Leech Lake Trail

The Oak Point area has another claim to ancient historical significances called the "Leech Lake Trail". This ancient trail begins on the northeastern side of Oak Point (formally called Squaw Point) and ended up at the east side of the Red Lake Agency in Beltrami County. The beginning of the trail is lost in the pre-history of the Dakota, or Sioux, who had villages on both lakes. The Dakota were driven out by the Chippewa probably around 1750. Henry Schoolcraft in his 1820 accounts called the route "ancient". The trail was used for communication and trade between the tribes. Travel was by foot across the high ground and across the lakes and rivers by canoe.

From the trails beginning at Oak Point it went northwest to the northwest side of Pike Bay and then proceeding to the eastern side of Little Wolf Lake all in Cass County. At that point the trail proceeded north into Beltrami County east of Wolf Lake to cross the Mississippi River near the entrance to Andrusia Lake before proceeding on to Red Lake in a northern direction.

The trail was improved under the Chippewa Treaty of 1863 when a $5,000 budget was allocated for construction. The trail continued to be used until travel was replaced by railroads and roadways. But it all started out on Oak Point.

Timber Wolf

The Minnesota DNR estimates that about 3,000 Timber Wolves live in our state so the sighting of one is a rare occasion. I happened to see a wolf run in front of my car on Oak Point Road just a few days ago. You are more apt to see a wolf in the winter because their coloration contrasts with the white snow, plus you can occasionally see them cross the frozen lake.

While on the subject of wolves I have a true story of a deer stand called "Wolf Stand". In my blog of Sunday November 8th I wrote about the legend of the "Three Buck Stand", this story is equally famous. I have neighbors here on Oak Point named Sharon and Anthony that retired from the hectic life in the cities and built a beautiful home up here. She is Native, but he is not. She is one of the five daughters of Frieda Fairbanks who grew up here on Oak Point but never hunted until she got married. They now hunt deer, ducks, geese, and grouse. In the summer they fish and will soon start ice fishing. This is her story about the legend of the "Wolf Stand".

This happened a few years ago. It was opening day. The weather was warm, but not too warm. The first snow of the season occurred about two days prior and had already melted. The leaves were soft to walk on and hardly any noise was made by my falling feet. It was 5:10 am in the morning. It was very dark. My headlamp lit up the trail directly in front of me. My deer stand was about three quarters of a mile into the dark forest. It would take me about 10 to 15 minutes to walk there walking at a fairly even pace-not to fast to get too warm-but not too slow either.

I got there safely-no strange noises along the way to make me jump and make my heart race.

I climbed into my stand and settled in waiting for the light. I arranged my seat cushion, quietly put my headlamp away into my backpack, took out my book for reading later, and leaned back into the tree and promptly fell asleep until a seeping shill woke me. I was dawn-about 6:15 am and I became alert.

By 7:00 am it was very light out. But not a breaking branch could be heard anywhere near me. I heard very distance gunshots almost right away. But not a sound near me, not a chipmunk or a squirrel not a blue jay or a chickadee, and not a grouse. This was strange. Usually as soon as daylight comes, the smaller animals become active and noisy. But I never thought about it at that time that it was very strange.

By 8:00 am I was reading an excellent Alex Cross novel but keeping ears open and my eyes scanning the woods around me about every half a page. By 8:30 am I was wondering why it was so quiet. Where were all the forest animals! A few geese flew over me talking loudly to each other probably arguing about whether to head south now or later, their wings beating a whoosh, whoosh sound as they flew by.

All of a sudden , off to my left about 300 yards through the brush, pine, popple, and oak trees a huge doe cam running toward my woods but angling away from me at a horrific pace! Before I could blink, the biggest wolf I ever saw, I mean big and fat looking, ran between my stand and the doe. The wolf was only about 60 feet from me. And then, the doe and the wolf were gone in a blink of an eye and then came the second wolf flanking the doe on the other side of her running after the both of them. I don't know if they ever got her. Maybe they did. I don't know. I hope they didn't.

Needless to say, 4 years passed before I would walk to and from that stand in the dark! To this day, my husband and I call that stand the "Wolf Stand". And their hunting legends live on.

Caring Bridge Site

I have set up a website so that others can follow Marlys Nitchals medical progress. The site is called Caring Bridge and can be accessed at www.caringbridge.com and the password is marlysnitchals. Both of us miss Oak Point area very much even when its this cold outside. We miss that warmth of the wood fire with the contrast of the snow and cold outside. Although I could get use to going to Starbucks for a good coffee and a Blueberry Scone and read the paper every morning. Please remember Marlys in your prayers. I have some great stories lined up for the new year. Jim Nitchals

Christmas Miracle

My wife, Marlys Nitchals, and I are down at the University of MN Fairview Hospital where she just received a new transplanted kidney. Our 9 year old, 4th grade granddaughter, Katherine Nitchals, wrote this wonderful story that I am going to copy to the blog:

Christmas Miracle

On Christmas Day my grandparents and I were playing a game that I just got from them as a gift. We were sitting at the table playing, it was 8:00 PM at night. My grandma has to go and get her blood cleaned (dialysis) every other day because she has a disease in her kidneys. We could not play much longer because my grandmother had to sleep so she could go in the morning for her blood cleaning. While we were playing a phone rang and my grandma picked it up. Disappointed because she thought it was a person calling to sell something. It was not at all like that, it was a doctor from the University of Minnesota because he had a perfect match for my grandma's kidney that she needed. The person that had the kidney was a 55 year old woman who had fallen from her attic in Georgia and was on life support. This kind of thing does not usually happen, it was amazing that they found a person that lived on the other side of the United States of America that had the same kidney as my grandma. Over the night on Christmas Day the doctor called twice once at 10:00 pm and again at 1:00 am in the morning. The doctor told my grandma that tomorrow she should come to the University for a Transplant. The next morning my grandma and my family went to the University of Minnesota it was pretty convenient that the University was only 10 miles away from my house. The next morning at six o'clock my grandma had the transplant. They put some amnesia gas on her so that she would fall a sleep so that it would not hurt. She woke up that afternoon. The day after that me and my family went to visit with her and she looked pretty fine. Their were lots of cords, wires and stuff on her but I knew that she was okay. She ordered some food it was mashed potatoes and spaghetti it sounded gross it looked so good and it was real food. My grandma told me that she thought she was really lucky and she was. It was a Christmas Miracle.

Seasons Greetings

'tis the Holiday Season here on Oak Point at Leech Lake. Our neighborhood comes alive between Christmas and New Years. Many families, relatives and friends will spend a few days up at the cabin to enjoy Christmas Vacation time. Cross country skiing, snow shoeing, ice fishing and an assortment of other winter outdoor activities will be popular. Fires in the fireplace and good hearty meals, games and reading will be a part of indoor family activities. So far it appears that the winter weather is going to cooperate.

I am attaching a picture of an enormous living Red Oak Tree that is located on Oak Point Estates. I measured the circumference at 10 ft. 8 in. about three feet up from the base. I estimate the height of this tree in the 80 to 90 ft. range. It was difficult to get a clear picture of this tree because of it's size. I had a fairly clear view from quite a few feet back. On my August 30th Blog I wrote about a dead red Oak Tree that we estimated at 135 to 140 years old that was smaller then this tree. Based on that I would estimate this tree in the 200 year old age range. Wow.

I am also including a picture of a Bald Eagle's nest on a branch of a large White Pine tree, also located on Oak Point Estates. Two young eagles were hatched in this nest this past year. I have heard that some of these nests can weigh up to a ton or greater in size. There was another active Eagle nest about a quarter nile down the road towards the "Narrows". That nest had two young eagles as well this last summer.

Tomorrow , Monday December 21, 2009 will be the shortest day of the year called the winter solstice. The winter solstice is an astronomical event which happens each year when the tilt of the Earth's axis is the farthest away from the Sun in the northern hemisphere. The North Pole points directly away from the Sun. Our Sunrise tomorrow will be at 8:05 am with Sunset at 4:29 pm.

The "Outdoor News" dated December 18, 2009 had an interesting article entitled, "State Officials Mull Next Five Years for Leech Lake". The article talked about the last five years with the problems with the lake's fisheries and the dramatic turnaround after three major actions were undertaken. They were first, the protective slots and new limits on Walleyes, second, the eliminaqtion of 12,000 Cormorants and third, the intense stocking of Walleyes. The Minnesota DNR estimates the 2009 harvest was 87,000 pounds of Walleyes.

January Weather

It seems like we just skipped December and went straight to January. This whole week has been very cold, below normal cold. We have had several mornings with below zero temperatures, in fact today started out about 7 or 8 below and I don't think it ever got above zero. We were lucky though, with the big snow storm that hit the Midwest hard we only got about 2 inches of snow. We have stayed nice and warm in our house using our wood fireplace. Oak wood is the greatest.

Plenty of ice being made on Leech Lake these days. Some of the guys have their fish houses out already. Our neighborhood resort, Oak Point Resort, has their spearing houses out. They are available for rent at $45.00 per day which I think is real reasonable. You can get a hold of them via their website, www.oakpointresort.com


I did walk every day this past week with a neighbor, sometimes we waited until noon or later to stretch our legs, but we made it. We usually go about 3.5 to 4 miles which keeps the body warm.

Lake Ice

Winter weather came with December. On Thursday the 3rd it was real cold in the afternoon and I watched ice forming along the edge of the "Big Lake", by sundown we had ice as far as I could see. By Friday morning we were iced over past Goose Island.
November temperates were the third warmest on record. December is the 3rd snowiest month of the year with an average snow fall of 8.6 inches. The average temps start on December 1st at 29 degrees and by the 31st its 19 degrees.

The following is a story by CJ Fairbanks, daughter of Frieda Fairbanks who grew up out on Oak Point. The story is entitled: My Encounter with the Caretaker?

On a balmy Saturday evening, as I sat chatting with my favorite Auntie, a notion hit us, "Let's go set Net!" Setting net is a Northern Minnesota Native American Tradition. We have been doing this for centuries to supplement our food supply. We set our nets in the early dusk to avoid the boaters running around the lake. We leave the nets out all night and pick them up in the morning. But this encounter happens after we are done setting our nets.

We were forced to row out to where we drop net where we fish in the Narrows because the boat with the motor refused to be involved in our plans. As we were rowing back through the ever-darkening night we noticed a round light shining brightly over Goose Island. I pointed this out to my paddling Auntie and she said it was Venus, the first star that shines at night. I thought how smart she is to know that. "Well," I said "Auntie, the light is getting bigger and brighter." She said to "keep rowing." I told her I think it was an airplane. We kept rowing and the light kept coming closer and closer. Pretty soon it was right over us. We didn't hear a sound, just a bright light illuminating us like we were on Broadway. We quit rowing and sat in stunned silence.

From out of nowhere a huge launch came flying toward us. We were dead center in the middle of the channel. The launch was sure to hit us if we weren't under the glare of the light. Apparently, the launch saw us from afar and was able to go around us. We were alive. The caretakers light just disappeared. We don't know where it went and we didn't notice it when it disappeared. All we knew was that it saved our lives! We paddled as fast as we could to get back to shore and to this day I think about my encounter with my caretaker.

The old ones used to say that dead members of the tribe were put in the trees on Goose Island instead of being put in the ground. That is why I say caretaker, or should I say caretakers?

I enjoyed this story because it links the past to the present and it's about my local environs of the Narrows, Goose Island and Oak Point.

We went Christmas tree shopping out in the Chippewa National Forrest. For $5.00 you get a permit to cut your own tree.