Starr Point

From my dock on the lake when I look north the first point of land that I see is called Starr Point. This is one of the Hardwood Points that I can see from my vista. Starr Point is named after the Starr Family that owns this property. They are Native and have owned this property for many, many years. The gentleman who currently is in charge is Gilbert Starr who lives in Cass Lake now, but grew up on the property.

I recently had a chance to speak to Gilbert who told me about the property and his family and how it was to grow up out there. Gilbert's father was Albert Starr, also called Oh-Gee-Che-Dah, which means the brave one. Albert lived and died his entire life on the property. The old timers in the neighborhood said he lived a traditional native lifestyle in an old frame house with his sisters Susan and Katherine and brother Dan Starr. They fished, hunted, raised a garden, harvested wild rice, maple sugar and heated with wood. They had to hitchhiked to town because they didn't drive. Jan Price, the Fire Warden told me that when Albert died his dog came laid down and cried on their property, but they didn't figure out what happened until later when they heard heard that he had passed away. This happened approximately 30 years ago. The old timers had stories about these great people that are probably now lost in history. Gilbert said that when he was growing up their were a number of different families that lived up and down our shoreline. Some of these families were the Clouds, Fairbanks, Goose, Whites, Winds, Whipple and Rocks. Very few of these families or peoples live out here now.

Gilbert said he had a brother and sister that he grew up with, they are Anna and Jimmy Starr. Gilbert is 70 years old and married to Marilyn Littlewolf from the White Earth Reservation. Together they have 4 kids and 11 grandkids. Gilbert currently works at the Veterans Memorial Building on the Palace Grounds in Cass Lake. His duties include taking care of the ball fields that get a lot of use in the summer. He said that when they grew up they didn't have much money but they never had to ask for help and that they had plenty to eat. Over the years he has worked in construction as an equipment operator as an logger and at the wood plant in Bena. He hunts deer and bear, traps and fishes for his family. Over this past weekend he invited me to watch him net fish which is his treaty rights. I was honored to watch them perform this ancient function. I didn't participate.

Addendum: On Thursday March 4th Gilbert invited me to watch them put out the nets which I did observe. One item that impressed me the most was who he had helping him. Gilbert had an adult daughter and son, plus two grandchildren. This is the families way to insuring that the traditions continue for another generation.

All of the Hardwood Points in my neighborhood are great fishing spots. The Hardwood Points that I refer to are Big Hardwood, also called Maple Point, Little Hardwood that use to have a resort on it and Starr Point. Click on enclosed map to enlarge. I believe the best fishing spot in Starr Point. I and many of my neighbors have caught many walleyes in the spring and fall off this and the other points. There is a drop off from about 8' to 13 ft that holds fish off to the southeast. With a south wind their is a great drift here. Minnows and jogs usually work best.

Mary Welsh Hemingway

Mary, the fourth wife and last wife of Nobel Prize Novelist Earnest Hemingway, has a history at Leech Lake and also here in our Oak Point neighborhood. Mary was a war time correspondent and writer herself. In her biography, "How It Was", Mary wrote that her father's and her favorite lake in Minnesota was Leech Lake. In 1904 Thomas and Adeline Welsh decided that the village of Walker should be the base of their lumbering operation. Mary was born on the high banks outside of Walker one Sunday morning in 1908. As a part of his lumbering operation her father had a rather large 120' by 36' paddle boat called the Northland that moved large "booms" of his pine logs up the lake to Federal Dam where they were sent on their way to the mills down river. Thomas Welsh is the namesake for Welsh Lake an 188 acre lake located along the Oak Point Road and also the Welsh State Forest.

Mary wrote about an annual early spring travel by buckboard or with sled runners across the ice and through the "Narrows" past Squaw Point and then headed up to the sugar camps located around the Hardwood Points on Sucker Bay. This was where the annual harvesting of maple syrup took place. Maple syrup would be processed until it almost was hardened then placed in trays where it hardened into sugar. This usually coincided with the Easter Season. Her father would usually buy several pounds of the sugar called siz-ahbah-quit placed in a clean new mokahk made of birch bark. The sugar season lasted until the lake was liquid again and the robins returned. I found no mention that Ernest Hemingway ever visited Leech Lake.

According to an archaeologist with the US Forest Service commercial harvesting to timber on Oak Point didn't take place until about 1910 which would coincide with the period where Thomas Welsh lumbered in this area.

Fishing Season

The fishing season for game fish, walleyes, northern and bass on Leech Lake ended today. The next fishing season begins on Saturday May 15, 2010. Fish houses south of US #2, which includes Leech Lake, have to be removed today.

Grandkids

Our son and his three children paid us a visit this weekend. We are now back to the boring quietness once again. With a great warm weekend we went fishing, shot the BB Gun, rode the 4-wheeler, played Cribbage, watched a movie and ate lots of food. We loved every minute of it, but it tired us out. My 9 year old granddaughter who is a math whiz, played our traditional Nitchals game of Cribbage. I lost the last two games to her. She told me that I would need to practice for the next time.

Sunset

Sunset view from Mounds Point across Steamboat Bay and first Porcupine.

Eelpout Festival

Walker and Leech Lake welcomed hundreds of visitors for its midwinter festival this weekend. It started early on Thursday and even heavier on Friday just a parade of hundreds of fish houses, 4-wheelers and snowmobiles being hauled into town for this big event. It was good to see Walker come alive with many people in the stores and on the sidewalks. With the great weather every one was in town. Our neighborhoods in the Oak Point area had more people then normal to enjoy the festivities. Next week the Pilot Independent will have a full report for all to read about. Check it out on the web at http://www.walkermn.com/ .

We had another week of great weather this past week. Nighttime temps were in the 0 to minus 5 degree range, but by mid-afternoon the temps would climb into the high 20's and 30's. We had three afternoons where we had temps above the freezing point. The bright sun is high in the sky with a powerful warming effect. Snowbanks are shrinking. On the blacktop the sun is melting the ice, I would guess that the usual 90% snow pack on the roads is closer to 20% now. However, we all know that March is our snowiest month of the year. The Oak Point Resort had their spearing houses safely back on shore. My neighbors and I are back walking on the blacktop road which is more interesting then on a treadmill. I am including a picture of my niece Megan who lives in Frederick, MD which is just outside of Washington, D.C. shovelling a path through the 40+ inches of snow that they got.

Another Deer Story

This story was told to me by Sharon my deer hunting neighbor here on Oak Point. This happened to her on another "Opener" a few years back. The weather was beautiful. She climbed into her deer stand about 5:15 A.M. All the leaves had finally fallen. The top leaves were dry and she easily brushed them to the ground. The rest were wet so she would waited until it was light to clean up her stand. She took out her book, put her cushion on the bucket, sat down andfell asleep.

A distant gun shot woke her. It was barely dawn and she became alert anyway. It was not really light enough to see yet. So she sat. Ready. Her senses were perked! By 7:30 A.M. she reached for her book. Not a deer came by. By 8:30 she put the book down, stood awhile peering into the forest all around her

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By 9:30 A.M. the wet leaves on the floor of her stand were almost dry. She bent over and began picking them off the floor one by one very quietly and dropping them threw the cracks of her deer stand to the ground below. She would quietly stand up periodically and look around. Nothing.

By 10:15 her stand way clean and the floor dry. She just happened to look through the camouflage on the west side of her stand, as if by some premonitions, and there thirty feet away was a 10 point buck. The buck was straining its neck to look up at her stand. What was she to do? Her 30-30 was hanging on a nail to her right. If she reached for it, the buck would see her.

They stared at each other through the camouflage. The buck was skittish but did not run. He kept her eye on the strange thing in the tree but did not move. She could tell it was hard for him to look up that way. About 5 minutes passed when a noise further west of her caused the buck to turn around and fact that noise. That was all that Sharon needed. She got the first deer of that season.

Great Grey Owls

A few years ago the snows came early and heavy in the Canadian provinces to our north. It forced the migration south of the Great Grey Owls looking for easier prey. These are one of the worlds largest owls. These birds are dark grey overall interspersed with light grey or white bands with very fluffy plumage with a rather large head. We saw these owls everywhere that winter. On fence poles, utility poles and on traffic signs. They perch and wait for prey and then fly very quietly and fairly close to the ground towards their prey. Their primary food source are small rodents, squirrels, rabbit's, chipmunks and prey of that sort.

Our neighbor Sharon talks about the time when she and Tony were returning from an unsuccessful hunt. She was lagging behind her husband enjoying the scenery and the soft snowfall when all of a sudden, swooping our of the pines in front of her was one of the largest owls she had ever seen! Its wing span was 5 to 6 feet and it was flying about 7 feet off the ground flying directly at Tony. The owl was on a mission. She shouted to her husband, "WATCH OUT'. The owl veered off just as her husband turned back to her. He ducked and the owl was only a few inches from the top of his head!

Tony and Sharon could never figure out what the owl was after. Was Tony a tender and juicy morsel? Or just another tall fence pole.

Wolves vs. Deer

The Mpls. Startribune.com had an interesting article about this hot button north woods topic. They quoted a number of deer hunters who returned from up north this fall and reported seeing more wolves. And with the deep population down they were concerned that their was some correlation. An adult wolf can eat 15 to 19 deer yearly. With the state wolf population at approximately 3,000, that could mean an annual kill of 45,000 to 60,000 deer. Which would be about 10 to 15 % of the total deer population. The article also pointed out that livestock depredation from wolves have been on the increase as well. Oak Point hunters have told me that the number of deer that they saw were down this year. Could this be part of our local problem?

February Weather

We had great February weather this past week. Most every morning we awoke to minus 5 to 15 below temps. By mid-afternoons it would warm up to 20 to 25 degrees above. We are have much longer days with the sun higher in the skies. We have a little over 1 hour longer sunlight in both the morning and evening periods now. The sun is bright enough to melt some snow on the Oak Point Road. But the best news that I heard all week is that spring is only 33 days away. Spring begins March 20th, 2010.

Street Maintenance

The Leech Lake Public Works Department has agreed to take over the snowplowing and maintenance of our road at Oak Point Estates called Sunrise Beach Dr. This will provide us with first rate care for the road with the proper heavy equipment and know how. Very good new for us. This crew currently plows and maintains The Oak Point Road and most of the side roads in our area from all the way in from Highway # 371.

Eelpout Festival

Next weekend February 19-21, 2010 Leech Lake and Walker will celebrate its 31st Eelpout Festival. The Eelpout also called Burbot is the only fresh water member of the codfish family. Often considered a rough fish by the sportsman. The tournament is an excuse for late winter festival on the ice.

Santadenny

Santadenny, Plowman aka Dennis Yepma is one of my full time neighbors here on Oak Point. One look at him tells you how he earned his nick name. He bought property up here in 1997 and move up here in 2003 with his family after he retired early from driving a truck for UPS in the cities. His family is his wife Dawn, two children, Becky and Chris, two fat Labs and a puppy. They have a beautiful log home down the Camper Landing Road and face east over the "big lake".

Dawn still works at UPS in Bemidji. Dennis is still too young for Social Security so he has started a handyman business. He plows snow, mows lawns, picks up leaves and performs all sorts of services to the people up here. I swear that he knows everyone and everyone knows Dennis. He hunts, fishes, shoots trap and skeet and runs a trap line in his spare time. His vehicle is a big green one-ton diesel truck with a snow plow always at the ready. This fall he built an ice boat that will skate on the ice when he figures out his sail. I hope that he gets the boat sailing before the ice melts.

Dennis and Dawn are special people. Both of them always have a generous heart and a willingness to help their neighbors regardless of age or ethnicity. Early to bed and early to rise is Dennis' motto. He makes sure his boy is involved with scouts and his daughter has a part time job. You don't want to call his very late because he is already in bed. In the mornings he is heading to the bus stop with his son and a neighbor boy. He can be seen out walking with his neighbors to get his exercise in. Dawn on the other hand is a late sleeper and I am leery of calling too early and getting her out of bed trying to locate Dennis. Dawn is very friendly and outgoing and would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it.

Dennis has been a great help to me over at Oak Point. This summer he helped to organize a number of neighbors to help clear out a number of dead trees along the road. When my wife and I were in Minneapolis for two weeks for her kidney transplant he took care of out home back here. Many of us trust him with our keys for our houses and garages. He can be reached at 218-335-8162 home, or 612-207-9711 cell.

Fire Warden

Our Fire Warden on Oak Point is Jan Price who together with her late husband Harold has held that volunteer position for over 20 years. Jan and Harold first came to Leech Lake on vacation in 1957 when they stayed at the Squaw Point Resort on Steamboat Bay. This resort at the time was run by the Volberdings. This was before the present road system with the looping road circling across the wetlands by the Narrows. Travel between the east and west sides was very difficult. You had to take the old dump road. Many of the early stories of Squaw Point from the old timers are about the travels crossing the streams and bogs on the old muddy roads, getting stuck and being pulled out by a tractor as people traveled to and from the highway.

Jan told me that the first time that Harold, their son Gary and she were on the "big lake" they were trolling big lures, "Double Jointed Pike Minnows" behind their boat. At approximately where the Wades now live, Jan got a hit on her lure and told Harold to stop the boat as she had a big fish on her line. Harold took one look and told her that she was struck on some rocks and he just kept on going. Jan kept holding onto the rod and kept cranking on the reel and yelling at Harold. Finely Harold realized that Jan had a big fish on, he stopped, and Jan got the big fish to the side of the boat. A big musky over four foot long. Son Gary tried to net the fish but mistakenly hit it with the net sending the monster back to the bottom of the lake. Jan had to fight the fish again to get the fish back up to the side of the boat. This time however in their efforts to land the big fish, the Musky just looked at them with his black eyes set about 6 inches apart, and spit the lure out of his mouth right back at them. This happened in front of the only house in the area, and older yellow farm type house with a blue roof.

On their return trip to Leech Lake in 1958, Jan was in Gafe's Tackle Shop on Second St. in Cass Lake and was talking to the shop owner about her big fish that got away. She was also telling him about this yellow house with the blue roof and asking who owned it. Well he owned it. The taxes were only $39.00 a year at that time. The property was for sale. Gafe Peterson is Myron Peterson's father and Neil Peterson's grandfather. Jan asked if she and Harold could she take a look at it. Well they had a dickens of a time figuring out how to find it, but eventually they located it. Well they fell in love with it and then figured out how to buy it. Harold and Jan moved up here permanently in October of 1975. Shortly after moving up here they took over the Fire Warden duties. Myron Paterson's widow, Virginia and her son Neil still live in the Oak Point area.

Fire Wardens play a critical role in forest safety in the wooded areas. During the dry burning season Jan issues burning permits from her home on East Oak Point Road. She has a remarkable memory of all the people she has come in contact with. She can remember who owned what and when during her 50 years experience out here on Oak Point. Harold and Jan Price are a big part of our local Oak Point history. I hope to tell more of her stories in the future.

EelPount Festival

In two weeks, February 19-21, 2010 Leech Lake will be hosting their 31st Eelpount Festival. If you have never experienced this wild festival before, by all means come and celebrate winter with the people from Walker. Bring warm clothing.

Wolf Moon

January's full moon is also called the "Wolf Moon" according to Native American lore because they associated this full moon with the wolves howling in the cold winter nights. Our current full moon which appeared yesterday was 30% brighter and 14% larger. This was because the moon was some 30,000 miles closer due to its egg-like shaped orbit. With the clear skies and the white snow I told my wife that we could almost read the newspaper outside at midnight.

January 2010 ends today. For me this January went by real fast. Usually January drags for me. The first two weeks we were at the University of MN Hospital with my wife's surgery. These last two weeks have been associated with trying to adjust back to life in the woods with her new kidney. We go into Bemidji's Hospital three times a week for blood work with the results being faxed to the Univ. Hospital for analysis. This January also brought me my 65th Birthday. So I am an official old man. All of that was enough activity for January and I am now ready for February. Our temperatures have been January like with many below zero days and the words "wind chill" were used often.

Last week in my blog I wrote about the Leech Lake Trail. I found this subject fascinating and I marvel at the ancient history right here in my own back yard. This past week I found out more information. I visited with the Tribal Archeologist from their Heritage Program and also with some folks from the US Forest Service. From them I received more maps one of which I am attaching here. (click on map to enlarge) I also learned that the trail had different names, Red Lake Road, Leech Lake/Red Lake Trail and Wagon Road. From these maps I am able to follow where the trail's remains are now in several locations by looking at the Cass County Aerial Photos from their web mapping system. It appears that in various locations forest service roads and even township roads are using the ancient road beds. When the snow is gone and the weather is warmer I hope to walk several of these locations. The Leech Lake Trail beginning/ending is in the vicinity of the location of the Northwestern Trading Company that I wrote about in my blog of November 15th. This area must have had a significant Native American settlement in the immediate area. I will keep you posted as I learn more.

Our local Timber Wolf is also called the Grey Wolf, (canis lupis) is native to north central and north eastern Minnesota. The wolf is dog-like in appearance and can weigh between 60 and 120 pounds. Its usual color is grey but some are black, brown or redish. Wolves are highly social animals and usually exist in packs of between 5 to 8 members. The leader is the Alpha male who is usually the largest. Usually packs have only one breeding pair that will have 4 to 8 pups at birth. The whole pack gets involved in the rearing of the pups. Individual packs defend their territory which can range from 50 to 100 square miles. The usual ratio is one wolf per 10 square mile. Wolves eat a variety of large and small animals with the white tail deer making up approximately 80% of their diet.

If anyone is interested in providing stories or ideas please email me at nitchals@paulbunyan.net.