THE HISTORY OF OLD NORTHWOOD LODGE
AND THE STORY OF BUILDING OUR NEW LODGE

THE HISTORY OF THE Original "NORTHWOODS lODGE"

Old Northwoods Lodge sits on the site of the original Northwoods Lodge, one of the founding resorts on the Gunflnt Trail. In the early 1930s, Dr. Rempel, a Russian CCC Camp Director, owned and operated the Northwoods Lodge, a premier hunting and fishing destination for visitors from the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

In 1937, fire claimed the first lodge, and another was built in its place the next year. The original native stone fireplace, which was part of the second lodge, still stands beside the new cedar log lodge.

In the heyday of the 1940s and 1950s, there were 22 cabins at the Northwoods Lodge resort. In the late 1950s, the property changed hands, and E.H. Ruidl became the new owner. When the lodge burned again in 1965, the resort folded. Over the years, several of the outlying cabins and lakeshore were sold, and in 1990, when present owner Gale Quistad bought the property, there were seven cabins remaining and no lodge.

"It looked like a ghost town from the movies," explains Gale. "It has been unattended for 25 years, and if I was going to open it up as a resort again, I had my work cut out for me."

Gale worked for the telephone company for many years and remodeled a cabin at a time in the hours when he wasn't working. He completed and opened about one cabin a year for the next five years.

building the new lodge

The whole idea for the magnificent log lodge probably began as a seed in Gale's brain back when he admired his grandfather's work (and raided his toolbox). He's always thought big when it comes to buildings, and it's easy to see why. (Actually, once you're standing inside the finished lodge, you'll get the picture.)

He worked with an architect friend to get a look and feel for the project, and then he ordered the raw materials. Truckloads rolled in during the fall of 1995, and the dream was on its way. (Well, actually, the work was on its way…five years of it, to be exact.)

Gale looks at the photo of him standing beside the pile of logs and remarks that it has a fitting title: "Some Assembly Required."

That year, they had barely poured the footings when the record-setting snowfall for that winter began, and the work was under cover until spring.

The lodge was to be built in the French-Canadian piece-on-piece style, similar in construction to Fort William. The weight of the building is on the vertical timbers, and the timbers are placed horizontally to fill in. Traditionally, square timbers would be used for this, but Gale decided to use rounded logs and chinking for an especially unique appearance and feel.

The native northern white cedar has lived in these woods for hundreds of years. One log on the front porch dates back at least 600 years. Gale, friends, family, guests, and hired hands peeled and shaped the logs. When timbers needed millwork, it was done right here on site.

"Lots of talented people helped out from time to time," says Gale. "And it was amazing how people often showed up at just the time when I needed a hand most." My friends from the phone company were a real asset in getting the vertical timbers set. After all, setting telephone poles is the same thing, and we did that all the time. Except that telephone poles were a lot smaller than most of the 36 timbers we had to set for the lodge."

The boulders in the fireplace are all native, as well, and they were carted through the front door with the aid of a Bobcat.

It took five years to build the lodge, and then it was time to add fixtures, decorating, and finishing touches. There is a painted a motif along the wall just beneath the line of the roof, and the artist said was "real scary" to balance on a step ladder which was balanced on scaffolding to reach the highest areas of the wall (27 feet at the ridge beam). The artist chose colors for the guest room walls, fixtures, rugs, window treatments, and every item that complemented the construction and carpentry work.

When you're at Old Northwoods Lodge, be sure to ask Gale to show you the construction scrapbook. It's one thing to read about it, but quite another to see it taking shape and to stand in the beautiful finished lodge, a magnificent lodge in the grandest Northwoods tradition.