed a barge for hauling freight. Prior to the later 1920s, much of

the "launch service" on Mille Lacs was for excursionists and "joy riders."

Open-water fishing. In the pre-1920s, a few places rented rowboats, usually homemade flat

bottoms, to sport anglers. By the end of the '20s dozens of fishing resorts maintained fleets of

rental boats. Some outboard motors were in evidence, especially among resorters who towed

strings of rowboats to and from the walleye fishing grounds, mainly in May and June. Group

fishing on gasoline-powered wooden launches gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s.

Launches provided visiting anglers, who lacked seaworthy boats and knowledge about the lake,

offshore "deep water" fishing opportunities with a guide. Boat construction has changed from

wood to fiberglass and metal. Launch fishing remains popular. Night launch trips increased

dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s.

News from the Rum River Watershed July/August 2006 4

A key trend during a century of sport fishing at Mille Lacs includes angler use of more of the

lake. Even for guides, prior to the 1930s, the "fishing season" meant mainly the mid-May

through June inshore fishing period. Now, with navigational aids and improved boats, anglers

fish anywhere on the lake. Since the 1930s, anglers have become increasingly familiar with

offshore mud flats in the north half of the lake and deep gravel structure in the south portion,

thus creating a summer walleye fishery. A summer-fall shallow reef-top fishery, night trolling

with artificial lures, slip bobbering deep and shallow with leeches, and other methods, have

combined to equip the Mille Lacs devotee with a season-long fishing repertoire. Nevertheless,

May, June, and early July remain the busiest, while mid-July through fall see far less lake traffic.

Mille Lacs experienced two periods of market fishing. From the 1880s until 1912, settlers

participated in a spring commercial fishery (often with hook and line) which saw barrels of iced

down fish hauled by team and wagon to railroad connections in Aitkin, Brainerd, Milaca, and

other towns. For several years at the end of World War I, a state fish-buying agent, located at

Wahkon, facilitated the sale of Mille Lacs fish as a wartime public health measure.

Ice fishing. Prior to 1950, much of the "ice fishing" on Mille Lacs was really spearing for

northern pike, typically within walking distance of shore. Winter angling for walleyes – with

resorters plowing lake roads, renting fish houses, and storing fish houses for private parties –

mushroomed in the 1950s. Annual fish house counts rose from about 500 in 1950 to 5,000 a

decade later. Since then, the annual counts have typically fluctuated from 2,500 to 6,000 - about

3,500 in the 2002-03 season. The first resort roads to the mud flats, with fish house rentals on

the flats, date to about 1970. Increased use of snowmobiles in the 1970s, 4-wheel-drive pickups

in the 1980s, and ATVs and navigational aids in the 1990s, have spread out the ice-fishing

effort.

Miscellaneous. Small-scale farming and livestock-raising in all directions from Mille Lacs date

to the pre-1900 settlement era, but with no large "operations" right at the lake. A trend over the

past 50 or 60 years includes a diminishment of farming directly adjacent to the lake and its

intermittent feeder streams. Cattle ranching on the Mille Lacs meadows, north of the lake and in

the watershed, is a development of recent decades.

Light industries have variously come, gone, and survived at Mille Lacs. These have included the

manufacture of fishing tackle, wild-rice processing, and even a short-lived "pickle factory" at

Wahkon. Most local boat-building ceased around 1970. Fort Mille Lacs Village, a popular tourist

attraction for almost 50 years, closed in 2000.

The annual mid-summer tullibee die-offs have trended downward since 1970. The tullibee or

lake cisco (coregonus artedii) is a cold-water species and a relative of the whitefish. Mille Lacs

is at the southern extreme of this fish's range. Years ago, summer kills of tullibee at Mille Lacs

(and at other central Minnesota walleye lakes) were taken for granted. Thousands of them

dotted the lake surface and lined the beaches during July and August hot spells. It still happens,

but mainly on a lesser scale.