2026-04-23T22:31:14+00:00 Zend_Feed_Writer https://mnenvironments.carleton.edu/ Minnesota Environments https://mnenvironments.carleton.edu 2014-11-04T14:27:17+00:00 2019-08-13T12:59:07+00:00 https://mnenvironments.carleton.edu/items/show/22 Charlie Kilman , Ben Pletta and the Minnesota Environments Team The recreational development of Minnesota’s Northwoods was not limited just to resorts. Private cottage development was also underway during the early 20th century and forged a strong bond between regional metropolitan areas and the scenic lake country of Minnesota. Star Island on Cass Lake demonstrates this growing phenomenon as well as the discontent it stirred among people who found encroaching development undesirable. Many people who found escape from the urban world in the more remote areas came to appreciate the lack of activity up north. Star Island provides an unusual case because a number of private cottages and a hotel were built there even though it was within the boundaries of Chippewa National Forest, formerly known as the Minnesota National Forest from 1909 to 1928. In 1914, A.J. Starr, an attorney from Des Moines, Iowa, contracted the Lydick Mercantile Co. to build a summer cottage on the island. Starr mirrored most island residents in that he was a professional from an urban setting seeking the sanctuary of a secluded landscape. Other residents of the island included doctors and university professors, all of whom demonstrate the transient status of many of the island’s citizens as professionals who used the island to escape the stressful demands of their workplace. Initially seeking an escape from daily life, these residents eventually became conscious the environment’s vulnerability. Although mainly a place of private development, Star Island’s strong urban–hinterland connection reflects a desire by local communities to cash in on the traveling businessman. With regional calls for “A Road to Every Lake,” infrastructure spread tourism throughout northern Minnesota, which endangered Star Island’s isolation and natural beauty. Although Island residents opposed it, local residents called for a new road and bridge to be built connecting the island to the shores of Cass Lake in hopes of stimulating commerce. For years, local businessmen attempted to persuade island residents and the Forest Service to allow for this addition. Lester B. Shippe, a University of Minnesota professor and island resident, asserted that “there is no good which will be served by anyone through the erection of the bridge: none of the people who have cottages on the island wish it, indeed they are unanimously opposed to such a thing.” The residents of Star Island truly saw themselves as caretakers of this unique piece of land, and embraced its status as semi-wilderness with its existing stands of red and white pine that happened to escape the ravenous logging industry. The reactions against an increase in commercial use of Star Island were rooted in a romanticized ideal of how to coexist with nature. Christian Ruckmick, a member of the Star Island Protective League, voiced the fundamental opposition residents held against further development, noting how they “want to get away from cars and the clamor of commerce. We want to enjoy the natural beauty of a place which has been kept in its pristine attractiveness and enjoys this reputation beyond compare in all the north country.” Ultimately, the people coming to appreciate the recreational, spiritual and communal benefits of going “up north” in Minnesota became staunch defenders of the island’s isolated environment. Thus, although tourism became a means of income and prosperity for people like the Ruttger family, it also created a stronger bond between urban dwellers and their natural environment. For more (including 5 images), view the original article. 2014-11-04T14:13:15+00:00 2019-08-13T12:59:07+00:00 https://mnenvironments.carleton.edu/items/show/19 Charlie Kilman , Ben Pletta and the Minnesota Environments Team By the early 20th century, Northwoods entrepreneurs increasingly embraced tourism as a reliable business, and in the process transformed the region from landscapes of production, built on extracting the region’s abundant natural resources, into landscapes of consumption, which relied on the beauty and accessibility of the land for recreational purposes. The core of the tourism and resort industry can be examined through the stories and experiences of the Ruttger family, a pioneer in the Northwoods tourism business who still operate today. Joseph Ruttger, father of Alec, Max, Ed, and Bill Ruttger, started his career in the 1890s as a laborer in the logging industry; however, as the timber industry declined, his house soon became a rest stop for travelers, which slowly morphed into a profitable resort. By 1920, Joseph’s son, Alec Ruttger took over management of Bay Lake Lodge and began catering to the growing hunger for a more natural vacation. In order to draw in travelers from both the Twin Cities and other states, the Ruttgers needed both to keep a pristine landscape for fishing and recreation and to produce advertisements that drew in customers from urban communities. In an interview, Jack Ruttger (son of Alec Ruttger) explains that while working in tourism, “you don’t grow crops, but still try to exist and raise your family and you work off the land.” It is known that the Ruttger family, like most resort owners, had a close bond with the land, relying on lakes teeming with fish and lush green woodland encompassing the shoreline to attract and retain customers. Ruttger’s Bay Lake Lodge clearly demonstrates these aesthetic and natural qualities of a successful resort. However, the inhabitation of lakes must always bear some consequence for the ecosystem already in place. Still, between the desire to keep a healthy environment and live comfortably came the decision to draw in customers with romanticized advertisements of the Northwoods environment. Jack Ruttger touched upon this idea in an interview in which he discussed his father’s rhetoric in his 1930s newsletters, one of which reported, “I've just been out walking the woods, and I discovered eight new lakes that nobody ever knew existed.” Clearly, the Ruttger family used an idealized view of the Northwoods in order attract patrons. As opposed to the logging industry, which relies heavily on processes that are overwhelmingly destructive to the environment, the resort industry requires a careful consideration of the internal benefits people receive from being in nature, so the Ruttgers took a cosmetic approach to the landscape by making it an attractive, consumable, and romanticized space. For more (including 3 images), view the original article. 2014-11-04T13:55:47+00:00 2019-08-13T12:59:07+00:00 https://mnenvironments.carleton.edu/items/show/16 Charlie Kilman , Ben Pletta and the Minnesota Environments Team At the end of the 19th century, logging was an integral part of northern Minnesota’s economy. Although the timber industry gained substantial revenue and fueled development in various parts of the country, its reliance upon trees weighed heavily on the environment’s health. Indeed, by 1900 the annual timber harvest averaged around 2 billion board feet, indicating that this industry could provide economic prosperity to many. However, by the 1920s it was clear that regenerative properties of the forest could not keep up with the growing demands of our nation. The lumber companies in the Northwoods decimated the ecosystem, transforming the forest into a vast stumpland known as the “cutover.” By 1920, the annual harvest had declined from its peak to around 576 million board feet, it had become clear that the boom and bust cycle of clearcutting could not continue provide a steady income for the inhabitants of northern and central Minnesota. With both the quality and quantity of Minnesota’s timber supply dwindling, the logging industry looked westward toward the abundant forests of the Pacific Northwest. At the time there were two main alternatives to logging in the Northwoods region: farming and tourism. Although agriculture seemed promising, it took a substantial amount of work to transform the land from cutover into farmland, which required landowners to uproot countless stumps with a complex horse-drawn system of ropes and pulleys called a “stump puller.” As Frank Wethner, a farmer in Minnesota’s cutover region, reflected in an interview, this process was slow and painstaking work. He recalled that “a couple of men do well to pull a couple of stumps a day.” Coupled with the relatively rocky soil and short growing season, the stump removal process discouraged many farmers from taking up the plow in order to make a living off the land. By comparison, tourism seemed to offer an easier path to a prosperous future in a region with more than its fair share of natural amenities that beckoned to affluent residents of the Twin Cities. For more (including 4 images), view the original article.