The first canoe trip...we have come a long way!

How did you know where to send a canoe trip?
  Well, I had this friend that had a cruiser.  I arranged for him to take us on a cruise around Falcon Island.
It was the first time for the staff and I to see that area.  So, our first canoe trip went around Falcon Island.

This summer Laketrails canoe trips have headed for Arrow Lake, Blueberry Inlet, Shoal Lake, around the Aulneau Peninsula,  O'Dell Lake and many more.

Purchasing Land

The sand bar that once connected Oak Island to Oak Point

Did you buy the land right away?
     (Fr. Bill)    No, I went to Chicago where the Booth Fishery head quarters is located.  We made up a contract, and they let us rent the place for $100 a summer.  We did this for three summers, then we bought it.  Their property was 149 acres, and we paid $3,000 for it.  But the point it self, where the camp would be located is 17 acres.  We decided that not only would it be called Laketrails, but that it would be Laketrails Base Camp.  It would be the base for heading out onto the trails of the water.


Where did you get the equipment for Laketrails?

Fr. Bill and Fr. Jerry on Laketrails dock

   I borrowed $5,000 from the Diocese, which has been paid off a long time ago. Also, the Diocese of Fargo, why I don't know, loaned us $2,000.  So with $7,000 we were rich!  I was able to buy two boats, I had a small outboard motor of my own for the little boat.  For the bigger boat we bought a "great big" 25 horse Johnson motor.  That is the biggest Johnson made in those days. We got three big army tents, and a few small ones from Camp Columbus. They had grown, and now had cabins.  All the rest of the stuff I begged for from all over.  Dishes, pots and pans, silverware, sleeping nets...  We also bought five canoes.  Four Grummans and a second hand canoe, all 17 footers.  So we had two sugar beet trucks loaded when we moved up there our first summer in 1952.

Friendly neighbors

What did you do first to get Laketrails started?
  Got the bishop's permission. Bishop Schenk as a Diocesan project, it would be a church camp.  He gave me permission right away.  Fr. Jerry and I took a trip for the weekend to Lake of the Woods, it was the first trip there for either of us.  We didn't know where anything was. We went on a Friday night to Warroad and found out there was a passenger boat leaving the next morning at 8:00.  So we got out to Oak Island that day and met Al Hanson, who owed the Bay Store.  We talked about possibilities and if he had a boat we could use for the weekend.  I already new boating at this time, and we wanted to do some exploring around looking for a place to start this camp.
        We only had to make two stops.  We got a little information and went to Little Oak Island.  We looked it over and thought it was pretty isolated and that transportation difficulties would come up a lot.  We also knew that Oak Point was owned by Booth Fisheries at that time and was available.  It had been vacant for about 7 years, because commercial fishing rules had changed and they were no longer catching their own fish up there. So we stopped there and pulled up to a beautiful sand bar connecting Oak Point to Oak Island.  There were bear tracks in the sand.  We got out and looked around at the old buildings.  We walked into this one big old building, that we found out was historically the mess hall for the Booth Fishery's fishermen.  It was about the only thing usable.  There were two other shacks.  One was a latrine, and the other a two story shack with some old engines in it.  But we decided when we looked over the place this might be a good place to start the camp.  The grass was waist high, there were dead birds in the mess hall and you could see the sky through the ceiling.  But the walls were solid and there was a kitchen there already. The floor was made of broken floorboards, Laketrails put the cement floor in later.   We decided that weekend that this is where the camp would be.  We talked a good deal, and made plans for a canoe camp while drivng and boat riding around.

From the beginning... (an interview with the Skipper)

                  Leo Stelton,  Fr. Bill Mehrkens and Jerry Noesen

                               
Fr. Bill, where did your love of the wilderness begin?
       When I was 5 years old on the shores of the Mississippi River.  My parents had a little cabin across the river, about a mile out of Red Wing. I spent part of the summer there, and I didn't like that very much because all of my friends and playmates were in town, and I was out there on the river.  And still, one day I had a vision of how beautiful it was.  Wrens were singing, I knew what wrens were, and the boats were coming and going past, and it was perfect weather...and for the first time in my life I thought, "hey, this is beautiful, I want to stay here."

Who came up with the idea to start Laketrails?
       I did.  Fr. Jerry Noesen, who was one of the co-founders with me, he came to visit me at Camp Columbus that year, and decided to travel back with me in my old car.  For the first time I opened up my ideas of a camp to him, a camp for older kids - teenagers,  in a wilderness setting.  Upon that road back we decided it would be some place on Lake of the Woods.  We would look around, and even call the camp Laketrails because it would be largely for canoeing in the wilderness.  I thought Jerry was good material for the camp, and to do it with me.  So we talked about it all the way from the Black Hills to home.