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.